This week marks the end of a milestone... my oldest son finishes primary school. Somehow, in the seven years he has been there, we have lived in two houses, two townhouses, one villa, two apartments, two motel rooms, a few weeks at the grandparent's house, a night sleeping on some dining room chairs in a pub and a night sleeping in the car, but he always been at the same school.
It's been interesting to see how different schools do their graduation ceremonies, as many of his old school friends who have changed schools, have Mums on my Facebook account, so I get to some of the differences. Our school said their school uniform was compulsory for the night, where most of the other schools got dressed up in their finest wares. Some schools had awards for the best 'artist' or best 'computer whiz' etc, where other schools had pennant flags to commemorate their final year at primary school.
Our school graduation was on Monday night in one of the local high school theatres. All the graduates sat on the stage and in groups of two-five children, did a little speech about their time at the school. My son mentioned that he had written about seventy percent of his group's speech, and, for someone who felt uncomfortable getting up and doing a speech at the start of the year, I had many mums come up to me after and say how much of a natural talent he was and how funny he is. It made me feel very proud. he told me that he had been practicing his speech to get it right for a while, but it wasn't just the words he said, it was the natural actions and comedic timing that made his speech work really well. After each of the speeches, they were given a graduation certificate that was accompanying with a sheet of head-shots of all the children in their year level. After a few speeches from the school principal and school council president, they had a slide show of the 'year that was' and pics of the children in Prep to what they look like now... amazing the transformation.
It was funny how puberty was entering into the equation... there was one boy who had a very obvious breaking voice, girls who just seemed to be a lot older than twelve in the way they acted and have matured, and some of the height on these kids is just amazing.
And the celebrations keep going... on Tuesday they had a graduation lunch with the teachers who had taught them over the years, Wednesday they went to the beach for fish n chips with their Prep buddies to say goodbye plus the annual Christmas Carols night, and on Friday it the big farewell as their final day of school (plus a family orientated barbecue in a park that's been organised). It's a big week, with Christmas on top of it all, but it's not only big physically, it's also big emotionally. As a parent, you realise exactly how much your little babies have really grown up.
I was talking to a Year 5 mum tonight about what the Year 6 kids are doing - phone calls at 10pm between girls and boys, meeting friends at the local fish-n-chip shop for a casual dinner, organising to go to a party at 7pm and getting themselves there, and coming home on their bikes (with their night lights) around 9.30pm... Their sense of independence has just come out in only just the last few weeks. This Year 5 mum was a little horrified that her little baby is only a year away from all this happening, but understands at the same time, that she needs to let him grow.
We are lucky though, that we live in a fairly safe community that it's OK for our kids to be out by themselves with their friends as long as they respect the boundaries. And next year, when they are in Year 7, those boundaries will be pushed even further... gone will be the days that he will want to go to the movies with me, gone will be the days that he will want to be seen shopping with me, gone will be the days where I will be needed to be anything but a taxi driver and a food supplier. Look, I know it won't be that bad, as I have a pretty amazing bond with my kids, but for some parents, they don't, and the Year 6 Graduation is really the end of an era that their kids are no longer their babies...
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