First week of School

SCHOOLS IN SESSION!!!!!

 This week was the first week of school for the kids.  They started in the British School at Upwood Primary School on Monday.  Mathew is in Year 1 and Paige in Year 5.

We had purchased their GREEN wear from the school on the day of our visit.  They were out of a lot of the sizes so we had to get Mathew a jumper (Sweatshirt) and Paige a fleece jacket (I am not sure if they have a separate name for that).  They have to wear the standard white shirt and black or grey bottoms.  I have seen some children with different colored shoes and socks so I am guessing that those are optional with color but they just need to wear something on their feet.  They can also wear grey or black sweaters to school over their white shirts.  I LOVE how they look heading out to school each morning and they seem to like getting their uniforms on each day.  It makes it very easy to get ready for the day.  The only thing we have to worry about is which shirt or for Paige, skirt or pants.  We do have things to remember such as PE Kits.  They change for PE two days a week.  Mathew has PE Wednesday and Thursday and Paige has PE Thursday and Friday.  So on these days they have to have their green PE Kit bags with their items inside.  We have decided to pack lunches this year. School lunches are 2 pounds = $3.20 a day and I knew I could pack lunches cheaper than that.  They do however have great choices for the kids.  The food is catered into the school.  It all sounds super yummy so maybe we will choose a day to buy and the rest pack lunch.  I can control what they eat when we pack so right now I like this option best for the cost!

On Monday I met with Paige's teacher, Miss Clarke.  She seems very nice and wanted to chat about what they were going to work on for the year.  I had questions as to where they were and she assured me that they would assess Paige and put her where she needed to be.  She was set up with the higher level spelling words (some words are in the British spelling and not American such as neighbour) as well as a book that she was to read in order to earn GOLDEN time ( Free Time).  The book is an interesting choice (The Railway Children) and I was concerned that she would not have any interest in it but she has diligently read a chapter a night.  The chapters are 18 pages each.  I am not sure how fast they expect her to read it but I think she is doing good if she can get that much done in one night.

Mathew's teacher stopped me and said that he did well on his first day but he is a bit behind because they start reading in reception (Pre school) so all the children in his class are reading while Mathew is not.  UGH! I knew that might be an issue when we started there because I had heard that they were already reading but it puts more stress on him and us to get him to the point that his peers are at.  He does not like to be pushed to do things and his attention level is not to a point that he wants to sit and learn at home.  I am hoping reading at home with him and his teacher working on sounding words out will help push him to where he needs to go fast.  I do not know what else to do with him more at home.  We have his word wall up and that seems to be going okay in order to allow him to go outside but he has lost his bike privileges a couple times due to not sitting to listen to books so then the word wall goes out the door.  

The kids had Sports Day on Tuesday and they seemed to have fun with that.  They came home tired and sore from all the activities.  Paige has not stopped complaining about how sore her legs are from it.  I guess that is what you get when you sit idle for the summer while everyone else runs and plays.  Mathew was sore and he rides his bike and runs all day so I guess they must had been doing things with other parts of the body that he was not used to.

Paige also received a note saying that she had been accepted into the football club ( Soccer) at school.  I was happy about this and think it will be good for her to learn some other techniques that she needs work on.  She was telling me how the PE teacher was making them look up for the colors when they were dribbling the ball instead of calling out red/ green/ blue/ ect.  I told her that it was like Coach John did and you had to look up instead of watching the ball at all times.  She agreed but I thought that was an interesting way of doing it and a great way to get the kids to look up and not just listen.  Something that I can pass on to her old team. ;)

Mathew is really wanting to Golf and do Karate.  I have not seen anything about these on base so we are going to have to look elsewhere for him.  He needs to be able to get out and do things as well and I think one of these would be perfect.  We just needs to make sure to find a place that we can go and Mat will have time to take him to it.  

Mat has been extremely busy with work.  It seems to be one thing after another when it comes to work.  If it is not dealing with his troops, then it is studying for his test and once this test is over, I know it will be him studying for the next rank.  Sports may be up to me for a bit. He does make it home for dinner and we all  are able to sit together and eat which is always very nice.  

Mathew got us all laughing the other night when he told us that during the night he woke up sitting on the toilet.  He said, "I woke up and I was on the toilet, I was like, how did I get in here?"  LOL  He went on to say," I guess I must have had the go to the bathroom and sleeped walked into there." Gotta love that kid.  

Yesterday Paige received her first bit of homework.  Each week they are given a Math paper as well as a Literacy assignment.  They have a week to work on these and then must turn them in each Wednesday.  This seems to be a lot less than what we are used to when it comes to homework.  She is given spelling words each week to test over every Friday as well but it is up to the child to learn these words.  I am glad that Paige has learned some techniques on learning how to remember spelling words.  I am not sure if they work on vocabulary for these words but we also went through working on sentences for each just in case.  I hope that she was prepared for her test today!  

Mathew's only homework so far is to read.  I think I am going to add things to his day after school so that we can push on. I am waiting for a meeting with his teacher to see exactly where they are in school first and where they will be at the end of the term.  I know after this term they start doing spelling words and tests.  That is only a couple months away.  

Mathew came home from school and asked if he could have a friend come over.  Come to find out this friend is a GIRL and she said that she could beat him in a race on his bike. So for Mathew the challenge was on.  He said he needed to be outside practicing for the race and that he had to train so he could make sure he won the race.  Oh I love that boy!

Today, one of Paige's classmates' mother came to me and said that her daughter, Katie, wanted a playdate with Paige next week and wanted to know if that would be okay.  Paige's face lit up and it was so good to see that she has already made some friends in her class.  Right now she says she has 6 good friends.  A positive sign!  Sometimes she gets so inward that I worry about her but I guess when mom is away, she does okay on her own.  

This weekend we will be catching up with some family time.  We have some running to do.  We need to find some black joggers for Mathew for PE.  We also need to get more Green paint for the entrance as I have ran out and need a second coat on the top of walls.  Once we get that, it is onto the next room. I have decided that we need to finish one before moving onto the next that way they will get done and we will not have half done projects throughout the house.