As I sat last night cleaning off Jorja's 7th (or 8th) version of nail polish of the Summer holidays, I thought about how differently we'd approached the start of the new school year - compared to last year.
Right at the beginning of January 2014, we shopped for uniform and shoes, sourced lunch menus and painstakingly labelled every fold, frame and shoe lace of whatever was heading into the wide world of big school. In January 2015, I quickly stopped by the school shop for a few absolute essentials (that school shorts would have to do another 2 terms at least!) almost forgot to collect the new bright, white shoes from the Klaasens - especially imported from the UK on their holiday - and planned school lunch by standing in front of the fridge trying to tune into my creative mind's eye... Ha!
Needless to say, we are a lot more mellowed out this year.
But that does not take away from the life-preparing experience that is: learning.
I think to a large degree, we downplayed Jorja's first year (in Grade RR) as settling in to a less flexible day and developingexcellent good decent habits. I mean, how hard can it be to keep up a neat appearance, take responsibility for a book bag and listen attentively to instructions?
We took for granted that Jorja settled in to her new surroundings very quickly and with seeming ease. Then we took her away from it all for 3 months and upon our return, sent her right back again. Her 2014 school progress report made us laugh and tear up a little. She's growing up all of the time.
Today, on the first day back after a massive 6-week holiday, I braced myself for tiredness, tardiness, anxiety...and a lot of flack about a seriously understated school bag. How do you go from bright purple with a bedazzled name tag to a plain navy square with straps?
Instead, we saw only some tiredness, some tardiness, no anxiety (but a little hand holding) and a big smile as she entered the school grounds and reconnected with familiar faces. I passed a Mom on her way in, cheering loudly "School holidays are over! School holidays are over!" I'm pretty sure that she wore that swinging red dress and big earrings simply to celebrate the day.
Before long, Jorja was sending me out the gate and on my merry way to work. She was off to school.
Right at the beginning of January 2014, we shopped for uniform and shoes, sourced lunch menus and painstakingly labelled every fold, frame and shoe lace of whatever was heading into the wide world of big school. In January 2015, I quickly stopped by the school shop for a few absolute essentials (that school shorts would have to do another 2 terms at least!) almost forgot to collect the new bright, white shoes from the Klaasens - especially imported from the UK on their holiday - and planned school lunch by standing in front of the fridge trying to tune into my creative mind's eye... Ha!
Needless to say, we are a lot more mellowed out this year.
But that does not take away from the life-preparing experience that is: learning.
I think to a large degree, we downplayed Jorja's first year (in Grade RR) as settling in to a less flexible day and developing
We took for granted that Jorja settled in to her new surroundings very quickly and with seeming ease. Then we took her away from it all for 3 months and upon our return, sent her right back again. Her 2014 school progress report made us laugh and tear up a little. She's growing up all of the time.
Today, on the first day back after a massive 6-week holiday, I braced myself for tiredness, tardiness, anxiety...and a lot of flack about a seriously understated school bag. How do you go from bright purple with a bedazzled name tag to a plain navy square with straps?
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| We are NOT awake |
Before long, Jorja was sending me out the gate and on my merry way to work. She was off to school.
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| Mom's official First Day of Grade R photo |
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| ...and some fun with Ethan! |
So grown up! Enjoy Grade R Jorja (and family)!
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