Miss is 9 years old

Birthday Girl

We have a girl in our house that turned 9 yesterday! Miss is big. Very big! It's sad that's she's not the Little Miss any more, but we love the interesting dialogues we have with her now! She questions the world, and she's got some of her own answers! She has been living the 9 years old life for a year! (What happens when you only turn your age at the end of a year!) By all accounts this year went very well! We are very happy with her report card!

Questions to the nearly 9 year old

Miss faces

It's been a year, and it's always good to sneak in a few questions to our daughter. There's some "Ah-hah" and some "Really?".

She's been with me at work for the first day of school holidays, and she's managed to use up 4G of my 5G dongle before lunch. Now she is tasked in making me a picture for my office, and I try not to look at the mess... (This is going to be a long 6 weeks!)

A locker is a lifesaver

Little Miss got a locker at her new school.

It has been huge fun each day to take necessities such as an umbrella and tissues to put in it. She did not have the opportunity at her previous school, as they only allowed older children to have lockers. We could really have used a locker the previous years, because the guitar and hockey stick always had to be dragged along...

It made me think about the positives of having your own locker:

- She has her own safe space in a new big environment.
- She has a place where she can put her own stamp on things. She has been taking photos and stickers to school to brighten the interior of the locker.
- She has a place to put all the extra stuff, such as sport equipment and an umbrella.
- She has a place where she can keep her heavy books, when necessary. (It seems not as pertinent this year, but in the years to come I am sure it will help a lot!) Their suitcases are already extremely heavy!
- It helps to have a locker at aftercare for backups in clothes, such as an extra jacket, or backup munchies.

I wish we had lockers when we were at school. I still have one shoulder that is hanging because of the heavy suitcases we had to carry.


What is your thoughts around having a locker at school, especially primary school?

First week at a new school

Little Miss first week of school, at a new school, has been daunting. We are glad we made the move, and there is a definite positive effect on both Mom and Dad's traffic commutes!

The challenges:

- The new environment is difficult to navigate for a direction-ally challenged kid. (Mom as well!)
- It's not as easy as asking kids to play with them. They already have their friends and groups of their own. They just say "No!" (Heartbreaking)
- We sent a child to school on Monday with stomach-ache which we thought was spastic colon (nerves), but had to go fetch her earlier. It turns out it is bladder infection because she keeps it in (not wanting to go because of dodgy toilets). I even walked past a younger girl with her dad yesterday who just had an accident. She told her dad she was keeping it in until he came to fetch her. It was 4pm in the afternoon already! (Shame!)
- There was a melt-down in class. We got a call! (Horrors)
- The activities that Little Miss is interested in, is overlapping. What do we keep, and what do we change?
- There was a general athletics meeting where Little Miss got sun burnt for the first time, and her nose are peeling. She was also spending half her time searching for me, although I could only be there at 1pm.  (Bad Mom-moment - I should have explained better about being there later...)

The positives:

- Little Miss (and her parents) do not have to sit for hours in the car going and coming from school.
- Little Miss got a playmate during lunch-breaks yesterday, but she does not know the girl's name. (Thumbs crossed)
- Little Miss has been doing handstands with one of the new boys at after-care, and yesterday afternoon there was a new "friend" that she bonded with in class after they both felt sick on Monday.
- Little Miss does not have any issues going to the tuck shop at school. She knows all the new rules! (*sigh* Trying each day to get a few cents from Mom and Dad)
- Little Miss can't stop talking about her new school. She is enjoying most of it! (Big THUMBS UP!)
- Little Miss likes her new teacher.
- I was asked to buy a special file for her yesterday that she can keep in her bag for homework. She enjoyed sorting and marking it yesterday, and was excited to use it today. (The power of the right stationery!)
- BETTER COMMUTE! (Easier, faster, cheaper!)


The positives outweighs the negatives!
The challenges are not necessarily a bad thing, and we will work on it this year!

How's your back-to-school going?

Back to a new school

Little Miss started in Grade 3 in a new school today. We have been contemplating the move for a couple of years. We drive past her new school each day, and it just did not make economic sense to continue driving through traffic and for longer hours each day for 5 more years.

It was a bit daunting for her, and she was worried about fitting in and finding new friends...
(Daunting for the parents as well, I must add!)

The parents were encouraged to come along with her, and we appreciated that we could accompany her until she was settled into her new class.

We picked her up earlier today as well from the aftercare as well, and she was her usual talkative self as well! It was a great day. She got lost a couple of times, but there's lots of great stories she told us.

The best! They warned the children not to leave their bags open as the chickens and peacocks scratches for food or lay their eggs in them! How awesome! To have chickens and peacocks and bunnies roaming around on the school yard!

O, and she told us repeatedly she did not have any homework. Until we discovered a couple of books that needed to be covered for tomorrow! The joys! NOT!


How was your first day back at school?