First day of school

Allison and Lucy were so excited about their first day of school. They had been talking about it all weekend, wishing it would come faster.

The uniform for North Ainslie Primary School is a red top and black bottom (or there is a checkered red and white dress for the girls). We went with a red t-shirt and black skort. Lucy's hat stands out since it has maple leaves on it - yes, we brought it from Canada.

We packed their lunches, and made sure they had a water bottle, running shoes and a hat. There is a "no hat - no play" policy at the school. And the hat has to cover their neck and ears (bucket or tilly hat - no baseball caps). Which makes a lot of sense since not only do they have recess and lunch outside, but often the teachers will take them outside to do their work (e.g. writing or math). No need to worry about adequate vitamin D here!

The first bell rang, they lined up in the courtyard in their classes and the principal did the announcements outside with a microphone. Parents hung around for the announcements and then the children were dismissed to their classes. We picked them up in the courtyard after school as well.

Allison and Lucy had a great first day. They both made at least one friend, and talked with a few others. Allison said that the math is really hard (they are doing multiplication with decimals on their calculators and Allison felt really lost. Hence the math improv lesson tonight by cutting up clementines into tenths and hundredths. Fun! We ate 5 tenths, or 1/2 or 0.5 of the clementine when we were done).

In the courtyard on their first day of school

James and I ran errands and figured out that Hannah is a cranky pants between 10-11am before falling asleep. Having a temper tantrum in the grocery store sure is embarrassing. Especially as I was trying to calm her down with food (that I made sure we had paid for first), a soother that she flung on the floor and then I dropped the change. At least they'll remember me next time I am in.

 James headed off to the university and found out that there is a conference this week. So he'll be attending that. And I am adjusting to the "home schedule" - buying groceries every day, walking the girls to school, getting Hannah down for a nap at a decent time, doing laundry (which means hanging it out on the lines which I have refused to do my entire life but am learning to do now - I really don't like cardboard towels!), doing the dishes, planning the week, and figuring out the extra-curricular activities our family is going to commit to. And playing "Jelly Splash" on my iPhone - which now has an Australian number, so texting me is out (although email and Apple-messaging still works fine).

Hannah and I walk past the school with our groceries