School days

When R is at school, I really miss her. She is so wide-eyed and animated, as most 4 and 5 year olds are naturally. K misses her too and from about 1pm everyday, he asks me several times if it is time to go and pick her up. When we do go to pick her up, it's the highlight of his day. He sometimes hugs her and starts telling her about what he did in the day.
On the 7 minute drive home, we talk about her day at school and we also manage to make plans for the rest of the afternoon. Some days we do some gardening, wash the car, bake bread, and play fun games.
On other days, all she wants to do is watch her favourite children's tv show and raid the fridge for snacks. K is happy to go along with whatever she wants, though I don't know how long this will last!
There is one thing that I'm struggling to get her to do is her spellings and reading books from school. Struggling and she's only in Reception! Now I'm not looking forward to the next 12 years of school that we have to go through!

One particular day, I got out of the car and opened the back door to let the children out. I saw R's face looking at my shoulder. It was a face of terror but she didn't say a word. She just went silent. I asked her what was wrong.
She replied in a very slow and stutter-y manner "There's.....there's something....on your collar"
Me, frozen: Well, what is it R?
R: Erm.....errrr....
Me: WHAT?!? What is it? Is it moving? Is it alive?!
R: Yes I think so

I felt like I wanted to scream and throw off my jacket, but I kept calm. I didn't want the children to see me panic hysterically! It took a lot of focus for me to appear brave and cool. I dropped the bags in my hand and slid off the jacket. I looked at the collar, and there was a small but extremely disgusting insect on the collar. It was a neon green insect with red edges. I flicked it off with an umbrella, shuddering at the thought that it could have gone down the back of my neck! Obviously, the children were fascinated by this insect and wanted to make sure I had not harmed it!

Time for a coffee on my comfy sofa I think!