The kids started school last Thursday with an orientation day for the newcomers, followed the next day by a short day in their house groups receiving their timetable and general beginning of the year instructions. Monday they began their classes. My heart really goes out to them. They are each handling this huge transition in their very own unique ways and Kevin and I just keep praying and encouraging where we can.
Paige came home on Friday very sad because her homeroom didn't seem very friendly. Her approach was to see who was friendly to her and then befriend them. Apparently Kiwi culture (and teen culture, in my opinion) sits back and watches you, the newcomer. Seldom do they embrace you and invite you in. You need to make the effort as the newcomer. On the weekend Paige enrolled for soccer and was invited to attend a tryout for the women's league which was 1 hour after we signed her up. She went in her runners as her cleats are somewhere on a boat out in the ocean, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. She didn't, however, make the ladies team. Apparently they had been practicing and trying out for a few weeks already. The coach was quite impressed with her, though, and it looks like she will be on the U17 Premier team which is a highly competitive team within her own age group. She will get more playing time and their games are on Saturdays. The ladies league games were on Sundays at 11am....so that would not have been ideal. Anyway, Monday came along and Paige went to her classes and found some friends! She came home from school very excited and chatty. She pretty much talked all the way through supper! We had to make sure her sisters had a chance to share about their day too!
Danae's approach to this school transition is to completely be her bubbly self and say hi to everyone. Those who say hi back and enter into conversation would be the people that she would consider friend material. She came home on Friday having made a friend in her homeroom. This girl has since changed homerooms and Danae hasn't seen her again, but at least she made one friend that first day. Monday she came home from school rather grumpy. She wasn't sure who to hang out with and everyone kept touching her hair! I guess the color, texture and curls intrigued them! haha...it was pretty funny.... Kevin had the same experience when he was in the Phillippines. People wanted to touch his hair as it was so light and they weren't used to seeing hair like that. Anyway, Tuesday was a much better day for Danae and she has made a couple of good friends in her photography class. Today they are staying after school for a photo shoot and Paige is going to be their model.
MacKenzie decided on her first couple of days that she was okay to just be alone and know that sooner or later she'd find a friend. However, after two days at school this week, she is feeling pretty overwhelmed and unsure of things. There are many students from other nations and MacKenzie is finding some of their accents very difficult to understand, thus chatting together becomes a bit of a chore. She is missing her friends from Westbank. This morning she came up with a game plan to set out to hang out with a group of girls that she thinks she could be friends with.
So we pray with them, encourage them, listen to them, and be the strong family base that they need in this tumultuous time. Even though this is such a hard thing for them to go through, I know that it is good for them. They have been incredibly blessed/spoiled to have not had to change schools numerous times throughout their schooling. Of course, the downside to that, is that when change does happen, it is that much harder because they don't have the experience of it. This (the girls adapting to a new school, culture, friends, etc) was the biggest concern I had with our move, as anyone who happened to ask me about it before we left and received a teary answer discovered. As a mom, you just want the best for your kids and you want life to be easy for them. That's not life though. Life is hard and one of our jobs as parents is to teach our children how to handle it when life is hard. And most importantly, how to turn to Jesus when life brings you down.
Paige came home on Friday very sad because her homeroom didn't seem very friendly. Her approach was to see who was friendly to her and then befriend them. Apparently Kiwi culture (and teen culture, in my opinion) sits back and watches you, the newcomer. Seldom do they embrace you and invite you in. You need to make the effort as the newcomer. On the weekend Paige enrolled for soccer and was invited to attend a tryout for the women's league which was 1 hour after we signed her up. She went in her runners as her cleats are somewhere on a boat out in the ocean, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. She didn't, however, make the ladies team. Apparently they had been practicing and trying out for a few weeks already. The coach was quite impressed with her, though, and it looks like she will be on the U17 Premier team which is a highly competitive team within her own age group. She will get more playing time and their games are on Saturdays. The ladies league games were on Sundays at 11am....so that would not have been ideal. Anyway, Monday came along and Paige went to her classes and found some friends! She came home from school very excited and chatty. She pretty much talked all the way through supper! We had to make sure her sisters had a chance to share about their day too!
Danae's approach to this school transition is to completely be her bubbly self and say hi to everyone. Those who say hi back and enter into conversation would be the people that she would consider friend material. She came home on Friday having made a friend in her homeroom. This girl has since changed homerooms and Danae hasn't seen her again, but at least she made one friend that first day. Monday she came home from school rather grumpy. She wasn't sure who to hang out with and everyone kept touching her hair! I guess the color, texture and curls intrigued them! haha...it was pretty funny.... Kevin had the same experience when he was in the Phillippines. People wanted to touch his hair as it was so light and they weren't used to seeing hair like that. Anyway, Tuesday was a much better day for Danae and she has made a couple of good friends in her photography class. Today they are staying after school for a photo shoot and Paige is going to be their model.
MacKenzie decided on her first couple of days that she was okay to just be alone and know that sooner or later she'd find a friend. However, after two days at school this week, she is feeling pretty overwhelmed and unsure of things. There are many students from other nations and MacKenzie is finding some of their accents very difficult to understand, thus chatting together becomes a bit of a chore. She is missing her friends from Westbank. This morning she came up with a game plan to set out to hang out with a group of girls that she thinks she could be friends with.
So we pray with them, encourage them, listen to them, and be the strong family base that they need in this tumultuous time. Even though this is such a hard thing for them to go through, I know that it is good for them. They have been incredibly blessed/spoiled to have not had to change schools numerous times throughout their schooling. Of course, the downside to that, is that when change does happen, it is that much harder because they don't have the experience of it. This (the girls adapting to a new school, culture, friends, etc) was the biggest concern I had with our move, as anyone who happened to ask me about it before we left and received a teary answer discovered. As a mom, you just want the best for your kids and you want life to be easy for them. That's not life though. Life is hard and one of our jobs as parents is to teach our children how to handle it when life is hard. And most importantly, how to turn to Jesus when life brings you down.
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