Aha! It's warmer here in the middle of the day (79F) than it is in East Lansing in the middle of the night (72). So there.

Molly went on a school excursion on Monday - all the 1st graders got to be part of a video by Hi- 5, and Australian musical group who are part of a show with the same name - "Discovery Kids show for ages 2 to 8 inviting children to exploring the world through movement, music and laughter". Think Wiggles, without the international fame! Here's one of many You Tube links, if you're curious.

Below is the S1M class ready to go with Mrs. Monkhouse counting heads. As a treat, they got to wear their summery clothes to school - no uniform (although you can see Molly has her jumper on over her dress in the back row)!!


Just another funny school observation - I'm not sure if substitute (guest?) teachers exist here. When a teacher is out for part of the day, the kids are just divided among the other teachers in the grade levels. Mike and I were trying to figure out if that creates different incentives than we have in the States, for not burdening your colleagues too much!

Oh, and remember those cupcakes we so effortlessly produced? No one took them down to the cake stall (Mrs. Monkhouse was out that afternoon, so the kids were divided and we were away on our weekend), so the kids ate them on Monday - along with someone's jelly cups that were stored with ours. 4 day old cupcakes and jello and a field trip! Aussie school rules.

Tomorrow we try the canteen, which is the snack/lunch bar at their school. The kids write what they want on the outside of an envelope with $ included and it somehow appears at lunch, change included :-). The menu includes: sandwiches (including vegemite), jaffles?, hash browns (recess only), baked potatoes, soup of the day, smoothies, milkshakes, brekkie (also available at recess), flavoured milk, licorice (red or black) and lasagne on Fridays!