Small boy goes to big school

Last Updated on September 9, 2014 by HodgePodgeDays

Today we dressed the boy up in all of his uniform finery and walked him to big school. We recognised and chatted to a few parents in the playground, took him in, showed him where everything was, watched him settle in and we said goodbye.

He’s a good lad. An independent soul. I asked him if he wanted me to stay and he did, but only for a few minutes while he familiarised himself with his surroundings. He played with the train set, he tried on a few things from the dressing up box, then finally settled down at the computer with two boys he already knew. He ignored me for a bit, so I decided it was time to go. It wasn’t difficult. No one cried, he didn’t cling to my leg, he just got on with it.

“Bye Benj!” I called, he gave me a cursory wave goodbye and went back to banging the keyboard with his fist. So I left and went to the coffee shop round the corner, my phone in my hand just in case. I met my friend there, a woman in the same boat as me. I drank coffee, my phone didn’t ring, I still had hours before I picked him up again, so I went home. I didn’t really know what to do with myself, so I just hung around the house looking at the clock.

The hour came for me to pick him up. I queued up outside his classroom, my face pressed against the glass as I watched him picking his nose and sitting quietly with the rest of the class. He caught me looking and flashed me one of his 1000 watt smiles, then went back to exploring his facial orifices with his fingers and listening to his teacher.

He was first to escape, seemed pleased to see me, gave my legs a quick hug and we went outside. I asked about his morning, apparently he’d played with the trains. I think experienced CIA operatives would struggle to get any additional details out of him. We went to our local toy shop and added to his train collection (you’re sensing a train theme here aren’t you?), then off to meet his Nan for lunch and tell her about his morning. Nope she didn’t get any more out of him than I did, but she said about a million times how grown up he looked, then got all misty eyed.

And tomorrow we’ll do it all again. The small boy goes to big school now. And so it begins.

PS – this picture was taken on his first morning, it’s the best we could do, he had a roll around on the floor tantrum just after this was taken, he’s rarely a reluctant model, but it made me smile, a lot. I put the picture on Facebook alongside the smiling pictures of the children of my friends, someone commented that it was their favourite first day of school picture ever. It made me chuckle.