Shantel's First day of Kindergarten & the Quad

Today was Shantel's first day of school. She was so excited. Yesterday we checked her bag, put her show&tell item in her bag, got her lunchbox ready as well as her clothes. This morning she was up bright and early! Normally I don't have to drive to school but today was special, so I had to get up early too!!!

Arriving at school, she hung up her bag and changed her shoes. They need two pairs of shoes, one they come and go home with and the other pair stays at school for during school play/PE etc.

At the front entrance

Once in her classroom, she found her seat and desk and her box of crayons and started to colour-in her picture. She has two teachers; Mrs Bareman and Mrs Hofford who do alternate days. They started with the letter L and learned the capital and lower case right away!

Shantel on the right. Her friend Liana on the left in the purple dress

Once she got home, she noted some of the differences from preprimary in Australia. They don't introduce themselves and say 'good morning or afternoon' when doing show&tell. They don't have library bags (and as a result Shantel managed to get custard pudding on her books!). Just as well we took hers from preprimary so her books will be very protected! They don't have rest time or fruit time. They get a really nice agenda (diary) with lots of information and activities and of course some space for daily events etc. 

On the whole, she had a good day and can't wait for Friday. She only goes two days a week compared to full-time in Australia!

And the quad. Well, when you're on a farm, a quad is a must, at least according to Stefan. And they are called ATV (all terrain vehicle). See the neighbour kids have one and you can't do much together when you only have one plus you need transport to get to their farm! So an ATV was advertised quite cheaply close by to Lynden, and you guessed it, we became it's new owners. It smokes like a pipe so Stefan will have some fixing to do, but that's up his alley; gives him something to do. Even Steve got a liking for it, so did the little girls!