It was certainly not always the case but nowadays schools pay a lot of attention to the business of transition. There are meetings and visits - even home visits. It's all about helping children to overcome their anxieties and get off to a good start.
Today Phoebe spent the morning in her new school, including time in her assigned classroom. Frances took a couple of hours off work so that she could be there with her. Father Stewart is currently away in Stockholm, Sweden on a work-related trip.
Phoebe can be very shy with strangers - often clamming up like a mute but today all went well and she was happy as the accompanying photograph perhaps reveals.
Having been enrolled at a nearby nursery school when she was eighteen months old, Phoebe is already quite familiar with classrooms and the way that educational institutions operate so I expect that her transition to the primary school will be quite painless. However, sadly, she will no longer be coming to Grandma and Grandpa's house every Thursday. I freely admit that we will miss those days and the special influx of joy she has always brought us.
Time marches on.
These years seem to speed by so fast. She looks so grown up already at four and a half.
ReplyDeleteShe can be very grown up but happily very silly too.
DeleteNext thing you know, you'll be at her high school graduation!
ReplyDeleteI would be 85. I doubt that I will make it that far Debra.
DeleteOf course you will, why wouldn't you? It's only 13 years away!
DeleteShe's growing up right before our eyes. Phoebe will do very well in primary school and grandpa and grandma will have to be happy with the occasional school holiday.
ReplyDeleteGrandma and Grandpa will bring her home from school every Thursday.
DeleteOh, I hope she loves school. She looks so happy and grown up in the photo!
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with school is that you don't just go for one day!
DeleteI was a very shy child, and terrified of anything new, like school. I'm glad they give children the time to get used to changes, beforehand. I can't believe she's already four and a half either. Time does fly.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to imagine you being a shy little thing Pixie!
DeleteI was so shy, it felt like a handicap. Nursing kind of beat it out of me:)
DeleteAs a man with three delightful toddler grandchildren (soon to be five!), I feel your transition pain.
ReplyDeleteYou mean that twins are on their way? Good job you have two knees to bounce them on.
DeleteWill she be in kindergarten? Already? Damn! Time flies when you watch kids grow up. At the end of July my school will welcome a fresh batch of kindergarten children. They always seem like such babies at the beginning of the year, and I feel sorry for the scared, unhappy ones.
ReplyDeleteI don't really know what kindergarten means. We rarely use the term in England.
DeleteTerminology obviously varies. There's even a second potential sense of "transition" - though some way over the horizon for anyone Phoebe's age.
DeleteFrom the sounds of things she seems to be settling in quite nicely!
ReplyDeleteShe knows nothing about Donald Trump, Iran or Gaza. I envy her.
DeleteShe's a cutie and looks eager to learn. I had not realized that Father Stewart had taken his vows. Guess I may have missed that.
ReplyDeleteGlad you spotted that deliberate "error" Father Bruce.
DeleteTime seems to March on rapidly for the elderly!!! Phoebe looks like she's enjoying the activities today.
ReplyDeleteIt's bittersweet. They're growing up before our very eyes, but it is also a joy to see them well prepared for the next step. She looks a very confident little girl.
ReplyDeleteSchool already?? It doesn't seem like almost five years since we first "met" Phoebe. It also doesn't seem like three years since the twins were born. I'm very glad Phoebe is adjusting well and she does seem keen to get started with school. she will be able to tell Margot all about it and when the time comes Margot will have all the information she needs to follow big sister's steps.
ReplyDeleteRiver, that helped me a lot - my big sister is one year older, and when she started school, I was very jealous of her going there without me every morning, and having homework to do in the afternoon, which looked VERY important, while I had NO homework! I made her play school with me, we had a blackboard and chalks in our play room, and that's how she taught me to read and write a year before I started school myself.
DeleteShe is such a beautiful child, truly.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to see them striding out on their own but immensely rewarding too.
I remember going to a leaving concert for my daughter's end of primary school days. They sang "one more step along the road I go". I sat there and cried through the whole thing.
Our youngest grandchild, Harry started school.last September. He's the last. That has a poignancy all of it's own.
Chin up, Mr Pud!
Like Bruce, I noticed "Father Stewart".
ReplyDeleteLovely picture of Phoebe! My personal experience was that it made a big difference knowing that my best friend from kindergarten and I were starting school at the same time, in the same class. Since we lived in terraced houses, separated only by one thin wall, we walked to kindergarten and later to school together every morning. So, if Phoebe already knows some of the others that will be in her class, that'll give her a big boost.
And of course she can still come to your place often, can't she?
She looks lovely, fresh and eager for the adventure called life.
ReplyDeleteOur youngest grand daughter starts school in September, I share your pain.
ReplyDeleteThose years since her birth have flown past - it barely seems possible. I'm sure she will settle in well
ReplyDeleteJust think how much she will have to tell you when you see her!
ReplyDeleteI love the photo of Phoebe that you selected. Her face, for me, captures the innocence of childhood. Time does have a way of slipping by so quickly. When I taught in middle school, grades 6-8, I was always amazed that when I got the students as 6th graders they seemed like such babies, then by the time they were ready for high school in grade 8, they had transformed into young adults.
ReplyDeleteIt's a big step for little ones - they so look forward to going to 'Big School' - but it is bittersweet for grandparents who have had the pleasure of their company regularly. Suddenly, these grown-up four-year-olds look so little in their new school uniforms.
ReplyDeleteMy great-granddaughter is also starting school in September.
As your children moved out of your lives, so will your grandchildren. It does seem like yesterday when you announced the birth of Phoebe.
ReplyDeleteAre we growing older at the same rate?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I absolutely cannot believe how fast time passes and the children in our lives make that absolutely undeniable. We're barely over the amazement we have that they're here at all and then at how quickly they learn to walk and talk and next thing you know, they're in kindergarten and suddenly, don't blink! talking about colleges.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful girl she is, ready to leap into this next part of her life.
It's astonishing that Phoebe is already school-age. Working in a school has really driven home to me the passage of time. Kids who were in kindergarten when I started in the library are going to be seniors next year.
ReplyDeleteDawn used to look after our granddaughter every monday, and when the time came for the little un to go to school i think she went through a minor bereavement...... she occasionally gets to take the young one to and from school now though and we now get a video conference every evening at bedtime!! everything changes, as a wise man once said!
ReplyDeleteShe is such a beautiful child! Is she a "lefty"? Of my four grandchildren, the two boys are both left-handed.
ReplyDeleteTo me that seems young for primary school - here that's not until they turn 6. And that first year is still called "preschool" and did not become compulsory until in 2018. (Having no grandchildren of my own, I had to look that up!) Back in my own childhood (a hundred or so years ago) we did not start school until the year we turned 7...
ReplyDelete