The first few days of school

Day One

Traffic is always chaotic during the first week so we had no choice but to wake up at 5.30am to leave the house by 6.30am. The boy has no trouble adjusting since he is familiar with the school by now. It is always easier with the 2nd kid. 

The sister's class is now upstairs but quite close to the boy's class so they can wave to each other before she goes up the stairs and before he goes to class. The only problem he faces is the language problem. I saw teacher asking the kids about recess ie who brings food from home, who will buy and who has catered food. Many kids raise their hands, a sign that they understood what was being asked but my boy just sat there and stared blankly. :P

We met up the teachers of both kids. To me, it is important to meet the teachers, so we can err.... size them up. Haha. Well, it is important to establish communications... I am not sure the teacher appreciates nor welcomes that. Especially for the older kid. She's probably thinking "Get lost!" :P However if your child has some special conditions or issues, now is a good time to inform the teacher but its best not to hog their time.

The girl's teacher looks like a stern, no nonsense type. The boy's teacher seems ok but somewhat disorganised compared to some of the other teachers. The class comes out last in many instances and the children do not seem to know where to line up and wait for the teacher etc. Anyway, parents are a demanding lot when it comes to teachers. I saw some parents complaining that their teacher is new to the school and therefore very inexperienced. Teachers must be fun, kind, patient yet able to discipline. They must be experienced too. These are some of the criteria a parent looks for. It is not easy being a teacher with such high expectations from parents.

It rained cats and dogs just before dismissal. What a chaos it was. So many parents and children running around with most stranded in school with no way to get to the car. Even those who had umbrellas with them were soaked through when they made their way to the cars. Traffic was a total chaos too.

Only when we got home, my girl informed me that in my morning rush, I had given her different halfs from two different pairs of shoes. As for my boy I gave him one of his sister's old torn shoe instead of his brand new one.

Day Two

The school allowed the year one parents to stay in the school premise for two full days so we took advantage of that and lingered. Afterall, this is our second kid and we will not get the chance to do this again. Only std 1 parents are given this special privelege. The rest are strictly not allowed to be anywhere near the classroom.

The kids are given a tour of the school. I bet the boy likes that.

During recess we showed the boy where to eat, where to put his plates after eating, where to go to the toilet after that and where to wait for teacher before entering the classroom.

After recess we went off to do some errands but were back in time to tell the boy where to wait after school.

This year the sister has to stay back in school for some activities and tuition on certain days so we had to crack our heads on which activities, and whether to let the boy stay back on those days too so we could organise pick up times.

The sister started having homework by today.

The boy was happy because he won a sweet for some games they were playing at the hall.

After school we brought the girl to the optometrist because she had been complaining that her glasses is uncomfortable and giving her headaches for some time now. Being a tall girl she was put at the back of the classroom and she said she could not see. She wanted to ask the teacher to put her nearer up the front which will put her closer to the boy who had been bullying her last year so she was afraid. Her power had increased significantly in a year. Oh dear.

Back to school brings also brings with it school related anxieties like dealing with homework and bullies. To me, these lessons in life are harder to teach then academic lessons.

Day Three

I went to peep at the boy during recess and found that he was doing just fine, doing everything that he was supposed to do. He has got his act together so there is no worry. My only worry is the language barrier but children learn fast. In 2-3 months he should be able to converse in Mandarin, hopefully.

At the end of the day, I saw that he found his kindy friends who are all in different classes. Five of them stood together in a circle obviously happy to see each other. Cute.

More homework and some crying from the sister because she was unsure about what to do for some of them. It took all day and some nagging from mummy for her to complete the work and pack her bag for the next day. Looks like it is back to business as usual.

The boy is still relaxed as all he did in school is sing songs. No work yet.

Day Four

Today is Day Four. Its raining cats and dogs. I wonder how will daddy cope with two kids, two trolley bags (one which ways a tonne) and an umbrella? Well, good luck to him!