The Cuddle Train, School Years end, School year 2016/2017

Written but not shared, last year….

Who ever thought of a cuddle train and where  did the cuddle train come from? 

Well….. every year, since my eldest started school 8 years ago, we’ve had these wonderful school days record books (Helen Carr, out of print but you can still get some second hand ones on Amazon – go on – look them up!) Bought for all 3 of my boys by their auntie and God Mother and these books are fab! They follow your child through school, from pre school to the end of secondary school and are all about, well, school.  Who was your teacher? What was your favorite subject? What did you wear? – eat? play? – you get the idea. Also space for a self portrait and report card and every day things like shoe size, weight and height, but the best bit about these books – apart from looking back to see my now 12 year old used to want to be a footballer, a scientist and more recently a YouTuber! Is the bit the teacher fills in and the fact you have their memories of your child at that given year in there too! 

So, back to the cuddle train. It’s always a lovely moment when you get your book handed back by your child’s teacher. It’s a cup of tea moment, a time to sit down, take a step back from the hum drum of the daily routine – read their latest comments and look back over the years gone by and , well have a bit of a reminisce! 

This year, the naughtiest thing that my youngest did was creating the hug train. When I read this I just creased up into heaps of laughter – a cuddly soul, I can see him now,  “ pst, pass it on, let’s all cuddle Miss!” and so the image is conjured up, of my son’s lovely teacher with a conga style hug train of 30 children stretching back behind them and what a wonderful image this is – I can almost feel the hysterical laughter as the children joined ranks, one after another, forming a long train back from their teacher-like we’ve all done many a time round the dance floor – I can hear them, see them, and imagine exactly how funny that would have been as if I had been a spectator – watching through the classroom window.

A cuddle train- a spectacular, wonderful, crazy hug train – so go on, go and try it because couldn’t we all do with one of those now and again…. 

ph