No more school for 2014. Kindy over and now on Summer Holidays.Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The kids are now officially on holidays. Yesterday was their last day at school. Also today is exactly seven days till Christmas and Santa arrives. Gosh it is getting exciting at our house. What about yours?

The twins have completed their first year at big school. Yes kindergarten is now done and dusted and they will go back as bigger kids entering grade one. The girls are so pleased with this and also some of their younger friends will be starting school next year and they are keen to look after then and show them around.

One thing that I did not predict was that the girls were very sad and cried a bit due to their older school buddy leaving primary to go to high school next year. It is sad but we can always see her at other times, and told the girls that one day they will also be leaving to go to high school. I know this is a way off yet, but it will happen in a blink of an eye.

I still cannot believe that they are six years old already, it only seems like yesterday they were babies.

So what have I learnt with the first year of primary school?

• Notes from the school. You will find that you get a lot of notes. Don’t think your darling child will give you all these notes and some important announcements. You will need to go through their bag to ensure you have all announcements and notes from the school.
• Keep some petty cash available for events at the school. There might be an excursion, stalls, fetes, cake stalls and so on. The kids need a bit of money to participate and if you have it at home it saves you going to the ATM or the bank.
• Your child will lose some or nearly all of their uniform. Label everything! One of my girls lost a lunch box. Yes odd, but it happens.
• If you can help in the classroom, I would do it. I loved helping the kids with their reading and assisting the teacher with this program. It was a joy to see my girls grow with their reading and be shown other things in class.
• The kids school has an excellent canteen with very healthy food. If you have this option don’t worry about using the canteen for school lunches. They were cheap and gave me a break from thinking what to pack every so often. It was also a nice treat for the kids. Due to the fact that the kids go to school in the mountains and it is gets freezing in winter, having hot food options for lunches for winter is ideal and the canteen helped me then.
• Change of Clothes. Due to the fact that kids are still young and in Kindy, I always had a spare pair of undies and socks in the bag. You never know if the child might have an accident or just walk in a puddle and get upset with the fact that they have wet socks. With the undies and socks, I also added a t-shirt, jumper and skivvy just in case the weather changes. In the mountains you never know so it is good to be prepared.

Hope this list helps some parents out there, my main point is to keep up with the news from the school. Make sure to read the newsletters and any updates. It is a whirlwind of info and events when you start but you become better at navigating what you need to do and where you need to be. I was also impressed that the teachers knew who each child was in the early days.

I did mention to the twins that due to the fact that the kids need to wear a uniform, teachers and others might find it hard to know who each person was. This was not true. Their teachers were amazing and figured it out. This was very impressive and made the girls very happy!

Now we are on school holidays and Christmas is fast approaching I have a number of things to get done. I have organised tickets to a film tomorrow for me and the twins, we are off to see the new Paddington film and I cannot wait. The girls have told me that they will help me tidy up a bit before Santa arrives and then the girls and I are off on a secret trip after Christmas…more info on this later!

How are you going now you are on school holidays? Are the kids super excited for the arrival of Santa? Have you got everything organised yet? I was lucky that I sorted hubby’s present yesterday, and yes I still need to wrap the kids presents but I have them.

However I just need to remember where they have been hidden throughout the house. Wish me luck I find them all!