First year of school Over Already

First-year of school over already!

Ooh, I can’t believe that Isabelle has completed her first year of school already!

This was her on her first day with her brand new uniform, shiny shoes, and a huge grin.

She’s come on leaps and bounds in her first year.

A picture of a five year old girl on her first day of school

The school that she goes to are big on sensory play, outdoor play (come rain or shine), and imaginative play. She would come home completely covered in mud, paint, gloop, or just general grubbiness which are always a sign of a good day.

We stopped eating jacket potatoes at home as Isabelle would choose a jacket potato for her lunch every single day with a variation of topping between cheese or tuna and sweetcorn.

Isabelle absolutely adored her teacher who she is going to miss terribly. Miss Dyke has told her that she can still sit with her at lunchtime when they go back. She might regret that come every lunchtime!

Isabelle turned five the week that she started school so she was more than ready for it, and has soaked up every bit of learning from reading, singing, phonics, and writing.

She constantly sings the jingles associated with phonics and is pretty good at spelling simple words on her own.

She enjoys reading the annoyingly repetitive books that they get sent home with and her descriptions of minibeasts is second to none.

We’ve met her new teacher who seems lovely, and she explained how the children are mixed with year 1 and year 2 and then separated into learning levels. She is going up with a group of her best friends so I think she will absolutely fine.

Since starting school Isabelle has started playing teachers where she plays miss Dyke. We got her a whiteboard which she props up, lines all her teddy’s up, put on her high heels, and adjusts her voice into teacher mode. She has a lanyard with a smiley face, sad face, and listening ear which she uses when talking to the children. She takes the register and then does reading and writing with them. The naughty kid of the class (which I won’t name on the off chance that his parents read my blog) gets told off a lot and quite often ends up sitting on the stairs!

I feel quite sad that she’s going up to year 1. The reception and pre-school have their own self-contained outdoor area with bikes, a mud kitchen, a sandpit, giant building bricks, and a veg patch. Going into year 1 will be more classroom-based and they go into the BIG playground with all the older kids.

It seems like such a big step that Isabelle is more than ready for, but maybe I’m not quite ready yet.

The teen has now completed his first year of college, and we have to consider universities for next September with the application process this September which I’m sooooo not ready for. Boohoo!!

I’m not going to dwell on it. I know they both have to grow up.

Here she was yesterday excitedly clutching her teacher present for the ‘bestest teacher in the world’ in Isabelle’s words!

A photo of a five year old girl holding a teacher present on her last day of schoolA photo of a five year old girl holding a teacher present on her last day of school
We chose a lovely necklace made by a jeweller in Somerset with little shells on it, chosen because Isabelle thinks Miss Dyke is as beautiful as a mermaid! (We got this from the lovely Hyde and Seek Shop).

A photo of a silver shell necklace

*Originally posted in July 2016