February in Wellington

So, apart from all the birthdays and leaving preschool/starting big school, what else have we been up to this month?

We've been enjoying spectacular weather, and we've made the most of scootering around the city, along the beautiful waterfront, to the museum, we met Jake for a picnic lunch one day, we've watched buskers, we've played in the park, and Alfie's been showing great interest in all the different buildings, sculptures and statues...

Alfie's enjoying school immensly, is completely wearing himself out and has been cooling off with the hosepipe after school most afternoons...

I'm not sure exactly what he does each day, but his appetite is suddenly ENORMOUS and I can't keep up with it! Between him and Jake (who is consuming a triathlete's diet these days), our weekly grocery bill has increased by about 35% over the last few months - and I am more chained to the kitchen than ever!

And after he's eaten, he's usually back outside for more hosepipe action!

Meanwhile now Molly's in Year 3, she has a lot more homework....reading, writing, spelling, maths, and other things which don't fit neatly into an academic category or description. If I thought it was tricky to fit her homework in before, Year 3 is a whole different ball game! She doesn't look too happy in this picture, but it's just her look of total concentration - she is doing Mathletics, which she really enjoys.

And as for me, I've been grabbing the odd early morning coffee and enjoying the special kind of peace & quiet that you can only truly appreciate in that post-school-drop-off zone....ahhhhh, mums you know what I mean!

Work's going well for me and is slightly less frantic especially now I have 5 days a week to spread it across. I even get to take a real break for lunch now - I don't have to eat it in front of the computer and I can sometimes read a magazine or listen to the radio while I eat - I haven't done that for years!

I'm so nearly up to date with things that I haven't had to do much evening/weekend work for a while, and sometimes I'm even managing to sneak out for a quick walk up the mountain  (thanks Jake!).

And Jake....well, Jake continues to be outdoor sports mad. If he's not running up the mountains or going for a "quick" 40km bike ride before work, you'll find him at the local pool doing laps several mornings a week and/or in the ocean at lunchtime. He's just done his second mini triathlon and all the training has paid off as he came 17th out of 57, with his fastest ever 5km run (21 mins). GO JAKE!!!

Starting School / Ninjago Party!

Alfie's had a very busy and exciting few days.

Last Friday we celebrated his 5th birthday. It was a day full of presents - a bike, a tennis racquet, a Nerf Gun, and other such boy stuff. It was also his very last day at pre-school.

His pre-school has been the making of him. It's such a lovely place which has not only prepared him for school but it's also got him a little bit ahead in reading and writing and has given him such lovely manners, confidence and a caring nature. All credit to the teachers there for doing such a great job with our little man.

In the afternoon we picked Molly up half an hour early from school, and we all went in for Alfie's pre-school diploma presentation and afternoon tea. He was wearing a special happy birthday/happy last day hat and we watched proudly as our little boy was presented with his diploma and a collage of photos. He looked a little odd as he'd been painting his own face earlier in the day and had tried to wash it off but the red paint had stained...never-the-less, he looked so chuffed with himself!

The next day was his birthday party - this was even more exciting than his actual birthday. The Ninjago cake was baked, the Ninjago balloons had been made and blown up with lollies inside them (ready to punch 'n' pop), party games were organised, and the water slide was all set up.

Two hours of noise, one tantrum from Alfie (he was first out in Musical Statues and did NOT like this!), one tantrum from Molly (she ate all her carrots but didn't get the first piece of cake - which had been the original incentive for eating the carrots, an oversight by her dad which had dramatic consequences), a floor covered in food, and 10 wet, slippery kids later, Jake and I flopped onto the sofa with a cold drink and considered our future possibilities for cancelling birthday parties....?

We spent the rest of the weekend at the outdoor pool, watching a fun play in the park, and testing out the new bike.

Alfie then had his most important day yesterday when he STARTED BIG SCHOOL.

So far, so good. No more knocks to the head. He apparently had a little cry at lunchtime but Molly showed him the family photo she keeps in her school bag and gave him a cuddle and he was ok again. Other than that, all I have managed to establish so far is: his best friend Charlie no longer wants to play with him but that's ok because he has two new friends called Riley and Harry, he did hula hooping with Molly at lunchtime, he read a book with the teacher, he played a fly squatting game and he wrote "nothing nothing nothing" on a piece of paper (?)

(That last part, I suspect, is untrue).

Alfie's School Visit

The New Zealand education system is a little different to other countries, in that children start school here on the day they turn 5 years old.

(Actually in theory you can choose to make it any day you like after their 5th birthday, with the law stating only that they start school before the age of 6. But in practice most kids start on the day they turn 5).

This makes for quite a unique system where the 5th birthday is a hugely important milestone, and new children are drip fed into school throughout the year, rather than all starting as one class at the beginning of term.

Before their birthday most schools give the child the opportunity to go and spend a couple of hours at school a few times, the "School Visit". Due to the timing of Alfie's birthday (following the summer holidays and public holidays) it meant that he only gets one school visit before he turns five and that was today.

We weren't too worried as he's pretty familiar with the school already, having spent lots of time dropping Molly off and collecting her and attending various school functions. He's also fortunate to start early in the school year while the class is still only very small - there are currently only about 8 children (although that will grow as the year goes on). But small is good I think, for a little while anyway, just while he gets used to the changes.

So off he went, clearly full of nerves but also full of excitement and being very brave. He met his new teacher (who happens to be Molly's old teacher), met his classmates (some of whom he already knew, including one of his best mates), hung his bag and hat up and ordered me to leave. All good so far.

As far as I can establish, what happened next was: he listened to the other kids doing "news" about teddy bears, he did some drawing and some reading. Then it was time for morning tea, and they all went outside to eat. Molly and her best pal Lara came down to see them and organised a game of "tag" and here's where it all went a little wrong.....

When I returned to collect him at 11am, he was sitting on the floor by the teacher with a big egg on his head, a bump and a graze and an icepack looking very sorry for himself indeed. He'd been running too fast and collided with a big piece of wood. Ouch.

Currently he is not looking forward to starting school for real next week!

Molly's 7th Birthday

February is birthday month in our family and it was Molly's turn this weekend.

Needless to say it was bedlam! 

A weekend filled with presents, a birthday party at home (including 11 girls, a lot of nail polish and a lot of loud music) and a late evening out at the incredible Nitro Circus. 

(If you haven't heard of it, check it out on YouTube here- it was seriously INSANE!!)

Happy SEVENTH birthday Molly!

Waitangi Day

Yesterday was Waitangi Day. 

 

After many years living in New Zealand, we’re still getting our heads around Waitangi Day in our family. On the one hand, Jake and I were born in the UK so we didn’t learn New Zealand history at school. What we do know about the Treaty of Waitangi, we’ve picked up from the media, from books, and more recently from Molly who has learnt about it at school.

Waitangi Day would be as close as it gets to having a National Day in New Zealand. But it’s a unique sort of public holiday and New Zealanders have many different opinions about Waitangi Day and the Treaty.

I’ve heard plenty of Kiwis say that Waitangi Day for them is just a day off and the chance to go to the beach or go shopping (many of the big retailers have Waitangi Day Sales).

But I know for others it’s a very important national day, a day for celebration and a day for reflection on the nation and land rights and Maori culture and politics etc.

The Treaty has its problems (mostly caused by translation issues) but having lived in other countries which arguably should have signed a Treaty long ago (but didn’t) I can see how it’s shaped New Zealand in a generally pretty positive way.

Last year we stood at the waterfront and watched the official Waitangi Day celebrations: the speeches, Kapa Haka groups, bands and storytellers. 

This year we went the other way and spent the whole morning in a shopping mall knocking off as many birthday items as possible from our shopping list, and then we headed down to the beach. Jake went for an ocean swim while the kids pottered around searching for sea creatures (and found Molly's favourite, cushion starfish!). 

 For me as an ex-pat, both ways are based on celebrating what New Zealand is all about. It’s an amazing country and Waitangi Day is a big reminder to us of why we are so lucky to live here. 

Back To School

It was hot hot hot for the last part of the school holidays. 

(I can’t believe I’m saying that having lived in Central Australia just a couple of years ago! But we’ve had temperatures in the high twenties with 82% humidity recently, and I can honestly say that it’s been far more uncomfortable than the 44 degrees and zero humidity we used to get in Alice Springs!)

So anyway, we spent the last couple of weeks of the holidays doing summery things like having water fights at home and going down to the local outdoor pool, with the occasional trip to the beach, just winding down and relaxing. We also worked hard to try to get the kids back into some sort of routine by moving their bedtime forwards by half an hour each night for the last week until we’ve finally managed to get them back to a reasonable 7.30pm-ish just in time for the start of school this week.

So Molly’s now in Year 3, so she’s no longer one of the Juniors and is now in the Middle Syndicate at school. The middle years are all composite classes, which means all the Year 3 and Year 4 classes are mixed. This is a first for us, and I’m undecided yet as to how this will work out for her – New Zealand teachers are trained to teach in ability groups within the class so in theory it should work well, but my gosh, she does look so tiny in her new class next to all those 8 year old boys! 

Within 24 hours she’s, like, basically, started speaking like a teenager - ie “basically” and “like” are now officially included in every sentence, and are allocated more importance than a capital letter and full stop.

On her first day everyone in her new class had to stand up and talk about the most exciting thing they did over the summer holidays. Molly certainly had a lot to choose from: our overnight tramp in the Rimutakas, a balmy Christmas in Wellington, our road trip to Taranaki, and a whole lot more....but she chose to talk about the time when Granny and Grandad helped her make Plaster of Paris princesses in the kitchen.

Other things she’s done at school so far this week include learning soccer and how to dribble, cheating at a Maths test (although in her defence she was encouraged to do this by her friend who subsequently got a good telling off from the teacher), and making a quilt with drawings of ponies on it out of paper. Whoever said school was all about reading and writing hey?!

But anyway, so we’re now back into our busiest time of the year. We’re winding up for 3 birthdays in the family with presents to buy and 2 parties to organise, plus homework, after school activities, a couple of weekends away to arrange, house hunting season, oh and our first wedding anniversary coming up  (mustn’t forget it!!) plus Alfie is starting big school very soon. There’s a lot to think about and we’ve got to do lists and written reminders all over the house. Better go and get on with it all now then...