After my emo letter to Noah yesterday, I can proudly say that I did NOT cry when I left Noah in school, and neither did he. (C didn’t cry either, but then again, no one expected him to.)
We’ve been trying to prepare Noah for school by reading some books about starting school with him, and I’ve been telling him regularly that he’ll be going to school soon. Most of the time, he says okay, although he said, “I don’t want to go to school.” the night before he started. I was horrified, but pretended that it wasn’t a big deal, and prattled on about how fun school would be.
Noah’s in the second session, which means school starts only at 1130am for him, and ends at 3pm. We were able to have a leisurely breakfast together, and I let him watch some videos to keep him happy. He brushed his teeth for the longest time, before allowing me to dress him up in his school uniform, and we spent a little time reading together after that.
His current fav breakfast: donuts
Brushing his teeth
Reading by himself
Ready for school!
C managed to postpone his business trip by a day, so he could be there for Noah’s first day of school, and Noah was pretty happy about that. Halfway through the car-ride, he asked, “Mummy, where are we going?” Haha. I went into my “school is so fun, mummy loves you and will pick you up after school” spiel, and he listened quietly to me. C was of the opinion that I shouldn’t “set expectations”, that we should just “let him go cold turkey”, and “drop and run”. I was obviously appalled at his suggestions, and ignored them all.
We were told to bring them directly to their classroom first, instead of to the hall for assembly, and once we stepped into the classroom, Noah went straight to play, while I talked to his teacher. He’s been really into “cooking” recently, so the kitchen set in his classroom kept him very busy. He kept coming to serve us his “dishes”, although we tried prompting him to offer them to his classmates instead.
“Cooking”
No idea why he was squatting so unglamorously on the chair
His school split up the class into three batches, so five students report for school every two days. I thought that was a really clever thing to do, as it allows the teachers to manage the students better. Noah was in the first batch, so there were only five students in his class yesterday. They were brought to the toilet to wash their hands, before going to the hall for assembly, and because Noah seemed fine, we stood at the side, instead of sitting on the floor with him, like some of the other parents. They sang a few songs, and I was very impressed that the principal herself played the keyboard for all the songs. Noah managed to copy some of the actions to the songs, then stoned for a while, before trying to crawl off during the last song. His teacher, Miss G, put him on her lap for the rest of the song, and he was fine.
Washing hands
At assembly
We were given the option of having one parent remain in class for the first day, but we opted to go for lunch instead. It was so nice to be able to eat without having to feed Noah! There was a toy shop next to the restaurant, so I asked C if he thought we should buy Noah a reward. I thought it would be nice to give him a small car or something like that, but the over-indulgent daddy ended up buying him a Takura Tomy carpark, as well as two cars to go with it.
When we got back to the school, we peeped into his classroom, and saw him seated on his teacher’s lap. They were dismissed about half an hour earlier, and Noah was a little cranky by then already. Miss G told us that he didn’t finish his lunch, but he had a good first day in general. It was way past his usual nap-time, and he was asking for mummy towards the end of the day, most likely because he was sleepy. He didn’t allow C to carry him, so I picked him up, and he was okay to say goodbye to Miss G.
Family photo to mark the end of his first day
As we walked to the car, Noah told us that he played with balls, cars, saw fishes, ate shells (pasta), and sang songs (“praise the name of God”). We asked him if he liked school, and if he wanted to go to school again, and he said, “Yes!” I made the mistake of telling him that daddy bought him a present for being such a good boy in school, because he kept asking for his present the whole way back. He was really excited when he saw the box, and refused to take his nap, telling me that he “wake up already”. I finally managed to get him to nap by giving him one of the two cars, and he took a short nap in his cot.
Napping with his new car
When Noah woke up from his nap, C set up the carpark for him, and he was clearly thrilled with it, telling C repeatedly, “Daddy, I like this!” He’s been playing with it since then, and I hope he won’t expect a present after every school day!
Happy boy with his new toy
It was a good first day, but I’m guessing that the true test will come when he realises that school is a daily affair. Miss G exudes confidence, and I think Noah likes her, which is definitely a plus point. Hopefully, he will continue to enjoy school, and start eating more in school too.
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