It’s Back To School

“Everyone and their mothers are in school right now”, read a friend’s status update on Facebook.

Indeed, that was the case in our household. 3 Jan was back to school day. I had been preparing Noey over the past week for the fact that he would be starting school again and he was pretty nonchalant about it. Till the morning on the first day when he kicked up a big fuss when I tried to change him into his school uniform. ‘Twas a good thing I had decided to start changing him early that morning! Incidentally, this is the first time he’s ever had to wear a uniform as he didn’t have to in Pre-Nursery the year before.

Thankfully he warmed up by the time we headed out of the door. Honestly, I think he was looking forward to going back. We drive by his school quite often when we head out, and every once in a while, he would yell really excitedly, “That’s my school!” as we whizz on past and start asking about his classmates.

Eventually managed to squeeze out a smile for Mummy.

Once we got to school, he hit the ground running. He shrugged on his own bag, headed to the arrival point and greeted the teacher who was taking their temperature that morning. I hung around to see how he was doing, but really I needn’t have bothered. He sat down to listen to the pre-school Chinese story-telling on his own and when he saw me taking a photo, looked up to give me a grin. What a difference half a year makes!

Spot the Noey who’s not paying attention to the teacher, and smiling for Mummy’s camera instead.

There are plenty of new students in his class this year, so there was plenty of crying. Even a couple of his old classmates had back-to-school blues and were looking teary. I felt for the anxious parents when I saw them trying to settle their children in. Wasn’t that long ago when I was doing the same thing! I spoke to one Mum and mentioned that Noey cried for a month with the intention of consoling her but I think I made her more worried instead. Oops!

Noey on the other hand was behaving like a model student, sitting down patiently on the floor in his classroom while the teachers had their hands full getting things ready and comforting crying kids. I almost didn’t recognise my son! Even his principal told me that she noticed he was “actually quite law-abiding” (those were her words) this year and commented that he seemed to have grown up overnight. Hah. I do hope this streak continues.

I was a little disappointed to learn that Miss T, who taught the Nursery class last year had left, and that Noey’s teacher this year was a new teacher. Miss T was very well-loved by the children. Even though she wasn’t one of Noey’s teachers last year, she had filled for his form teacher on the occasion and Noey had named her as one of his favourite teachers. I know she will be sorely missed. His current teacher, Miss J, while a little young, seems very sweet. I hope she stays on and Noey takes to her well.

It’s been orientation week and Noey’s been enjoying it. “Is it a playing day today?” he asked me gleefully the last couple of mornings on the way to school. In my mind, I was thinking: Isn’t it a playing day everyday for you in kindergarten? Well, today was his first full day back on the 3 hour schedule. Term 1 is off and running.