"It's Really Quiet Isn't It Mum?"

We just dropped Noah and Jalen off at their first day of school for the year. Kobe is in bed having a nap and Harri looks at me and says 'it's really quiet isn't it, Mum?'. Oh boy it is quiet and I'm loving it!!!! :)

Noah and Jalen both woke up really early this morning. Jay slept in all holidays, but this morning at 6am he comes running into my room - all excited about school. Noah was wide awake all morning and even woke up with a smile.

Of course as Noah does - he decided to fall asleep, just as we were leaving for school!

Jalen is in grade 4 this year, and is in a combined grade 3/4 class. His new teacher Miss W is so lovely. I knew her before she started teaching at Punchbowl, so we are so excited that she is Jalen's teacher this year. He was really hoping to get her too, so we are sure he will have a great year.

Punchbowl has a new principal this year, and we were sad to see Mr R go as he was a great Principal - especially with the way he dealt with bullying and inclusion of kids with special needs. We met the new principal this morning and she came straight over and said 'this must be Noah' and said hi. She seems lovely. Noah is now going to school at Punchbowl two days a week (rather than 4) and to Newstead Heights (special school) for three days. We are excited with the changes and think he will have a great year with a mix of both schools. He has a brand new teacher at Newstead, who has taught special needs kids for many years so it is nice he will have someone very experienced.

This morning I took him to school to meet the teacher and just make sure they were confident with everything they need to do with him. Because he is now doing a dual enrollment it means he doesn't get full aide time at Newstead. Instead he gets allocated a certain amount of hours, just like the other kids do. This was one thing holding me back from sending him to two schools, but I know the aides are fantastic at the school. Today when I left there were only 4 kids in the class with the teacher plus three aides! There will be other kids in the group, but the ratio of aides to kids is still pretty good. I think there are only 8 kids in their group at the most. They have put two aides in Noah's group who know him and his routines very well, so I felt okay about leaving him as I know he is in good hands.

When we left he was sitting back, having his neb while listening to the teacher tell a story. Kobe was loving sitting on the aides knee while he listened to the story as well. He will be just like Harri and will want to go to school as soon as possible. Two more days and Harri starts Kinder! He said to me today 'I'm so happy about Kinder'. We are too :)