Summer is over!

Come September, and the days of Summer are officially considered over. Fall has just begun. That's one nice thing about the weather here. You have four clear cut seasons here and can visibly see the differences.

We went to a store yesterday to get cycles for both of my children. They just had a few to chose from as they were pretty much sold out. When we asked them about the next stock..........the Lady gave us a strange look and said, 'After Winter.' Which means after April sometime. They sell many things here by the seasons, unlike India where you get everything all year round.

Kids have started school! A few things that happened:

My eleven year old son had to wait at a particular spot on the first day of school for his bus at 8.05am. I thought, how precise they are!! Well, I thought too soon.......the bus never came and my husband had to do one mad dash and drove him to school. We later found out that the bus driver was new and the driver went to the wrong stop. The last three days however have been fine, and my son has been enjoying taking the bus to school.

My daughter walks to school as it is close by, but I'm sure as it gets colder we'll have to drive her too.

They both (touch wood) love school so far. My son is in the 6th grade, and he has French. They start French from the fourth grade so he is technically two years behind. The French teacher should tell us today what he can do to catch up. He also has P.E or Phys. Ed as they call it twice a week. He has to take a seperate bag with a change of proper gym clothes. A pair of shoes are kept in the locker, which he shares with a classmate. They keep their backpack, jackets etc in the locker, and take the books, pencil case etc that they need. After each period, they go back to the locker and take what they need for the next class. Their lunch is also kept in the locker until lunch time.

The first two days they gave my son a series of different tests, to check reading, math skills, speed test, spelling and an assignment to write down thier goals for this year. This is done to assess the class and to help the teacher in knowing the students capabilities better. My daughter had a reading and spelling test.

On the first day of school, my daughters homework was to 'hug your parents'. She was so thrilled that this was the kind of homework they give. Her happiness was short lived as she got 'real' homework the second day and had to read a book and write two sentences about what she read. She also started work in Math (they don't say Maths), Science and English.

Both kids have 'agendas' or what we call, the school diary in India. They write down their homework and the parents have to see that it is done, and sign it everyday.

The schools are also very strict about the dress code. No t-shirts with offensive or gang like slogans. No jewellery beyond something simple and not expensive. Girls skirts have to be longer than the level of their extended fingertips facing downwards. No spaghetti straps and tops and bottoms (like pant and shirt, or skirt and top) have to meet in the middle. They don't have uniforms in most schools here, so you have to be make sure your kids have plenty of comfortable clothes and at least two pairs of sports shoes.

Today my son has his first art class and on Monday he has music. I will let you know what they did, as well as a clearer picture of the syllabus.

If you have any questions please email or leave a comment. I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Can anyone tell me what the Canadian nickname for the one dollar and two dollar coin here is?
I'll give you the answer in my next post.!!