A new era – Harry starts Nursery

I have no idea where the time is going and it is scary to now think my baby is officially no longer a baby, well I guess its been a long time since he was that but you know what I mean I’m sure.

It seems like only yesterday he started Pre-School but actually it was a whole year ago when he left my side a trotted off across that playground happily.

He loved the freedom which Pre-School gave him and for the first few terms he was really happy, never made a fuss and asked to go all the time.

After a while that changed and he started to cry when I left him and asked to stay at home, I hated seeing him like that.  It coincided with him being poorly and the school holidays, I think we had far too much fun while off that he didn’t want to go to school to have fun and play as that’s what we did at home.  It was horrid seeing him cry when school was mentioned, try to pull me in the opposite direction and have to be prised off of me by the teachers he adored. 

He was doing 2 full days and a half day – his 15 hours which he had free funding for.  It was mainly on the half a day he would make a fuss, he would cry and not want to go so I stopped this half day.  He stayed home with me instead and soon he was happy again, it turned out he liked to stay for lunch, he liked having his lunchbox and coming home instead of sitting with his friends was confusing him.  It hadn’t even occurred to me but made sense, I had thought it was a Monday thing – we all have those after all!

When I had my Nursery meeting at his new Nursery, the one adjoining Emmy’s school (her old Nursery) I was given his session times, they had given us all the same amount of sessions he had in the Pre-School so he was given 2 full days, this does mean he is losing out on one of his funded sessions but they are actually full so there is no space anyway, and if I’m honest I was quite glad as I wasn’t sure how he would cope with a half day again, or how I would with an extra 2 walks to school meaning I would walk to and from school 6 times on that day – silver lining!!

Whenever I spoke to Harry about his new school he was very excited and very keen to go – he tried his uniform on straight away and on Friday last week when he attended his first day (they only do half a day on their first day) he put on his uniform when Emmy did in the morning even though he wasn’t to start until lunchtime.

He was so very excited. I went in with him to show him to his peg and to take him to the toilet then left after 5 minutes. He was so happy to explore the home corner and still had that smile on his face when he came out at home time.

It does help that this is the school his big sister goes to and occasionally they will see each other in assembly and it also helps that his best friend is in his class to show him the ropes.  His friend Johnny comes to play here once a week and they are as thick as thieves, he is a year older than Harry and goes up to reception in September, but for now they are in the same class and he is showing Harry what to do and where everything is.

Yesterday was Harry’s first full day in Nursery, he dressed quickly in the morning in his uniform and asked for pictures to show everyone, he insisted on carrying his backpack and his lunchbox himself and walked happily the whole way there.

When he got into the playground he found his friend and ran around until it was time to go in then he ran up the ramp, was first into the classroom and disappeared from view without a backwards glance.

With no calls from school it meant he was happy and I returned to collect him at home time, the same time as Emmy finishes (5 mins before).  He bounded out with a smile on his face full of his first full day adventures, retelling me what he had done, what he had eaten and who he had played with.

I am confident he will be very happy here just as Emmy was.

My big boy is now at Nursery for 2 full days a week.