by Angela

Kia Ora!

Another week in paradise. We’ve been blessed with nearly continual sunny warm weather. At this point I feel a bit guilty saying so, knowing how dreary Kentucky is in the winter months. I wish I could share some of this with friends and family back home. As I continue through days of newness and unfamiliar faces, of driving on the wrong side of the road through roundabouts, thoughts slowly bubble up here and there, thoughts of missing the familiarity of home, along the lines of “what the hell am I doing here!” Yet things are also getting more routine and recognizable. I know exactly where the peanut butter is in the grocery store, I can travel to the “town centre” 20min away without looking at the GPS every 10 seconds, I recognize the species of birds on the shore, and I can even listen to the radio while driving. 

The kids have continued settling into school and exploring opportunities to the point where I have been weighing the value of ongoing skill building activities with keeping our weekends free to explore and sightsee. It’s Saturday and our weekend has filled up. Today- Charles is trying out a junior golf program, Audrey has a piano lesson (a “jazz piano” lesson). Tomorrow- the older two kids do sailing for 4 hours in the morning, Charles wants to attend the school’s underwater hockey “have-a-go” day, and Audrey has a new friend’s birthday party to attend. Phew! Maybe next weekend we can get out to some sights. Although I haven’t gotten bored of the sights right outside my door.

We found three used bikes for sale nearby this week, three bikes by one seller that fit each of our kids and were 5min away- what luck! They are a bit rusty and need a tune up, but hopefully the use of them is just as lucky as the find for the next several months. Charles’s new friends invited him to go mountain biking with them this week. Danny and I were thrilled for him to be connecting with local kids and spending time away from screens. Although right before he was to leave, my Mom instincts (or perhaps anxiety) kicked in. I was thinking about last year, when Charles tried skiing for the first time and couldn’t reliably slow down or turn yet was super excited to barrel down hills at fast speeds. He was happily ignorant of potential consequences. Thankfully he didn’t hurt himself at the time but also didn’t learn any lessons. So this is what I thought about as he was going mountain biking for the first time- on a bike with wonky gears, with a friend whom I hadn’t met and only knew his first name (Is “Iggy” his name or a nickname), going to a trail I I had no clue where. Charles, in teenager fashion, wasn’t happy when I asked him to put his friend on the phone. But after I had his friend’s full name, friend’s mom’s name and number, the exact location, and his friend had my number, only after that did I feel better about it. And it was a moment of joy and relief when I got a text 2 hours later that said “we are having a blast” followed by him arriving back home in one piece.  

Audrey too got a chance to try out mountain biking this week, only her experience wasn’t as great. I will leave it up to her if she wants to tell you about it in another post but let’s just say she doesn’t have a lot of experience and is a bit out of shape. But the cool thing about Audrey’s experience is that she got to bike to a local park during school hours. The school has several clubs that operate during recess directly after lunch such as crafts, drawing, ukulele, chess, enviro… and mountain biking. I think this is super cool. But if you combine the clubs with other school activities- such as assemblies, sports days, ambassador to international students, morning tea, cooperative learning games- then I am left wondering when the kids actually learn, like the boring learning. I get the sense, how to say it, that education is less structured here, with fewer textbooks, worksheets, tests and quizzes. Hmmmm. If my assumption is correct, what does that mean? What are the long-term effects? I’ve been sold on the importance of play in early childhood education as well as the idea that homework in elementary school may not be helpful but I am not sure how I feel about this. For 6 months, it doesn’t really matter for us but it is interesting to compare and consider different educational philosophies and what their effect may be. Regardless of which is better for learning, I have to admit I really enjoyed the lack of Valentine’s Day celebration here. No finding out how many kids are in each class and having to buy valentines, no candy exchange, no overload of sugar on the day and days following. It was the Valentine’s Day I’ve always wished for. 

One last thing I wanted to mention that I’ve observed is different here is the intra-school competition. Both Charles and the girls’ schools have “houses”. Like in Harry Potter, they compete for points which they can get for good behavior, cheering loudly, and winning competitions between the houses. There are whole school days devoted to competition. So far, Charles has had a track and field sports day and Audrey a swimming sports day. I volunteered for Audrey’s and got to help man a stopwatch. They had lots of competitive swimming events and a few silly ones. Back at home, the kids have PE and the end of the school year field day, but that’s it, nothing like this. It was a bit odd, seeing athletic competitions within the school day itself. And because Audrey is not a swimmer, I think it was a little boring for her. Being more academic myself, at first I questioned whether it was a good thing to have in school. But then, I think it shows how Kiwis value healthy competition and athleticism. One internet site said school sports days are a way for kids with more athletic abilities and less academic ones to shine and be recognized among their peers. After reading that, I reflected on how everyone seemed to enjoy the day even without winning- I don’t recall seeing any upset kids. I think I can appreciate this cultural school tradition.