Sorry Leah. I Promise not to Include a Countdown, but this is a 'moving away' themed post.

In the last 24 hours I've told two sets of friends' kids that I am going to be in Canada next year. They had such classic responses, I thought I would share them...

Last night I was chatting to 3 year old T & told her I am going on a big plane soon to go to Canada so I won't be back until after you turn 4.
Her response is "No, that won't work."
"Why?"
"Because we'll miss you," prompted her mum in the background.
"Yeh! Because you'll miss us!" she mimicked. Cute cute!

We then went on to talk about moose and snow. T decided 'when she comes with me' we will build a giant snowman and a cake. And we'll skate (but she was a bit concerned about where she would get her skating things...would she did to bring them? And what if they didn't stay on her feet). And then a moose (hmm I described this as 'like a horse, but with big antlers') will chase us and bite her and poke the car glass with its big things. Ahh I love conversations with 3 year olds.


Today I minded twin 8 year olds. These are the daughters of my ex-pastors, who now live 2 hours away. While we were cooking they asked if I had bought them their Christmas presents yet (um... I haven't seen these girls since New Years' Eve Eve last year I think...funny girls). When I told them I would be away for Christmas and explained that I would be in Canada for the next year minding some other kids they both went really quiet.
One of the girls turned to me and in a quiet little voice she murmured, "oh. sorry." It was like the "sorry" that you use when someone just tells you they have cancer or something. Mawww!
"why are you sorry?"
"Well, because we will miss you." one said.
"well, actually we might not, because we live all the way at our house and don't see you anyway." the other said.
"But OTHER people will miss you!"
hahaha

Meanwhile I am currently typing report comments. 13 comments down, 12 to go! I love that I can use the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in them this semester... it takes up more room...meaning less comment to write. haha don't worry, I've only used it twice (so far).
Oh you should see the dance! They are so clever.
In other news the mozzies and fleas are back. it must be nearly summer! hmm

Everybody's got a Water buffalo

This song has been in my head for the past week. (well actually the superchick version because it's more fun...but youtube doesn't seem to think so)
I was having a bit of an emotional day at the end of last week & at one point I found myself crying "everyone else has a baby! where's my baby! why don't I have a baby?" and I realised how veggie-tale-esque my woes were. This doesn't make the ache of my heart any less there, but does make it more humorous.

Choose Your Charity...

Last term our Year 4s had a market day, one of my absolute favourite days of the year! With their powers combined (like the Captain Planet team...oh side note Captain Planet the movie is apparently being made! I've been prediciting this for yeaaaaaars!) they raised around $1400! Go Team!

It's tradition for our Year foursies to give 10% of what they raise to a charity, of their collective choice.
Last year they gave to our sister school in the Philippines and the year before to the girl who used to work in our office and now works with sex-slaves in Greece. I love seeing the cause that arouses the hearts of our little people.

Our current Year 4s have had a few weeks to mull over who/what they wanted to support this year and today was decision day! We started with a brainstorm... I love that each kid had a story behind why they chose a particular charity... one girl chose the orphanage her brothers came from, another chose a cancer related charity because her mum just had a throat cancer removed, one boy chose a children's hospital in Melbourne because he had seen it on BTN (oh don't get me started on how much I love BTN).

We wrote all of these up and then had a vote.... and the winner was 'Sumatran Tigers'. Over a third of the kids felt compelled to help the endangered animals from Sumatra. I am still to figure out how this became such a passion of theirs. But I love that it is! Of course some staff were annoyed that we let them support an animal, rather than helping the orphans or something, and to some degree I agree...but as the kids said 'they are God's creation and it's not fair that they are not being looked after!'

The four boys who suggested Sumatran tigers in the first place had the job of finding a charity we could donate to. (When they found 'adopt a tiger' they got slightly concerned as to where we would keep it...um)
We decided on going through Taronga, the zoo we camped at last month, and the boys wrote this email...

To whom it may concern:

(our school's) Year 4 students would like to donate to help the Sumatran  tigers.

We recently had a fundraiser for our Junior School Graduation and have decided to spend 10% of what we raised on a charity. This is $140.

Most of Year 4 students voted to help the Sumatran tigers because they are God’s creation and they don’t deserve to die. We feel sad that the tigers are not being taken care of and that they may become extinct. We hope that our money can help provide food for them and help to restore their environment.

Can you tell us where to donate the money so it will best help the tigers?

From P, L, J and E

On behalf of Year 4 at(our school)

Super sweet hey!

In the process of researching Sumatran tiger charities, the boys also decided they wanted to make a powerpoint presentation (of course!) to show the other students why it is so important to help these creatures. I may have to help them edit it before they show Kindergarten gruesome images of mistreated animals, but I so admire their initiative!

Oh I am sad that I only have 29 more school days with these beautiful kids before they head...all the way up the hill to Middle School. :-)