My eldest, “B1” is starting Prep next year. At his Kindy they’ve been getting the kids ready, and they’ve done such a great job. We’ve also been talking about it at home, getting uniforms organised, lunchboxes etc. so he’s going to know what to expect. We recently went to his Kindy Graduation in preparation to move up to “big kids school”. B1 was so excited about his graduation, as they’d been practising songs to perform and were getting dressed up in special gowns. The pictures are below – how ridiculously cute are they in the gowns?!

Currently he’s in his second week of his Prep Orientation. We call it “Prep Practice”, since he’s practising being in Prep. They go two hours every school day for TWO WEEKS! The school said that it helps the kids get used to the classroom, teacher and routine etc. and that last year on the first official day of school they didn’t have any tears from the kids who had come to the orientation program. They just had a few tears from the parents 😉

It’s been such a great experience for him. Half the kids go 9-11am and the other half 1-3pm, so there is a much smaller class for the teacher to know the kids and it’s less intense whilst they familiarise themselves with the room, routine etc. On the last day the whole class comes together for the morning.

What I’ve decided, though, is that it’s just as much for the parents benefit as for the kids (at least in our case!). It’s been really good practise trying to get the kids organised in the morning, get to the school in peak traffic, find a park and walk him into his room… and not being late.

I confess, we’ve been late. I prefer to think of it as stylishly late 🙂 We’ve also raced in on the bell. And that’s even with hubby home on holidays at the moment helping :/

There was a day we had to get there early to meet a lady to buy a second hand uniform at 8am and then meet the teacher at 8:30am to individually discuss our son. We rushed to get his toilet-training little brother organised and drop him off, breastfeed the baby and pack her solids. We got there on time, only to realise we’d forgotten B1’s lunchbag with his morning tea.

I know it will get easier as we both get into a routine, and when we can drop them off and don’t have to walk them into the classroom…. so for now, I’m making the most of this practice time!

So nearly 2 weeks down… only 16 years of school drop-off’s to go 😀