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Gwen's first day of school
Sep. 6th, 2016 07:48 pmI think I was more nervous than her; I woke up around 6:20 and had trouble falling back asleep. It's just...such a big step and even though I know we chose the right school, I still wonder about the consequences of it. I guess that's parenting in a nutshell.
I was weirdly excited to join in that cliched tradition of the "first day of school" on the doorstep:
Just as I was taking the picture, a jogger ran across the street; she saw us, stopped, came back and offered to take a picture of both of us. "I know what a special moment this is," she said. She snapped a few, and then continued with her run. I thought that was really sweet.
Gwen basically bounced all the way to school, and when I picked her up, I was greeted with a very loud, from the other room, "I don't WANT to go home!" It took quite a bit of convincing.
On the way home, she said over and over, "I LOVE school". I only got little snippets and vignettes, but she outlined what everyone had for lunch, and let me tell you, having a little uniformed, pig-tailed girl tell you in a strong British accent that "I had cake and custard for pudding" -- it just slays me. The entire experience is SO BRITISH.
I was surprised at how little information we got in advance of her starting. I knew the term dates from having looked them up on the school website, but I sort of thought at some point I'd get an email along the lines of "School starts on [date]. It starts at [time] and ends at [time]. Your child should bring with you [supplies]." Uh, nope. We did get a term card (a 16 page schedule for the first term) with a generic school-day schedule in it, Monday night -- and suddenly looking at the schedule which said "8:30-9:00 Form Period", I was second guessing myself as to when school started. When she went for her visit in June, we were supposed to bring her in around 8:45, and I assumed that was normal starting time. Eventually, I decided, eh. If I bring her in late for her first day of school, the world won't end and it'll be an amusing story! Nevertheless, this morning I was glad that as we were walking down the final sidewalk, a car passed us with a purple-cardiganed child in it, so I knew we couldn't be too late. :)
There are 14 children in her class, of which three of them are girls (!) and three of them are named James (!!). Sadly, one of the little girls who was at the sample day in June, and whom Gwen rather fell in love with, and had been looking forward so much to seeing again, appears to have gone to a different school. :( Gwen seems rather resistant to the idea of making friends with any of her other classmates, but did tell me about a friend she made in Silver Class (the next age up). I'm glad that they have enough interaction between classes that friendships like this are possible!
On the way home, we lucked out and were walking by nursery just as D. was walking home with her dad and little brother (who still goes there), so they got to compare uniforms and school notes, and walk home together. I'm glad. D. is going to the school that a whole bunch of other kids from nursery are going to, and I do worry a bit that friendships amongst the kids at St. Margaret's will eclipse the ones made at nursery. I just need to make a point of regularly inviting them over for play dates.
I was weirdly excited to join in that cliched tradition of the "first day of school" on the doorstep:
Just as I was taking the picture, a jogger ran across the street; she saw us, stopped, came back and offered to take a picture of both of us. "I know what a special moment this is," she said. She snapped a few, and then continued with her run. I thought that was really sweet.
Gwen basically bounced all the way to school, and when I picked her up, I was greeted with a very loud, from the other room, "I don't WANT to go home!" It took quite a bit of convincing.
On the way home, she said over and over, "I LOVE school". I only got little snippets and vignettes, but she outlined what everyone had for lunch, and let me tell you, having a little uniformed, pig-tailed girl tell you in a strong British accent that "I had cake and custard for pudding" -- it just slays me. The entire experience is SO BRITISH.
I was surprised at how little information we got in advance of her starting. I knew the term dates from having looked them up on the school website, but I sort of thought at some point I'd get an email along the lines of "School starts on [date]. It starts at [time] and ends at [time]. Your child should bring with you [supplies]." Uh, nope. We did get a term card (a 16 page schedule for the first term) with a generic school-day schedule in it, Monday night -- and suddenly looking at the schedule which said "8:30-9:00 Form Period", I was second guessing myself as to when school started. When she went for her visit in June, we were supposed to bring her in around 8:45, and I assumed that was normal starting time. Eventually, I decided, eh. If I bring her in late for her first day of school, the world won't end and it'll be an amusing story! Nevertheless, this morning I was glad that as we were walking down the final sidewalk, a car passed us with a purple-cardiganed child in it, so I knew we couldn't be too late. :)
There are 14 children in her class, of which three of them are girls (!) and three of them are named James (!!). Sadly, one of the little girls who was at the sample day in June, and whom Gwen rather fell in love with, and had been looking forward so much to seeing again, appears to have gone to a different school. :( Gwen seems rather resistant to the idea of making friends with any of her other classmates, but did tell me about a friend she made in Silver Class (the next age up). I'm glad that they have enough interaction between classes that friendships like this are possible!
On the way home, we lucked out and were walking by nursery just as D. was walking home with her dad and little brother (who still goes there), so they got to compare uniforms and school notes, and walk home together. I'm glad. D. is going to the school that a whole bunch of other kids from nursery are going to, and I do worry a bit that friendships amongst the kids at St. Margaret's will eclipse the ones made at nursery. I just need to make a point of regularly inviting them over for play dates.
