Newbies

   We had a busy and exciting week here in Oakura. The week started with the kids starting school and Brad going to his first day of work. The kids and I all walked into school nervous and anxious with tummies full of butterflies. I told the kids that "this was going to be the hardest day and that it would just get easier from here." Since this is such a small town of 3,000 or less, newcomers are very exciting and especially newcomers that talk funny!! Both of the girls have fit right in and came home that same day with smiles on their faces. Owen has and will require some extra TLC since he is still quite young. He has had tears every morning, but has still perservered and made it the whole week w/o Mom having to pick him up early. Believe it or not but Mom has NOT cried at his teary drop offs, but I am really hoping that he is happier this next week. Skyler has already made a plethora of friends and her teacher told me that she has to remind herself that Skyler is new because she already fits right in. Lindsey is loving school because things tend to be a little more liberal here in the NZ school system. The third day of school they watched Avatar ( PG 13) during recess and on the fourth day most of the older students were @ a Bowling tournament so the students left behind did Art all day . And on the 5th day they went into town to do wood working. There is  no school cafeteria so all the kids bring lunch and get to eat outside.  Most of the students (common for all of NZ) take off their shoes when they get to school, if they EVEN wear shoes to school and do not put them back on until they go home. Each classroom has a shoe bucket. This was one of the first things I noticed and asked about when we went to visit schools that first week. The kids are loving it and Mom still thinks its odd!!! 

  There were two reasons that we picked this school. One being that all three of our kids would go to the same school. They can walk/ride bikes to and from school together. If we would of lived in New Plymouth, Lindsey would of gone to one of the two Intermediate schools and the younger two would of been at a Primary school. After meeting with the Principal at the Intermediate School we felt that having all 3 kids stay together would be a less stressful situation for all of us. Secondly we felt that the Oakura School had a Montessouri feel about it,which we loved and it just felt right. Also Oakura being 1 of 2 schools in the area that is a decile 10 rating also helped make our decision. Whoops, that made it 3 reasons, but anyway we are enjoying the new school and looking forward to getting involved with some of the sports teams. The NewsLetter this week said it is starting a ski team and looking for kids. I think I might know of 3 kids that might be interested :)