School

Mia's first day of school was a challenge for me when I woke up: could I get these two children awake, dressed, fed, and brushed (teeth and hair), sun screened, medicated, shoed and out the door by 8.30am? Oh, and myself as well? It was a trial run for me because Ben had already gone to work, so he wasn't around for backup.

I'm happy to say, we managed and got in the car, found a parking spot, and walked a short way to the playground. Mia wanted to play on a jungle gym - she wanted to swing like a monkey on the monkey bars, but wasn't strong enough yet. Anyhow, the bell went and I told her, "Mia, do you know what that bell means? It means it's time for you to go to your class." She looked at Joshka and shouted "Ok Josh, it's time for you and mummy to go home now!" Down she climbed, quick as a flash, and ran off to her class, leaving me to negotiate Joshka down. We went to her classroom to say a proper goodbye but she was already on the mat in the middle of all the children, waiting for the teacher's roll call. There were a couple of other children starting that day too who were clinging to their mother's legs, which hindered my access into the classroom, so I just waved at her and blew a kiss and said, "See you later!" She waved. I turned. And that was it! She was in school and I had been dismissed.

Every day they bring back a little book to read. She knew her little book off by heart so it was pretty simple for her, but Ben and I could tell she was just memorising the words. That was the first day.

On the second day, Ben said the teacher had upgraded her reading book to a much higher level, so I was interested to see. I don't know how, or what they do at school, but 2 days after turning 5, my little girl sat at the table on her dad's lap and read the story to us. She stumbled on words like 'uncle' and 'auntie' but for the most part she read it word for word. Now I know my girl. She has an amazing memory for words of stories and songs, but at the end of her reading, I was truly impressed. I know a lot of it IS memory, but still, she is recognising words and is enjoying the experience. Yippee!