School days – birthdays, sportswear and mud
Outside of birthdays, it’s been a quieter school week. We’ve mostly been counting down our rsvps to the joint birthday party coming up, and trying to track down forgotten school jumpers (x2) and ‘lost’ trainers. Thankfully they’ve all turned up ok and the rsvps have only needed 4 chasing. Damn the postal system, school drawer system where the kids don’t check their drawers and illness etc.
Birthdays at school
N was really excited at the thought of having a birthday at school. I’m sure that won’t last, but he kept telling me that the whole school would sing happy birthday to him at lunchtime. When he got home, the additional bonus of a birthday is that he got a fast pass out of the dinner hall to play. The little things that children love is really sweet.
The school really know their children well. When I dropped N off for morning club, everyone in the office had wished him a happy birthday. More workplaces should take note of that to make their staff feel valued and remembered.
PE fun and sportswear
N’s continued to enjoy tennis this week – the tennis coaches seem to have idol status, so hopefully he’ll continue to be inspired by them. I get a full explanation of the cone games they play. In contrast football doesn’t go down as well, although he does get excited when they play a ‘match’. I did have to check how he got on with his new sports sweatshirt because I couldn’t find any in his size at short notice. So he’s wearing an age 6-7. N didn’t seem to mind it being too big ‘it keeps me warm mummy’. Phew, it’s doing its job then.
I now know that Tuesday evenings are going to be a little hyper when it’s bathtime. The last couple of weeks they must have been doing the hokey cokey at school in their dance lessons, because he’s been singing it that night. And charging around doing the movements. Usually naked. Joy. Let’s hope they move onto another song and dance soon.
School routines
N’s always been pretty good about routines, but now he’s at school it’s definitely more noticeable. Everything’s very particular, and he notices a lot about what others are doing and who they are. I went through years at my primary school, and never knew our dinner ladies or cooks’ names. N knows exactly what the 2 cooks are called, who does what with the cooking and serving, and what the children do on different days.
Anything out of the ordinary he notices as well. That could be a teacher from another school who’s come to visit ‘they played with us, and had time in each classroom’, prospective parents and children coming to look round the school, and someone wearing something different. For example, his buddy didn’t wear her glasses on one day, that then led to a discussion about people looking ‘funny’ or different when they’ve done something different to their appearance.
N’s definitely an observer, and hopefully that’ll stand him in good stead over his future school days. As long as he joins in as well.
Mud and shorts
I’m glad N loves playing outside and getting stuck in, but crikey, how he manages to be one of the only children getting so muddy I don’t know. Twice this week he’s come back in his PE shorts or jogging trousers, because he’s got really wet from enthusiastic play, or too muddy and wet from tidying up muddy planks in the outdoor classroom area. I think I may have to go back to putting in a spare pair of trousers into his PE bag in case of more muddy episodes.
It can’t be warm with him wearing his shorts, but he doesn’t seem to mind and I think it’s usually only last thing in the day. One day he’ll come back immaculate and I’ll be astounded.
Reading Books
Amusingly there’s been a bit of discussion on the dull and odd topics in the reading books that ours and other local schools seem to use. I think we’re all willing on the children to move on to the next books….although I’m already sick of Biff and Chip so if that’s the next stage, I might want to fall asleep when listening to N.
I was very pleased to see that N had been reading this week’s book to the TA, and the comment in his reading record was that he was doing well with blending and starting to recognise his tricky words. Hopefully ‘I’ was one of them because we’ve been looking at that one lots! It’s hard getting him to agree to read the books because he doesn’t find them interesting, but it’s great to hear he’s progressing after we have read them together.
So another week over, and onto the next.
I’d love to read what your children have been up to in their school days, so if you’ve a school days post, by all means share it with me in the comments or link it up below so others can find it too.
You have got to love Biff and Chip! N sounds wonderful and I am glad he had a good birthday.
It’s so cute that little special things can make such a difference on a birthday! I am glad he had a great birthday. It’s so interesting to hear that he can remember everything and all the little changes in the day at school – what a memory he must have =)
N sounds amazing. Bless him. It’s so lovely when they enjoy school. He seems to be developing from week to week. Hope he has a great party!
Congratulations on the reading sounds like he is doing really well :). Its lovely that they know so much about their kids and make their birthdays special, I wouldn’t have known the names of the dinner ladies or cooks either but I get the impression that Monkey will too! Happy belated 5th Birthday to N.
Thanks. I think the children always seem to know about the things that are important to them…food being one of them for N!
Biff and Chip! I had forgotten all about them! I will be facing them again soon as Pickle has just started school. Love the birthday card – we love Spidey 😉 Kaz x
Oh god, having to go through Biff and Chip twice. That would drive me a little loopy I think!
My son is always covered in mud but I think it’s the best way to be! If he came back immaculate you’d be worried!
I agree, you’re probably right there. I’d be nice to have the occasional clean day!
I feel like this is a little foretaste of my life next year when my daughter starts school (although hopefully with not so much mud. I won’t put it past her though!). How lovely that they pay such attention to birthdays as well.
Yes, they’re really good at knowing what’s going on with the children. It definitely makes the kids feel like they’re a big fish in the school pond!
When was/ is N’s birthday? Glad he enjoyed tennis and has a great bond with his tennis coach. It is so important to foster relationships from a young and teach social skills and it seems N is doing just fine!
It was last week. I’m pleased he likes tennis – he seems quite excited that he gets to play with a racquet.
oh dear not biff and chip again. We did Biff and Chip books for 2 years and it drove me insane but then we moved areas and schools and my daughter has a huge range of different books which has totally changed the reading experience for us and is way better. I just supplemented those oxford readers with fun library books as they drove me potty! Angela x
Ah, they have phonic bugs at the moment. They’re worse than Biff and Chip. But we have biff and chip at home, so N wants those every evening at story time. I have to make sure we have normal books too.