British Royal Family

Prince Louis Is All Smiles on First Day of Nursery School in 3rd Birthday Portrait

In honor of his third birthday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have released a new official photo of the youngest of their three kids

Britain's Prince William, centre, and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, react with Naturalist David Attenborough, left, with their children, Prince George, seated, Princess Charlotte, right and Prince Louis, foreground, in the gardens of Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace via AP

Kate Middleton and Prince William's youngest son Prince Louis is all grown up and starting school.

Preschool, that is. In honor of his third birthday on Friday, April 23, the couple has released on Instagram an official photo of the child, the youngest of their three kids. In the pic, Louis is seen smiling while riding a red tricycle and bears a striking resemblance to his older brother Prince George, 7. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's youngest child wears a navy sweater over a navy and white striped collar shirt, light blue shorts and navy and white sneakers, as well as a blue backpack.

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Kate herself took the picture at their Kensington Palace home on Wednesday, April 21, shortly before Louis left for his first day of preschool at Willcocks Nursery School in London.

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Louis' sister Princess Charlotte, now 5, attended the facility in early 2018. In fall 2019, she joined George at Thomas's Battersea, a preparatory school in London. Previously, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's eldest child attended nursery school at Westacre Montessori School in Norfolk, England.

Both George and Charlotte began nursery school earlier, at age 2. Last year, Kate, who has often photographed the family for official portraits, and William homeschooled the two kids at the family's second home in Norfolk, Amner Hall, amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Cambridges recently returned to London and the couple's two older kids resumed classes at their school in March after lockdown measures were eased.

Prince Louis' Baby Album

"George gets very upset because he wants to do all of Charlotte's projects," Kate said in a remote interview on the ITV program This Morning last May, adding, "Making sort of spider sandwiches is far cooler than literacy work."

The following July, William spoke on the BBC Radio 5 Live's That Peter Crouch Podcast about how homeschooling the kids has been. "I've found it pretty testing, I'm not going to lie. Trying to keep the children engaged in some kind of work," he said. "It's been an interesting few months."

"[I've learned through homeschooling] that my patience is a lot shorter than I thought it was," he continued. "That's probably been the biggest eye opener for me. And that my wife has super patience. Basically we're a good sort of team tag session, where I come in and have a chat with the children and try and get them to do stuff and then hand over to Catherine when, frankly, everything has gone wrong. But I have to say, I was a bit embarrassed about my maths knowledge. I mean, I can't do Year 2 maths. So that was quite an eye opener as well."

This past January, in a video call with parents whose children attend Roe Green Junior School in London, Kate said she found homeschooling to be "exhausting" and jokingly rating her own math ability "-5" out of 10.

The Duchess of Cambridge stopped by the University of Derby in the English Midlands on Tuesday to learn about how the new campus programs are supporting students' mental health needs during the pandemic.

"As parents, you've got sort of the day-to-day elements of being a parent that I suppose during lockdown, we've had to take on additional roles that perhaps others around us in our communities or in our lives would have perhaps supported us and helped us with," the duchess said. "So I've become a hairdresser this lockdown, much to my children's horror, seeing Mum cutting hair. We've had to become teacher and I think, personally, I feel pulled in so many different directions."

During the session, Kate and the other participants were asked to write on a piece of paper who has been the greatest support to them during the pandemic. The duchess wrote, "William."

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