starting school

first day at big school!

one of the greatest joys we have is to be able to see our young children grow up and enter their formal education, most of our children stay with us only a short while as we seek to stabilise them on their medication and work with their families for a full reintegration however for some they stay with us a little longer so this schooling process usually takes place when a child has been with us as a toddler and then makes their first steps into pre-school.

however last week we were able to secure a place for our new 8 year old into his first grade of primary education, this child had never attended school before so there was a lot for emma to sort out, especially as all the schools in grabouw were already full, however with her 'never give up attitude' she managed to enter him into his grade one class of which he was so pleased.

he has made some new friends and seems to be very happy, the only down side is that  the school run has got a little more complicated with us having to drop children off at three different sites but it's good to our older children are now attending school in the mornings and with some forethought emma has registered another child already to ensure he can start his education at the right time!

another first day at school..

its off to school we go!

its amazing to see the children grow as they spend time with us, there are many mile stones that we celebrate with them and their first day at school or pre-school is one of those most precious moments.

today our little three year old who has been with us for about 18 months made his first steps into the 'education system' which was a real joy, thanks must go out to our social worker, emma, who has been busy trying to find a place at a local creche since the school term started about a month ago.

our little one with pinkie (his new teacher)

the creche/pre-school that he attends is further away from the village of hope than where the other children go, so the school run will be extended by a few minutes but he was reunited with an ex house mom who is now working at the school and will be his teacher....good news all round and it seems like his day went well as maz picked him up around lunchtime all he could talk about was the fun that he had had.

starting school

following on from yesterday's blog we are delighted to inform you that our dear little girl who has issues around her mobiltiy started at our local preschool this morning, this is amazing news and it's important that she is treated like any other child and to hear her chatting away about seeing some of the other children who have stayed with us at the village of hope at the preschool was a joy.

please continue to pray for her development, which has increased in so many ways, and for her future as we seek to work with her mother in any reunification that could take place.

first day at pre-school

one of the most amazing things we can do to support the little ones who we have been given care over is to ensure that we don't miss those most important dates in their lives, and obviously one's first day at school, be that real big school or pre-school, is key date in anyone's life. so today we had the pleasure of taking our little three year old boy to his first day at pre-school, well i say we as it was actually emma who got up early to ensure that this boy fitted in well and was made a bit of a fuss over.

as you can imagine the lives of the children to stay with us are so complex so what is already a very trying and emotional time was made all the harder as there were many hurdles to overcome this morning, firstly his estranged mother who lives near the school, and who we have had very little interaction with since he has been with us, was calling to him as he arrived, an over friendly dog was waiting to greet him at the school gate, the little boy is very scared of dogs so this wasn't such a warm welcome and he started to cry when emma finally had to say goodbye!

that said our five year old girl who attends the same pre-school made him feel really welcome and by the end of the morning he was talking excitedly as emma picked them up from his first morning at school.

(sorry no pictures but emma said that there was a little too much going on to get her camera out to capture the moment, i don't know what she means!)

hi ho hi ho its off to school we go....

walking out with his little school bag

we can hardly believe that the little bundle of joy that arrived at the village of hope aged just five days has taken his first steps along his journey in education, yes today he starts his first day at preschool aged three years. he joins our other little girls, one who has moved up into reception class which is a very big step for her too!

for this little boy it will be a huge step, he has had little contact with his family and most of his experience has been in our children's unit at the village of hope, please pray that he has peace and makes lots of new friends, and that he also knows we will be back to pick him up at 12 o'clock.

joining his other new friends who started school today
with mommy maz!

first day at school (for our 4 year old)

its a long way on your own!

this time last year we were able to providing a home to two brothers who had been staying at our thembacare unit in cape town, there was hope that these two could have been reunited quickly with their sister, who is staying at another care home, however as with many of our children's cases these things don't happen as quickly as we would like. their mother is now very very sick and it looks like we might be responsible for these two precious boys for a lot longer than we first thought.

as we didn't expect to have them for so long we held back from placing the oldest one at the local preschool as we didn't want to take up a space that could be used by another child who would be in greater need, however with the change of events maz felt that it would be best (not only for the 4 year old boy who is getting extremely bored by having to stay at home at the village of hope all morning with all the babies when the other older children are at school, but also for our house moms as they were finding hard to keep him from crawling up the walls!) that he was found a place at the school.

well yesterday he had his first day, tyler our longer term volunteer took him to school, and although he looked so grown up with his new school bag and flask full of juice once he knew that he was going to be staying the little guy was totally overwhelmed and burst into tears....shame.

however on his return at lunch time he was full of beans and was excited to tell people about his first morning at school.