Today's Sarah's first day at school. It's the first time that she's going to "real" school. Prior to this, the closest school experience that she's had was Sunday school as well as the children's programme at BSF(Bible Study Fellowship), which I attend. And for the past year, each time I drop her off at Sunday school or BSF, it'll be a fight between us. She'll cry, wail, cling and refuse to be dropped off. We've always been told that children need a couple of weeks to settle down and they'll be alright but for my dear Sarah, it has been one long year!
So for the month leading up to her first day at school, I've been praying for her that she would settle in easily. I was quite concerned that on top of having to deal with a new environment, the kindy that I'm sending her to is a Chinese one. She can't really speak or understand much mandarin so that might cause some additional stress for her. And she's probably the youngest kid in class coz the class she's in is for 4 year olds, while she actually just turned 3. So, this Mummy has been a little worried.
But thank God for my answered prayer! This morning, she was very willing to get dressed into her school uniform. (She told me she likes it and did a couple of twirls for me to see after she wore it.) When we reached school, I sent her up to her class and the principal welcomed her and told her to say bye to me, and she gave me a cheerful wave. And that was it. After that, I joined a couple of anxious parents who tried to peep in at their kid from outside of the classroom. The school had cleverly decorated the classroom windows leaving only a few tiny holes for us to peep into. I saw that the principal had led Sarah to the table to sit with the other children and she soon busied herself playing with some puzzles. I had actually prepared myself to stay outside the classroom the whole time but the actual process took less than 10min. Haha, I did feel a little lost that my princess didn't need me. Oh well, I should be glad that she's really growing up!
When I came back later to pick her up, the school principal told me that she was excellent and very well behaved. Sarah was in a very good mood too. She told me she ate some porridge for breakfast, and she sang songs, toured the school and played at the playground. Later when we reached home, she started singing some chinese songs that she had learnt. She sounded like she was singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in mandarin and she started babbling numbers in mandarin. Looks like she is fitting in well! I think she'll have even more fun when Kor Kor starts school next week and they get to go to school together!
Yeah! It's my turn to go to school!
