Jumpers and Rubbish

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Today was the first full day of Australian pre school! And my first rection: It's true when they describe Australian pre schools as "less structure" compared to American pre schools. It seemed a little over whelming at first, but I keep telling myself it was the first day and I am just getting used to it. It was a day to "feel everything out" and get a grip on how the day will go.

Some differences I notice between American preschools and Australia pre schools...

-snack time is "Tea time" (morning and afternoon tea!)

-a sweatshirt is a "jumper"

-4 year olds saying "Rubbish" in reference to garbage...It's hard to hold back a laugh or two.

-By "less structure" I mean the students don't has as much whole group time (story telling, calendar time) and it's more of constant play.

It was raining when we woke up this morning and it rained nearly the whole day. I was happy about this because I was able to make first use of my rain boots that I travled over here with. I was warned it might rain a lot in Australia, and what better way to start off what I was told by starting it off my first day of work?

As far as getting onto a normal Aussie sleep pattern goes. I woke up this morning at 6 am and didn't hesitate to get out of bed. (This doesn't mean I passed up my daily coffee...that still happened.) Speaking of, I have began to cut my coffee drinking down to ONE cup a day because my homestay family has a single serve coffee maker. It's a nice way to cut back on coffee. I must say, I do miss my Caribou Coffee. I DID however give my homestay family caribou coffee beans (not to mention the airplane took the best of them and sucked the air out), but I just might be getting an Aussie family hooked on Caribou. Uh oh!

One thing I forgot to mention in a past blog....VEGIMITE. Vegimite, my friends, is used as a spread here in Austrailia. It's used as a spread on crackers, toast, fruit, and I was told today it tastes wonderful spread on an Avacado. My first recation? It wasn't pretty. Vegimite is adverstied as being healthy with many vitimans, but deep down under...it's really salty. I just might bring a taste down under back home so you all can experience this Aussie spread. The preschoolers ate it up like candy today...

Another interesting Austrlian fact: They don't sell grahm crackers here. My homestay family doesn't know/has never heard of a graham cracker. YOU try describing a grahm cracker....it's not as easy as you'd think. Kelly described it as "it's flat....and long." Going without knowing what a grahm cracker means going without knowing what a s'more means! Oh my.



(Sorry, lacking photos today.)

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Comments

[Helen Schoenfeld]

Love your blogs
Sarah, you have no idea how much grandpa and I look forward to your blogs. It is great to wake up and know that a blog from Sarah will probably be on our computer. VEGIMITE, the name sounds like a bug.You may or may not delvelop a taste for it though. We are really getting an 'education' reading your blog. thank you. Everything you write is so intersting. Today is Tuesday. I wonder if the 'rubbish' will be taken. That word, coming out of a four year old must really be adorable, especially if they are mad at something. Love you, G and G