The days before routines return

Tomorrow school starts for the year. Two of our three children will start at a new school, in a new country, in a completely different hemisphere. Our Miss 10 is coming from a private girls school in Wellington, New Zealand. Our Miss 7 is coming from a couple of years of free-spirited ‘natural learning’ (home schooling, but without the feel of school). The transition to the well respected local school, they will be going to whilst we’re living in the USA, will be interesting.

The school itself is fantastic, with a teacher to child ration of 1:17, specialist music, art, science and computing teachers. A great library, awesome technology available, wonderful open grounds and a strong community supporting the school. As parents, we couldn’t ask for more – but do expect a few bumps in the road as the girls adjust from over six weeks of travelling, being at home, hanging out with their beloved three year old sister and enjoying late nights with us and leisurely lie ins way past 9am every day.

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The past week has been so relaxed, going with the flow, eating and drinking when individuals feel like it, that it’s really going to be quite hard to get used to the routines initially…. but, we will hopefully get there without too long a transition (who am I kidding – it’s going to be an emotional, psychological nightmare!).

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I’m just so relieved we have beautiful beaches to escape to and restore our sanity in the evenings. I shall be driving off into the sunset for a stress busting run on the beach several times in the next few weeks (or giving my arm a workout opening bottles of wine with a corkscrew… so out of practice since New Zealand turned to screw tops eons ago!), or simply hanging with my man and enjoying the laughter of our cute Miss 3 in the balmy evenings. No need to check the weather forecast here in Santa Barbara – it’s all sunshine, blue sky, heat and repeat (and if it does ever rain I shan’t be running for cover – far from it!).

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