Friday was George’s last day in school meaning he has now finished his first year. I’m not entirely sure I will ever get used to how fast he is growing up, but I am trying to enjoy every minute of it 
. Over the course of the year, he has gradually got more tired with small amounts of recovery during each of the holidays. Now he is desperately in need of some down time, but given he is 5 years old, he has little to no inclination to take a break. He is now a bundle of extremely tired energy, bouncing around until he crashes. I think Rosie has her work cut out over the summer!
He has had a brilliant first year in school and seems to have loved every minute of it. George was in Owl class and his teacher was Miss Preece. He thought she was really nice and got on with her really well. Thankfully, she also thought he was a good kid (meaning he kept his naughtiness for whilst he was at home, I suppose that’s the right way round though 
). He has made incredible progress during the year, although only on his terms. When he has decided to put his mind to something, he has learnt it really quickly. Try to teach him something he’s not interested in at the moment and it just doesn’t go in! He has learnt:
- to count to 100;
- to count backwards from 20;
- his 2, 5 and 10 times tables;
- to read much more fluently, and really enjoys it so is progressing very well;
- all his phase 5 spellings (not exactly sure what the phases mean, but he seems to be doing amazing to me!);
- to tell the time on a proper clock!
I am very proud of him .
During the year he has also had the opportunity to do all sorts of great things with the school:
- 5 & 6 December - He was a shepherd in the school Christmas concert, and although we couldn’t actually hear what he was saying, he got up and said his piece without incidence ;
- 3 April - Sponsored fun run;
- 5 April - Easter Bonnet Parade, if they do this again, maybe we won’t let George design the bonnet as it was a little unstable ;
- April and May - George took part in 2 after school clubs on a Tuesday and a Thursday afternoon for 5 weeks, he did Bouncy Balls Club and Story Club;
- June and July - This time he did Gardening Club after school for 5 weeks;
- 23 June - His first sports day, there were 3 races and he seemed to enjoy every minute of it, without caring what position he was in. It was great fun to watch;
- 28 June - George’s first school trip to Cefn Mably Farm.
Also, on World Book Day, George decided he wanted to be Batman. After initially disagreeing with him because Batman wasn’t a character from a book, he produced one of his Batman reading books and we couldn’t refute his logic!
He told me that his main friends this year were Finley, Tomos, Isla, Lowri, Libby, Jack, Sydney and Ollie (at the start of the year mainly).
Outside of school, George has also started going to lessons at the Velodrome to try to help him learn to ride his bike. A lot of his friends can already ride their bikes and he wanted to learn but struggled to get the confidence. Now that we are going to the classes, he is picking it up really quickly . He has also taken up Tae Kwon Do after one of his friends started going with her Dad. So George and I have started going to the same class and he is really enjoying it. I’m not sure whether that is just because his friend enjoys it, but, for now, I don’t mind because it’s great fun .
It really has been a bit crazy how quickly he has progressed with everything since starting school, but I guess that’s what kids are like. They’re sponges, and they seem to absorb everything. I’ve really enjoyed watching him learn and I’m looking forward to seeing him grow again in the coming year as a Shark .