… and quite frankly it wasn’t a moment too soon. The US system of limited breaks during the school year and a huge long summer will take some getting used to. I was exhausted by the end of it so I can only imagine how Grace was feeling. This is our first week off and we have all (sorry Daddy!) enjoyed not having to get up and moving quickly in the morning.

Both children have had a fabulous year and we were very proud parents when their school reports came home.

Gracie is now officially a First Grader, no longer the babies in the school and a graduation to the ‘big playground’. Grade 1 will be an interesting transition because as with everything else here they put alot of responsibility on the kids early on and she will have to deal with managing her own schedule and moving herself around classrooms and teachers for her core knowledge subjects. As with the beginning of Kindergaten I’m sure I will worry myself sick for a month and then she will nail it. Her progress this year has been amazing. She can now read by herself ( although needs confidence to do it) and is fascinated by reading everything she sees – road signs, cereal boxes, billboards you name it. She also loves to write and by spelling phonetically can write long pages of text to describe an event or write a letter. Number sense also seems to come easily for her and adding and subtracting has also become part of our daily life. Grace has always been a pretty skilled negotiator but now she has more tools in her armoury! Grace has really excelled this year in art class. We have always known that she loves to draw and colour, her art teacher thinks she may have real talent and has selected her work to display in two local events. It was funny to watch how excited Grace got over her first art show, that was just the local Moorpark one which was fairly low key. I wonder what she will make of the next one which is at the County Show. Grace has also made huge leaps in her confidence this past year and made lots of friends in the classroom, including one little boy who used to ask her daily “are you going to fall in love with me today?”. Thankfully, Daddy didn’t volunteer in the classroom!

Despite my worries about my baby leaving me at 3 for daily school Patrick has adored preschool. We have never had a day when he hasn’t wanted to go and it is a joy to watch his eyes light up when he sees his teacher Miss Marilynn.  He has made amazing progress under her care and his speech has come on leaps and bounds. When Patrick comes to me and tells me very clearly what his sister has done to upset him, it is difficult to remember that only 6 months ago he could barely communicate. Marilynns attitude is that her kids can achieve anything and so allows them to learn at their own pace. What that means in reality is that these kids are exposed to things that they wouldn’t normally be in preschool as she moves them on when they are ready. I am shocked that my 3 1/2 year old can count up to 30, knows the alphabet and all his letter sounds, is trying to write his name (he can almost spell it), can trace a picture almost perfectly and thats before you get onto all the gross motor stuff that he can do. It has been such a privilege to work with Marilynn, Kerry and Vera and I cried when the school year finished. Their commitment and belief in Patrick’s ability has meant that he will go up a class in the Fall, a year ahead of when he should transition. Having been to observe the new class it looks more like typical Kindergaten and again I am concerned about how he will cope. Gina is also a very gifted teacher and seeing the other kids in her class and listenning to her stories of how far they had come I’m sure he will be in good hands. Through his school we have discovered that Patrick has a love of science and the natural world. We spend many hours in the garden looking for bugs and our summer project is a butterly garden. The caterpillars are currently eating and growing and we are all eagerly awaiting them turning into cocoons. He also has quite a developed sense of humour and will tease his teachers to try and catch them out. He is also becoming more interested in his friends and will look for Benjamin and Joaquin when he goes to class.

Californian summers are the best as at least we are assured of consistent good weather. This week we have just chilled out at home and caught up with ourselves again. Grace has also been doing intensive swimming lessons everyday. Next week we will start with Phase one of our summer, Patrick has two hours of summer school a day and Grace will have her first experience of summer camp for two days. We are planning playdates, beach days, pool days and some exploring.

All in all we are very much looking forward to our summer holidays!