First day at school

Today was S’ first day at playgroup. Last week we had picked up her school kit consisting of schoolbag (with a big elephant on it), a cap and a T-shirt- which are to be worn on field trips. During the week S kept wearing the cap and walking around the house saying hat- she loves it when people are wearing hats and keeps pointing at them , so I think she was quite thrilled to have her own cap!

The first day was only for 45 mins and it was more of an orientation where we were shown the school facilities, met the teachers and the guidelines were explained by the center in charge. Both the hubby and I had gone and initially S was happy just to be sitting on her dada’s lap, watching the action on stage and drinking water from her bottle. Then another kid got onto the stage and started playing with the toys there- S suddenly got up, ran to the stage, climbed up and started playing with the toys, with the other kid. Then two more kids joined in. S seems to have become much more social after the US trip and I am keeping my fingers crossed that she enjoys the playschool and playing with other children. We saw the playroom where the children would play and the upstairs terrace which had quite a few interesting toys- cars for kids to drive, a box full of balls which you could climb into- S wanted to play in that and when we told her that it was getting late for our office she was quite reluctant to leave. There are 11 kids in her playgroup with 1 teacher, one assistant and one maid. They are all older to her and seemed quite big to me, am a bit worried that she maybe bullied by them, but I guess the teachers would be watching for that as well.

Today was a good start, the whole of this week is going to be shortened timing of only 1 hour, and am planning to wait outside. Tomorrow would be the real test, since I would have to leave her inside the playcenter and not show my face for 1 hour! Hope she takes to the new surroundings.

On a separate note, my brother and his family were over for the weekend and we really had a great time. S really likes her cousins and they can keep her entertained all the time. She sat with them and drew on paper with crayons , , played together with her toys (would not have been particularly interesting for the boys since they are much older), she watched them make paper planes and fly them, watched them bowl and so on. She even enjoyed watching Finding Nemo with them! We managed to do quite a few things- one evening was bowling , video games and one roller coaster ride for the boys at a shopping mall (S got to go on a toy train there); the next evening was rock climbing, bumper cars for the boys and small rides for S- we went to a kids complex about 1 hour drive from our house. We ate out far too much- my brother and his family are veg like me and the veg options abroad are quite limited, so they really look forward to eating out in India so we managed a Chinese meal, a South Indian meal, a Chaat meal and burgers at MacDonald (can you believe they do not have veg burgers at the Mac abroad) in two days- I must have put on at least 4 pounds!