Saturday 29 August 2015

Houses, Cars, Parks and Schools - oh my

WHEW - What a week!  This week was filled with house hunting, car shopping and school decisions.  As many of you know, I was pretty set on homeschooling.  I had made contact with a private christian school prior to our move.  Once we arrived we thought we would give it a try.  The kids were in desperate need of making friends.  The social structure here is very much around the schools.  The private school was extremely reasonable and the older couple who run it are quite intelligent.  After the boys attended their first day, I found out about another christian school in the area.  I visited it and I was blown away!  This is what they call an integrated school.  The government provides everything except for the building.  Each family pays a small yearly fee to cover the building costs.  For the 2 boys, the cost is $2000 per year!!  So cheap!!  The school is allowed to teach from a christian perspective and can reject any curriculum that goes against their beliefs.  The state has no say in what they teach.  It is a very interesting setup.  Jeremy's co-worker had sent his kids to that school and highly recommended it.  After speaking with the principal we were told they were over their enrollment size by 4 students. She said she would speak with the board and see what they could do.  I was expecting to be told they could not take the boys till December when their older students graduate (school year starts mid Feb and ends in mid Dec.).  The principal called me today (Saturday) and said she reviewed the classes and they had room for the boys and would love for them to start Monday.  I spoke with the boys and they wanted to start on Monday.  I was shocked, I thought they would at least want to go back to the old school and say goodbye.  This is very out of character for them but made my decision for them to start at the new school on Monday much easier.

This city is filled with awesome parks for the kids.  There are all kinds of cool playground equipment.  One park has a huge zip line that they love.  Another park has a octopus "swing" that is made out of tires.  They use recycled tires in all their playgrounds.  They have a composite they make out of tires that is used as cushioning under all their playground material.  It is extremely soft and cushy.  We are all enjoying time at the parks.






One interesting thing Jeremy noticed at work is that they have tea time at 10 and 2:45.  They do this also in the schools.  Jeremy started his job this week and he likes it.  He says the people there are extremely intelligent and he knows he will be challenged in a new good way.

Car shopping is interesting.  They import the cars from Japan so some of them actually only have Japanese displays and voices.  It is quite funny.  We think we found a van we want.  Car size is difficult here as the minivans are exactly that mini.  We will barely fit in a minivan.  We will figure it out but it has been interesting.

We are definitely ready to get settled in our own place.  Hoping we find the perfect place soon.

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