One missed day due to fever.
Welcome to my son and new children’s germs.
Sigh.
Tag Archives: pre-school
When You Walk To School…
You get to see the men unloading trucks in front of Iceland and get to watch the lift on the back of the truck go up and down.
You get to see a train at the train station and get to watch it leave.
You get to see how many front doors you can count.
You get to jump into puddles.
You get to say hi to lots of dogs.
You get to carry an umbrella.
You get to point out all the flowers and berries you see.
So who would want to drive?!
And So School Begins…
And Adam had a very wet walk to and from school today. But we did it. More importantly, he did it, with really no fuss. Despite being soaked by the time we got home. And cold!
Although I gave us an hour to go the 1.3 miles to school this morning, we did it in my actually predicted time of 45 minutes. So we’ll leave the house 10 minutes later tomorrow, giving us a bit of a cushion, just in case.
Of course, that 45 minutes includes the million years (hyperbole at it’s best) it takes to get a green light at Finaghy Crossroads. We probably actually walk for about 35. I kid you not.
To be fair, we have three lights to wait for, but the one at the Crossroads definitely takes the longest!
The nice thing about the walk to school is that it’s mostly down hill.
Which, obviously, means the walk home is mostly up hill.
But we made it home in about 45 minutes as well.
Including the 10 million years waiting at the Crossroads…
First Parents’ Meeting Done
Looks like an interesting group of parents. All sorts. The ‘integrated’ part of the school seems to be true.
One worry. Adam’s uniform jumper may already be too small. And that’s the largest size they have with the playgroup’s logo on it, which is slightly different from the Primary School’s.
He has a play session next week and he’ll wear it so we’ll see if it’s as small as I am afraid it is. If it is I will mention it to his teacher and see if she has any ideas.
In other news, I am a bit perturbed by his nursery who are really pushing me to put him in underpants, just so they can move him up to their pre-school room. I really don’t think he’s ready. And I don’t care if he stays in their toddler room until he leaves at the end of the summer. I’m half tempted to do it and let them deal with the mess, but I won’t.
This weekend we have plans but the weekend after we don’t so we may try pants then.
FFS, he’s not even 3 yet!
My Worries, Personified…
So we were at the GP Friday (Another chest infection. Good thing he actually likes banana liquid.) and also there were two other boys.
They came over to us when they saw Adam was wearing a Fireman Sam shirt and were asking Adam about it. Adam, of course, did not answer as he’s not big on talking to strangers.
The younger boy said, ‘Doesn’t he talk?’
I said, ‘Of course he talks, but he’s not yet three. How old are you?’
‘I’m three!’
‘How long have you been three? When is your birthday?’
His big brother said, ‘October is his birthday.’
So I said ‘See? You’ve been three for *ages*! He’s not three for two more months, so he’s only two.’
At that point they got called in to see the GP so I couldn’t ask my next question which was ‘And which preschool are you going to in September?’
Because it is very likely that his boy, who will be four two months after the start of preschool, will be in the same class as Adam. Who will be three three months before preschool starts.
That’s nearly a year apart in age. In the same class.
I know they have to have cut off dates and some kids have to be the youngest in the class, but I don’t know why they can’t split the year and have two classes. So children turning three from 1st July to 31st December go in the morning with those turning three from 1st January to 31st June going in the afternoon. Or something similar. Wouldn’t that make more sense than having just turned three year olds in the same class as just about to turn four year olds?
Because at that age? It shows. That 3.6 year old was miles ahead of my 2.10 year old in terms of verbalization, self-assuredness, really everything I could see in a five minute interaction at the GP’s. The only thing they matched on was height, and that’s only because Adam is so tall.
Which is another worry. Already more than one person has commented on such a big boy acting like such a baby at times. When questioned, they assume he’s three or even four. He’s not. He’s two. Nearly three, but really still two. And he acts two.
He has a dummy, he’s just beginning to be articulate around other people and it’s not all that often that he is and they can understand him. He still has milk out of a bottle. And he’s no where ready to be potty trained. Which he has to be to start school in September. He still naps at least an hour a day.
Within the next year or two none of this will matter, of course. Nearly five and just four are a lot closer than nearly four and just three. And it will get closer and closer as he goes through school. Soon his peers will catch up with his height, even if he remains tall, he won’t stick out so much. Eventually.
But a Mummy worries.
So I worry.
I worry he’ll be picked on or overlooked. I worry he’ll have no friends and no one will come to his birthday parties. I worry about things I can’t do a damn thing about, which I hate and refuse to do in everything else.
Being a Mummy is hard in ways I never expected.
And I do hate the unexpected.
So Now We Have To Decide…
Today we got the letter telling us that Adam has a place in the local playgroup. This is a fully funded place, 15 hours a week, 3 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Which is fantastic. Except they have no before or after care.
And because his daycare is still waffling about whether or not they will have funded places in the fall.
I’ve told them I need to know in 2 weeks, as that is the deadline for us letting the local playgroup know if we accept the offered place.
It would be good if he went to the playgroup as that gives me, more or less, unofficially, a guaranteed place in their primary school.
But then how do I work? How do I run my company in what would amount to about 2 hours a day, if you include commute time to get Adam to the playgroup?
His current daycare might do pick up from that playgroup. I don’t know yet.
If they don’t, we’ll have to move him somewhere closer for after school care.
It’s all very uncertain. And I hate uncertain.
But I’m also very excited that my son is starting his formal education process.
Even if I do have to put him in a uniform…