My son – my firstborn – my baby – is starting primary school this September.
Holy crap.
While I’m completely unsure as to how the time has passed so quickly to get us to this point, I am totally confident that he’s ready for Big School.
He turns five in September and has had a really good run at it with the amazing pre-school he has attended for the last two years.
We recently had our induction day at the local primary school – to get the kids acquainted with their classroom and for us parents to hear from the principle and junior infants teacher on what to expect.
So far, so.. straightforward, right?
Wrong. There is nothing like a wilful four-year-old boy to make any situation more complicated than it needs to be.
Here are 6 things that you may expect when it comes to your kid’s induction day:
1. Ridiculous Excitement
There was HUGE excitement in our house about seeing ‘The New School’ in the week leading up to it. Every time we met one of the older kids on our road who attend it, Jacob would tell them he was seeing their school on Friday. Getting him to sleep the night before was impossible – we had to list out the names of all his friends who he was excited see there. On repeat.
2. A Sickie
I don’t know quite how kids manage to do this, but Jacob was fine the day before Induction Day and FINE the day after. But he spent the morning of it completely lethargic on the couch and spiked a temperature fifteen minutes before we were due to leave the house. Consequently, he outright refused to get in the car and see the school so we had a major last-minute battle on our hands.
3. A Tantrum
For a kid who was SO excited to go see the new school, he fairly bailed on the situation at the last minute. I spent ten minutes on the pavement outside the school, cajoling him to go in. I then spent another ten minutes alone in the corridors with him, cajoling him to make a decision to either go into the classroom with his mates, or come in to the hall where the parents were getting all the necessary information. He chose neither, so we both missed everything. Sigh.
4. A Flashback
It has been a LONG time since I was in school, any school, but oh my god you never forget that school ‘smell’ and that school ‘feeling’. It was so surreal to be in a primary school as a parent for the first time – notwithstanding the fact that I got a right ‘age check’ on myself, I was also terrified of all the teachers. Still. When will I grow up?!
5. A Lesson In Bribery
It’s kind of embarrassing when your kid is the only one who won’t get on with it and go into the classroom with the others. You see all the other little darlings getting stuck into the sand pitt or the books and toys while yours is clinging to your leg. We put it down to Jacob feeling unwell but that didn’t stop us from nervously whispering into his ear; ‘If you just go in for one minute, we’ll go to Smyths afterwards and get you something nice’. Because, you know, you’ll try anything. But as we were leaving, we overheard one of the really well-behaved boys say to his parents, ‘So can I get anything I want now?’ Bribery – we’re all at it.
6. Tears
I brought my sunglasses because I knew I was going to cry. With ten minutes to go, Jacob rocked into the classroom for a look and we snuck a peak in at him. There he was, standing at a little primary school desk with his other primary school friends, playing with primary school toys. He looked really happy and all sorts of grown up.
So the sunglasses came out of the bag and I had a little cry to myself – it was inevitable.
Somebody, please, slow time down, ok?
