Starting School

BB started the next phase of his transition to school on Friday, he's attending a year 2 class for one morning a week.  I feel a little sad that he's not going to get his 'turning five, starting school' experience, but I made sure I got a First Day photo.

He's not yet old enough to be enrolled legally so I have to stay, at least until the school is happy that he'll be ok.  I was reminded just how much time is wasted at school, and how much of the work is 'busy' work to keep the majority out of the way while one or two minutes of actual teaching / learning happens.  He enjoyed himself, although he commented that school has "a lot of waiting".  He was eyes everywhere and trying to read, look at, see and experience everything in the classroom all at once.  His classmates were lovely, and very welcoming.  He got a bit annoyed with the 'babying' they tried to do, but I'm sure that'll settle down.  Unfortunately he's beyond the current top readers in the class so was just handed something at the highest level available, a good two or more years below where any new learning might actually happen for him.  Maths will be the same, if not worse so I'm hoping that'll be different this week now that his teacher knows what to expect.

I'm still not sure if this is the right choice / going to work for long, I'm certainly not happy with the busy work that's been sent home, but I do very much like some of the other work, particularly the writing... and it took us an HOUR to get there by the time we'd fought through traffic and dropped LS off: not something I want to continue for too long.

Still wishing for an easy answer... but not sure it's going to eventuate!

Happy birthday, Grandma

My mother is 60 today.  We had an afternoon tea get together at Sweethearts at Berryfields.  Big Brother and Little Sister were very good despite not being able to eat any of the food... fortunately I'd checked the menu and packed them their own special treats.  They were very lucky to be given an armload of balloons to bring home too - left overs from a wedding that had been there earlier.

Both kids are very good about not being able to eat the special foods at parties and such like... BB finds it a bit hard missing out all the time at preschool (they seem to bake just about every day) but he has his 'special biscuits' in the cupboard so he gets them instead... darn food allergies!

Where is Thumbkin?

This courtesy of Big Brother in the midst of lots of other nonsense while making a puzzle this morning.

"Where is thumbkin, where is thumbkin?
Here I am, over here.
I'm a metacarpal and I am a phalange.
Run away, no I won't
I can't run, I'm a thumb."

teehee

She has a mind of her own

 

Little Sister is growing up... and she doesn't like to take no for an answer.



Now that she's two we thought it was time to put her name down at kindy.  I went and visited the two local ones - they're equidistant so based the decision purely on overall 'feel'.  In the end the decision was easy - one provided a 'business only' attitude, wasn't really interested in showing us around or knowing us at all, and the interactions I saw with the children were limited at best and very much 'this is my job' in  attitude the other was welcoming, both to us and to the other children - they clearly knew the children well the interaction was of a much higher quality.  They were also happy for us to visit 'whenever' and seemed genuinely interested in us as a family... what a difference!  So she's enrolled and will be able to start some time around her third birthday, and we can all pop along for visits whenever we feel like it.

Big Brother is enjoying his one afternoon a week at school for now.  I'm still not convinced that we need to be traipsing all the way over to this school, so I've arranged to meet with one of the local schools to discuss options too... and may pop down to the other one too.  Now that we have the paperwork from Rose I don't sound quite so much like one of 'those' mothers.  Still looking for the right answer to all this though... more to come I'm sure!

Last word to Little Sister tonight...

Easter, School and General Madness

We had a lovely long weekend away with C's family over the Easter break.  We went to Akaroa and stayed in a great holiday home there.  Big Brother loved his trip on the boat around the harbour and "into the Pacific Ocean!"  We were too busy looking at dolphins and seals and caves and a single penguin to take photos, but here are BB and LS climbing a tree while we waited for the boat.  

  

Gran found some Easter stickers, and Easter Bunny found us too.  

 BB made himself an Easter Bunny mask which they've both enjoyed wearing.





Our exciting news is that, after much thought, BB is going to start attending a few sessions at school over the next term.  We discussed placing him in a year 3 gifted class, which would be a good fit socially and ok academically, but I'm worried he needs some school experience before he goes into that class, so he's going to attend sessions at a few different levels to learn about school first.  To start with, we'll go to a language class which is multi-age so should be a good start.  BB is excited, and I'm nervous!  Hopefully it'll all work out well.

LS is insisting she'd like to wear "bib gewl nippers" and is making good progress... nappy days may be coming to an end!

I think that's it from us... lots of playing, learning and having fun, not too much shaking lately... we're all good!