First Term, Over

As August came to an end, we came to the end of Noey’s first ever school term.

School has been quite a journey for this little boy. While he did really well on his first day and a couple of days after that when DD or my parents dropped him off at school, the tears started coming fast and furious when it was Mummy’s turn to drop him off. It was probably a combination of the novelty of school wearing off, plus the separation-from-Mummy-anxiety. It was difficult leaving him with his teacher and walking away with him wailing, and wailing very loudly for that matter. “It will pass,” the other parents told me sympathetically.

The cries got shorter, but still it took a full month — 4 weeks — before he finally stopped crying. These days, he can even turn and wave goodbye to me before walking off with his teacher. I consider that quite an achievement!

The truth is, he does enjoy school. “I don’t want to go to school!”, he would complain in the mornings when I drag him away from his toys to get ready. He would whinge in the car about staying at home to play. But once he arrives, he’s off! And when I pick him up, he’s full of stories about his classmates, the games they played, and the songs his teachers taught him. Being still guileless, he would tell me about “fighting with Lincoln, because he is a naughty boy” and how he had to sit on the “special chair” (ie. the teacher’s naughty chair). Oh dear. But mostly he’ll tell me about making Samuel laugh, or how he likes Charis, or how he wants to bring a bolster to school like Megan.

With the first term under our belts, I think we made the right choice of school for him. One of the things that drew me in was how it seemed like a warm and friendly place where everyone knows everyone. I’ve found that this is indeed the case. School is also quite a hive of activity. In this term, he’s had a theater trip, a games day organised by the K2 class, a mini Olympics, participated in the K2 Project Day (they played games, decorated props and were the targeted audience of stories the K2 class had written), and had a picnic for Teachers’ Day. There’s water play on Tuesdays, gym on Wednesdays, and outdoor play on Thursdays and Fridays.

At this age, I’m not fussed about curriculum, but I was glad that within a month of starting school, Noey was able to vocalise the phonic letter sounds for every letter of the alphabet. These days, he would, in the middle of his conversations with me, suddenly identify the starting letter of a word he just spoke. And he’s almost always correct. Sound-alikes like “C” and “K” trip him up. His Chinese has also improved by leaps and bounds. I think this is primarily due to regular exposure, which has made him more receptive to learning Chinese. It is funny to hear him singing Chinese songs though, because he gets so many words wrong! Haha. I also love that he’s finally taken to group singing, with actions.

It’s been a good experience for him. There were some funny incidents as he was initially not used to being in a classroom setting. Like how in the first couple of weeks, he would start taking off his pants in class when he needed to pee, just like he would at home. His teachers would then have to scramble to get him to the toilet. With some instruction, he’s learnt to only start stripping in the toilet. There was a period though when he would consistently be coming home in different pants from those he wore to school, due to accidents. But he’s adapted well to being in class. At least he doesn’t walk around as much his teacher is teaching and does sit down to listen. He’s definitely still talking up a storm! His teacher was surprised at how much he was able to repeat to me about what they do in class, though she did agree with me that he loves to talk.

It’s the school holidays now — a good time to re-charge before next term. That is going to be concert term! I think us parents are looking forward to that more than Noey is. He’s just enjoying the break for now!