Chain Post #1.. My Sons' 1st Week in Their New Kindy

Starting this week's chain post .. #1 :)

Last 2 weeks have been quite hectic. I was busy preparing for my two son's 1st days of school. There was a list given by their new school about what to get for them.. specs and all. And I realized that I have to rush it out for them. Ryan's 1st week was pretty uneventful until yesterday when I received a call from his teacher that basically had me depressing the panic button and still is. I will cover it in another post. Lets have the light and easy one here 1st :)

The new kindy specified in very good detail how their school bags should be like, with the number of big and small compartments and areas to put clothes, homework pouch, work apron, water bottle, pencils, etc. Even the pencil box was mentioned ... where possible to get double compartment, one for the regular pencil, eraser and ruler, and another compartment for color pencils. Us parents have to 'kwai kwai' and prepare 2 hand towels, one to put in their pocket (to dry their hands), and the other dampened and put into a small container which we have to wash everyday after school. Then ... a change of clothes (just in case), a jumper, an empty container for food .. and that if we want to bring food, only to bring those which are non oily non messy, preferably biscuits and buns. That's not all. All materials, right down to the each pencil, have to be labeled with the child's name! Each item was also given their preferred size and specs. And so on and so on ;p

Were we put off by this fussiness? Did we say, 'So mah fan! Only a kindy mah! Why so par pai (fussy)!'? On the contrary. It just reflected how detailed and organized the kindy is. They have even arranged that all existing students wear uniform to kindy immediately on the 1st day but the new students to wear normal clothes in the 1st week (they made sure by NOT giving us the uniforms until the end of 1st week). The reason is quite simple. To differentiate the newbies immediately from the chaos and give them special attention. Very smart! I didn't have this level of detailed specification and advice even when I was attending Eduland's briefing in the last 2 years. We believe and we hope that our sons are in good hands. It's just that we wish that we could have transfered Ryan to this kindy earlier. You just don't know yet HOW MUCH I regretted not doing so!! Promise to tell you in the next post.

Raymund is also starting his 4 year old class this year. The kindy has organized that the younger children (3 and 4 year olds) start 1 week later. And that means next week. I'm foreseeing some tough time. My kindy is also asking all parents to accompany and sit with the 1st timers for about a week. This is quite a strange suggestion considering that most kindy would prefer parents to 'let go' after 2 to 3 days. They explained that they needed this time to bond with the little ones and the parents' presence is to help their kids get over the fear and start enjoying school. Makes sense. But I'm not going for the whole week. I've only taken 3 days with possibility of another day just in case. So, lets see.