5 Things I’ve Learnt Since Having a Child at School

Having a child at school has been quite a big change for us, and it’s one that we’re still getting used to. My lovely, happy little girl who mostly adored nursery and seeing her friends and lovely teachers has become a little girl who I have recently had to physically drag into the school gates half an hour after school has started. A little girl who can’t get to sleep at night because she has too much on her mind, and who whispers the horrible words that her ‘friends’ have said to her that day that have upset her and that she has kept to herself after school has finished until it is a few hours later and she decides to share them with me.

It’s been so hard. Things are happening to her at school that happened to me at the same school, and I hoped she would never have to go through, and it makes my heart hurt so much. The last few weeks have been better overall, but she’s still feeling a lot of emotions about it all, and is still spending far too much time worrying for a five year old. We’ll get through it together though, and we’ll keep working on it until she is happy and secure again.

5 Things I’ve Learnt Since Having a Child at School

1. What a digraph is. I’d never even heard of it before, and Ava pointed one out and told me what it was! If you don’t know either, a digraph is two letters making one sound – or, a “voiceless” combination of two consonants, for example st, sh, ch, th, wh. Lessons from a five year old.
2. Not to push my daughter to do some learning/homework/reading when she doesn’t want to. If she’s really tired and I try to make her do something when she’s tired she won’t put much effort in, will be distracted and not try very hard. But, she loves to learn and when she does it of her own accord she will try really hard and enjoy it and be proud. She’s just five, you know, I’m not going to force her to read every night. And actually, I was worried we’d be the bad parents whose child does the least reading in the class – a couple of weeks ago she came home with an actual winners medal for doing the MOST reading in the class!
3. Five full days a week is a lot for a young child. Ava was at nursery for three full days a week before she started school, but that involved a lot less learning and very few situations that overwhelm her – like lunchtimes in the big playground at school – she hates them and it’s causing lots of problems. She’s SO tired every afternoon after school and I think it will be a while before that changes.
4. I will probably never be good at mornings or the school run. Whatever time we get up, however much I have got ready the night before – we always, always end up rushing out the door at the last minute. I absolutely hate it, and thought maybe I would get used to it after a while, but that hasn’t happened yet, and I think I probably just have to accept that I hate mornings and am very bad at them, and may always be.
5. 3.30pm is NOT the end of the day it is the middle of the bloody afternoon. I completely remember the end of the school day seeming like the end of the day when I was at school, and it feeling like we didn’t have much time to do anything before bedtime. But no, three thirty is the bloody middle of the afternoon, and time goes very, very fast from school drop off until that time. I was so looking forward to having every ‘full’ day to work by myself, and perhaps even catch up with that mountain (or 3) of ironing, once Ava had started school. Do I feel like I have loads of time to get everything done now? Bollocks do I. Time is still that elusive creature we’ll never have enough off once your kids are at school.

Is there anything in particular you’d like to add? Let me know in the comments!