2 down, 1 to go!

Student teaching placements, that is. My last placement is coming up in just one more week. I'll be teaching PE/Health at Feilding High School - also the same HS that James and his friends went to! I've spent a few days at this school, and I have a good feeling that I'll enjoy this next placement. FHS is a large co-ed semi rural school made up of lots of farming type families. Feilding is the next town over from us - the commute is about 20 mins? and I'll be carpooling to work each day. Here's a picture of the town, and the HS. The green bits are the playing fields, and the field hockey turf. Many of the students at FHS are boarders because their families live on farms far away, and the school also runs 2 mini farms - you can take 'agriculture' classes where you learn farm stuff (milking cows? building fences? who knows.)

I have a feeling that this school will be more relaxed than Palmerston North Boys High (that school is seriously like a mini military camp....all the boys get marched around, and there is a very VERY strict discipline system, also a high decile school meaning that the parents are a bit wealthier etc) but not as 'loose' as the last school I was at Freyberg. Low decile school, behaviour issues, individuality and student rights are at the top of the list...almost too much if you ask me! I'm hoping that FHS will be a happy medium. We'll see.

But who are we kidding? Am I looking forward to the 6 week placement? Well....looking forward to it being OVER. I enjoy teaching, and I've learned heaps while student teaching, but it's so incredibly exhausting, and I feel like I'm constantly being judged. By the other teachers, by the students, by the university staff. You walk into a class not knowing the students, not having their trust or respect, and you're expected to be perfect. Full of energy, inclusive of all students, perfect. Ha....yeah, right. Then just at the end of the 6 weeks when you feel like you've gained the students trust and respect (and you actually start 'teaching' instead of doing behaviour stuff the whole class period), it's time to go.

Did I also mention the late nights preparing lesson plans (b/c of course as a student teacher you're expected to make everything up from scratch...develop all your own resources), researching units I'm not familiar with (which I'm embarrased to say, is A LOT), and the fact that this is all unpaid work. I know, I know, this is what is to be expected of a teacher....but I"m just ready for my own class, where I can do things my way....oh, and get paid! Ha Ha.

Student teaching wouldn't be as bad if I didn't have my own 2 little students at home, and late nights that go along with that! So incredibly tiring.

I can not wait for the 6 weeks to be over. Then back to the university papers, and doing more research, more learning....then in Nov I'm finished. I've survived halfway through the programme, now I just need to survive the other half. This course has been really full on. I was warned that it would be, but it's so much more all consuming than I had imagined. I'm on my computer all day, every day doing all my online assignments, and weekly readings. There are no examinations - but about 2 dozen really really big assignments. Big as in 50 pages each!

So I've got one week before all the chaos begins again.

Gone, Daddy Gone

It's just my luck that everytime James goes out of town the sickness strikes. James was away 10 days and I think we had 3 seperate episodes of illness. Lots of laundry, cuddles, and trying to get liquids into the boys. Fortunatly I wasn't on teaching placement, so I was able to stay at home with the sick boys.
Word of advice if you are about to have kids...at a min, you'll need a King size bed. We recently upgraded from a Queen to a King when we moved houses, and I will never ever go back. Our new mattress is heaven, and seriously one of my favourite parts of the day is actually going to sleep. Usually I'm not asleep for very long, as my mommy trained ears will wake at the slighest sound of someone crying from down the hall, but when I do get to sleep....ahhh, it's so nice.

Anyways, if you don't want a King, go for the super king. You'll need it when your offspring jump into bed with you when they wake up at the crack of dawn and refuse to go back into their own bed. On weekends, there's nothing better than sleeping in. And by sleeping in I actually mean 'laying in' and reading books to the kids till they get bored of that. If we're lucky the 'lay in' may last till 8 am. Maybe.


When James was away I tried to take some pics of the boys while we were hanging out in the bed. It's pretty difficult to get both boys looking and smiling at the same time. I told Luca, "can you make Wyatt smile?" I thought he's laugh or giggle or make a funny face, but instead he starts pushing Wyatt's cheeks up with his hands. Ha ha!
Trying to prolong the 'lay in' by taking self photos! I took a dozen of these, and this was the only one that came out halfway decent.

Out n' about

We're lucky to live right next to some hiking trails that lead to the local university, and also to a really cool playground (that is almost always empty). It's quite a popular track for runners, and also people out walking their dogs. We have our own private enterance to the trail as our property goes right up to the edge of it - so when we need to let Luca burn off some energy, if we're home, but no one is answering the door - check the trails!


For a bit of variety, we sometimes go to other nearby trails - these photos were taken a few weekends ago when the afternoon sun came out just long enough for us to go outside. The rain and wind had kept us cooped up inside all day. For the first time Luca feel asleep watching cartoons.

James and I are both looking forward to the day that we can do longer hikes with the boys, and then do some overnight hikes and stay in the Department of Conservation huts. I've posted about this before, but NZ has this amazing system of trails and huts that you can stay at. Just think how fun it will be when the boys are old enough to go tramping with us and they can also invite a friend to come along. Adventures abound!

I'm trying to make an effort to let the kids play outside as much as possible. I haven't been good at encouraging Luca to play outside this winter because our front/back yard and driveway has been one giagantic mud pit and lately it's been getting dark and cold around 5pm. I want both the kids to love the outdoors, so I'm going to make a real effort to play outside with them more. Besides hiking, our other favourite things to do are to go on 'bear hunts' around the property and on the trails, kick the soccerball around in the street, and visit random playgrounds throughout the city. One of the advantages of working at city council - you get to know where all the cool free things are located!

Rockstar

Click on the video to see our little man in his first acoustic video! His two all time favourite songs mixed into one.

And yes, even rockstars can wear a potty seat on their head and still be cool.

And wear big boy undies on the outside of their clothes! Undies (and a party with chocolate cake) are what we are bribing him with to use the toliet. So far it hasn't worked....two kids in diapers = no fun. Hopefully soon we'll be down to just one. Someday...

Red, White, and Blue

The 4th of July is right up there as one of my favourite holidays. Yep, totally up there. BBQ's, fireworks, crazy jello american flag cakes, swimming pools, FIREWORKS. The longer I live in NZ, the less important the American holidays have become. Isn't that sad? Yeah, it is. But I still try to make a big deal out of them, and celebrate them with my family.

Okay, normally I think it's disgustingly cutsey when parents dress up their children in the same clothes (especially twins.....auuugggh). But C'mon....how cute are they?!

This year, I've got a new partner in crime to celebrate with. Lyndsey and Ryan and her two little girls have just moved here from California. Ryan's the new coach of the Jets (our local pro basketball team) and I met them through a mutual friend. It is a small town afterall. A few weeks ago I helped them unpack all the boxes that had arrived from the States. Boxes and boxes of American stuff. We went over to Lyndsey and Ryan's for a dinner of chili (she made it) and Apple pie (I made it) and overly priced imported Budweiser. There were lots of non Americans there too.

In Sept they sell fireworks for 4 days. 4 days only (to celebrate Guy Forks Holiday), so we stock up for occasions like this. The good thing about 4th of July in the Southern Hemisphere is that you don't have to keep the kids up till super late at night, since it gets dark around 5pm here. Party, fireworks, and then home in bed by 8pm :-)

This is Luca right after we started lighting the firworks. He was a bit scared. You can see it in his eyes. He said,k "I don't like it. I don't like it." So I picked him up and held him as we watched the from a bit further away. By the time we busted out the sparklers he saw the other older kids with them, and then he had to have one too.


When I'm not student teaching, and it's not raining, this is how I take the boys to daycare - it's a 10 min walk from our house

Hope everyone in the States had a great 4th of July!