The Baby Elves Help Santa

This story was composed by Annike, Anya, Bhavya & Niko just before Christmas.  (They were the four prep kids in Mrs G's composite prep/year 1 class in 2010.)

Once upon a time it was Christmas Eve in Australia.  All the kids were asleep and Santa was at the North Pole packing the presents into the sleigh.  They were for all the kids in the world.

When it was time to go, Santa waved to Mrs Claus and was about to fly away with his reindeer, when suddenly, all of the elves got sick.  Oh no!  Who was going to help Santa now?

Suddenly Mrs Claus had an idea.  Her idea was this: the baby elves would have to help Santa.  So Annika, Anya, Bhavya and Niko got into Santa's sleigh.  Anya was very scared.  Niko was bouncy as usual.  Annika was brave.  And Bhavya was excited.

"Let's go!" said Santa and off they went.

First they went to Mrs G's house and Santa ate all the cookies and drank the milk, and the reindeer ate the carrots.  And Mrs G had left chocolates for the baby elves.  They ate them all up.  They were delicious and nutritious.

Then they delivered all the presents around the world and went back to the North Pole.  They went to bed.  They were very tired.  But when it was morning they helped around the house.

They were the best baby elves in the whole world.  And - by the way - the big elves got better.

The Next Learning Curve

Now that Anya is attending school, I have been introduced to a whole new level of bewilderment. After living here for over ten years, I generally have the hang of how things are done in Australia, as opposed to the US, but now I am hitting another learning curve.

Kids here don’t catch school buses – their parents usually drive them in, although they are encouraged to take public transport. I think this will be OK when Anya gets older, but at this tender age, we have been dropping her off personally. I rather miss the school bus idea, actually, since you could then be sure that your kid was safe(ish) and set for the day once they got on the bus.

There is something called “tuck shop” available two days of the week, and it’s there for kids who want to buy their morning tea (mid-morning snack) or lunch, also sometimes called “little lunch” and “big lunch.” Today Anya ordered an apple slinky for morning tea and fish fingers and a corn cob for lunch. I had to learn to mark her name, order, and total amount on the outside of each bag which contains the required money; they return them to the classroom with food inside.

Mysteriously (to me), in addition to a requirement that we purchase a particular set of supplies for the year, the same info sheet also specified other things we had to supply, including one box of tissues and two reams of copier paper. I’m assuming these are NOT to be marked with Anya’s name! I didn’t actually notice this extra requirement until today when I was glancing over the info sheet again (we have already purchased the supply packet). Surely there would be some more efficient way of garnering these supplies rather than getting parents to bring them in individually?

Last, there was information about “Voluntary Contribution,” but the exact amount and deadline was specified. I don’t mind contributing, but this just seems like Orwellian double-speak to me...

3-Feb update to this post: Anya has been selected with a few other kids from her class to be moved into a "Prep-One" class combining Prep and Year One kids. The curriculum will be a hybrid between the two levels and generally will be a chance for these kids to go at a faster pace. Wow!

Drawing from Life

Anya loves to draw – this week even her new teacher remarked on it, after knowing Anya for just three days. Lately she has begun drawing "real" pictures – sometimes from memory, sometimes by looking at what she’s drawing. I find this so exciting – that she doesn’t just draw a figure and call it a girl, or a particular shape and call it a box -- but rather, really observes what the features are, and includes them in her drawing.

Last week she amazed us with drawings of Wall-E and Eva, complete with the right body shapes and hands correctly including just two fingers per hand. This week, she drew Totoro, with the right body shape and v-shaped markings on his chest, and the bear claws on his paws – and she wrote his name next to him, as well. She told me that she wrote his name herself without asking anyone how to spell it. This just blows me away!

Anya's First Day of School