The practise seachange I had forgotten about

This photo was taken in 2006. It is the remains of a country school that my children went to for a little while. The school was annexed by the city or large town that is called a city, school my older children went to. The Principal offered that town children could go there if they wished. In the end though, probably because I was the only family that wanted to do that I had to drive them there myself, but that wasn't really a problem. We weren't so organised, or more busy then and as long as we left before 8:45 we got there on time.

It was lovely for me. It was the first country experiences I had enjoyed for years, or it seemed like that. One highlight was seeing turtles on the drive out there. Sometimes I noticed the wind seemed stronger out on the plains. Three weeks ago I was driving along the same road, and amazingly I still noticed the wind stronger there. (It helps me out now, because I know the road, so when I take the long drive to my hometown I have some familiarity which makes the time go quicker.)

I think the kids were there altogether two years. We owned our house and had our gas on LPG so I didn't notice any increase in expenditure. But we bought a new house, so we decided to move the kids back into town to school. However, it made such a difference to my eldest. He is going well in his career so it certainly didn't do him any harm.

When I first checked out the school, it had a pet class calf. As is often the case, they had better things in some ways, like after school care, that I used a few times. It was a fun experience and they were very well looked after.

My 15 year old daughter started her school life there. They also had great books for learning writing, for some reason the country schools had difference resources and belonged to a cluster. This meant they had a visiting art van. To start with they also had the municipal mobile library. Both these things we used later when we moved to the farmhouse when my daughter was in Grade 4, remembering she started school in Prep, then Grade 1 etc.

So any experiences can add up and be used later on when you are managing change. The changes we deal with during that season in our lives was corporate restructure, then finding another job, then contract work and back to a more permanent way of living. Things were up in the air for three years. There were some exciting times as well mixed in with the scarey bits!

This practise year was during the start of the changes I suppose. The corporation had already sold out to some local people and their financial backing from the US I think. Hubby was flying interstate etc.

I think the kids did things like fire clay pottery in a fire kiln onsite. They made stained glass thingos that stick on windows. They were involved in cluster sports. That to me was a help because it was the same as the sports I went to as a child, so it helped me remember them and I suppose move on. I left the farm in such a rush I suppose it helped bridge the two lives.

The cover of the writing book I have since lost which is a shame as I love the cursive script, Victorian that the kids get at school to practise. My daughter brought home a sheet recently. The beauty of this book was that is was yours, and had lovely pictures of Australian money and animals. I have had some luck when my youngest was three buying something like that from a homeschool site.

The Christmas concert was a lovely country Christmas concert. The kind I had as a child. Santa came on the fire engine, and we sang Jingle Bells, and I think it was after the school concert, in the hall. We have them here, but not with Santa, and it is a daytime performance here. I always seem to shed tears. Not sure if I did that year or not.