As Ned was starting school I went to a pre start induction meeting at his Förskola (first school, sort of like reception year), which was all in Swedish....obviously.
I got the gist of most from the various speakers (Hi, my name is...., I live in.....I have children/grandchildren/dogs), but a lady had been talking for a while and people were laughing and I was stumped. Then she said 'nittar' and people started scratching their heads. I suddenly realised that she is the school nurse discussing nits! I swear I nearly shouted it out, just to prove I could understand.
There was a lot of paperwork, and included was a list of required stuff:
- a rucksack
- plastic water bottle
- an a4 folder
- a hammer
- a box for extra clothes
- extra clothes
- rainwear
We had most of the required items, just needed to get extra rain clothes and the hammer. Wait, what? A hammer? It appeared google translate didn't quite work, and I'm still not entirely sure what the correct word should have been. Unless he was to dress up as Thor?
First day arrived, and I decided to be brave, and I didn't need Jim to hold my hand, I took the kids to school myself. As with most things involving schools here, we had no idea where Maisie was going - which classroom, or even who her teacher is. Having dropped her off (not actually seeing where she went, as she ran off with friends), I took Ned over to his class which is in a different building.
First day arrived, and I decided to be brave, and I didn't need Jim to hold my hand, I took the kids to school myself. As with most things involving schools here, we had no idea where Maisie was going - which classroom, or even who her teacher is. Having dropped her off (not actually seeing where she went, as she ran off with friends), I took Ned over to his class which is in a different building.
So we found his locker, put all his things away, registered him and got his name sticker. We then all trooped into class where the kids found their name cards and sat on the mat.
The teachers started taking to the kids, and Ned sat their looking all little and alone, the teacher then asked him (in English), if he understood Swedish to which he replied, with a little quiver in voice, 'Um not much', 3 things happened.
- The teacher said, 'well we'll help you with that'
- The other parents all went 'ahh'
- I cried.
Completely useful thing to do, I know!
Now in the UK, if a parent had done that I'd offered some support, but not in Sweden. Oh no. I was left alone, a veritable social pariah. 🙄 Anyway after a bit, parents started to filter out, so I said bye to Ned, who was happy to let me go, and went and did the food shopping.
I was to collect Ned at 12, and Maisie would finish at her usual time of 13.20. So imagine my surprise and heart stopping realisation when 2 of Maisie's friends walked into Ned's playground to meet their mum's and I realised that she was finishing at 12 too!
Ned came running out with a big smile on his face, and when we went over to collect Maisie, he was so happy he ran over and gave her a hug! Maisie, is transpires, had come over to Ned's building but not seeing the car (parked elsewhere) she went back to school to wait for us. Sensible girl.
Tuesday started well - both kids were happy to go to school, but I forgot Ned's snack and he was not happy with me, so when we got home he refused to get out of the car. Maisie on the other hand, was going to come home on the bus. So we'd checked the bus timetable and told her if she missed the 13.31 but, there was another at 14.01. The bus takes 10 minutes and is 2 minutes walk from the house. So when she wasn't home at 14.25 I knew something had gone wrong - I was so worried I couldn't drink the cup of tea I'd made to distract me, so that I wouldn't worry!
I put Ned back in the car, unsurprisingly he didn't want to get in it, even though earlier he didn't want to get out, and drove to school trying to ignore the gleeful cackles from Ned about Maisie being missing! There she was waiting at the bus stop, she hopped in, and again I burst into tears for the second day in a row. Bless her, she looked really worried for me! She explained that school hadn't finished at 13.20, but at 14.00!
We made it home through a haze of tears and mascara (mine) and after a few reassuring hugs (Maisie to me!) we checked her schedule, sure enough every day except Wednesdays Maisie finishes at 13.30.
Back at school in Braunton every morning the kids did 'Wake Up, Shake Up!'. Maisie in particular loved in, and was at the front pretty much every day. Jim and I rocked it too, quite often the first parent onto the floor! Thankfully the kids hadn't learnt to be embarrassed by us yet. Anyway, Im listening to Sara Cox on the radio 2 breakfast show and she's playing the Cha Cha Slide that the kids danced too, and I might try to convince school to do the same thing - heck I'll even lead............😜💃
We're now at the end of the second week, it has all gone well - I've even stopped crying!
