Hey Plain Jane

Jack’s first day of big school. Which is not really big, you understand. It’s relative to the concept of Kindy/Day Care/Preschool.  John took the morning off work and came with us out to the school (a fair hike I need to remark). We were in plenty of time, there was no panic or stress.  Jack was fine. He was actually excited to go there. And I was surprised he announced it to be “awesome” in his summary comments at the end of the day. He looked very fine. Very grown up. The whole gush of emotion I had thought might come from me never came. The whole day was so relaxed and even keel one would hardly even guess that something so momentous had taken place in our family life. 

I picked him up at lunch time (a short day today, by way of introduction to the teachers and the general swing of things)

Not many people know this but “Prep” is a non-compulsory year of education. The way the government introduced it —just two years ago now— set it in the minds of most parents as a pre-requisite year. Nope. You could actually give the whole shamooz a miss if you were up for that extra year of heavy duty stay-at-home mum-drum or the alternative, heavy duty Day Care fees. Having said that not sending your child to Prep may put them at a disadvantage in year 1. And Prep is miles cheaper than Day Care fees, even at one of the city’s most expensive non-state schools.