Wainui Beach School

the hill and playground behind the school

Today (April 15th) marks the end of the first term of school year here in New Zealand.  Liam has been attending the Wainui Beach School and has been loving it!!  Of course, if you remember, the first couple of weeks Liam had a hard time adjusting, but as of last week he told me he was having better days at school than at home (not sure how exactly I feel about that, but I'm glad he is liking school).  Going to school in New Zealand was a pretty big change for him... and us.   A day after arriving in Wainui we went down to registrar him.  We got the tour of the school.   Very different than our enclosed schools of Minnesota.   All of their school rooms open to the outside courtyard.  There is a huge playground and playing field, picturesque hills in the back, and the beach across the street in the front.   (and, in case of a big earthquake the kids need to run through the "tsunami gate" at the back and up that picturesque hill).  Like I said, very different.   There is also no cafeteria.  Kids need to bring their lunch and they eat them sitting on the porch walkway in front of their classrooms.   Actually they bring their "morning tea" and their lunch.   We were also told that Liam needed to bring his togs (swimming suit) and a hat.  The hats are required for playing outside as the sun is so strong down here in New Zealand... they take their hats very seriously.  As for the togs, for the first 6 weeks, the kids went swimming every day in the school's outdoor pool.   Liam was actually not so much a fan of this, as some days were a little cool and I think the locker room was a little too crazy for him.  He also had some questions around that time of why some of his parts looked different than the boys here.

Like I said, though, Liam has been doing a great job.  He was one of the first kids in his class to fill up a reward sticker chart.  Of course, the first few weeks when I would ask him what he earned a sticker for, he most frequent response was "for being the first boy out of the locker room".   He has been getting more confident everyday though.  At first, it was a struggle to get him to do homework (as you may recall, one of those times led to the "this wasn't my dream" meltdown).  Now, he asks to study his spelling words and he has been reading up a storm.   His teachers did an assessment half way through the term and he was reading 3 levels higher than where they had him.... and I am sure they had him in the right spot to start with.  His hard work paid off too and I am excited to announce that he was awarded one of the school's "Term Achievers" awards today at the end of term assembaly.   His award read "Liam your consistent hard work and awesome attitude definitely makes you a role model in Room 8. You are always on task and trying hard with everything you do and because of this you have made awesome progress. You're a pleasure to teach and we admire how kind, patient and thoughtful your are towards others.  Well done Liam, we are very proud of you"   And so are we Liam, so are we.

If you ask Liam what his favorite part of school, he might tell you that it is not having to wear shoes.  Yes, most days I am begging him just to at least take a pair with him.   It is near impossible to make him wear any, as no one else does.  I have even seen his teacher without any on.  You have to love life in New Zealand.  I can't even believe that it bothers me that I can't get him to wear shoes.  Maybe it is because I bought him a lot of nice shoes before we came.  Maybe I am just a little jealous.  I have never liked wearing shoes, and now, just in the last year, I have developed plantar fasciitis, which forces me to wear shoes or to be in pain.  Come on,  just pure torture to live on the beach, in a place where shoes are not required, and I have to wear shoes....NOT FAIR!

But, I digress.  Liam's school is pretty cool.  Both Brett and I agree we would like to return to childhood and go there. They have had some fun activities and field trips.  Some notable ones being beach day and the communtiy hangi.  On Beach Day, some of the school went to the beach for the full day, learning about water and sun safety, surf lifesaving, and just having fun.   The hangi is a traditional Maori meal that is cooked in a pit in the ground and covered with dirt.  I helped prepare the meals of chicken, lamb, pork, kumara, pumpkin, cabbage, and stuffing. Brett got to help dig it up.   Tickets were sold and we all ate on the lawn listening to a variety of music acts playing on the steps of the new school library.  Pretty fun night.   On the other hand, the recent school disco was a little too much for me.  Overall though, it was a great first term of school.  Now, we are off on holiday and on to some new adventures for the week.  

Beach Day (at Midway beach, NOT Wainui)

The school rock band at the hangi

digging up supper