Madison has done a great job jumping into a new school, making friends, and learning new things.
There have been many obstacles for her to overcome since attending an English school.
The students here are advanced readers and all write in cursive. (Children in England start school at age 3 and are learning to read and write in cursive at this time). They are taught abstract math instead of the more traditional methods we use in the states.
Yet, regardless of these obstacles, Madison has persevered and we are so very proud of her and the accomplishments she has made in such a short amount of time.
In Reading, Madison began at a level one blue (no idea how this relates to back home) and when she was retested just two weeks later she had moved up two levels to Orange. Oh how proud she was to have skipped a level.
(They like the students to be on the Orange level when they move up the following term).
Her teacher Miss Atkins was very impressed with her progress in such a short amount of time.
Madison has enjoyed the end of year activities with her classmates.
Two weeks ago she went to the London Science Museum and then last week she went on a boat trip along the canal.
Madison was fascinated that the boat was pulled by a horse down the canal and did not use a motor.
Friday was Sports day and the children enjoyed participating in their class races. Each class is assigned a different kind of relay race. All of the children in the class participate. They are split into teams of 5-6 students. Lime Class was assigned the race Fun in the Sun. One student from each team waited at the other side of the field. Then one by one their team mates had to race down the field, pick up an item of clothing, help their team mate put the clothing on before racing back to the next person in line. Each team had to collect a shirt, a hat, a book bag, a water bottle, and sunglasses. Madison’s team came in third (all of the children received sticker awards for participating).
The end of term BBQ was this past Friday. We had a lot of fun together as a family. Madison and her friend Bethan enjoyed having their faces painted (a butterfly and ladybug), playing different games, and watching the Punch and Judy puppet show. Madison enjoyed visiting the pocket money stall and buying things with her own money. (It was quite interesting to watch how she decided what to spend her money on and the fact that she refused to spend her last 20p because then she would not have any money left).
Dinner was hamburgers and hotdogs and they even had a stand that sold beer (Rob was excited).
It was a great night for the family to be together and support the school.
Rainbows has ended for the term (it will resume again in September). The girls enjoyed a Mad Hatter Tea Party in celebration of 20 years of Rainbows. The girls made rabbit ears, played crochet and made jam tarts to bring home.
Madison’s classmate Ellie lives down the road from us and the two girls enjoy their time together in Rainbows.
For the summer holiday, Madison will be taking swim lessons and participating in the summer reading program at the library. She is encouraged to read 6 books on her own over the course of the summer holiday (its one book each week). After she reads two books, she goes into the library to collect her stickers and prizes. She is very excited.
