In the last week of school each of the kids had an assembly centered on a country they had been learning about in the last term. Cameron - Nigeria, Eli - Turkey, Miriam & Simon - Sri Lanka.
(Some of these pictures are from my phone and some are from my camera, so it's mixed quality.)
The first few months I think each day Cameron went to school with a knot in his stomach. But he really blossomed. He made friends, he learned about the sports here that really mattered. (Soccer/football and cricket.) He picked up really quickly on the differences between educational processes here and with the help of good teachers he really excelled. He began to appreciate the diversity, and I think, he even felt some gratitude for it. I'm really proud of him.
I think it was hard for Mim to find one or two really good friends she could consistently count on to play with, but she has a fun personality and she got along with most of the kids in her class. A lot of the girls in Eli and Cameron's class loved to dote on the little fair-skinned blonde American girl as well. When we would go to the park after school there were always older girls who wanted to push her on the swing or play with her.
Mim learned to read pretty quickly into the school year, which is one of my favorite milestones in my childrens' lives. I LOVE watching my kids learn to read and discover their new skill that engages them in their world. She still loves to read the adverts on the bus and all the signs wherever we go. She is a really great reader, which Richard and I just laugh about because if we were in the states she would just be starting kindergarten this fall. (I'm pretty sure I'm not attentive enough as a mother to teach my kids to read if they aren't having it reinforced at school.)