The boy goes to school

4 years, 2 months and 21 days later and my baby? had his first day at school. Well technically it was only half a day but hey my little boy is growing up. Where the hell did the time go?

Family breakfast…a healthy start

A little sad?

People have been asking me, ‘will you cry?’, ‘are you feeling sad?’, ‘have you been worrying?’. To be honest, no! I have no doubt in my mind that he’s well and truly ready for school. He and I can’t wait for him to start to learn to read. He sits with his books and makes up stories from the pictures. He gets sad sometimes that he can’t read the words. He will have a whole new experience when he can read those words himself and make some sense of it all. I’m also ready for him to go to school. I’m needing to move on with stuff in our lives. I’ve completed my course, I have other opportunities opened up to me in the last 6 months and I’m ready to get going. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog a big explanation in the next month or two as I don’t want to jinx things.

Getting himself dressed

Looking so grown up

I’ve not been particularly worried about Lucas going to school as just over a year ago we moved him from childminder near the hubs work to a local nursery. He’s met lots of the local kids, and 4 of them, are at the same school and we know their parents so it’s not like he won’t know anyone. He’s the type of child, like I was and probably still am, ok not so much the child bit, who will go in and be on their own for a day or two and watch. When ready he will make those important bonds and friendships. In the meantime he will just be silly and try to make people laugh or pretend he’s not clever. He’s a bit of a comedian and people like him. On the downside he can be ‘told’, by other kids, what to do but he’s also got a stubborn streak where if he’s not interested or doesn’t want to do it anymore he won’t be pushed. I don’t yet know how he’ll settle in but I think he’ll do far better than I ever did.

My cheeky chappy

I spent 2 years at infant school and about 5 months at junior school before being college schooled abroad where my dad worked. It was definitely a shock when I returned 3/4 years later to finish the last 3/4 months in junior school. I didn’t enjoy the hoards of people because I wasn’t used to it. I was in a class, with at most, 5 other kids for 4 years and thrived but I never really settled into school in the UK. I’ve always been kinda shy meeting new people although as I’ve got older I find it easier. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who can talk to ANYONE. I have to be in the right frame of mind and believe me that’s not as often as I’d like. So long story short, I was more worried about how I’d fare with the other parents than I was about my cheeky chappy son fitting in to school.

Walking to school…daddy took the day off

The book we had to make all about Lucas!

We live in a fairly small village where most of the folks are elderly and lived here for 20 years plus and all know each other. We are part of the new younger families that are moving in to the village but we weren’t born here, nor were we local to this village as kids. My neighbours are great on both sides. We have a young family like us, attached, they have an older girl and she is friends with Lucas and they come over for spur of the moment tea and drinks and the hub plays squash and goes running with the chap. He’s a much more friendly, sociable, likeable person than I am so he makes friends easily. He’s one of those genuine types. Me, well my shyness came across as arrogance when I was younger so now I just try to be different rather than compete with people. I was an awkward child and very emotional but unfortunately I didn’t understand myself. Luckily I’m getting better and sometimes, when I’m brave, I will approach people off the cuff.

Lunch time in the coffee shop across the road from home…a treat

I think we’ve been very lucky moving here. My hub is just a lovely bloke and people really tend to warm to him, you couldn’t dislike him if you tried! Me on the other hand…   We’ve got to know a small number of people around here by taking Lucas to the park, which is less than 150 yards down the road. Luckily one of the couple’s son goes to the same school and just by being in the playground we have met a couple of of other mums and dads. There are still faces familiar to us from the village who give a friendly smile and hello but we have not yet stopped and introduced ourselves but who knows, maybe once all the stuff going on in our lives is settled and sorted I might be more in that frame of mind and just sod it and grow up and say, ‘HI my names Cat, I’ve seen you for the last 2/3 years around and thought I’d introduce myself.’ I’ll probably wait until they’re on their own first though! Why are we so afraid as grown ups? I’d be happy for someone to come and say hi yet we can’t bring ourselves to do it as easily as kids do?

There will be many visits to the local park on the way home

For this reason and many others we decided to attend the first PTFA meeting. Ok, so there wasn’t a lot we could do at that meeting but we have shown our face and we can offer skills that perhaps other parents and teachers can’t but most of all I want to be involved with my son’s education and if we can add a different dynamic to the PTFA group then we’ve achieved something, however small it may be. So that’s my first experiences of school and oh my there are so much more to come…BRING IT ON!

Update: It’s been a hectic couple of weeks settling into the new routine but he’s doing fine. It’s a shock to my system having to get him somewhere every day before a certain time but I’m doing it. I have made some new mummy friends and the boy is making friends, mostly girls?! And every day my boy is getting nearer to being able to read. He’s brought home a new book every day for the past week and a half and he’s already beginning to recognise some words…I’m a proud mummy!   In his words, ‘I like school.’