The Start of a New School Year

On the 1st of February, our three big kids headed back to school. They were all very excited, especially Joel and Asha who were sporting new backpacks. Kezia and I had gone the week before Elena was born to buy new shoes, jeans, shorts, and backpacks.

Joel is starting Grade 2 and his classmates are pretty much all the same from last year. His teacher is Prof. Claudia and his other teacher, Prof. Cristina, was from his grade 1 class last year. He was a bit nervous starting the first day on account of all the change, but he came home very happy on his first day. "We presented ourselves, had lots of Math, and did lots of English too." Joel is looking forward to learning the multiplication tables and writing stories.

Kezia is now on the big kid side (kinder and pre-kinder have their own entrance and class area) and started grade 1. Her classmates have changed a bit, but she is happy that some of her friends are still in her class. Kezia's teacher is new and her name is Prof. Karina. Last year, Kezia didn't really like gym class, but this year, she came home beaming, "Educacion Fisica is actually fun this year!". Kezia is looking forward to reading and writing more and of course, Art class.

Asha is still at her guarderia, but has moved from the "little baby class", as she would call it, to the pre-kinder big girl class. Her teacher is Tia Andrea and Asha says she's very nice.

All the schools had the parents buy all the materials for the year. Not just the regular supplies like notebooks and glue, but all the textbooks and folders as well. Carl spent the most part of last week running around to different textbook supply stores, hoping to find the books he needed. It's a big change from last year, where we just paid a fee and the textbooks were provided. Then, once you purchase the books, you need to cover them all in thick paper. Asha's school was particular and she needed orange paper with white polka dots. Kezia's class wasn't specific, so Carl got this cool purple wall-paper feeling paper to cover about a dozen books. Joel has green, but he has yet to bring his books home to have covered.

I love the beginning of the school year, with all the new supplies and the new backpack and routine. I think it'll be a good year, a short year for our kids, since we will be moving come winter here, summer in the northern hemisphere. Here's to a great school year!