Wednesday, July 16, 2008

back to school

Its back to school time again. @ went back on Monday and the first 3 days of school are only an hour for his kindergarten area. Tomorrow starts the real school schedule for him from 10-12. He's done really well. The first day was a little scary for him. In the states, schools go for quick separation. Here we go for a really long agonizing separation. So we showed at 10 and the kids were sort of corraled into lines approximately with their classmates. "Sort of " and "approximately" here mean that the parents mostly clung to their kids and in return the kids clung to them and all were kind of it a seething mass of backpacked kids holding the hand of nanny and parent trying to stand in a line. Each of the teachers along with the headmistress took a turn with the mic to introduce themselves and greet the kids/ parents/ nannies. The mic sounded a little like someone yelling with their head in a tin can. After 35minutes of this the kids were called by their individual classroom teachers to direct them into their classrooms. As the kids pushed and shoved the mass petered toward the classrooms where children looked a little uncertainly at their parents who were only barely releasing their grips. Then you think the classroom doors closed, right? Wrong. The classroom doors were left open so that the parents/nannies could gape at the doorway, taking pictures and calling to their children. Nice. I growled and grumbled and demanded to at least one teacher that the door be closed so that I could pretend that education was taking place, but alas it wasn't for this day. Slowly the kids sat in their seats and the teacher tried to talk to them. Then they had snack and were released. That was the result of day 1.

Day 2 and 3 the teachers have shut the door after the kids have gotten in the room. I admire that in the teachers, its hard work to shut the door because the parents/ nannies can be a true force to be reckoned with. To say they are demanding is an understatement.

But so far so good. @ has had no tears and really his fears and anxiety seem to be at a real minimum. Such a trooper.

2 comments:

Gretchen Magruder said...

Amanda, you're doing such a great job with him!! The girls feel really sorry for @ that he has to go back to school so soon!!

Anonymous said...

Now if we can just get Ben and Gretchen's kids back into school.....
Instead, it's birthday pool party with Sophia on Saturday!
Appreciate hearing how things go with @ at school, etc. Is your mom still with you guys?
Dad