Athan started his 3-year-old kindy class today! I think I am more excited than him. 🙂 I’ve been prepping him the whole of yesterday, trying to get the idea into him. His response has been very positive each time we mention “school” to him. Methinks he wants to be like his older brother who goes to school everyday now. He wants to go to school too — he calls his school “little school” with little kids while his brother’s school is big school with big kids. How cute.
We were ready for school early in the morning. We even have time for a picture! Here it is:
Boys before going to school.
The plan is for R to drop Calvin while I drop Athan. I have told Mr A many times that I would only stay with him for 5 minutes and then I have to leave. He seemed to be happy with that. HOWEVER, what does a 3-year-old know about time? Five minutes could mean the whole time in class! I was prepared for him to scream.
When we arrived at his classroom, the teacher immediately recognised the similarities between Calvin and Athan. She was amazed at how much Mr A has grown. Well, the last time we saw her, Athan was still just over 1 year old. Still very much a baby. Athan was very conscious of his new surroundings and he made sure he stayed by my side all the time. I sat with him for a while playing with the train set. When I said I had to leave, he refused to let me go. I knew it would be hard to leave him if I stayed longer and so I made the decision to make an early exit. The teacher came, took Athan, I said my goodbye, reassured him I would come pick him up soon and I left. The boy cried, but only for a very short time, less than 5 minutes. He did not scream. What a surprise! I was relieved. Thank God.
When I picked him up later, he was all smiles and said he wanted to go school again. I think he is proud that he is going to school now. 🙂
Truth be told, I was pretty nervous last night about Athan going to school. I just couldn’t bear the thought of my *baby* going to school! At one stage, I was trying to find excuses, any excuse that could give me a reason to withdraw him. I was thinking something like …. he’s still too young, too short, too not ready, too tired….etc. How crazy is that? The husband dismissed all my *crazy* excuses and made me face reality. He’s right yet again.
Well, after seeing how Athan has reacted to his new kindy class, I am much more relieved. He might cry next week, but I know his teachers can handle him. The hope is that this 3 year old kindy will help Athan adjust to school routine when he starts real school next year.