First day at school

Here’s the report card of Yiu Yiu’s first day at school – not quite a disaster, not quite a success as well.

She started the day extremely well – chirpy and all excited about going to school. She didn’t need much coaxing to get out of bed or to brush her teeth, as she normally would. See how happy she was on the way to school.

We were the third pair of parent and child in her class to arrive and she quickly settled down to play with some toys laid out on the tables – there were two mechanical fishing toys on one table, cooking sets on another and building blocks on the last table. She rotated herself among the three tables playing with the various toys, and even helped the teacher to pick up the toys when they got ready for their break time.

And it went downhill after that. She refused to join the queue with her other classmates to go to the washroom to wash their hands prior to eating, and clung to me like a koala bear. I carried her to the washroom and mistakenly went to the wash basins at the boys’ section. She was about to wash her hands when a teacher told her to go to the other side, the girls’ side. Perhaps she was a little taken aback by that and started crying. She ended up not washing her hands.

We went back to the classroom and took out her packed food and she obediently joined the rest of the class to eat.

After eating, again she clung to me and refused to join in the singing session. Towards the end, students from different classes lined up and headed to the common area and I finally managed to coax her to join the choo-choo train queue. Three teachers were on stage and started singing while doing some actions. She finally warmed up and enjoyed herself following the actions and had some fun.

See how short she is compared to her classmates. I think she's probably the tiniest among them.

I had arranged for her to follow a transporter, Auntie Ah Lin, back to the babysitter’s home and had repeated told her so over the last few weeks. During dismissal, several teachers were holding placard of different colours to indicate the different transporters.

Listening attentively to the teacher's briefing on the coloured placards

She obediently followed the teacher bearing the orange placard, as I told her to. I also told her that Auntie Ah Lin will send her back to Auntie Yoke Ling’s house and that I’ll drive my car and follow behind Auntie Ah Lin. She insisted that I walk beside her and I was getting worried that she might want me to follow her on the van. However, once she saw Auntie Ah Lin and her purple van, she happily climbed onto the van and waved goodbye to me. Phew! What a relief. She made it back to the babysitter’s house without shedding any tears. And that wraps up Yiu Yiu’s first day in the kindy.

When she spoke to her papa,
Papa: Were you a cry baby at school today?
Yiu Yiu: No la, I cry a bit only la.
Papa: Do you still want to go to school tomorrow?
Yiu Yiu: Yes, I still want to go to school.
Papa: Do you still want to cry tomorrow?
Yiu Yiu: No.

OK, that’s a good sign. I hope she’ll be better tomorrow, and adjust to kindy life smoothly. I was just told some horror stories of my colleagues' children who struggled for several weeks before they eventually settled down. Now that's going to be a nightmare.