Settling in

Tyler has been at school for 3 weeks now, and he’s settling in nicely.

At our school, new entrants finish early (2pm instead of 3pm) for the first 2 weeks. Tyler was still finding the days quite long, so his teacher and I agreed that he could finish early for another week. Although it’s a bit of a hassle for me to walk down to school at 2pm and then again at 3pm, it’s better than having a tired, grumpy 5-year-old to deal with in the afternoon. Also, I’m getting a bit of extra exercise!

Tyler has fitted into his class so well, especially considering the other children have been at school for 2 or 3 months already. The kids are friendly, and have really made Tyler feel welcome.

Most of the boys (and a couple of the girls) in his class bring their scooters to school, and ride them on the court outside their classroom at lunch time. Tyler didn’t have a scooter, but on Monday we decided to get him one as he was really keen to join in. As it turns out, he’s a real natural. He’s been riding it to and from school, as well as at morning tea and lunch time. And in just 4 days, he has pretty much mastered it (although today he fell off 3 times and came home covered in plasters). But having the scooter is really helping him socially, as it means he can join in a fun activity that the other kids already do together.

On the learning side of things, he’s picked up quite a lot in 3 weeks. He has already learned a few words – I, can, am, look. But I’m not that interested in how much he learns this term, as he will have a whole year in Year 1 next year to consolidate everything. Instead, we are treating this term as an “introduction to school”, and just want him to have fun, make new friends and enjoy himself. So far, so good.

In about 3 weeks time we will have an interview with Tyler’s teacher to see how he is getting on. She’s already shown me examples of his writing, and has talked with me about some of the testing she has done with him. I’m pleased with his academic progress of course, but I’m more interested in how he interacts with other kids and how he behaves in the classroom. Mrs O’Connell seems to enjoy having Tyler around, which is a good sign. On his 3rd or 4th day, she told me that he was a “breath of fresh air in the classroom”, which made me very proud.

As a mum, I really wanted both my boys to have a positive start to school, and I think I can say we’ve achieved that!