First Day of School 2011

after many, many months of telling the boys about them going to a new school, the time has finally arrived. i'm an anxious mummy, to say the least. not about not wanting to let go. but more of how will they be in school, how will they eat, drink, go to the loo, make friends, talk to the teacher, how will the teachers talk to them, are they friendly, are they strict, how's the homework like, classes like. so many things go through my mind. its like us on our first day of work but at least we get the answers there and then. in this case, we wonder until we see them and even then, we dont get the full lay-down.

this will be the first time, after so many years together, the boys will be going to separate schools. since the days of rapid daycare, the boys have never been away from each other. amir was always with asyraf. then when ariff came along, asyraf and ariff would even be in the same class. when akmal made it 4eais, they've always been in 2 sets - amir with asyraf, ariff with akmal. now the same sets remain but in dffierent areas not just in different schools across the street.

since ariff and akmal will remain at their current school, i was not worried at all about them. the only problem we may face is that they could refuse to go to school after 3 weeks away. and surprisingly out of the lot, these 2 were the only ones who were difficult. at the entrance of tadika ibnu soleh, ariff, as usual, keraskan his body and refused to move. of course the teachers know him so well, they didnt respond to that and just pulled him in.

akmal, upon being handed over to kak yus, started crying out loud. he's very choosy with his teachers. he only wants cikgu fakin, who has left, or cikgu fatim, who teaches ariff's class. akmal's class teacher is cikgu along who thankfully he is comfortable with. only when lessons end and daycare starts he would start whimpering because cikgu along would leave for kafa across the street. so he would hold on to the window sills and look towards the tadika & kafa and cry. aisehhhh budak manja ni.

after sending ariff & akmal, we drove back home to amir & asyraf's new kindy. as expected on the first school day of the year, it was packed with parents, with teachers who were helping and giving directions, with children running, talking crying, throwing tanturms. all sorts. we walked into the huge school compound, went up tot he notice board to look for the boys' names and classes. a teacher came over to help us, holdings the hands of both boys, steering them towards asyraf's class.

asyraf is in black pearl. we met his teacher, a lovely lady called teacher zaza. asyraf was fine, he took off his shoes and sat at a table in the middle of the class. there were only a coupld of students in there. he waved goodbye to us and we followed the teacher to amir's class.

amir is in queen elizabeth. his teacher is mrs jey. she looks strict and immediately informed us of how the orientation week would be like, of the documentation she will put in amir's bag at the end of the day (rules book, timetable, those kind of stuff), of how it be be for the rest of the year - homework on a daily basis. we said bye to amir, who had already chosen a seat and left the classroom area.

we walked around the school compound, looked at the boys through the glass doors, occasionally going back to the classroom to see what they were up to. amir was just sitting at his place, standing up a couple of times, then sitting back down again. asyraf was colouring - a picture of a spider he told us later and not too happy about it as he coloured outside the lines!

we left for breakfast and came back in time to see asyraf and his classmates playing at the playground after their snack time. they had a bit of kuih and milo. in tis, they would be served nasi or mee goreng so mental note to self to prepare packed food for the boys. asyraf played mostly on his own, not knowing any of his classmates yet. every so often he would run to us and run back to the slides. teacher zaza informed us that asyraf shed a few tears when he realised daddy, mummy & abang long had left him but he quickly calmed down.

after taking his water and washing his hands, asyraf followed his friends led by his teacher back to class. he passed his brother, who was making his way to the canteen with his classmates and quickly (and loudly) called our amir's name.

amir's class went into the canteen, had the same food and sat there for a while. then his teacher led them back to class. they didnt play at the playground like the 5 year olds. we pulled amir aside and told him we'd be leaving but will come back soon to pick him and asyraf up.

all in all, it was a good first day in school. amir sang a few songs, made some arts & crafts
and made a couple of new friends. asyraf did some colouring, sang as well and said he didnt sleep. ariff is diaper-less in school, proudly wearing his new underwear, is able to inform fatim is he needs to pee and cikgu ummi if he needs to do a number 2. akmal cried until he was red in the face and his whole body shook as he only wanted cikgu fatim.

so on to day no 2...