Kindergarten!
On Sunday night, with kindergarten starting the next day I asked Quinn how she was feeling. She said, "I'm scared, and happy and sad". Scared because she would be "starting a new school and making all new friends". Happy because "pre-school was getting a little boring because there was just one thing to do (play)". Sad because "no more days with mommy". I told her that I was scared and happy and sad too.
Wren is meanwhile so excited for Quinn to come to her school. But she also wondered on Sunday night how she was going fit Quinn into her existing friendships there...
On Monday morning, with all her new school supplies packed into her racoon backpack, we walked the two blocks to school.
And she was off!
First morning's attendance, already rapt with learning...
At the end of Quinn's first week the school held a powhiri for students that have joined the school in the last term. Lucas and I are continually impressed with how Maori traditions are not only upheld but embraced. The older girls sang us into the hall with "haere mai". Then the whole school did a haka for our entry. All the speeches were in Maori and for the first time I could understand them. I never get tired of experiencing a powhiri.
I just recorded the last bit of the haka as the men walk in (Quinn's new class is the front row of kids):
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMht58_HIA[/embedyt]
Quinn was a bit shattered with fatigue at the end of each day, but held it together well, made friends and had a great first week. At the end of the first week I asked Quinn which she liked better, preschool or kindergarten? She said, "I kinda like kindergarten better, because I like learning".
Wren is meanwhile so excited for Quinn to come to her school. But she also wondered on Sunday night how she was going fit Quinn into her existing friendships there...
On Monday morning, with all her new school supplies packed into her racoon backpack, we walked the two blocks to school.
And she was off!
First morning's attendance, already rapt with learning...
At the end of Quinn's first week the school held a powhiri for students that have joined the school in the last term. Lucas and I are continually impressed with how Maori traditions are not only upheld but embraced. The older girls sang us into the hall with "haere mai". Then the whole school did a haka for our entry. All the speeches were in Maori and for the first time I could understand them. I never get tired of experiencing a powhiri.
I just recorded the last bit of the haka as the men walk in (Quinn's new class is the front row of kids):
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYMht58_HIA[/embedyt]
Quinn was a bit shattered with fatigue at the end of each day, but held it together well, made friends and had a great first week. At the end of the first week I asked Quinn which she liked better, preschool or kindergarten? She said, "I kinda like kindergarten better, because I like learning".
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