Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Off to 'Little School'

As well as being Will's birthday yesterday, it was also Rosie's first afternoon at playschool, or 'Little School' as she calls it.
She has been itching to get there for months and months, and was so excited when she realised it was finally September. She's been counting down the sleeps until she started - which is quite complicated when you still have an afternoon nap as well as a night-time sleep!
She'll be going three afternoons a week, from 1-3.30pm, although she started at 1.30pm yesterday because it was her first day, and it gave all the other kids a chance to settle down before she made her entrance.
She was so excited at the prospect of going to playschool "I'm going on my own - without Mummy" and kept telling me what was going to happen - that I'd drop her off, give her a kiss, wave bye-bye and then pick her up later once she'd finished painting/playing in the sand/colouring/singing/jigsaw puzzling and all the other fun things she had lined up for herself.
We pulled up at the kerb and she was off like a rocket, striding up the pavement towards the school gates. I told her to wait for me, and she turned round indignantly and told me (again) "But I'm going on my OWN to Little School!"
She was quite peeved when she realised I actually had to escort her into the building itself...
She said hello to the teacher at the door, marched straight to her coat peg (which has her name and a picture of an ice cream cone on it!) and hung up her jacket.
The teacher - who also taught Charlie when he was at playschool - told me that she'd seen Charlie that morning, and he'd made her promise to send Rosie outside when the school's playtime bell rang, so he could see her and talk to her over the playschool fence!
Anyway, my confident little pickle handed her red toy car over to a different teacher, to go on the 'Red Table' - each week they have a different theme for the table, and the kids all take suitable things in from home to show their friends.
And then, she was off, up to her elbows in the sandbox. She paused in her digging just long enough to give Pete and me a kiss, and then was straight back to her sand, without so much as a wave or a wistful glance!
We made our way out of the door, and left her to it!
A couple of hours, and a very quiet, uninterrupted cup of coffee later, and Pete, Charlie and I went to pick her up.
She came skipping out of the door when her name was called, clutching an armful of paintings of people (her favourite thing to draw/paint at the moment...) and so excited to tell us all the things she had done - playing in the sand (obviously!), bouncing on a space hopper, painting, play doh, cutting, sticking, hugging Chas over the fence, singing a song (apparently about ten beans, which involved clapping her hands on her knees...) and having a snack and a drink.
The verdict? "Little school was really, really fun, Mum!"
She goes back for her second day tomorrow, and she can't wait!
So proud of our grown up little Rose!

1 comment:

Ann Fisher said...

I still can't believe she's already old enough for playgroup. I love the playgroup years, they are the height of cuteness, enjoy! :)