Wednesday 13 January 2010

Way back and wordful Whensday - back to school is cool


Playing with Angie for Wordful Wednesday...

Today, like for thousands of other kids in South Africa, is back to school day for the Lil Miss. And my, was she excited! Yesterday and the days before she was not excited at all, but this morning, as we walked up the school's driveway, she was so happy to be back. Then, she got to her class and the thrill of being in the biggest class (the Lions nogals!) was great. She waved me away casually and jumped right into playing with some old friends. She was so happy to see Teacher Karen again!
13/365:

I need to do a bit of explaining about our choices in terms of schools. As she is an early January baby, we have the option of sending her to school "early" - in the year she turns 6 and not 7 as per usual. This will mean that she will be the youngest in her class. And that means that she has to do grade 0 (I think the US calls in Kindergarten - the final preparation year before real school), this year. She has been on target for that for a long time - in fact, her maths is already on that level thanks to the school's excellent maths program. But we have decided to keep her back - to give her the option to mature emotionally and the school has supported our decision. Hence, she will be doing a modified grade 0 this year in her little Catholic school in English (great to be in a small school that can handle these specifics), and next year we will move her to the Afrikaans school to do her grade 0 there. The decision to send her to an Afrikaans school has been well thought over and it is truly, in our area, what we believe to be the school best suited for her needs (and my dropping off etc. in the mornings). What we like is that she will have the option to do grades 5,6 and 7 with English first language and Afrikaans first language, which should suit our bilingual princess well.


Had to put this picture in - The Boys and Lucy, waiting to wave goodbye to us this morning.

And playing along with Cheryl:

Remembering her very first day at school in January 2007 - just 2 years old!

Catching up on project 365: 12/365

When I saw The Lil Miss in full ballet regalia yesterday afternoon I thought I would try my hand at an action shot. But it was pouring outside with a typical Highveld thunderstorm, so I had to make do with inside.

Twirling!

In other news Hunter and I have completed the party packs for Saturday's birthday party. Yeah!

14 comments:

  1. Beautiful twirl! A magical WW to you!

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  2. Wow! Look at how much she has grown!! What a big girl!!!

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  3. This makes me think of my own princess, she went back to school as well today...and my grandson of 2 and a bit had his first day as well, I cant wait to hear how his day went.

    Love the dancing photo...that child of yours is precious.

    Cute boys waving good bye to big sister..

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  4. that twirling picture is awesome!

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  5. How beautiful! I love those smiles!

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  6. Such a gorgeous kid :-) She does indeed look thrilled to be going back to school.

    I had a choice with my oldest of whether to send him early or not, I didn't hesitate for one moment to keep him back and give him the extra year to mature, it would have been a disaster to send him early.

    In our school system there are 2 optional years of pre-school for 3 to 5 year olds, then all kids must start Kindergarten (which is the first year of Primary school) in the year they turn 6, but can start a year earlier if their birthday is before the end of July so it's possible to start at 4.5! After Kindy we have Years 1 through 6 and then it's off to High School for Years 7 through 12.

    There are different systems for the different states in Australia, we're in New South Wales.

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  7. what a gorgeous girl!!! just beautiful all of your children

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  8. Such a big girl now! Yay for going back to school and having a great day! Great pictures!

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  9. She's gorgeous! What a lovely smile on every single photo.

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  10. Each and every picture of Little Miss is so stunning...she looks ready for her school, hands down!

    Like you, we appreciate the flexibility to start early or delay...think it's an important choice to be left to the parents.

    Know she will flourish, start to finish!

    Thank you so much for playing along with Way Back When-esday, Cat!

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  11. OMGOSH! The photo of her at 2 yrs old! WOW! She really is grown up, isn't she?
    How fantastic that she speaks both languages too! WOW! Are the boys learning both as well?

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  12. ok....I LOVE that adorable pic of her from 2007 as well as the one of her modeling her new tutu!!!

    We have the same debate here what to do with Jacob and Sarah re: starting school...they are literally DAYS from the cutoff...here the cutoff for starting school is Dec. 1...so their bday is Nov. 25th. They will either be the OLDEST or VERY young for their class. W have no idea yet what we will decide. I fear the decision will be tough if we think 1 is ready and 1 is not...I hope we don't have to make that tough of a decision.

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So what's on your mind?