Joshua starts Prep: a big day for Planet Baby

Well, lovely Planetarians, after two *long* months of summer holidays, today marked the beginning of a new chapter on Planet Baby. Joshie started full-time Prep, the first ‘proper’ school year before Grade 1. And the first day of the next 13 years at school! It’s been rather odd for me to have been reading all the mums’ posts about their children returning to school for weeks now – Tasmania has three school terms, unlike the other states and territories with four, so our timing is out of kilter with the rest of the country. There’s a little explanation of it here. The build-up had been quite laid-back given he attended Kindergarten for three days a week at another school last year so he was used to the concept. We met his teacher again yesterday to calm any last-minute nerves and then today the moment arrived. I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Here’s my darling firstborn in his long shorts, giving his beloved Polo the Polar Bear a last hug before heading off to school.

Time for a last minute cuddle and jokes with his siblings before we loaded up the chariot and zoomed off, arriving just as the bell was sounding!

Joshua soon found his drawer’s nametag and started his drawing to decorate it. Here’s the artist at work, the very picture of concentration.

The end result? Yes, long-time Planetarians will have guessed it – a dinosaur! A stegosaurus, to be precise. As he is ☺.

I am so unbelievably proud of my little fellow, seeing how far his fine motor skills have come in the past year.

And then he started chatting to his teacher – I think he’s going to enjoy learning with her, judging from this beaming smile!

And so, India, Sam and I bid our fond farewells and our bright-as-a-button Preppy boy raced off, smiling, all set to discover something new. Yep, it was as easy as that! Granted, our old neighbour is in his class so he at least has a friend but everything else is brand new. All the names and rules to learn, finding out where everything belongs and making new friends.

Oh, and the strangest thing of all was that I started Prep in that exact room in 1976! Talk about déjà vu! I suspect Joshie is even using the hook I had in the cloakroom. Then, to make it more surreal, within a minute, I had spotted four other mums I’d gone to school or uni with, all dropping off their littlies. Just too funny. Suddenly, I felt like some responsible-middle-aged-mum ☺. And to top it all off, there’s a lovely lady in her 70s who helps out as a teacher’s aide who was the cleaner when I was at school there in the late 1970s. And she remembered me. Dead set. It could only happen in Hobart…

So then our normal Wednesday routine began. We walked India up the path to her daycare – they conveniently have an annexe at the school for the 3-5 year olds. Bonus – no double drop-off for A Certain Mother (well, on Wednesdays, at any rate – I’ll still have to do it on Mondays when Sam is at the other site). So, Sam and I had our first day together for months. And gee, he missed his siblings! His reunion with them was very tender and sweet. Both Joshie and India had brilliant days which was a huge relief for us all. And Miss India was delighted to end the day with having her face painted with – you guessed it – a pink butterfly!

So, our huge day on Planet Baby is drawing to a close. Mr PB is taking the next two days off so I’m looking forward to taking you on another wander around Hobart with me, seeing what high jinks I got up to on the weekend! Er, time for bed – not good for bloggy rehab…