Being three...

I can hardly believe how quickly this time has flown, and how much of a baby my tiny boy still seems. I feel that I expected much more from Chloe at this age, that I saw her as much older than she really was. Three years is such a little time to have been on the Earth! But he has learned so much and grown so much already, it’s really amazing.

Finn had a train cake (of course) and a lovely Birthday weekend: a visit to the steam trains in Buckfastleigh, and three little friends round for a party in the garden. He loves the Happy Birthday song and just sang that to himself all day! On his actual birthday, Daddy and Chloe were at work and school so we went to visit Phil’s Mum and Grandma. It was lovely, they’d put balloons up and we had a lovely picnic in the park. After school, we went for another picnic at the river which is just a couple of minutes walk from our house (did I mention that already?!) and sang that song again…he's been dancing nonstop since then, too!

So he’s three. And at that tiny age, pre-school. Pre-school. Hmm. Finn’s always been really confident and sociable and has been really keen to go to this exciting place that other children talk about. And I’m working more now, so I duly registered him to start doing one session a week to ‘see how it goes’. And ‘how it goes’ is like this: He’s really excited, he talks about it all week, we go along, he’s bright and happy, he has fun, I stay a bit, I leave for a short while, I come back and we go home. Except that today he had a big fall so I came back when they phoned and stayed for the rest of the session. So it’s ok. He likes playing there and the staff and children are lovely. I don’t know how he’ll be next Friday after the fall today – and annoyingly, I have to work in Exeter so I won’t be flexible to stay all session if he wants me to. It just feels a little bit…pointless?

I can’t see him doing anything there that he can’t do at home (except that he likes the blue bike there and his bike here is red, ho hum), he is used to being listened to intently (not when 15 other children are also talking), to having the things he needs when he needs them (drinks, snacks, toilet, cuddles), to being able to play at his own pace and using his own imagination and creativity, to develop at his own rate… and he is just a tiny little boy. So we’re going to see what happens. To play there once a week is fine. To do more sessions and build up to full-time school (which is the usual plan) is not fine. I think we’ve pretty much decided that part-time schooling will be the way to go at least for the first year when he’s school age, so we have lots of time to think about it and see what will work best for him.