Preparing School for 3 years old

Summer holiday is ending and we are now preparing stuffs for Stacy to go to school. In France, children go to school at 3 years old. Unlike Singapore, children or even toddlers go to school before  they are even 3. We are anxious parents. Haha

We managed to enroll Stacy in an English and French speaking Montessori school as we thought it will benefit her better as we will still need to go back Singapore after ken's work contract ends. The school fees of cause come with a price - yes, price is money.  We have to scrimp a lot to put her in this school. In France, the privilege of studying in a public French school for young children is free. Private French school is what I heard is around 100 plus Euros. International school is out of question for us as it is very costly. We are definitely lucky to get something 'decent', speak both English and French and 6mins drive from where we stay! Yippee!

So we received this email from the school telling us what to prepare and bring on the first day of school. I'm not sure whether it is like that for most schools but definitely Singapore school system for young children are not so complicated ... Or maybe we are just being 'pampered' in Singapore? I always thought that children just need to show up in school and that's it? No. Haha. Read the list below:

For all the children :

• Slippers, marked with the child's name
• Rain boots, marked with the child's name
• Sneakers and sweat pants for P.E. to be left at school, marked with the child's name
• 2 boxes of tissues
• 2 kitchen rolls

For the 2/3 years old:

• 1 packet of baby wipes
• 1  packet of cotton wool - large square
• 1 napkin with elastic, marked with the child's name
• A change of clothes
• For those who nap, 1 blanket and 1 pillow, marked with the child's name
• 1 small notebook

For the 3/6 years old:

• 2 packets of baby wipes
• 1 napkin with elastic, marked with the child's name
• A change of clothes
• For those who nap, 1 blanket and 1 pillow, marked with the child's name
• 1 plastic folder - A4
• 1 blue plastic folder with plastic sleeves
• 1 red plastic folder with plastic sleeves

Ok, weekends is shopping for the above items. Not that we don't have some of these items but things like slippers, rain boots, sneakers and sweat pants that need to be left in school, surely we need to get extra so that Stacy can wear these during non-school days. I guess stationary shops will run out of blue and red plastic folders as ALL the children needed to buy this. Hehe. 

Another thing on the email, which is very important. It also mentioned buying your child a school insurance and presenting the documents on the first day of school. What?! We got to buy our own insurance? Ok, in Singapore school system, during registration, when the schools request for the child's birth cert, health booklet, etc, they are also using it to buy the child's insurance for you. So we only knew about this recently and only a few days to settle the insurance part before school open on Tuesday! Aiyo!