Peter's first day at "big school" 2010

Peter had his first day of big school last week. He started on Thursday and unfortunately it was not a great start. He began the morning very excited all happy smiles ready to go to preps and meet some new friends and see his teacher Miss H again. Daddy drove Mummy Peter and the two bubba's up to the school dropping us of at the front car park with 10 minutes till bell time having previously been told that the prep grades would be starting at 9am along with the rest of the grades. As it turned out there was some miss-communication between staff and admin and school for preps didn't actually start till 9:30am, this messed with us a bit because mummy had the babies to contend with as well as an emotional 5 year old for the next half an hour.
We passed the time with a wonder rounds the playground and a couple of rice crackers I had stashed in the pram (thank god!!) Finally the big moment arrived ,the classroom door opened and out stepped a complete stranger!!!! Peter looked at me and I back at him as we listened to an announcement saying Miss H was not well and unable to be at school today...as you can imagine this did not go down well with the parents or students and Peter built up his tantrum from a level 5 to a full blown level 10!!!! Once I got him inside the classroom and we had his bag and hat on its hook I got him seated on the mat with the other children and with the help of the teachers aid I managed to de-tangle myself from him and leave him crying, yes I felt like a crappy mother but I also knew that within 2 minutes of my leaving he would of stopped and settled a lot better then if I had stayed there..(which is exactly what happened) As I walked the short distance home I asked God to watch over my boy and to help me be calm. It began to rain just as we reached the house and continued to do so for most of the day. I felt very sad for the preppies who had been looking forward to starting school with their teacher ready for a big adventure and the teacher was away and now it was raining spoiling any chance of outside play for them. When I picked my very tired boy up at the end of the day he was excited to tell me about what he had done and handed me his newsletters like a very grown up boy *sigh* gone was my baby and replaced was a big boy who had bravely taken his first steps towards the very long years of schooling ahead. I was very proud of him.
This afternoon as we prepare for the school week ahead packing lunch boxes and ironing uniforms I am really hoping and praying for a much better start to the school week for Peter and all the other preps in his grade. Thankfully Miss H will be back on Monday and I know Peter is very excited to see her again. Thanks to all on Facebook for your good wishes for Peter he really like being read out your messages.