Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new school year. Some children will return to a familiar classroom, their teacher and school friends. And some will sit at a school desk for the very first time. That is why we used the final days of the summer break at the Small Family Home in Ledići to prepare the children, just a little, for what awaits them tomorrow.

During the children's summer stays at the Public Institution Home for Children without Parental Care Sarajevo, and especially last weekend, when boys aged 8 to 12 stayed in Ledići, alongside playing, spending time in nature, hiking and other activities, we also found time for books, notebooks and pencils.

Future first-graders learned their first letters

For the children who are just about to start school, the tasks were simple – but very important to them.

We practised holding a pencil, drawing lines and writing letters. Line by line, slowly and without rushing. There were no grades, no red pens and no fear of writing a letter incorrectly.

What mattered was to try. And then to try again.

We wanted their first encounter with schoolwork to feel exactly like this – without pressure and with the confidence that they can do it and they will learn.

Schoolchildren revised what they already knew

The children who already attend school were given slightly more challenging tasks.

We practised cursive and print letters, read and copied short texts, worked on neat handwriting, and then moved on to mathematics.

Addition, subtraction, multiplication tables... some things needed a little refreshing after the long summer break.

Some children knew the answers immediately, while others needed a little help, and some multiplication tables had to be repeated a few times.

And that was exactly the goal – not to turn the summer break into another school, but, before returning to their classrooms, to remind the children of what they already know and help them start the new school year feeling a little more confident.

In Ledići, we learn in many different ways

During the summer break, the children in Ledići learned many things that cannot be found in school textbooks.

They learned how to pitch a tent, prepare a meal, care for animals, work in the garden, paint a fence, share responsibilities, help one another, explore nature and find their way in new situations.

But between all those adventures, it was also important to open a notebook.

Because for us, Ledići is much more than a place for a trip or a holiday. We want the Small Family Home to be a place where children live, explore, learn and grow – through experience, play and nature, but also through books.

Today, we close our notebooks and bring another summer break to an end.

And tomorrow, school begins.

We wish our future first-graders the confidence to write their first school letters without fear, and we hope all our schoolchildren will remember some of the letters, addition problems and multiplication tables we practised together in Ledići.

Good luck, schoolchildren! May the new school year bring you plenty of knowledge, good friends, wonderful memories and many reasons to be proud of yourselves.