First day!

It was Nina's first ever day of school today! Here she is in her little uniform. She had a good day. She was really looking forward to it, which was cute. I'm feeling happy overall, and mostly positive about the school; they did a home visit where we got to know the teacher and TA a little, and I think that was really helpful for her. They noticed that she had made a friend when we visited the school for a play session, and they've put her in the same class as this girl. And she enjoyed herself.
    Here's what she did - according to her: she went across the monkey bars by herself, swinging (ie, hanging from her hands); she ate pizza with vegetables, broccoli and yogurt for dessert, and got a sticker for eating most of her lunch; they did the bear hunt story and two songs ('twinkle, twinkle' and 'if you're happy and you know it'), and they made things out of buttons that click together. The school is letting her go full time this week rather than settling in slowly - thankfully; for one thing we don't have alternative childcare and for another she's been so psyched about going that she really appreciated it. She even said to me, "thank you Mummy for asking if I could start on Monday". Overall, the teacher seems very nice, the school seems friendly and happy, and Nina was happy. 
    And here's why I feel a little ambivalent, I think. First off, when you pay for private nursery or a childminder you have a bit of power; when you're in the state school system, or any school system, not so much. The school could announce any number of odd and inconvenient policies pretty much at any time, though they haven't yet; they could equally make it really hard for working parents to participate or communicate with the school, they could (gasp) fail to understand how absolutely wonderful my child is and how brilliant and amazing and talented and smart and, and, and .. she could get bored or any number of things could befall her. Everyone feels this ambivalence, I imagine, or lots of people, anyway (not that she's not brilliant and all that). 
   To be honest this wasn't our first choice of schools. It's rated 'Good', and it seems 'Good'. The Ofsted report does, however, mention that more could be done to challenge the children. There's an 'Outstanding' school closer, which we weren't quite close enough to; who knows if it would be better. I imagine that at some point in the next few years we'd get an offer there, but maybe not. So that's one reason for ambivalence. The next is that they sent home a newsletter with two relatively big grammatical errors. Sentence fragments. A reminder that even teachers don't know what sentences should be. Like this one. Drives me crazy. Grrrrrrrrrrr. There's a note in there about parent volunteers, prompting A to suggest that I offer to proofread their written materials (!). I know: teachers of four-year-olds don't need to know about sentence fragments, right? But, but, but ... it's a school. 
   Anyway, Nina: I can't believe you are so big, looking all grown up in your uniform, and I'm excited for you that this is all just starting, and I can't wait to share it all with you. 

Meanwhile, we have a baby, too .. she is talking lots more. The other day Nina was upstairs whining because she wasn't feeling well. Annika said to me: "Nini, whine?". It was cute. Annika loves being up, out and about; she will bring everyone their shoes and head for the door. If you're sitting, she'll come up, and say, firmly, "up". If you then try to pick her up, she'll say "Noooooooo! mummy up", or papa even, and she'll pull your clothing or your hands. She loves animals, loves watching and hearing birds and mimicking their sounds, and her smile is to die for. She doesn't eat. She's putting more words together; we'll have sentences next. "ball, down ..", "mik, where? papa". She knows where the ball is, who's getting the milk, whose shoes are whose, and that you need shoes to go outside.