Well, today marks the end of Robert’s first week of school (I know it’s Monday – he started on a Tuesday!) and I’m pleased to report he seems to be enjoying it MUCH more than he had previously been imagining.
Having said that, he certainly *hasn’t* got used to getting ready for school in the morning yet, protesting “I don’t want to go to school today” on a regular basis. But his mother gets like that at least once a week, so I guess we can’t expect miracles this early…!
Despite the miserable pose he struck in the photo that accompanied last week’s post (“Fatherhood²: Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off to School we go…“) his first day went relatively smoothly – and the rest have followed in a similar vein, with only a couple of minor hiccups along the way. Here are a few of the highlights from week 1:
- On returning from Day 1 in his new school, Robert gleefully told us he had “Been on a rainbow”, was now “a superstar” and somebody had stamped on his hand. After a short period of confusion (and thanks to a newsletter provided by the school on Day 4) we realised the Rainbow/Superstar reference is to do with a reward/punishment system they use (the scale ranges from superstar to puddle, apparently!) and the stamp was actually a reward ink-stamp which he had been given for, well, I never was quite sure what he got it for. But we were proud all the same!
- Also on his first day, Robert very excitedly told Sara that he had spent some creative time drawing “A millennium falcon for Daddy” – words can’t describe how proud that made me. Sadly, said picture appears to have been lost in transit at some point – it’s probably for the best though: He’s only seen the Millennium Falcon a couple of times, I doubt it would have been framing-quality yet…! :D
- The one slight hiccup we’ve experienced is only really a small one, and you may take Robert’s side on it – as I am leaning towards. Basically, the children in his year-group are asked at the start of the day to leave their lunch boxes in a central area, where they can be transported to the lunch hall and then retrieved by parents at the end of the day. Unlike in Year 1 and above, where said are is a trolley, the reception children are asked to put their lunch in the “storage bin” – and Robert has so far refused to do so. Instead he insists on keeping his lunch somewhere in the room where he can see it – presumably due to the fear of his lunch disappearing in the ‘bin’. Fair enough I reckon, you can certainly see his logic can’t you? We’re still working on persuading him to comply, though I must admit part of me is secretly proud of him for this micro-rebellion!
- His classmates don’t seem to have made much of an impact on Robert yet – we’ve not heard much about any of them yet, though thankfully there do seem to be a couple he plays together with regularly. Nothing to worry about quite yet, hopefully!
- From an academic perspective, I’m quite proud to report that Robert seems to be coping well. His writing levels appear to be average or above average (he’s one of the few children in his class who can write their own name on the board in the morning) and his numeracy skills are equally as capable. He doesn’t seem to have learned anything of note yet (though finding out what he did each day is like extracting blood from a stone) but I’m pretty sure he’s on track so far! :)
So, there we have it – end of week 1 and basically, there’s not much to report. Which I’m taking as a good sign…!