Perth and NAPLAN

After Margaret River, we headed north to Perth. Of course this was right after a heap of new children arrived in the caravan park! LOL. Always the way. The kids had a ball the night before, climbing trees and making cubby houses with two other families travelling the country. We went straight to the dump point in Margaret River, but it was locked! You have to walk to the council offices to get the key, so it seemed much easier to drive on through to Busselton and check out the jetty as well as dump. When we got to that dump point, it was also locked! But this one had a combination lock and you merely had to ring through for the code. We were apparently the first to ring through and the first to use the point! We ended up with council officers taking photos of Dunc emptying our toilet tank. They were understanding of his reluctance to shake their hands.

After Duncan’s dubious brush with fame, we headed for a long walk down the long jetty. Sadly the train was in the middle of its run, and it was a half hour wait. The underwater observatory was also shut, so it wasn’t as great a time as we expected. We paid $2.50 entry to walk along the length, but Whingey and Whiney bailed out halfway along, so Dunc was the only one to reach the end.

From Busselton it was a quick stop in Bunbury to climb the lookout tower there and a horrendous trip through Perth’s peak hour traffic to the best caravan park ever!

We ran so late that it was completely dark when we arrived. Both Duncan and I were horribly stressed from the traffic and VERY relieved not be facing that every workday any more. Parking Bertha in her spot was another tight squeeze, the children were about ready to eat each other and we had to be up early for NAPLAN! Not a good start…

But it all got better after a good feed and sleep. Karrinyup Waters Resort was just fabulous for children and Karrinyup Primary School was a perfect fit for our kids. We had to skirt around a lake to get there, so it very much felt like ‘back home’. Angus had been a little concerned about going to a new school, and the first day they had TWO tests to sit, so were staying over recess. Lexie was beyond excited at the thought of a “room full of girls my age, Mummy!” I had been preparing the children for Naplan for about 2 weeks. We worked through a book and completed some trial tests, so they felt well prepared. It was a struggle at first for Angus. He wanted to get all the questions right and found it difficult to grasp the concept that it’s a scaled assessment and he’s not supposed to be able to get it all right. Thank goodness he finally got it with a few days to go. The actual tests were a breeze (apparently) and both kids were happy and confident with their performance.

I felt horribly guilty dropping the kids off at school and then getting back to the caravan park. We were camped right near the jumping pillow, and there were so many children there. I felt like the meanest mummy in the world watching all the other travelling kids jumping around and NOT having to go to school. Oh well. At least our two didn’t see them! And they had PLENTY of time to play when we were home. One of the families from Margaret River was there as well as a family we had met in Adelaide. As well as children, Karrinyup had ducks, swans, water fowl and BUNNIES! Four pet bunnies that were free to wader the park – and VERY well fed as a result. We had 3 happy days consisting of school in the morning and sight seeing Perth in the afternoon, and getting excited at the thought of seeing my Mum and Dad soon!