First Week Done

Boy. When it rains, it pours. Little A's first week of school coincided with the beginning of monsoon season.
Normally, rains start in June, and by August a couple of schooldays have been cancelled due to typhoons. This year, summer took its time leaving, which was great for us as Little A loves to swim, and would jump happily into the pool sometimes twice a day.

The night before school was due to begin, there was a lot of rain. By 9pm, school was called off the next day. I didn't mind this, as I figured the first week would be a huge adjustment period.

Little A started on Tuesday with a full day, from 8am to 3pm. I was quite apprehensive about how he would manage, more so when I looked at the classroom doors and found that he actually had proper subjects already! Literacy, numeracy, science, then a lunch break and preschool in the afternoon.

In addition, I found out there were to be 3 meal breaks a day - morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. Usually Little A has two sets of food - cornflakes and a container of rice and meat. He can eat one, both, or some of each. All that is enough for two meal breaks, but not three!

I stuck around for the first hour and a half, and good thing too, as I discovered during morning snack period that he was already eating his rice! I asked the teacher to stop him, as he had not only had breakfast just two hours earlier, but because he would have nothing substantial to eat at lunchtime.

That afternoon, I rushed him home in case he was starving. He'd eaten all his food. The next days, he was armed with enough for three meal breaks.

During the summer session, as soon as class was over, Little A was out the door and into the car. Now, however, he is reluctant to leave as he used to be at his last school. He walks around and peeks into the other rooms or sits in the media centre and plays with letter tiles. I think the presence of many other children is something he enjoys, though he still does not interact with them enough.

At dismissal on Thursday, he came to me with tears in his eyes and a different pair of shorts on than the ones he went to school in. One of the teachers explained that in the morning, Little A had indicated he needed to use the toilet. The female teacher called the male nurse to accompany him to the restroom. Unfortunately, Little A really needed to go, and didn't quite make it there before wetting his pants. As he has not had a toilet accident in years, he was quite upset.

I explained to him in the car that he'd have to let them know earlier next time, and that it wasn't his fault. He seemed to accept this.

The next day, each of the teachers came up to me separately to tell me how well Little A had behaved in all of his classes that day. I was pleased and proud as any parent could be.

The end of week one bodes well for the weeks to come. Now we look forward to Monday.