(Katie with the class pet "Ziggy" after her first day of school)
Well sort of. It was her first day of first grade...and it was two months ago.
I'm not going to lie, it was rough for both of us. I was terrified for her. New country, new school and no friends. Not exactly comforting thoughts for a mommy. If you know my daughter she is not shy, usually jumps right in and is super friendly. When she didn't it really got me worried. She shrunk down and nestled her tiny body right against mine as we made the walk to her classroom and met her teacher. At that moment I wanted to whisk her away from here back to 2059 Stratford Drive and Highland Park Elementary. Back to the life we had only two weeks before. I yearned for our family, friends, the familiarity and the comfort we felt there. I wanted to protect her and keep her small and all mine. But I didn't. I hugged and kissed her and told her I would be back to get her and to have a great day. I put on my big mommy face and I left her.
The whole walk home I had all sorts of crazy thoughts going through my head. Like, how will she ever understand her teacher. I still didn't know what her name was and I asked her to repeat it twice! Was it Miss Pollock, Pollart, Pollor or Pollot. After the second time of asking, mind you she had said her name once already so this was really number three, I could tell there was no way I could ask again. Sad thing was I could tell Katie was equally as confused as I was. I worried whether or not the other kids would be nice to her. Would they make fun of the way she looks or talks or think she was weird? Because lets be honest kids can be super mean. Finally, I wondered if she would be totally confused coming into the middle (school is year round and starts in January) of first grade. Had we prepared her enough? Could I have done anything different? Should we really have come here? And, why were there so many children not wearing shoes? It was a very long walk home in the rain that morning.
When I finally picked her up she seemed all right. She said she didn't understand most of what the teacher or the other kids were saying. But, they were nice to her and hadn't made fun of the way she talked. Phew! Apparently, they have "morning tea" otherwise known as snack time every day and I had blown it already by not including something in her lunch for that. Woops!
They all call her "Katherine." I have to admit that I secretly love it. The way they say it sounds so formal and it makes me love her name more than I ever have before. I have always hoped that someday she would transition into it from Katie. Don't get me wrong she's a perfect Katie, but we named her Katherine because we loved it but, it was hard to look at this little tiny baby and call her by such a big name. Good news is she loves being called Katherine and has asked me to call her that more lately. :)
She still has some rough days here and there. I have noticed this whole experience has cut her confidence down quite a bit. She is a little less outgoing than she was before and she seems a bit more affected by what kids say and do. The other day she commented on how she feels like everyone is always staring at her and she doesn't like it. Unfortunately, it's probably true, but she does stick out a bit. For some reason you can tell she/we look American and I'm not sure what exactly it is that makes us look that way. She has said she wishes she could just go back to her friends and school in Utah. And that breaks my heart. But thankfully, most days she's happy to go and comes home happy!
So fast forward to now and some thoughts on school here.
-The head of education here is called "The Ministry of Education." I sometimes slip up and call it "The Ministry of Magic." All I can think of is Harry Potter whenever I hear or see it.
-Holy moly they are ahead in math. We've had to do some serious catch up at home. But, they are slightly behind in reading. Go figure? We generally spend 1-2 hours every night working on math catch up and keeping her up to speed with the US reading level. Sometimes it's frustrating because I feel like I'm homeschooling her after she's just spent an entire day at school. But the poor girl needs the social and the structure.
-She is learning how to speak Maori.
-They have very little homework. A simple story to read each night that most days is already read in class and a homework sheet due once a week.
-They have all sorts of extra stuff to participate in like surfing and swimming during school which is pretty cool. They also go to the beach a lot for recess.
-There is no school lunch accept on MWF if you pay in advance. The average cost for a lunch is 6-10 dollars. A far cry from the $1.25 the US charges! She just takes her own at those prices!
-Kids don't wear shoes if they don't want to and it's totally fine with the school. I would say about 50% on an average day don't wear them and 75% on a warmer day. And, it isn't exactly tropical here right now. We'll see what summer brings.
-School hours are shorter and start later. And it's year round with an longer break in December and January. I am actually loving the year round thing right now.
-Most schools wear uniforms...hers doesn't. I'm told it's the whole beachy laid back attitude of parents here as to why her school doesn't. The junior high and high school girls wear culottes with a collared shirt, sweater and tights. And the boys, wear a dressier pair of long shorts, knee socks, a collared shirt and sweater. They look so nice. I'm all about expressing individuality, but honestly uniforms look so great and seem so easy.
-They run a km every day at the start of school. Maybe the US should start doing that!
-The school building itself is totally different from any in the states. It's more like a series of nice separate buildings that open into a common area full of all sorts of cool drawings on ground. Seems like it's straight out of a movie set to me. Not sure why.
-The classrooms are similar to those in the US, but totally decked out in colorful artwork. I love color and so it's like my dream learning environment. So visually inviting. I'm such a sucker for art time with paint and watercolor. It totally excites me! So, the fact that this is a regular thing in class thrills me. It seems so much of this has been lost in the states due to budget cuts and it makes me sad. Those were some of my favorite activities in school and I'm glad she gets to have that opportunity here!
