Day 2 at preschool for Philip and no tears so far. Today, after the drop off rush had settled, I left him for what was supposed to be an hour but ended up being rather more as after a nice chat to other Mums I was in the Head's office (scary) filling out forms.

Philip seemed to settle fine. He went straight outside to play as soon as he was allowed and stayed there all the time. When I went to pick him up he'd been happily digging and exploring the garden with a teacher called Angela.

The kids have half an hour at the beginning and end of the session where they have to stay in their classroom - the end half hour being circle time - but the rest of the time they can choose to play in another classroom (there are 3) or outside. I think Philip will learn to recognise 9.30 on the clock as being the time he's allowed out quite quickly!

Plan for tomorrow is same again but this time I have Charlie in tow, so the parents room will be more chaotic. Philip seems to like nursery school but he says he doesn't like all the people. It must be a bit scary getting used to a new environment with so many new people. Hopefully he'll find his feet playing with the other kids soon - they all seem really friendly.

Forgot to mention, yesterday when trying to find out a bit more about Philip's interests, his teacher started talking about steam coming out of the chimney on the train. Philip said "It's called a funnel"! And today when asked his name by another adult he said "Bing Bong" and laughed. And then after a pause "It's Philip really". Cheeky monkey.