Today would have been Monster's first day at school. I know technically he wouldn't have had to start until January but he is 5 next week and as far as I know defered entry until the term after a child is 5 is pretty unusual.
So today we would have dressed him up in his school uniform and taken pictures of him in it which would have remained forever in the family album in the same way as the picture of my first day at school is in my parents'. He would have gone off clutching his new book bag or rucksack or lunchbox.
He would have been entrusted to the care of some other grown up who would have been the first in a succession of other grown ups than me who would see him through the next 11 years. Today would have been his induction into that process. Good or bad, happy or sad memories to follow today would have been a day which he would have always remembered. First Day At School - a rite of passage, something we all have in common, a memory we call upon throughout the rest of our lives and a day which marks a transition from being our parents' child and part of our family to part of society and part of a class and in the system and tagged with a number and reported on and graded and compared and found lacking and measured against every other child who falls within a year of your birth.
Monster won't remember today. For him it has not been marked out as different to any other day. He woke up this morning and had breakfast, ended up not getting dressed until about 10.30 because he was playing. A and I were working on a report so he played and butted in as and when he needed us. He drew a person and tore round it because he couldn't find any scissors then wanted to laminate it. I got out the laminator and pouches and he did it himself. I then suggested that he did a life cycle series to cut out so we debated butterflies and frogs and he chose frogs. So with no help he drew frogspawn, tadpoles, tadpoles with legs, little froglets and fully grown frogs, then a picture of him, A, Teeny and me looking into a pond with a lily pad with the frog sitting on it. I also got out the sharp scissors for him and he used them really well.
Him and Teeny also watched some Discovery Kids on monkeys which sparked discussion about what mammals are and how they differ from other creatures and how we are mammals too.
I then headed off to the post office to send loads of ebay parcels, some birthday cards to our friends in NZ and various other bits which have been sitting around waiting to be sent too.
I came back to find Monster and Teeny playing one of their regular games where Teeny is a puppy called Rocky and Monster is her owner - always seems a bit of an odd one to me but they both love playing it!
I made them lunch and then my Dad arrived to look after them while A and I headed off to trek round his three work sites. From the utter chaos and bedlam we came home to I can only assume they continued to play all day and had a great time - apparantly they made tents in the bedrooms, watched Willy Wonka and role played it, the neighbours had called in with a toy car and a doll for them.
So if you tick off what he has covered today and what he could have been doing today I certainly think the case so far rests with HE.
