A big first.

Today was a very big day for our Muddy Family, our eldest little girl went to big school for her Kindergarten Orientation! As of next year she will no longer be my Muddy Preschooler, but my Muddy Kindergartener (not sure that is a word, but sounds good to me!). It's such a massive thing when your child starts school, especially when it's uncharted territory because she will be the first of our Four Muddy Kids to start her school journey. I know that it's ONLY orientation, but it's still a prelude for what's to come on 30th January (we've been sent all the info).

The day didn't get off to such a great start, I slept in, got out the invitation to orientation and realised I had forgotten to RSVP to let them know we'd be coming (a frantic phonecall to the school assured me that they had a name tag ready for her)! Then Muddy Girl 2 bit Muddy Preschooler on the arm (a little bit of jealousy going on at the moment). I also had to do a Harvest drop off to my Muddy Mum-in-laws before we could head into town. I was VERY worried about how we were going to go as she asked questions non stop all the way to town 'where will you be, who's going to be there?, what will you be doing in the hall?, what will my teacher tell me?, what will I learn?'. Muddy Preschooler also announced that she wasn't going to drink anything because she didn't know where the toilets were! I answered these questions as patiently as I could and we managed to arrive on time, and I reassured her they would show her where the toilets were!

I must say I have never been so grateful to have her already catching the bus, as she walked in and before I knew it, she had several Year 5 and 6 girls saying hello and taking her down to play in the playground before she had to line up and go into class! Off went my Muddy Almost Kindergartener as happy as could be, while I was tearing up at how well she was doing and how overwhelmed I was feeling! It couldn't have been a better start to her school life. I think though, that I'll probably need a full box of tissues for her very first full day in January!

They each got an Orientation bag with their name on it, a workbook of activities they did and a spider they made.



Our Muddy Preschooler explaining her workbook to Muddy Girl 2



She loves this workbook, sat down tonight and kept practicing her writing and colouring! It's going to be a long few months until January.