The First Day of School!

I'm no longer the Mum of a baby as today was the first day of school for Ethan. Here P1 is much like K at home, but children start at 4 not 5 years. I was a bit worried, as E has not done well with me leaving him at nursery the past few days. He is happy as a lark when I pick him up, but the mornings are hard! We rode to school with our neighbour Paul and his boys Adam and Lewis. Lewis is in E's class and he started yesterday. Walking the boys to the playground through the school gates was like something out of an English novel. Suddenly there were tons of little boys and girls with the school uniform on. There are two versions of this uniform. The informal one is a green polo with the school crest, a light gray jumper (sweatshirt) with the crest and dark gray trousers or short pants. (Yes, I went with the shorts-there is nothing cuter then a little boy with short pants and knee socks). Black school shoes, a school jacket and matching backpack complete the outfit. The formal uniform is much the same but changes the polo and sweatshirt for a white shirt, green and black tie and a grey v-neck jumper (sweater this time!). It looks very "smart" but given E's issues with buttons I didn't think it would go! He went right in and sat down at his desk. His name strip has a little black and white cow on it! The teacher had an activity for each child to do right away. E's was a magnetic board with colorful shapes. He did a wonderful job of getting right to work! He also has a peg with a red star and his name in the cloak room. His PE bag with uniform goes there as well as his coat. His backpack goes on the back of his chair! He was very happy coming out of school. We walked home with the Nursery group so that he will know the lady tomorrow. I had promised him a "sweet" from the shop across the road, so he picked two pieces of candy at five pence (say P) each. I can deal with that! I haven't heard the whole story, but it seems that there was outside play time, station playtime inside, a story, etc. They also counted stairs. He didn't want to take his uniform off! He has a bit of his lunch on his jumper so that has to go inot the wash tonight, but that's okay. It seems that he was able to put on his PE uniform and shoes by himself and then to dress again. Such a big change and such a big boy! I did get some good pictures and I'll try to post them soon!
Hugs,
ML and EE