The first residential 

A whole night away. At six?? That was the reaction from a few people when I told them that my youngest was off on her first residential.  She wasn’t bothered, though.  She has been counting down for weeks and weeks and the last few days were filled with excited chatter about all of the things they were going to do.

Of course, this isn’t my first residential as a parent, there have been quite a few over the years.  Some in the UK, some abroad and I think that they are an amazing opportunity for kids.  I have even been on a few myself as a teacher or helper and it gives kids the chance to try new things and to experience a few days away from home which is a huge step for some.

For A, she has had a few sleepovers with grandparents and so has been away from home before, she has even done a sleepover at school, so I wasn’t worried about her at all. If anything I was more worried about me as I knew that whilst she was off having fun, I would really miss her.

The suitcase had to be packed four days before she left and having been told that she should pack the case herself, she carefully went through everything and then threw it in the case (which I then emptied and put back in a little bit more neatly) and we had a long debate over which of her many, many soft toys she was going to take and then it was done.  Even though it was only one night and two days, she had enough stuff for about a week and having done this a few times now, I was pretty certain that most of it (if not all of it) would come back unworn.

There was one thing that was worrying her.  Her hair.  Her hair is quite long now and each morning she sits down in the middle of the living room for me to brush it and follow her instructions for the day. She has never been able to do it herself and we spent a long time with me modelling how to make a ponytail and her getting her hair into a kind of half in half out bun. In the end, she managed some sort of ponytail and was happy.

The morning arrived and unlike the usual cries of “I’m too tired” or “I need a few more minutes sleep”, she positively bounced out her bed and would have probably left for school straight away, she was so excited.  She insisted on dragging her suitcase to the car and there was no long drawn out goodbye, just a “see you tomorrow mum.”

Of course, two days fly by and  it did seem really strange not having her around.  It is weird when one of your children isn’t there, it is a little bit like missing a limb.  Her brothers didn’t even realise she had gone until about 9:30 when one of them asked where she was.

They were back by the end of school the next day and the parents gathered excitedly when the bus arrived.  Out she came with her suitcase wearing exactly the same clothes that she had left in the previous day (I was relieved that she had at least changed her underwear and socks).  She couldn’t wait to tell me all about her time away.  They had done lots of exciting activities, she told me about the food, what she had eaten, how she had made her own sandwiches that morning and all about their ‘dorm’.  Her dorm had won the prize for being the tidiest and she received a certificate and a wristband as a reward. But even more exciting was the big reveal of what she had bought in the shop; a rather nice red torch.

As for the hair, well luckily one of the Year 3 girls in her dorm had managed to plait it for her and it looked fine.  Phew.

It will be two years now until she goes on another, longer residential and she has already started the countdown but I am glad that it was such a positive experience and I know how lucky we are that the staff at the school give up their time to take the children on these trips as it is a lot of work but it is so worth it to give the children such an amazing opportunity.