Our eight and a ten year old are now going to a public primary school in Australia. They came here not speaking the language and so many things are different to what they were used to, wearing a school uniform, assembly, fundraisers, sports…
After one year we changed schools for the 10 year old. Why? Well, you will have to read our blog posts.
Two weeks ago, at the Essex Heights Primary School fun run, the nine fastest runners per age group got selected to be part of the school team. Today was the day where they got to compete against five other schools. Continue reading “District Cross Country”
Today was another exciting day for the Essex Heights Primary school children. And for me, as I got to experience another sport at school event, which is completely different from the events that we know. It is a fun event, fundraiser and a selection for the school team at the same time. The Essex Heights Fun Run! Continue reading “Essex Heights Fun Run”
As we have blogged before, Essex Heights Primary, the school that our kids go to, has a large music program. They put on a Showcase every year, where the students show off their skills on violin, flute and marimba.
Last year, one of the teachers had the idea that it would also be fun to do something with dancing, and they put together a dance show for the parents. It was such a success that they did it again this year. Continue reading “Essex Heights – Land Down Under”
ANZAC day is not until Monday, which is a public holiday, so the schools had their ceremony today. Previously the ceremony was only for the grades three and up, this year all the students were there. And, parents and friends were invited, so a nice opportunity for me to experience another school tradition. Continue reading “School Anzac Day ceremony”
Today was another one of those slightly different school days. The grade six students, who are in their last year of primary school, were playing a cricket match against the teachers on the council oval. The other school kids were watching and supporting the game all dressed in pink! Continue reading “Pink Stomp Cricket match”
Two weeks ago Kai received a letter that all the children from Essex Heights could enter the qualification for today’s swimming carnival. Being the sportive kid that he his, no doubt that Kai wanted to try out. You needed to be up to a certain swimming level, but since we are not familiar with those levels, we just signed him up. Even though he finished his swimming lessons three years ago.
Last Monday, during school time, they drove up to the swimming pool by bus. To our surprise, we found out that Kai qualified for the breaststroke in the school swimming team a couple days later. Freestyle is the stroke that children in Australia learn first. In the Netherlands we start with breaststroke. This and his competitive nature, is probably why he made it. Continue reading “School swimming competition”
Having lived in Melbourne for over six moths as an expat and still in the honeymoon stage of the cultural adjustment cycle (as some stay in that phase a bit longer than the “official” six to eight weeks) it was bound to happen at some point. Disappointment. Continue reading “Experiencing disappointment”
What do you do when you get assigned a group of four boys and two girls, between 8-10 years old, to walk through a classical museum?
I swallowed, took a deep breath, desperately tried to memorise all names (o, why am I so bad at names again….) and gave it a go! After I joined Luka’s excusion to the Werribee Mansion last term, it was now time for me to join Kai’s excursion. Continue reading “School excursion – term 4”
After Kai’s blog post about the Essex Heights School Carnival I could not stay behind and write about my view of this day. If you are curious about what the people on the picture above are looking at, then continue reading and Luka (7) will give you the answer! Continue reading “School carnival- a parents view”
On Saturday the 21st we had a school carnival. There were lots of things to do. Continue reading “Essex heights carnival 2015”
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