Eeeek! It's only a matter of a very small number of weeks now until we leave for our 6-month stint in Canada. I'm a bit weird but I'm not into the whole "countdown" thing - I prefer to pretend I'm not sure when we're leaving and then be all like "oh, look, today's the day we're leaving for Canada!". I know it's strange but I function better that way. One thing I haven't been able to pretend about is my son's very last week of Year 1. He will never again be in Year 1 in Australia. He will be saying goodbye to his teacher and his friends today and although he is very, very excited about going to live in Canada, he doesn't particularly want to leave his friends or his teacher, or go to a new school. He has only ever known the one school and has been going there since 3 year old Kindy - it's a big, big change for him. He says things like, "But they won't know my name over there", "They won't know what to call me", "They won't play football, will they?". So I thought to help him feel a bit more connected and to have a little bit of home with him in Canada, I would make up some Pen-pal sets for each of his classmates as Goodbye Gifts. Even if only one of his friends writes, it will make a difference and be exciting and special for him.
They were simple to make up. In each pack I put 3 blank cards (2 plain white, 1 patterned) and envelopes, 2 sticker sheets, an eraser and a pencil. I packaged it all in a clear envelope with some string and attached a "See you later Alligator" tag with our Canadian address on the back (I didn' t think it was a good idea to publicise our address on the www so I have blocked it out in the pic - just in case you think I had a bit of a slip with my graphic design skills!). I was pretty happy with the way the tag turned out so I did a blank version, which you can download here if you want to make up your own pen-pal sets ... and at the same time encourage old-fashioned communication between your kids!
So, that's me - done - for now, from Australia. The next time I post I will be sitting in a lake-side cottage in an itty-bitty town in Ontario spending time with my Canadian family and trying very hard not to overindulge on Tim Horton donuts and bagels. But then again I am on holiday ...