Wow, ok so April has come and gone so quickly it is frightening, although this does bring us closer to our summer holidays and a few months out of Doha and the Dust ….
The kids started the month off with another assembly concert at school, this time for the Yr 2 and 3 classes. Jessica sang to her hearts content for the year 2’s with songs like “What’s a friend for?”, “I like the flowers”, “I’m a little hunka tin” and “You can push you can pull” all the songs were once again in line with the Unit of Inquiry with regards of how to treat your friends and people in general, gravity and our living planet. Sean then sang with the choir for their last concert before their teacher goes on maternity leave. As usual they sounded wonderful.
Easter this year 4 April, had the bunny hopping over to our apartment to find the kids…. he left a trail from the 15th floor to the pool outside, where the kids found far too many eggs again this year. I need to have a little chat to the white fluffy fellow… at the end of April, they still have eggs to finish 🙂
The kids and I went off to the Intercontinental for an Easter Lunch, and the guys joined us later…. they worked here on Easter Sunday, no celebrating was done, other than for at the few hotels and a couple of mediocre eggs in the shops. I really want to be home next year for Easter, I miss our white eggs and yolk eggs….. the things you miss when you no longer have them at your fingertips…. Sean’s teacher managed to get her husband to bring some yolk eggs back from SA and she gave one to each of the boys. Jess’ teacher in contrast forgot that it was Easter (even though we were having the Easter holidays) and was shocked when Jess gave him an egg for Easter 😦
The Easter holiday was spent sailing every afternoon, the kids took to it like a duck to water and were happy to drop every other extra mural forever to just sail everyday of their lives. Sailing will resume in October, when the temps hit below 35 degrees and skin does not burn to smitherines …. lol however much fun was had and the holiday was spent in bliss!
The kids then had a fair day at school where they got to dress up as their favourite character in a book. The term started off with the emphasis being on Books and writers. They had a visit from the 2 Steves, who write some interesting kids books…similar to adventure books but you get to chose the route the character takes to get to the end. Then they had a book fair and the dress up day. The week ended off with an International Food Fair, with food made by parents from all over the world. It was wonderful to taste the different fairs and we all rolled out of there vowing to go on diets immediately.
Qatar also hosted a Marine festival at the new Cultural Village. There was professional sand “castle” building, outdoor movies, an aquarium experience and a sand castle building competition, to mention a few of the activities …. Sean and Jess both entered the competition and we were called a few days later to let us know that Sean had won his age group. He was ever so excited, considering he loves building and spending time digging in the sand on the beach. He proudly accepted his trophy and along the way made some new friends, all from SA mind you and the majority of boys that won were from SA too!!! I was very very proud!
April is going to end with a wonderful birthday party for my friend Helen, so exciting and a French Assembly for Jessica, I am very excited that the kids are learning French, so that is going to be fun.
Until next month, love you all ….. and have a great May ….
Mac-Moments 
Hi I am a fellow South African, presently living in Saudi and due to move to Doha shortly. Your kids look like they might be in either Sherborne or the International school of London. Any heads up you can give me in terms of schooling for primary years? We saw a couple while visiting for the first time, but it's a tough call without recommendations!CheersLynette
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Hi LynetteSorry, I have not been on here for a while, so just saw your comment.We really battled to decide on a school for the kids, but had a lot of recommendations for the International School of London from the people in the apartment block that we are living in and they are all professionals. The couple of schools that we were told were good are the following : The American School (great facilities, as long as you like the American schooling system);Doha College (apparently the best school in Doha, other than Al Khor)(Very academic, but I think you have to have a British passport);Parkhouse (academic);International School of London (very new school, so a couple of issues that need ironing out, like space, setting up a PTA … teething problems)(more montessori type system – PYP modules);Lastly Doha English Speaking school – also have to be British (feeds into Doha College and very academic).My son went to St Davids Marist Brothers in Johannesburg, very well rounded school, but if you son did not keep up with the academics and sport it was a tough ride. My son is ADD and he battled. ISLQ has allowed him to progress at his own pace, he has gone from a 2 hour homework child to completing it in 20 minutes, from hating school he loves it, he has grown and developed so much more than we could ever have hoped.Our daughter was as St Teresa's Mercy School in JHB and it was a very nurturing school, so she has just blossomed there.My only criticism is that my son (amongst other boys) was bullied at the beginning of the school year and we battled to get it sorted out. They have now put a system in place and this has now stopped happening! The Nationals tend to think they can get away with anything and it is a battle. I cannot give you any feedback on Sherborne as i do not know it at all.One thing I do know is that the traffic is terrible here, and if you are looking at schools you need to consider where you are going to live to where you are going to send the kids to school. Also the schools do not have the same outdoor facilities for sport as SA, the American school is the only school that comes close to having anything similar to what we are used to. We do most extra murals outside of the school. I am sure it is the same in Saudi though.hope this helps, if you need any further assistance just give me a shout.When are you planning to move here? If it is over the summer holidays the place empties out, so go onto one of the expat websites and see what is happening and who has been left behind, then you can at least have some contact with other expats during the holiday months and not feel lonely…. :-)Regards Denise
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