School Days are Happy Days

... especially for Mummies who have their ears talked off during the day!

Thursday the 29th of January was Georgie's first day at school. Kindergarten.
She has been both apprehensive and excited about this move - as anyone is when there is such a big change in life. Quite a few friends stayed behind a year in Kindy (preschool), but their birthdays fall later in the year. And Kindy themselves did mention that they advise kids born after March 31 to stay back until the next year.

I have felt for quite a while that Georgie is more than ready to go to school. In fact, if you know Georgie you're eyes might boggle at the thought of her staying at home for another year!
Anyway, I talked a lot with her (new) teacher and did some work with Georgie. We changed classed at Kindy (to be with kids who were definitely going to school next year) all of this made it quite obvious that she was ready for school and was bored at Kindy.

Our local school has around 120 kids, it's set in a bush like landscape with gardens and lots of native trees. It's very friendly and the kids all seem very happy there. The teachers and staff go out of their way to make sure the kids don't miss out compared to a larger school and there is a real school family environment. There is no canteen, but every second week they have a sausage sizzle where they get their sausage and an iceblock and every alternative week there is a cake stall, otherwise they have a healthy eating policy and lunch boxes are asked not to contain lollies, chips, sweet biscuits or fizzy drinks.

They run a 'Gifted and Talented' programme which is not just limited to traditional subjects but takes account of any area that children might be excel in, or have an extended interest in (even gardening!).

They have great grounds, lots of space, nice new play equipment and a brand new computer room where each child gets access to their own computer - some classrooms, like Kinder, also have computers in them. (Georgie will learn to write, illustrate and publish her own story by the time this year is out.)

So we're very happy that she's at school and I'm confident she'll do well, she's loving it already!

So here are some gorgeous photos of her on her first day.
Kinder kids are sooo gorgeous in their too big, brand new, uniforms.
The backpack looks huge. Well I guess it is against her.

You'll notice she's a little apprehensive - but she came home just beaming and today got up and said "Mummy is it a good day for school today?". She's made a friend or two in her class and when we turned up at school some grade 3 and 4 girls raced over to see her.



She likes to wear her hat tipped back on her head like this.
We practised wearing shoes and socks, with socks not pulled up to her knees! (When we arrived at school there were lots of other little kids with their socks pulled up, maybe it's a rogue gene)
James was funny, we wanted to get him standing next to Georgie for a photo, so we asked him to stand against the fence with G. He went a metre up the driveway, behind the thriving weeds and stood there. We all just moved up to him so he moved again.

Giving him big hugs.
She might not miss him as much as he'll miss her - well actually so far he's doing well and enjoying some time not having his ear talked off either and having Mum all to himself.
She loves her hat, it was just sitting in odd places.




It's time to head off now. Dan came with us up to school, and by now G was full of confidence and raring to go.
We'll walk to school as many days as we can. It's been hot in the afternoon so I've driven the 5 minutes to pick her up.
Every morning they sit in their class rows while the teacher on duty greets them and they get messages and notices for the day. Also each class takes a turn on the equipment so they get to know that too.
I think the Kindies were all too nervous to even listen to what was going on.
Very apprehensive.
The kindies stayed on their 'dot' while all the other classes went in and we all took photos.
And how does James feel about all this? Well this is how he feels about sitting in his pusher while Georgie gets to be with all the other kids.
Off to class.

Lined up outside the class room. She's the last one.

But she was very quick to find her bag hook and settle down to class work.
Her desk block is at the front and she's looking right at the board - couldn't have picked a better place for her.
The lady in the pink skirt is her teacher.
Writing her name and drawing a picture of herself at school.
Her view of the blackboard - there won't be so many parents in the class room normally.
Ok, you can go now Mum, I'm at school doing my work.
She enjoyed her day as she got to be a 'line leader' all day. Showing everyone else what to do is her speciality!
She came home and told me all about her day - even sang me a funny song she learnt. She then raced over to see the boys across the road and tell them about her day.

We also have before and after school checklists, which make sure things get done and with minimum distraction. Because she gets to tick off her jobs she whips through them quickly and with great gusto - it's working well and will hopefully train her well for the future and for the onset of homework.

Today - Friday, is sports day. I forgot to take sports uniform photos.... maybe another day.
Dan's away travelling now, but will be home for the weekend and I was up last night taking in her sports skort (shorts that look like a skirt) so it would fit her wee waist. I'm still getting used to the school routine too and when I make dinner I'm now making a dinner salad, one for G's lunch the next day (she's not a sandwich girl), one for my lunch the next day and one for Dan's lunch - my kitchen workload seems to have increased disproportionately, but that is also due to the fact that I'm doing lots of baking now for snacks and lunches (G will eat just about anything if it comes out of my oven). Will also have to get used to washing and ironing uniforms too.