Day 83 - Oakville - Wednesday 27th October 2004 I just can't believe we have been away so long. It seems impossible that we have been away so long (who in their right mind would ever do this?) and at the same time impossible that we have been away for such a short time (given that we have established ourselves so easily). Today we took the kids to school and stayed to experience their first sharing assembly. This is where the whole school (there are 120 of them in 8 or 9 classes) assemble and show each other what they have been doing for the first 8 weeks of the school year. This includes recorder recitals, eurythmy (don't know what this is? check out Eurythmy), singing and other treats. Julie and I both had tears in our eyes as we watched Julian (yes Julian, not Sammy) dancing and moving around the stage with exceptional grace, confidence and fluidity (is that a word?) complete with his eurythmy cape and ballet shoes. You just had to see it to believe it. Then his class sang a song in German - wow. We can't really believe this school. I was standing outside Julian's classroom the other morning and there was a 7 year old kid crying, outside one of the other classes. He was having separation problems from his Mum and really didn't want to go into his class. Another 7 year old boy came out and put his arm around him and said "You must be really sad. I get sad sometimes too. You know what I do is to think of something that makes me happy. I put that thought into my mind and it stops me being sad. I think about ice hockey. Why don't you try to do that?" I couldn't believe my ears. This school (Halton Waldorf School) simply creates kids like this. He didn't want his class to start when one of his "family" was being sad outside. There are between 8 and 12 kids per class and they stay with the same teacher from grade 1 to grade 8. Can you imagine what sort of relationship that build. Every time they enter a classroom, they shake hands with the teacher. Then they shake hands with the teacher again when they leave. If another teacher is going to take them for games (for instance) then they all get to shake that teachers hand at the beginning of the session and the end. This simple practice, which is carried out in an orderly and respectful manner, creates a great relationship between teacher and pupil and kids get used to shaking hands! Tonight we went to our Home Church (House Group). It's just like we've been here for ages. We take the kids with us and it starts at 7:00pm and finishes at 8:30 / 9:00pm. Not too too late for us or the kids. Very civilised. Half term starts today, so the boys are off school now until next Thursday. We are having a friend of Julian's over for the day tomorrow. We will be skating on Saturday and going over to a friend of Sammy's for a Halloween supper before the boys all go out trick or treating. Halloween over here is very much a kids thing and has no "evil" conotations. Our church here (as or church in UK does) is having a party for the kids with a non-Halloween theme but most of the church goers here having nothing against it. I will take some photos of houses that have been decorated for the night. It's quite incredible to see the effort that goes into this night. All the kids are really pumped up about it. The outfits they dress up in are amazing. The stores are full of them. We are really looking forward to Jenny (Downard) and Lucy (Curtis-Prior) coming over next week to see us. It will be great to catch up and to share with someone from home rather than type stuff out on a blog all the time. You know what I mean. Actually, we have had some fine conversations with friends at home on the telephone. It really is quite cheap these days. It seems that the distance between us can actually bring us close together. Strange that, isn't it. But there is a quality in our phone conversations that you don't experience at home when you just call someone up to find out what Julian should be doing for his homework. The trivial stuff is discarded by the distance and more meaningful conversations are the result. We are working on planning what to do next (have I said this before some days ago?). Well we're still working on it. After our friends have visited, my Mum is likely to come over again and this will probably take us to Christmas. The original idea was to be in Texas (with my brother) by mid November. But this has been put back to let the boys finish their school term. We have also depleted our funds by 3 months of school fees. Now that was not in the budget my dear. What happened?