First days of school

Last week we had the first day of school for S and first day of daycare for A. I was quite impressed with S school and the way they handled the break in period. The previous week S received a postcard from her classteacher welcoming her to the school and saying how much S would enjoy it. I put it up on the fridge and S was most excited. She managed to remember the name of the teacher, which was quite a mouthful and proudly showed the card to daddy, Ajja and Ajji(who arrived early last week). The first day for the children was split into two first days with half the class attending on the first day and the second half attending on the second day so the teacher got to spend more time with the children on a one on one basis. The timing was also shorter with the session only from 8:40-11 am and increasing upto the normal timings of 8:30-12 pm from the second week (next week). S ' turn came on the second day which was good as we had the parent teacher orientation the previous evening and S came along and met her teacher there.

The first day was a challenge for both me and S. First we had to all get up at 7 am (and not the 8:30 am we have all become used to) and finish the morning routine of milk, A's breakfast, their potty routines, getting dressed etc etc by 8:10 am. And I had to drive to S school (I really really regret not driving more in Mumbai now as I'm so scared to drive here now and actually its much simpler as the traffic is extremely orderly here) and I have been driving only some 3 times here (my car came last Friday, yippee!) and refuse to drive without a trained driver next to me (just in case of any emergency like me completely panicking and being unable to drive but more on that in another post). So for a couple of days before S' first we had a dry run. waking up the kids at 7 am, getting them ready by 8:15, me driving with the hubby to S school and back. On D day, the hubby had to be away in Germany for a conference so my dad kindly escorted me to S school. I prepared S throughout the journey- mummy can't come inside with you, I'll come and pick you up at 11 am, you know the teacher you met her yesterday, have fun and play with toys. But still when I dropped her off in her class room I was worried, what if she got scared and starts crying? Will they care for her and pamper her the way they used to in her school in Mumbai? Or will they expect her to be old enough to look after herself? But I needn't have worried, Thank God, as the first day went off really well. I left S inside her class, kept her bottle of water and box of biscuits on the table (no time for her breakfast, she just had enough time for milk) and waved good bye and left immediately. When I went to pick her up at 11 am (again kindly escorted by my dear Dad) she was fine , happy, and the teacher said that she had been comfortable throughout. She had played, had snacks (fruits and bread) and done activities quite happily. Luckily, touchwood, the second day went well as well, and now its the weekend.

Dear S, you are growing up so fast, you've become so much more independent, and confident now. I hope you are always happy and comfortable in your school, and remember your mummy will always be waiting to hear how your day went.

A had her first day in the daycare on Friday. There is a breakin period of 5-6 days where the parent has to be with the child in the daycare and gradually start leaving the child there for short intervals of time, and by the end of 5-6 days once the child is settled in they are left for the full period. I've enrolled A for three half days, keeping fingers crossed. On Friday we were there only for an hour. In the first half hour the children formed a circle with the teachers/caregivers and sang German rhymes. A was least interested and refused to participate and sat on my lap watching the proceedings with little interest. I tried to do the actions (as i could not sing along in German) but A was not impressed. At one point she got quite aggravated and threw herself on the floor in the middle of the circle much to the other children's astonishment. The second half hour went better. The younger children (3 months to 2 years) moved to the other part of the daycare and A started playing with the toys there by herself while I sat at a table and spoke to one of the teachers. She was quite happy for some time by herself but after a while she came next to me and insisted on sitting on my lap. I knew it was time to go. From next week they've asked me to bring her in for longer and start going out for brief intervals and the plan is that by next Friday I should be able to leave her for her full session (8:30-11:30). The teachers seemed to be quite kind and caring, they had the younger ones on their laps and were reading out books to them and the children all seemed happy. So I hope A settles down well next week. A you are a clingy little thing, most happy on my lap, smiling at other people, I hope you are happy in the daycare and are well cared for, and have fun and make friends. I have not thought about what the option is if A is unhappy, guess we will take things as they come.

So the girls are off to school. People ask me what I will do with all this FREE time. Well other than the fact that I will be dropping and picking them up for half the day, I also have lots of exciting housework which needs to be done and cooking so that I can spend time with the kids once they are back , so as of now don't have any exciting plans of what I;m going to do. Just want the kids to be in some kind of routine because once the winter months set in it will be difficult to take them out to parks/other activities as easily and then the school/daycare will have to be one of their main entertainment avenues!