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...