Home Education- For Grandad!!

This week we got the letter, the letter that says the wee one is growing up, the letter that says life is about to change, and for a wee while each day the house will be a sadder and quieter place.
Aye the wee one got her call up papers, it is her time to join the establishment and start her journey in the school system. Nursery although not exactly regimented like school, is that first step on the learning and social ladder, the wee one could not be more excited and this granddad could not be more forlorn!!

The call up papers were quickly followed by a letter from the Doctors instructing me to make an appointment for the wee one to receive her booster immunisations, well aware of the importance of theses small jabs, I booked the appointment and took the wee one to the surgery, explaining to her that this was to allow her to go to school and it would only nip a little. The law enforcer aka the wife chummed us along to the appointment with more than an air of confidence that we might just need her......I mean what could she know that a wise old granddad did not? Fast forward to the end of the appointment and I am not sure who was more traumatised the wee one, me or the nurse!! The only one left with any air of calmness was...aye you guessed it the law enforcer!!

The two events of the week had me thinking about what was coming next, as my Nana used to say all things come in threes, in the name of the gods what could possibly come next!!!
All of this got me looking to the past, and what the future might throw at me next, and if there were lessons aplenty from my first time round, lessons that I could draw on over the future months. I thought for a few minutes, then several hours and indeed all-night, no answers jumped forward, bar one.....aye the law enforcer aka the wife like the sweeties smarties had the answers.
As it turns out although I consider that I was a dotting dad and that I worked hard for the family, my hard work often took me away for weeks aye months at a time earning the money that would help bring the family up. However as we all know money can not buy you the gift of time, time spent with your wee ones, experiencing the highs and lows of their lives and the impact that they have on all around them!

Aye so there was the third bit of news in the wee ones life, there was the back up, the proof that one of Nanas sayings was spot again, things do come in threes, firstly the call up papers, followed by the booster jags quickly followed by the revelation, that wise old granddad was back at school as well, learning this whole parenting thing from a different angle....aye the home front, The front line of parenting, where a phone call and a sympathetic ear from afar had given me no advantage this time round when dealing with the problems and scenarios face to face.
So the fact I listened to the law enforcer aka the wife and sympathised with her the day she dropped off our first born at the school for the first time and the fact I said what a shame it was when she explained about the doctors visit that had went badly,had given me very little, aye no understanding of the situations what so ever, as it only had the impact of conversation, not a visual memory with full volume!!

So as the wee one goes to the establishment and starts her journey, granddad is off to night school, luckily no travel is required because the classes are at home and the teacher is the law enforcer aka the wife, I can only hope it is not like school the first time round. All of this backs up yet another of my Nanas beliefs and another one of her sayings, Nana believed in education from the cradle to the grave and always said even an old fool can learn something new to be foolish about!