What is it about?

The rollercoaster adventures of parenting three kids, dealing with disability and mental health - and discussing disability discrimination and how to tackle it.

Friday 26 October 2007

Little Big Man

Yesterday Possum had his first morning at "big school".


It's one of those orientation mornings, where the kids get to visit their classroom, walk around the school and, most importantly, get to meet their teacher and classmates.


Little Possum was pretty nervous about it. He comes to the school almost every day to drop off his big brother, and has already met both his teachers. It's a small school with a strong community feeling, and he feels pretty comfortable there. But still, this was a big event for the little man.


He was very worried about having to do some writing, and not yet knowing all his letters. Poor little fellow. I had to explain to him that that's what school is for, to teach him these things, and that he's not even supposed to know any letters and numbers. That made him a bit more comfortable, knowing that he was ahead of schedule.


That morning, I pulled out his new school bag and showed him the special pencil case I had ordered for him. It contains lead pencils, coloured pencils, a ruler, an eraser and some scissors, all with his name printed on it. The bag has the school logo on it, and off one of the zippers hangs a redback spider (you know, preserved in resin, on a key hanger). Boy was he proud!


So I dropped him off and went home, taking Boo Boo to bed. What a luxury, a whole Thursday morning to myself, and only one school drop-off. Heaven.


I went back to school at lunchtime to pick up Possum after his big adventure (and Mister Determined, who had a follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon who stitched his finger back together - and by the way, all is healing well. We have a long way to go, but Mr. D. is happy that he is now allowed to swim).


Possum walked out of the class, looking proud as punch. When I asked him how his day had been, he just said "fine" and was not keen to tell me much more. He was happy to show off the work he did - some numbers and colouring in, but was very tight-lipped about what he actually did. It was only in the car on the way back, and again this morning on our way to take Mister D. to school, that Possum was answering his brother's questions about what he did that day. The only other information he was willing to give me was that there was a boy in his class with the same name as his Daddy (as in Hubby) and that that boy used to live in the old house on the school grounds, which will be demolished during the holidays and replaced by 4 new classrooms (the boys is the Deputy Headmaster's oldest), and that there was a nice boy with a Wiggles hat, whom he liked a lot. He also told his Daddy later that evening that "school is a little bit boring, there is lots of learning but not much time to play". Well, he's got that right.


What he completely failed to mention was the plastic bag of wet undies and pants I received from one of his teachers. The novelty of going to the toilet when it's toilet time, having to ask outside toilet time, and the total excitement and novelty of "big school" meant that the little man did a little wee in his pants. Poor tacker. Guess I'll have to spend some time teaching him to go when it's convenient rather than doing a quick dash to the dunny at the very last moment.


Here is a picture of him in the class.


1 comment:

fabig said...

Ja, dat waren dan wel spannende dagen voor jullie allemaal. Gelukkig dat Kai nu mag zwemmen, en natuurlijk jullie allemaal.
Yasha is dan toch een echte 'botsendrisser'. Heeft het je gewoon weg niet gezegd, dat duveltje. Dus ik denk dat hij zich daarvoor erg schaamde.
Het is toch bij jullie nooiet 'boring'.
groetjes Helma