Today we had a parents’ afternoon at Tyler’s school, where I finally found out what they do all day. And it’s not just watching Spiderman or playing with cars as Tyler tells me. No, they actually have classes!

His teacher said that it was hard for them to get used to classes in the early days, as they were used to a short time of structured activity followed by playing most of the time in Reception. She said Tyler and his best friend would look at her forlornly when it was time for class, as they wanted to play like they used to! But they are okay with it now.

Their day goes like this – in the morning one hour of Maths, then break time, then one hour of Literacy, then lunchtime. After lunch they do the other subjects, like PE, Science, History or Art. Very different from Reception. In Science they have been learning about senses, and in History they’ve been learning about personal memories. Last week they had to bring in a toy from when they were babies, so Tyler brought in his little PG Tips monkey and wrote a sentence about it.

Speaking of being a baby, here’s a photo of Tyler 2 and a half years ago at this same playground – how much has he grown?! He is just under 3 years old here.

Nowadays he likes to make silly faces when I bring my camera out 😀

Tyler loves reading and is always writing at home. I keep finding little essays everywhere, like this one:

His teacher said his writing is a bit messy but it’s difficult as he’s left-handed (like me) and you can see he’s trying. Personally, I love how messy it is, he’s a creative! She also said he doesn’t like to make mistakes, so in the early days he wouldn’t write anything as he was afraid of spelling the words wrong (which explain why he’s constantly asking me how to spell this, that and anything!). She said it’s great that he’s now spelling the words how they sound to him and working it out that way.

If you can’t read what he’s written above, this is what it says:

“Monorails could be so slow for … so are local trains
The next train to arrive at Platform 5
High speed trains are faster than monorails, so are local trains
The next train will arrive at Platform 5 will be the 12.12 GWR Western Rail Service to London Paddington.”

Isn’t he the cutest! I love finding these messages in my notebooks!

Actually, the cutest thing happened this afternoon, when I said to him “Hey, your Dada and I went to see Mrs. X today, and she said you are such a good boy” He was lying on the sofa monged out watching TV, when he suddenly gave me all his attention and went “Did she?!!”. There was almost tears in his eyes and he giggled and cuddled me out of happiness. I had no idea how much he wanted to make his teacher happy until that moment. I honestly thought he didn’t care, as he never likes to talk about school. But I was wrong, he cares so much more that I ever would have guessed. Wow, 5 year olds are emotional little things!

Have you got a little one at school? Do they adore their teacher too?

Sabrina x