Last week my daughter started school. 

She was very excited and in the weeks before had ranged from saying she would have "200 ideas on her first day" to 2,000,000,000. I was proud and a bit sad when we sent her on her way. But I had a smile on my face.

I had decided a week before that I wanted to buy her a special gift for her first day. I wanted something that was special enough that she might remember it in a few years but also something that she could enjoy immediately. I got a lot of helpful suggestions but couldn't come up with that one thing that would do the trick. She'd get bored with a toy by the end of the year. Jewellery would either get lost or quarantined until she was old enough to wear it. I thought about a laptop but decided by the time she's in her mid-teens a laptop would have been long gone (and about as exciting as getting a new haircut).

Then it hit me. If you can't find one present that will do the trick, make a virtue of buying many. And so was born Imogen's Box of Mystery. The Box is a cross between a time capsule - one suggestion from a friend -  and J. J. Abrams' Mystery Box. 

This is what  it looks like from the outside.



And inside.



Inside were five presents. One to be opened before the start of her first day at school, one at the end. Those two presents are the ones on the left and were a happily received set of stamps and a harmonica. The other presents were labelled: "open on the holidays", "open at the start of year three" and "open at the start of year eight." 

Many people don't think my daughter will be able to wait but I think she will. And I'm already thinking about extra presents I can add along the way.

Unfortunately I can't tell you what the other presents in The Box are just yet. But if you, me and this blog hang around long enough, I'll tell you down the track.