First Week of School

The big exciting event this past week was that Cady and Asher started school. They are super brave and although it was something they were both excited about (Asher kept asking how many days until school starts!), it was also a nervous time for all of us. I won’t lie: the mornings were rough, especially day one when Asher, screaming and stretching out his arms toward us, had to be held by his teacher as we walked out of the classroom. But each day the kids came home chattering non-stop, excited to retell the events of the day. They love their teachers, they are making new friends, and every morning drop off gets a little better.

Every school child public and private in Australia wears a “uni.” At our school the colors are red and black. The girls can wear a dress or polo shirt, the hat is part of the uniform- kids can’t go outside for recess without it (too much UV radiation here), and everyone has to have black leather shoes and bring “runners” for PE.

Our school is very small. In total there are just over 300 kids from Prep year (kindergarten) to year 12 (senior year of high school). Although they are all at the same campus together, it is an outdoor campus – there are buildings for every cluster of years and so there is not much interaction between the high school ages and the primary ages and there are even different playground areas for the different age clusters. The “canteen” (cafeteria) and “toilets” (restrooms) are also their own buildings. Asher is in one of two prep year classes, with a total of 23 kids in his year. Cady fits in age-wise with the year 4 students but only had 4 months of 3^rd grade before we left Ohio. In consultation with the principal we put Cadie in a split level 3/4 class. (Year 3 and Year 4 have one other classroom each that are not split).  

The kids have “specialist” periods throughout the week where they go to different teachers: Art, Italian, library, PE and Sport. We haven’t exactly figured out what the difference is between PE and Sport although we suspect they will actually be focusing on a sport in “Sport” – including swimming!

Year 12 in Australia is not mandatory for high school students and usually is more like a trade school training year. There is a metal shop as well as an electrical shop on campus. Other students participate in 4-H type activities including taking care of the “chooks” (chicken) on campus!

On Thursday, one stage of a professional bike race, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, rode through town. The defending champion, Chris Froome (also 3-time Tour de France winner) and his team were racing. The year 3-6 students got to walk down to the course and watch the race go by. The students made posters and brought flags. Cady made a poster for the American team, Team United Healthcare (UHC). 

We met Cady and her class and got some fun pictures of the cyclists racing through.

This picture shows the yellow jersey followed by a smiling Luke (from Australia and probably seeing kids holding "Go Luke" signs) followed by Chris Froome!

The other exciting thing that happened this week is that we secured a pedal bike for Asher. In Ohio he had only ridden a balance bike but he was able to hop right on this bike and take off. 

We did some practice trail and road riding across the street at the fair grounds and then on Saturday took a family ride to the library and park. Asher and Cady tried out the BMX park – we will have to get elbow & knee pads and lots of pillows before I feel comfortable going back.