Well after a month of getting back into school life I had the luxury of a three week holiday.  I was pleased to be on leave as my uncle was very ill and I was able along with my aunt,cousin and siblings to spend the last days of his life with him.  He was a well-known and much loved man in our valley and will be sadly missed by us all.

The last week of the holidays treated us to lovely sunny weather and put me back into cheerful mood to start the term.   The first two weeks have been busy.  Grade 1 will be presenting an item at assembly soon and practices for that have begun.  My first challenge has been teaching handwriting in feint lines!   But my little girls have surprised and pleased me with their efforts and we are on the way to getting our letters in the head, tummy and tail spaces!

The girls settled well into their new co-operative groups and the mix seems to be working quite well.  I have on little girl on behaviour modification program and it is such a delight to see the smile on her face when she gets a star in her diary.

On Thursday we had a science expo and visitors peeped into the classrooms to see what we were doing – turning a flat piece of paper into a three dimensional shape – i.e. a box – not easy for tiny, uncoordinated hands – but my girls did me proud.  Then we used tooth picks and jelly-tots to make a 3-d constructions.  What delightful animals, people and houses emerged – and such control in not eating the end result!  Well – a few tots went into mouths – but hey – who could blame them.

On the home front – the grandsons are also well back into school routine.   The high school attached to our school is putting on a play and needed some extra players – so Josh has a tiny part and is just loving it and  I have volunteered to be the prompt!

I gave Jay very little help with his exams and although his results weren’t brilliant – he needs to work on Afrikaans and study subjects, he passed the term.   I would love to send him to our little private school where he would get individual attention and TLC but we can’t see our way clear to do it right now and he is happy where he is so ……   He will just have to work hard and we will have to give him lots of support.  He is going to have a psychometric test so that we can have a ‘label’ for him in order to get a facilitator for exams.

But – wow – here is some cool news – Grandpal and Jay fished in the Unders and Overs competition in Gordon’s Bay today.   And Jay won the unders and his prize is R1000!   The unders – are the under 50s and the overs are over 50.  He came second overall being beaten by Mike who also fishes with Grandpa.   Grandpa won a trophy too.

Tonight he and the other boy, Scott (15) who fished in the competition are sleeping on the boat at Simonstown Marina.  I was somewhat horrified at this news but Grandpa said, “They insisted and they are perfectly safe – there are lots of yachties and its very secure.”

I had a phone call and he was full of excitement.  “We’re catching mackrel and its cool, Gran.  Love you lots Gran – see you tomorrow!”

Ah well – my boy is growing up!

Phots of the fishing on face book soon!