Monday was a watershed day. After three years of having him at home with me all day, every day, William started school. As you may have read here, we decided we wanted him in the French school system so enrolled him at the little private Maternelle et Elementarie around the corner from our house. It was a beautiful morning and Iain had been given a late start to allow him to do the first school drop off too.
We got ourselves round to the school and William seemed okay about everything. When we got into the playground, the place was mobbed with over-excited children and a mix of anxious parents (new entrant kids) and happy parents (those thanking God the holidays were finally over). I felt like there was a lot of hanging about which wound the kids up quite a bit, and the extra numbers of parents and grandparents just added to the craziness. As such, after about 20mins, there were children collapsing in tears everywhere. And as soon as William realised that he would be getting left in this menagerie, he lost it too. It was brutal. He just did not want either of us to go and of course, Iain decided it would be best if he left first and I comforted William and finally said goodbye. It was very difficult but this time, I didn't shed any tears. I put my best teacher game-face on and left, knowing that he wouldn't be the only kid feeling like this and that going to school would be hard, but that he was ready and that he would be fine.
It was great going back to get him at lunchtime though and seeing how happy he was to see me. ;-)
We can see the school from our bedroom window:
Surprisingly, he was still up for going back on Tuesday morning and it was a lot easier at drop off as there were far less people around and all the kids were just going straight into their classes and getting on with the normal day. William still had a meltdown when it was time for me to leave though. It's definitely going to take a bit of time for him to adjust.
Lorna. :)
We got ourselves round to the school and William seemed okay about everything. When we got into the playground, the place was mobbed with over-excited children and a mix of anxious parents (new entrant kids) and happy parents (those thanking God the holidays were finally over). I felt like there was a lot of hanging about which wound the kids up quite a bit, and the extra numbers of parents and grandparents just added to the craziness. As such, after about 20mins, there were children collapsing in tears everywhere. And as soon as William realised that he would be getting left in this menagerie, he lost it too. It was brutal. He just did not want either of us to go and of course, Iain decided it would be best if he left first and I comforted William and finally said goodbye. It was very difficult but this time, I didn't shed any tears. I put my best teacher game-face on and left, knowing that he wouldn't be the only kid feeling like this and that going to school would be hard, but that he was ready and that he would be fine.
It was great going back to get him at lunchtime though and seeing how happy he was to see me. ;-)
We can see the school from our bedroom window:
Lorna. :)
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