Long gone are the days when my son was a little boy holding my hand on the walk to primary school.   This month he was back to school in the next stage of his school years as he headed to secondary school looking super smart in his blazer and tie.

It has meant a bit of a shake up to our daily routine though with slightly earlier mornings, although fortunately his Echo Dot wakes him up and then I hear him shouting “Alexa, be quiet!”.   He comes downstairs for breakfast before getting dressed and then we head out of the door to travel to school.

With timetables to follow, multiple teachers to get used to and and a new school to learn his way around, the days can be more stressful as he strives to be in the right place at the right time.  I’m so pleased to hear that he’s chatted to the majority of his new classmates in a bid to get to know them and make some new friends.

After school has been a bit tougher on him too.  Instead of getting home and chilling out, he now finds himself more tired after the challenging day of lessons but also has to consider finding time for some homework during the evenings.  I’ve tried to assist him without doing the work, just by guiding him on where to look for things, how to set things out and printing out things to help him, such as his language vocabulary and verbs that he has to learn.

Overall I am super proud of him – he has adapted to his new routine fantastically and certainly taken the challenge of a new school with high standards in his stride.  Everyday brings new little challenges, but with that other things become easier – he’s still mastering the art of getting his tie to the perfect length and remembering to pack his books the night before and not leaving them until the morning but he’ll get there.