The Years End

While Ruby faced up to the year 5/6 disco with a case of bronchitis last Thursday and hasn't been back to school since, Archie seems to be suffering more from little boyitis. Attending his Preschool concert last week I noticed all the little girls march into the opening number waving their colourful chiffon scarves energetically while the boys trudged in like robots. And none more so than Archie whose rainbow coloured chiffon scarf hung motionlessly at his side. Waving encouragingly at him and mouthing the words to the song didn't help either. As I continued to tape the 'event' I wondered at the point of a video if it looked as though a tranquiliser had been rubbed through his vegemite sandwich at lunchtime. I was busy recalling Ruby at her Preschool concert six years ago, taking centre stage and performing as though everyone had come to see her, when I noticed Archie and friend Nicki had crossed into each other's 'dancing' territory and a up had ensued. Thank god for Teacher's Helperwho immediately stepped in and pulled them apart. I shut down the video camera. Nicki's dad was taping anyway and had a better shot of the action. Then yesterday Archie decided he would like to write some Christmas cards to his Preschool friends. This came as a surprise as Archie doesn't like to write but I jumped up to find some cards and a pen so we could pounce on this leap in social development before it evaporated. I wrote out his friends names (stopped at seven, that's enough, I thought) on some paper and a "Love Archie" for copying and then we were off. One half hour, two marshmellow bribes and several ghost writing techniques later we were only up to friend three. probably because by friend two Archie had lost his original enthusiasm and wanted to drag out the fun by inventing his own font (A zig zaggy little number I dubbed "Storm Warning") however careful application of said font to his emergent writing skills were slowing things down considerably. By friend four I was ready to do myself in by the most painful means available than see the project through. For everyone's sanity I packed the cards away. And as for the baked bean experiment on the cloth place mats let's just hope wasn't watching.