Let the school year begin!

even start? I guess I had no choice in the matter because we chose a house rather far away from the schools the girls' were supposed to attend! Jessica's school is 4 miles, 6.4 km from home w with bad weather and one car might not be the smartest move we can make at the moment. The a bus that gets Jess to school from here, but not Kirstin and it takes about 50 minutes! My life line/neighbour/landlady (Geraldine) suggested a school and it is on the Luas line,a good thing because we are 1km from a Luas station too. It is also on Malcolm's way to work so he can d them off in the morning and they can catch the Luas home. And and and....the primary and high schools are on the same campus!!! Yippee!!!!!!
It has been an agonising decision to make, Malcolm had done so much hard work looking in May and we were all very happy with his choice but he fully supported me doing some extra research and Jess, Kirstin and I visited both schools and we all made a vote and it was unanimous! Malcolm really likes the school too, he had tried to contact them when he was here.....but they did not call him back! Normally I would have left it, but as Geraldine had made the suggestion I decided to give it another go and was luckier than Malcolm. This all started happening on the day I went out and bought Jessica all her text books, (260 euro) she came home and started covering them in plastic, I saw the school on the Internet, shouted stop the bus, she winged, (thank goodness only history had been covered though), and I started running around like a headless chicken trying to make the right decision for the next 5/7 years of my children's lives! Yesterday I went and enrolled them both, went to a book shop to buy all Kirstin's text books (120 euro) and came home to see whether all Jessica's books were the same. Here is the synchronicity part...the only books that are the same at both schools are the history text books!
The principal at Kirstin's school is DIVINE, she took the school report, opened it at the back and told Kirstin that the only thing that really mattered at the end of the day was what was written to summarise her. Of course this was all good, first term report comment was, "Kirstin is a dedicated young student with a good work ethic. She has set high standards for herself and quietly sets about meeting these. She is undemanding, independent and a pleasure to have in the class room" She told Kirstin that the main school rule was: be kind to others and do your very best. All of this was done standing next to Kirstin, not sitting behind a desk and she was most interested in speaking to Kirstin, which is the way it should be.
Today I will be madly rushing around, exchanging text books and buying school uniforms and all without a car! So bicycle and Luas here we come!