Ben’s first day of school – the official review!

Last Updated on 7 December 2023 by Colette

In my post on Tuesday I think it was clear that both Ben and I were, on the whole, looking forward to his first day at school today!  He was very excited last night about his big day, though as this video shows the thing he seemed to be looking forward to most was his school dinner:

I think this is probably mainly to do with the amount of time I’d spent focusing on him staying for lunch as being a big change for him and how exciting that would be!

I had worried this morning that it would be hard work getting us all back into routine and that getting everyone ready and out of the house on time would be somewhat challenging.  How wrong was I?  Ben was up, breakfasted, dressed and back downstairs watching tv within half an hour! (On your average school morning this takes about an hour!)   He was somewhat swamped in his new school trousers as I’d failed to get our preferred Next Skinny Fit ones and he’s got normal sized Tesco ones fastened as tight as possible with the elasticated waist things – a lot of fabric bunched up around the poor kids bum!  He still looked pretty smart though.

I was pleased that Chloe insisted on walking to school this morning – we had plenty of time so I was able to oblige!  It will stand us in good stead for November if I can get her walking to school and back happily each day.  Once we’d dropped Ben off at school – slightly leaky eyes from Mummy, not so much as a backward glance or wave from Ben – we went for a cheeky brew in Tesco.  I could get used to girlie coffee and cake with Chloe, if only my purse would allow!

We came home to some jigsaws and a very quiet and cuddly morning in front of the tv.  I think Chloe enjoyed the peace really.  I found it a bit strange having lunch just the two of us and Chlo kept telling me “Ben gone, Ben jobs”.  When she was asleep I took full advantage of the couple of hours to make some clips for my Little Lady Chlo Chlo’s page.  She woke the second I turned the glue gun off so I didn’t quite manage the half hour on the sofa I’d hoped for but never mind – there’s always tomorrow for that one!   By about 14.40 she’d clearly had enough and kept telling me “Muuum, muuuum, get Ben now!”  We ended up setting off for school a good ten minutes early but it at least meant I was able to give Chloe the time to walk again.  She was so excited to see Ben when he came out of his classroom and gave him an enormous squeeze.

So what of his first day?  The most I was able to get out of him was that he was “exhausted” and had had fish fingers for lunch.  (He did tell me at bedtime about the story Mrs Porter had read about a fox which kept sneaking up on a hen.) He didn’t really have a lot to say for himself – which for Ben says a lot!

After an early tea (which I think will probably become the norm now) we packed them both off to bed and were back downstairs by 6.30pm – this is not to say they went straight to sleep, in fact they are both crashing about as I write this now!  Fingers crossed he has a good night though and is ready to do it all again tomorrow!