Ellie's 1st Day Grade 4

After a 5 min walk from home, Ellie arrived today for her first day of 4th grade. That's right! She skipped right over 3rd grade and went straight to 4th! 🥳🤓 (They start school much later here and everyone walks to school😅🚶‍♀️) 

There were many decisions that factored into me moving us up here. One of the most important was that school shootings basically don't exist here. The United States has had 470 mass shootings so far this year. More mass shootings than days in a whole year - and it's only September. 😔 Sadly, 27 of them were in schools. Canada has experienced a total of 19 school shootings between 1884 and 2016. 

So, no more mesh or clear book bags for Ellie! No silly uniforms and clear water bottles. The number of students in each class are smaller and the teachers are very well compensated. No more standardized tests and much more attention on learning material rather than learning towards a test. And the students that she goes to school with all live on her street - within walking distance. 👩🏽‍🤝‍👩🏼

I'm so proud of how much work she's put in to get to this point and how well she's adjusting to life in Canada. 🍁🇨🇦 We've had a lot of changes lately but Ellie has taken it all in stride. We're excited to see snow now! ☃️💙🥶