Transiting to Primary One is a big deal for kids. It's the beginning of formal education in Singapore and for many of the kids, it's their first encounter with serious and intensive studying. Apart from the kid feeling the stress and heat, the parents usually get stressed up and nervous as well, especially if it's the first time for them. I started this series to document the chronological order of events, my intimate thoughts and emotions on this journey, and it will continue until Joey settles down in Primary One. Hopefully, as we go along, the posts would become more and more positive and encouraging. I do believe in that. :)
Thursday
9 Jan 2013
9.05pm
Week 2 of Primary One life saw a bigger glimpse of light for Joey.
I tried drilling into her what she should do when she reaches school on Monday. I told her to go straight to the school hall after alighting from the school bus, and sit in the hall to do her silent reading until the Assembly starts. That was what her Form Teacher advised me to get her to do, and I reckon it's safer to stay close to the school hall rather than hang around somewhere else, not knowing when exactly will school start.
When Joey reached home on Monday evening, she said that the school hall was occupied when she arrived, so she decided to go to the General Office (again!!!) to ask what time should she be in the school hall even though I've told her umpteen times. Then she went to sit in the canteen and read her book until the school bell rang. Many kids started rushing to the school hall then, and she followed everyone. Her account was funny though when I asked if she was scared when she saw that the school was occupied and she couldn't wait inside - "I was scared, and I cried a little. But I dried my tears before going to the General Office to ask." I thought that was an improvement at least. :)
With the little victory on Monday, Joey was visibly more confident on Tuesday. I had a night meeting on Tuesday, so I called her from office when she got back home and we spent 15 minutes on the phone, 95% monologue. She excitedly told me how she DID NOT EVEN DROP A TEAR in school that day, and that she walked to the school hall with her friend 5 minutes before the bell rang so that she didn't need to rush like the rest of the students. =.= The more interesting story happened during recess time. She and two other girls wanted to go to the library after having their snack and this (in her own words, silly boy) boy called Johnson wanted to follow them. Because they didn't want him to follow them, Joey instructed him to go to the toilet first (Joey: "Teacher says must always go to the toilet during recess time, and he hasn't gone yet!!!"). When he went to the toilet, the girls giggled and ran all the way to the library because they didn't want him to follow them. Sigh, ostracizing happens so early?! I had to give her an impromptu prep talk on how we should always be nice and not ostracize anyone in school. I got to know later that the 'silly boy' Johnson is actually the monitor in class!
Rule #1: Make friends with everyone in the class. Golden Rule #1: Never offend the class monitor. My girl needs to learn how this world works like seriously.
Today is Wednesday and school starts an hour late. I received a phone call at about 12.30pm from an unfamiliar land line, and I got nervous because it looked like a Woodlands number. In that 2 seconds before I picked up the call, I wondered if it was Joey using the phone in the General Office (her favourite and most frequented place in school obviously) to call me. Please don't let that happen again, thankyouverymuch.
Her first words were, 'Hello mummy, this is Joey! I just called to ask whether you are having a good day at work?" That sounded totally like what I would say when I call her from work. Having the same words spoken back to me felt really nice. Haha! But of course, it was way too suspicious for me to indulge in the warm fuzzy feelings for too long. I asked her how come she could call me and whose phone was it? Apparently, there were phones outside the school hall for the kids to use, and many kids were taking turns to call their mums! I didn't know schools have such service nowadays?! It sure made my day hearing my chirpy and happy girl's voice right before lunch. And yep, I sure had a good day at work today. :)
Reality (the harsher part of it) kicked in when she handed me her spelling list for next week when I got home, and also her first piece of homework! It was a really simple matching exercise of animals and the sound they make. I am glad the school is taking it slow, and not stressing out the kids. I've heard from other mums whose kids received 2 homework assignments and a spelling list on the third day of school! Please, please. Let my kid enjoy her childhood a little more. And don't stress the parents (me) out too early too fast.
It gets better and better. Now that Joey has learnt how to cope with her circumstances, I would really like to see her taking a proactive approach to making her Primary school life more enjoyable. We'll see. :)
Read also - Mum's Diary: A Nervous Start to Primary One
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