getting things ready

Yesterday while I was helping in Evies class I was helping to get things ready for the parents evening that was last night and tonight...

...our parents evening is tonight...

I did some filing (a number colour picture of the crucifixion).

I had to put new crayons and coloured pencils in the toolboxes on the tables and put the work books in their drawers :)

Then came a teacher chat!

Her teacher thinks that Evie has some sought barrier to her learning and wants me to get her assessed :(

I have asked her teacher to write down all of the things that she feels Evie has problems with (that way I cant miss anything out).

I rang the doctors when I got home and the earliest appointment they could do is after the school holidays.

Im popping into town today anyway so I will ask the doctors if Evie needs to be at the appointment (Im hoping that she wont so she doesnt hear anything negative) and I will hopefully be able to get the assessment on its way.

I was always in the bottom classes in senior school so Evie has got my brain rather than James which is a shame.

I was a bit tearful at hearing this but at least its being picked up on now...

pretend invisible bag

This morning I will be helping out in Evies class :)

She doesnt want me to help out, se just wants me to go home after I have dropped her off!

So I told her that I have to go in as I have made a promise to Miss B...

...as she was crying at this point and saying that she didnt want to see me in class, I asked her if it would be ok for me to come in if I wore a pretend invisible bag over my head :)

That sold it, and she likes the idea :) but she wants me to use pretend invisible cardboard

I have told her that you shouldnt really put bags over your head.

start date

We got home from the dentist yesterday.

I was just about to do the washing up and my phone started ringing...

..it was about my new job :).

It was good news, they now have a start date for me...

...my manager wants me to start as soon as possible so I start on Sunday!

I am nervous already...

gym trail morning again

Gym Trail starts again today...

...so that means leaving a little bit earlier than normal.

Also Evies PE days are on Gym Trail days too...

I told Evie that she had outdoor PE today and she started crying and saying that she didnt want to do it...

...so I asked her why and she said its because she doesnt like running as it makes her legs tired.

She normally loves running, so I suggested that she skips instead :)

I will ask her later how PE was, hopefully she will enjoy it again :)

We also got the diary dates leaflet yesterday...

...there was so much stuff to put in :)

Hopefully James will book the relevant time off of work (Christmas production and sports day).

There is also a school lunch that year 1 parents can go to at the end of October :)

I cant wait to see what the options are (the current menu that Evie bought home only runs until half term).

tired and refusing

I was chatting to a Mum yesterday morning at the gates and she said that wellies are not needed in year 1 as they do not do much playing (which makes sense) so I bought the wellies back with me.

When Evie got out last night she was carrying her raincoat also so she doesnt need that either...

On our way home I asked her if she wanted a play in the playground and she said yes so we had a little play until 3.45 pm and when we got home I tried to get her to read her book and she started but wasnt really concentrating or trying to read the words properly.

I was hoping that after she had her dinner she would be willing to try again but no she still flat out refused.

So after her bath she went to bed as we could tell how tired she was, and I told her that if she wasnt going to read her book then she couldnt watch any tv either.

This morning she got up and I asked her again if she wanted to read and she said no, so I told her that she still couldnt watch any tv if she didnt read and she was then happy to read her book

So there are 2 entries in her reading record (1 good 1 bad)...

...we have also been told that she has outdoor PE on Tuesday afternoons, indoor PE on Friday, spelling tests on Thursdays and new words to learn on Fridays, as well as her reading book to read each night...

Evie ready for school

dressed and excited

At around 6.30 I heard Evie moving about so I went into her room to tell her that it was back to school :)

Surprisingly enough she got up quickly and I got her clothes ready for her and she got dressed really quickly :)

Her bookbag and bag with PE kit (we were informed by one of the Mums last night that she has outdoor PE today), wellies (not sure if she needs them for year 1 but I bought her some) and raincoat are all by the front door,

I have a skype interview this morning with an agency.

It will be weird not having Evie with me again all day, but it will be good too :)

tears and interview #11

When I picked Evie up for the last time from the Early Years gate at her school it suddenly hit me that it was the very last time I would be picking her up from there...

,,,she will no longer be in reception year :(

I think that all us Mums got a bit tearful (there was no actual sobbing) and the teaching assistants were getting tearful too.

Her teacher even gave a speech saying how proud he was of all of the kids and how he would still see them about the school and enjoying seeing them grow up.

He even gave each kid a hug on their way out and so did the teaching assistants so it was all really lovely.

I dont remember getting goodbye hugs from my teachers...

...I think they were just glad to see the back of us :)

We went to the playground on our way home and as I usually do I checked my e-mails...

...and there was an invite to another interview...

...this time for a paid job with a charity.

It is 3 and a half hours a day five days a week.

So I will have to see how it goes.

My interview is on Thursday and James will have to leave work a bit early so he can look after Evie as they didnt want to leave it to after he had finished work.

exploring cars and fairy tails

By Evies behaviour yesterday morning (not getting dressed until 7.50 am and crying saying that she wanted to cuddle James) she was more anxious about her new class than I realised.

By the time we got to school she was fine (so that was good).

When we were waiting for the teachers to open the reception class doors it was lovely seeing the little kids come in for their final transition session :)

I gave Evie a kiss goodbye and told her to enjoy herself :)

When it got to pick up time I saw a few Mums on the grass outside with their kids where they must have just finished their session and were waiting for siblings to finish school for the day.

Just before Mr F was about to let the kids out I saw one little boy run out to his Mum and Mr F went to chat to his Mum - she must have thought that he would be there until the end of the school day! I hope that he wasnt too traumatised by not being picked up with everyone else.

I remember my sister being upset (she must have been about the same age) when my Mum forgot to pick her up from a birthday party and got me to go and get her.

I asked Evie what she did with her new teacher, and she said that she drew a fairy tail character, so I asked her what she drew and she said a witch, I then asked if she had a witches hat and she said no she had a cape.

She also said that they were exploring cars - I will try and get out of her later what she was doing with them.

She said that she enjoyed her day so that is good and she got dressed quickly again this morning too :)

he will be looked after

On Friday when I picked Evie up from school Mr F said that the children have to bring in their favourite teddy bear and "not to worry, they will be looked after" :)

So I told Evie this when we got home and she is going to bring Sidney (her monkey hand puppet).

I have explained to her again this morning that she can only bring him in today and that he will have to stay at home with me tomorrow.

Last time she was able to take him in it was a comfort thing, and she was so brave the day that she wasnt allowed to bring him in (it still makes me feel upset that she was struggling so much).

Singing and tears

This morning on our way to school Evie was singing "were going to big school" all the way there.

I thought great she is obviously really enjoying it now :)

Then just before going into her classroom she was queuing and I could tell that she was getting tearful, so I asked her what was wrong and she said "I'm alright" so I have told her teacher and he said that he will have a chat with her :)

I think it must be catching as "f" didn't want to go in and a boy was being very vocal too in miss S's class.

another relief

When I dropped Evie off at school yesterday, I saw Mrs S monitoring the kids coming in, so I asked her if Evie plays at playtime as she tells me that she doesnt,..

...and she said "yes she does" :).

Evie even reiterated it by playing on the slide while waiting for the tachers to open the EYFS classrooms :)

Thats another relief :)

When we were waiting to go in we saw a load of kids with suitcases where they are going on their school adventure holiday, so I told Evie this and I heard one Mum cheer loudly :)

I cant believe that that will be Evie in 6 years time!

no tears Friday

On Friday I was all set for the tears as we were about to get ready to leave, and surprisingly enough she didnt cry...

...it could have been to do with the fact that |I told her that she could buy a cake or just that she is getting more used to it now :)

Talking of cakes Evie chose a chocolate one (no surprise there) and I had 2 as it was £1 for 1 or £1.50 for 2, and a cup of tea was £1 too.

I had a butterfly cake and a chocolate cake pop and they were both lovely :)

I did think about saving 1 for James but decided not to as he probably wouldnt eat it :)

Lunchwise she says that she has liked everything, so I will update her lunch menu until half term at the end of October.

When I was leaving school on Friday it was playtime I looked in the EYFS playground to see if I could see Evie and she wasnt playing, then I saw her in the classroom doing something with Mrs C.

I asked her about whether she plays out at playtime and she says that she doesnt :(.

Hopefully soon enough she will realise how much fun she can have.

first wobble & chocolate spread on onion bagel

Yesterday Evie had a packed lunch at school..

I knew that she wanted a chocolate spread sandwich so I asked her if she wanted it on bread or an onion bagel?  She said an onion bagel.

As I had already had half a bagel for my breakfast (less calories than a whole one :)) I used the other half for her, and put it in her lunch box, with some bacon rashers also.

I chopped up a huge bit of cucumber and gave her some grapes :)

I packed it all in her lunchbag with an empty water bottle.

Just as we were about to go up to the toilet before leaving for school I noticed that she looked like she was about to cry...

...so I asked her what was wrong and she said that she didnt want to go to school, so I asked her why and she said that "she doesnt like playing" so I gave her a hug and we went upstairs.

When we got to school there was a huge box to put the lunchbags into.

When I picked her up I picked up her lunchbag and asked her how she got on with her lunch and she said that she had eaten some of it (at least she ate something).

So when we got home I checked her lunchbag and apart from a couple of pieces of cucumber everything was eaten apart from the chocolate spread on onion bagel, so I asked her if she didnt like it and she said that she didnt.

At least I will remember that for next time :)

Its her last afternoon today and then its all day next week!

simianus non gratia

Yesterday (apart from crying when she woke up) Evie was quite happy to go to school (because Sidney went with her),

After she had her lunch we were getting ready, she suddenly said that she wanted to get Sidney, so I told her that Mr F might not let her take him in again, and she said that he would :)

We got upto school and the EYFS gate was already open so we stood outside of the classroom and the teacher then welcomed the kids in.

So I asked Evie if she would like me to take Sidney home with me and Mr F said "if you dont mind"...

...so I gently asked her to hand Sidney back to me and she stood in the doorway probably for no more than 30 seconds and gave Sidney a kiss and then kissed her care bear charm (on her book bag) and let me take Sidney home.

I didnt get to see if she was upset or not, but she went in.

Just as I was leaving I saw a Mum walk up carrying her crying daughter :(, and I saw Mrs S sitting outside with her :)

When I came to pick Evie up I saw her teacher leading them back from the playground, I asked her what they were playing and she didnt know! :)

I have booked Evies first month of school lunches online, hopefully she will tell me then what she likes and I can do her packed lunches on the days that she doesnt like the food.

I have also signed up to parentmail and have downloaded the app :)

And have been given a whole load of diary dates - I will have to ask if the KS1 things include EYFS.

And I have also written her first book in her reading record.

check check check check check

Its Evies first afternoon at school today :)

PE bag - check

All about me box - check

raincoat - check

school uniform hanging up - check

wellies - check

Evie woke up this morning and asked what we were doing today and I told her that it was her first afternoon at big school, and she didnt start to cry (so thats good).

She is sitting at the moment going through the pictures and toys in her box :)

teacher visit day

Evie woke up this morning and asked me "mummy, what are we doing today?"  she normally asks and I always tell her in a upbeat way what we are doing :)

So I told her tat her teacher Mr F was coming today and she started crying saying "not today" and I told her that it will be ok and on Friday we will have her first afternoon at school.

We were then chatting about all of the fun things that she had done when we went to the transition sessions.

The lunch (which she now has decided she didnt like), story time and her getting to know her new teacher session

I just hope she doesnt decide to run upstairs when he comes (perhaps I will close the stairgate) but I think she is too nosey and will want to know whats going on :)

completing tumble tots

Evie did her last official Tumble Tots session yesterday...

...Evie gave the lady who runs it her thank you card (and we included a photo of Evie in the card too) which was appreciated :).

I asked if it would be ok to do a photo of Evie getting her certificate (I had seen someone doing it last year so I was sure it would be ok), and they said yes.

When it started I was surprised by how few kids were there, there was only 10.

The kids were then split into 2 groups (it was a circuit this week as it is the end of term).

Then halfway through everything stopped and they did stretchy lycra and then carried on going around the circuit.

Then it was finished and the kids did their end song/dance and then it was certificate time, and they said that we could take photos (so that was good).

holding her certificate

We gave out the sweets and we didnt even have to open the second packet and that included giving a packet each to the ladies who do it too.

a welcome back hug

It was back to pre school yesterday after our holiday and Evie wasnt keen on going back...

...I gave her a cuddle and told her that she would have fun ;o)

When we walked in D (her key worker) gave a huge "Ive missed you" hug which was lovely ;o)

Today we have the next "starting school" step which is leaving Evie there for an hour and a half.

She has already said that she doesnt want to go!

Ive told her that she will have a fantastic time and will meet some new friends...

song story story song

I had been telling Evie that we were going to her school yesterday for story time and she seemed ok with it, but when we went up to get her changed into her school dress (she was the only one wearing uniform again) she started crying so I gave her a cuddle and told her that I would be with her and we would have fun.

But because James was with us she did her full "screaming" bit knowing that it has worked (at getting her out of going somewhere) in the past, but it didnt work this time because it was something for her rather than me.

We got to Evies school just before the start time, and I saw there was a backlog of parents with children waiting to be allowed in....

...a few minutes later we moved forward and I had to give them Evies name and then we followed everyone else into the room where we had our original presentation for the parent tour.

We sat down and the two Reception teachers came in with some other ones (for moral support I guess :)).

We started off by singing the wheels on the bus, then we had a story Ridiculous and then Peace at Last and then we finished with singing if your happy and you know it.

She had a big smile on her face and enjoyed herself so that was good.

On our way out her teacher was on the door saying goodbye to the kids and saying that he will see them for the induction visit :)

I have told her that next time we go I will have to leave her there for an hour and a half...

...I know that one is going to be hard!

another thing to take tissues to

Yesterday at Tumble Tots we were waiting for the previous class to finish and another Mum came in with her little girl "E"...

...she said to E tell Evie what you did yesterday?

so she told us that she did her ballet show, as Evie has her end of year show coming up in July I asked how she was and she said she was fine :)

She also warmed me to take tissues as the Mums and Grannies were crying...

...incidentally the dvd guy was there too, as we were first on the list we managed to gets Evies done before it even started :)