School days – trips, VIP and writing

It was a busy school week last week for N.  The thing he was most excited about was his school trip which he’d been looking forward to for ages.  School’s generally still going well, and he doesn’t seem too put out about the fact they’re having to learn phonics.

First school trip

N had been looking forward to the Sea Life Centre school trip for weeks.  He was on countdown and was almost beside himself the day before.  He told me all the people who would be in his group, and that they were going on the swimming bus to Birmingham.

I did remember to make his packed lunch to take, and off he went into the school hall to wait for the bus with the others.

They were late coming back because of traffic and none of us mums had got the text or mail in time to say they would be late.  It did give us all chance to chat though which was nice.

N was so happy having been on the trip.  So far I’ve not got much out of him about it. I know who he sat with on the way and the way back, that he was quite scared at the film (I think it was a 3D one and the fish were coming fast), and that one of the teachers went out during the film.  Oh, and they could sit where they wanted at lunch time.  And he wanted to know why there were 3 seats across at the back of the coach?  Strange, as most have 5 or 6 across.  He also had a sleep on the way back which I wasn’t surprised about.

VIP status

N came home on one day with another VIP sticker – or ‘IP’ as he calls it.   He might not be the fastest learner or star of the week, but VIP means he’s behaving nicely and appropriately in school.

Nativity play

N’s had his role and he’s a villager.  I’m presuming that’s no lines which is probably a good thing for N.  It does mean that his previous shepherd and king’s outfits are a bit redundant so I’ll have to get out a sheet or something to create a tunic.

He does seem oblivious to the play at the moment so they’ve obviously not started practising it yet.

Writing his name

Now it might seem to some people that N’s late in writing his name compared with lots of children who are doing it before getting to school.  Every day when they have a snack the write their name.  N’s always copied his name from his drawer.  But this week he’s written his name twice at home without copying anything.  And it’s recognisable.

He does struggle with e, but then they’ve not done e in phonics yet.  And he won’t sound it out so it’s very much practice and knowing what to write rather than spelling it out.  But he’s got 9 letters in his name, so no wonder it’s taken a while.  I was so impressed to see him do it, because I didn’t know he could without copying something.

He’s also started wanting to write other things now as well.  He asks, then chooses a couple of letters.  I think it’s going to be a while before he’s agreeing to write his name and others’ in Christmas cards.

Reception mums

What I’m more excited about is a reception mums meal out that’s being organised.  Weirdly, despite there being a list of everyone’s emails and phone numbers, the organiser has done it by mention when she’s seen people and word of mouth. Luckily one of my friends let me know, so hopefully there’ll be as many of us as possible there because at the moment doing pick up once a week means there’s only a few new mums I’ve really spoken to.

What’s been going on with with school days in your house?