Pre-School Graduation – One Of Many Milestones

Last week Matthew reached another milestone. Hubby and me left work early, after lunch in fact, to attend his graduation play and pre-school graduation. He attended 36 weeks of pre school which is a free scheme in Ireland.

People who have been following my blog for at least the last year, will know that we moved from the North West of Ireland to the East at the end of October. The ECCE scheme started at the beginning of September. It meant Matthew had already received one month of it in the old creche. He did really well to integrate back into a new creche and make new friends. He forgot about the other creche pretty quickly once we all settled in.

He has learnt so many things in creche, from the minute we dropped him off when he was only five months old. He loves being there and he is such a social little guy. He is not shy at all and goes straight in. During the summer he will be still attending creche full-time but from September onwards it will mostly be just after school. It’s going to be a change and I am sure it will take him some time to adjust but he will do well as always.

So last Friday all parents were invited to the pre schoolers play starting at 3pm. Of course I would not miss it for the world. I caught up on my work and drove down to the creche and met hubby there. We were all seated on small little wooden chairs. I had the camera with me though so I stood up along the aisle to take photos and videos.

The play was about fruit and vegetables. It was very cute I have to say. Matthew was the only one who had to choose whether he wanted to wear purple or red. The vast majority wore white, green or orange. It was some job trying to find red trousers and t-shirt. But Next never lets me down with that stuff. And he can wear it again because I got the next size up.

Then us parents waited for another five minutes while the kids got into their graduation outfit which was a black hat and a long black t-shirt. They all sang a song and threw their hats in the end. It was onto receiving their graduation folder from the teacher.

I took a few pictures of Matthew in his outfit but he soon wanted it off him. He is so funny because during the play he spotted the food in his room. He kept pointing to it. So you can probably imagine how happy he was when it was time to sit down and have some treats. There was buns, scones, chocolate lollie pops and drinks. He certainly digged in and gave his little sister some too.

That is the end of an era. This week he has to move rooms. Hubby told me this morning that he wasn’t happy about it but they gradually move them into the other room. His room had 24 children with some of them part time. Surprisingly they dropped to three in the morning. Many kids have dropped out for the summer and many are going to different schools in September. Only one boy out of Matthew’s class will be attending the same school as him. I am sure he will make new friends in no time. Until then we are going to enjoy the summer.