Settling into the new school year

The summer holidays seem like a very long time ago now!

We only got back from holiday two days before the start of term, so it felt like a sudden transition from sunny beaches and late nights to early starts and school uniform. But we are a few weeks in now and have settled back into our routine.

Harry starts this year in Year 6, which has been a big change for him. He has more responsibility within the school, and he has been made a library monitor which means that he has to go in every morning and do some jobs in the library. He has to take more responsibility for himself and his own things, making sure that he has everything that he needs for the day and coping with a more strict timetable. It's a great way to prepare him for secondary school, although he is finding it all a bit overwhelming at first while he gets used to it all.

Mia is going into Year 4 which is starting to feel quite grown up. She has a proper timetable too which she is really excited about and loves checking to see what she has coming up each day. We've had a few wobbles over the last couple of weeks due to shifting friendships within the class, but I'm hoping that it will settle down.

There are lots of exciting things to look forward to this term. They've both had one school trip already with several more planned, and they are really excited to be taking part in the Young Voices choir at the O2 next year - Harry took part in 2018 and had a brilliant time.

We seem to have got into a routine of letting them stay up a bit later, which I suppose is only natural as they get older but it is impacting our evenings - gone are the days of having them both tucked up and fast asleep by 7pm! Luckily they can be left to read alone in their rooms now before bed, as long as I remember to tell them to go to sleep at some point.

I do like this time of year, the calm period before the madness of the Christmas season kicks in.