I think I remember my first day at school. Sometimes true memories get muddled with the photographs and cine movies that were created to protect them.
I look at this picture and I remember the little flower my mum sewed onto my pinafore. Every year we got to pick out a new decoration, from the drawers in the haberdashery store. I remember my first classroom, in an old sandstone building with windowsills too high for a four year old to peek out of. I remember the rocking horse, sitting next to a boy named Kevin, and my teacher, lovely Mrs Pearce. I ran into Kevin in a pub once as an adult and he was missing several front teeth. Mrs Pearce sadly died from breast cancer a few years ago.
In this photo I'm a few months older than my Geekygirl is right now, I was almost five. If we lived in the UK she would start school this week, since she turns five in February. Here in California, kids have to turn five by December of the year they start school, so she will start next year, and be one of the older kids in the class. I'm finding myself a little anxious about this. Will she always be behind her UK peers, starting school a year late? On the other hand I'm glad that we have one more year of our familiar routine, dropping both kids at the same place, a preschool that they and I love. I'm dreading the logistics of ferrying the kids to different places; to school, afterschool programs, preschool, having two sets of committees and events to remember.
I'm going to enjoy this last uncomplicated year.
And I will be sure to take a photo just like this of Geekygirl on our patio on her first day of school.
Thanks to mum and dad for the picture.
