Ann that was a great informative post..real everyday nitty gritty life. And I wasn't bored..quite fascinated. We re going through a spell of "Are we wise doing this" at the minute, so its good to hear a view point from the other side so to speak.

I cant believe you have three months over you already.

Good luck for the next set and we await the six month update with bated breath...all we need now are some photos to help us read along with your wonderful story

Great post Ann, It's sounds as though you feel the same way about your chosen City as we feel about yours which is brilliant. I'm sure it makes people settle easier whe they love their new town/city.

Don't worry about your girls on the buses (or cheesewagons around here) the teachers make sure the kids get on the right ones for the 1st week or so in elementary school. We considered putting our daughter up a year but decided to keep her in the same age group. Not sure it was the right decision but seeing as she made honour roll in her 1st year of middle school we can't complain. Now she has set the standard

Aren't the summer camps great - did you send your girls on any over night ones? Our daughter is at her 3rd this year!

Hope it continues to go well
Piff

Ann thank you so much for such a lovely post. We head out in 7 weeks and I'm at that stage of serious wobbles so its lovely to hear that it all does work out.

Keep us posted as to how you get on in the next stage!

Emily

Thank you Ann for writing this interesting post.
I will stay tune for the next installment
Best regards.
Yoong

Great post ann m. Very interesting. My family and I have now been in Calgary for a little over a week. Cochrane looks a good place to live - we are hoping to head out that way soon for a look about - although it will be too far out for us, as I'm working near Calgary Airport.

Hope everything goes OK with your daughter and school. We've just found a pre-school place for our 4 year old son, which has been a boost for Mrs ARH and me as well.

I agree with your comment on Calgary, whilst overall it's not the prettiest city I've been in, there are pockets that are really nice and make you forget you are in a city of over a million people.

Funny you should say about wine and cheese! Wine is more expensive, I picked up one of our favourite bottles of plonk from the local Co-op liquor store and it was only about a pound more expensive than the UK - which surprised me. Cheese not only is expensive but it has the consistancy and taste of plastic - even the "award winning" cheddar we bought!

Again, great post - look forward to the next installment!

Cheers
ARH

Ann, I'll add myself to the rest of the members who made it to the end of your very interesting post, with my 15 month old daughter trying to operate the computer at the same time as reading your post it has taken a couple of sittings, but well worthwhile.

I too will not be working (apparently Business Studies teachers aren't in demand), when we move out to Calgary, some time around Christmas as long as the job offers come in for my OH and the WP doesn't take too long. I haven't been in a no working or studying situation since I was 17. I am concerned that I might be bored, from not getting to meet or know other people when OH is out at work all day, or that I will not know what to do with my daughter all day, when she currently spends most of the time with the child minder who has at least 6 other children in the house to play with.

If everything goes to plan and we stick with location decisions made during our research trip we will be living in Okotoks in the Crystal Ridge area. So, if anyone else is reading this reply whom has little children and is living in that area I would very much like to here from them.

In the meantime, I am going to France in a couple of weeks with my mum, I will think of you when I am purchasing cheap good quality wine and or drinking a lovely glass of when I get home. I hope that the school term starts well.

Best wishes and looking forward to the next installment.
Lisa-Jane (Mrs Monkey Magic)

School kicks off again next week and they will use the yellow school bus for the first time - they cannot wait. I'm just hoping they can find the right one again at the end of the day - there are about 40 buses lined up outside the school !


Don't worry about the school buses, the drivers will tell each child where they will be parked at the end of the day, each bus has its own row and so your daughters will be told which row. Each bus has a route number which is on the 3rd window from the door, and the bus driver knows which children to collect. (I was a bus driver in Cochrane for 3 years!!)



I still have a mini personal dilemma going on in my head about the correct Grade/level for my 9 year old - who is a bright young thing. And now having seen the curriculum for the coming year, she seems to have already done all that (and excelled at it).

I had the exact same dilemma, my son being bright as well. He never did any work in grade 5 and still passed everything with 100%. But in grade 9 he still does no work and passes everything with 92%. But not all things are the same, do you rememeber the old way we were taught to multiply and then the national curriculum told teachers to teach another way. Well here they do the old way and my son had to relearn. In grade 5 they do the 2nd world war..... but all the Canadian part. They also in elementary school do a lot of Canadian geography, with the history of the first nations etc.

Also Middle school is hard for a lot of children (from a bus drivers point of view we had most bullying and problems with middle school) they have grown out of being cute and wanting to learn to a school which is a 'middle school' so they are just waiting to go to high school and have all those teenage hormones flying around. Once they hit high school they have a goal at the end to reach to graduate and so mature down and work.

Hard decision, one which will go will allow her to go to university or college a year early! Good luck

Not necessarily a great idea. One of my daughters graduated from high school in the double cohort year, she was in the older year. She said that the two groups didn't mingle at all because the younger ones were too young to drink legally, hadn't experimented and were smashed all the time. The older ones had done all that in high school. Being the one underage student in the first year would be a considerable sociable disadvantage.

10/10 for the post

I quite agree, especially in Canada where the licensing laws are strickley obeyed. In our golf club in Cochrane the waitress which is under 18 can not even take our drink order if if involves alcohol. I decided that it was more important for my son to stay with his age group and peers even though he had found the school work easy.

Great post Ann and nice to hear you are settling in well.

As you know the OH and I had a few wobbles when we first came out - as I am sure is natural especially when taking a large step back in one's career - but now we couldn't be happier.

Feel free to look us up when you are in our neck of the woods

Great Post. Nice to hear how you are all doin. We are also looking to movet to Cochrane or the Water Valley area, so I know who to call if we need any help with Schools etc when we land hopefully June 2008.
Dont you just love Smittys!!!

Hi Ann

I really enjoyed reading your post and I can relate to a lot of your experiences etc. We moved to the Okanagan in May this year so just had our 3-month Canadaversary!

I guess its the familiarity of life in the UK that I miss more than anything, chatting to friends who know me, knowing where to shop for certain items etc. But I'm sure all this will come in time once I get used to things in Canada. I am looking forwards and not backwards and believe that when we get more settled and into a routine we will have a better life than we had in the UK. My children are really LOVING it here. They have so much more freedom and somehow it just feels safer for them. One of the main reasons we came was for the quality of life and a better life for the children - so are pleased they're adapting so well.

Yes there is a lot of change and differences from life in the UK, but in the long term you just adapt. Some times have been stressful for us, as I'm sure it is for everyone - emmigrating is a big deal -but hopefully it will all be worth it.

If only the TV was any good here!!!!

Good luck to you and your family in the future.

Hi Ann

Marvellous post thanks for taking the time to share

Your comment about missing people dropping in reminded me of the one time I did that to a new Canadian friend "Oh you just dropped by, that is so British". I took the hint, nowadays I always phone ahead

8½ out of 10. Do you think it will get higher?

Clare

Hi Ann

I am another who manged to wade through your post.

Seriously it was an excellent report on how things have gone for you. Thanks for posting and letting us know how things are progressing.

Is it that long since you moved over and even longer since that night in Kensington?

Keep up the good work on the wine it's for medicinal purposes...right?

Cheers
Steve