My son's first day at school

Over the past year, my son has had such intensive speech and occupational therapy, and social classes, that he has improved a lot.  He became friendlier and communicative at school, and his comprehension and expression has been so much better that his therapists said he is ready for school. His OT said that he didn't need to come back and see her, and the psychologist who runs his social class said that he has the skills for kindergarten so he doesn't need to come back to the class.  I was thrilled and we have been telling him how exciting it is to go to "big school" that he seemed to be looking forward to it.

On the first day of school we had a small hiccup.  He refused to wear his school uniform!  He had a tantrum and ran away screaming and we didn't understand why until he yelled that it's his sister's clothes.  After we reassured him that everyone wears the same clothes, he put it on, albeit very unsettled, pulling at his clothes and buttons for a bit, and then when I tried to cheer him up by saying he can have his very own brand new socks, never worn, he shook his head vehemently and pointed to his sister's socks and said he wanted to wear his sister's socks.

Going to school was not a drama.  He stuck close to me whilst his sister went to line up when the bell went off.  Then I took him with all the other kindergarten students to the library for sorting.  Vision of Harry Potter floated into my head when I heard that.

He sat there quietly but I don't think he was listening - and when his name was called he took his badge and brought it to me to put on his clothes and then when the children with the same coloured badges were taken out, he went quietly and happily.  He followed instructions and sat quietly on the floor and when I waved goodbye he waved goodbye, but looked very serious. Overall, school wasn't a stress for him and he seemed to like it well enough.

I had a laugh because on Wednesday when hubby went to pick him up from school his teacher asked if she could have a word.  Uh oh.  It turned out that she wanted to tell us that our son ate all of his lunch at recess and had nothing to eat for lunch!  I felt guilty - she must think what horrible parents, starving their child!!!

But, I'm happy my son has gone to school and settled in.  I know it's just the first week and any learning difficulties will be detected later on - but perhaps I should give him more credit.  He might understand more than what I think he does.  And having the influence of other learning little minds around him, and a school structure, will be good for him.  If there is anything he thrives on, it's routines.  Two years ago, I dreaded what the day would be like when he went to school, wondering if he would even be able to go, but the day has arrived, and he flew through it easily.

But this is only the beginning.

The first week of school

It's that time, when your child first starts school.  It's an emotional time, parents and children cry, and the realisation that your child no longer needs you and is moving onto the next step in their life can be overwhelming for some.

However, there was no tears on our end.  I was anxious, mostly worrying that I would go the wrong room, or my daughter would soil herself and I didn't pack spare clothes... but it all seemed to go well.  She has the vice principal as her Kindergarten teacher, and he's quite dapper looking.  Fortunately, she likes him as well - she said to me he was nice and not scary.

I left her after a few minutes, talking to her teacher Mr M, and snuck out.  Well, at least she was talking to him.  I came back in the afternoon, and she was sitting on the floor with the all the other children, seemingly well behaved.  When I asked Mr M about her that day, he said that she was very quiet and asked about what language we spoke at home, and what cultural background we were.  Then he offered her special class - I think he wanted to know if I should put her in ESL (English Second Language) class!  But my daughter's first language is English, so if she went there, she wouldn't be able to understand anything! So that was a hilarious thing, my daughter was so bad that she was going to be put in ESL even though English is her primary and first language.

J, on the other hand, seemed to sail through daycare last week.  Not a tear, excited to be playing and joining in on everything.  However, this week, the realisation that he was being left behind sunk in and he cried when Dad said goodbye.  It was almost amusing - J was saying "Bye bye E" thinking that E was being left behind but then Dad said to him "No, it's bye bye J!" and then he started to cry.  So far, two days in a row he's cried.  E is on her 3rd day of school with no tears.  I think she really likes it there.

I asked E what she does at school, and she said she does activities, and there's dancing but she didn't dance. She seems to like the ham and cheese sandwiches we make her for lunch, which is good.  I worry that she isn't drinking enough - that will do wonders for her constipation ><  I'm just happy she eats her lunch.

J sleeps and eats at school with no issues.  In fact, he sleeps so well that he doesn't want to sleep at night!  Last night he was up still at 930pm and I was getting cranky with him. Sigh, you can't make day care NOT put him down for a nap.

So that's halfway through our first week.  Smooth sailing so far.

First day at School

Erika turned 4 this year, which means she will be in Kindy next year.  Her cousin was starting swimming lessons and it was on a Friday and we thought it would be great if they could go together.  So an agreement was made for my sister-in-law (SIL M) to take them to the pool.

Unfortunately, Erika was very distressed to be at swim class.  She was afraid of the teacher.  Her cousin, O, was reticient to start but he was OK by the end of the class.  She would cry when asked to do anything by the teacher, and not do it.  She did however enjoy the water.

I hoped that it would settle by the next week but it was much of the same.  SIL M mentioned that of all the children at the pool, only Erika was the one who was crying and wailing and you could hear it all throughout the swimming complex.  Every other child was enjoying themselves in the water.  I was ashamed, and started to worry because if Erika doesn't obey her teacher in swim class, what will happen when she goes to school?

On the third week, my other sister-in-law took the kids to swim class.  And Erika refused to get into the pool, so SIL J sat with her the whole time outside the pool letting her dangle her feet into the water.  SIL J said that Erika just needed more time to get used to it all, but I felt like she was going backwards rather than forwards.  I made the decision then that Erika had to go to Pre-school.

I searched around and found that there was an opening in the preschool/childcare not far from my place - the one that had dropped flyers in my letterbox before.  I went there with Erika to check out the place and enquire about their facilities - I met the teacher, who was a lovely gentle looking muslim girl with two kids of her own, who encouraged me to put her in the class and reassured me that even though there would be crying, it would be best for Erika to learn now to cope.  I signed up and Erika was going to start the following week.

The first day, I took her and Erika cried and cried.  She cried for a long time, and refused to eat her lunch and only very reluctantly let the teacher, Miss P, take her to the toilet.  All the other children had nice little photo journals of their first day with about 4 pictures, Erika only had 2 because she refused to participate.  Miss P told me that at rest time Erika refused to lie in her cot, but come time to get up she refused to get up, saying she was tired.  My contrary little daughter, oh dear.  When I came to pick her up she started crying and we went home and Miss P told me it would get better.

On the second day she was a little better, ate her lunch.  My hubby said he felt bad leaving her there, but it had to be done.  And when he picked her up she was playing with the other children, but she still cried when she went to school but didn't cry for as long.

Then at swim class that week, Erika was different.  She let the teacher do things with her and she actually laughed.  That was a big difference from the week before.  And she was in the pool at least trying to follow some of the instructions, but not very well - yet.

So the next week at school, I took her again and she complained all morning saying she didn't want to go to school.  When I took her, she cried but as soon as I left she stopped.  I keep forgetting to sign her in, a habit I have to improve.  She was good, Miss P said, except at tea time she took her biscuit and threw it on the floor and stepped on it.  When I came to pick her up, she was playing on the floor with the other teacher with some other children.  She was stacking and lining up model dinosaurs.  So then I took her and asked her to wave goodbye to her teachers and she did.  Miss P said that Erika has not yet greeted her, and I hope that will be remedied in a few weeks.

In swimming this week, she had improved in leaps and bounds.  SIL M has videos of Erika not only floating on her back, but also said that Erika allowed the swim instructor to pick her up and put her in the water, which she would never have done before.  And Erika was doing all sorts of activities with the teacher (there are only 4 students per class, and each has their own turn with the teacher) - such as floating, using floating devices.  I even asked Erika about swim class and she told me she didn't put her head inside the water, she was too scared.  But looking at the videos I was so amazed, that my little girl had come so far.

So in the end, I think that going to preschool made a huge difference for my daughter.  I never realised that she would change so much in a few weeks.  Now I am not worried about her attending school anymore, I think she'll be ok.