Sonny School Developments - Month 1

I just read this somewhere
Pre-school - A place where son plays and father pays.

Very funny, I thought. What do these people know about the gut churning decision school selection is?

After sonny's not so smooth first week at school - we were lucky to have 2 weeks of spring break. I was most relieved to get a break from all the tension.
2 weeks of spring break sped by really fast. Toilet training on an adult pot, waxing eloquent about his teacher and all the babies at school took most of our time.

April 5 was the day school was to re-open.
April 5, 3.30am: Sonny sits up wide awake. Schkooi(school), he says. Not yet, we tell him and try to pat him back to sleep.No luck. He sits awake, plays on our heads, jumps and generally gets yelled at a lot. Finally at 6.30 am he falls asleep again. Now how the hell are we supposed to get him ready for school at 8am? We dont want to wake him up and have a cranky sonny go to school. 8.15am sonny sits up in his bed and starts crying. We grab this opportunity and get him out of bed.

9.15am - Sonny is ready for school. We drop him off. As the teacher takes him into the class, he bursts out crying again. Once again, we turn around and leave the school. Hubby leaves for work, while I take my vigil next to the phone.
10.30 am - No call yet from the school. So I call school. Turns out sonny cried for a few seconds. I tell his teacher about sonny's nightly adventure - she assures me he's showing no signs of fatigue or crankiness. When I pick up sonny a couple of hours later - he runs out happy - and yet so tired.

Day 2, 3, 4 run along fairly uneventfully.I am beginning to enjoy these few hours of silence at home. I can cook, clean and generally get Soni's stuff in order.

Day 5: I am waiting to speak to sonny's teacher. I want to know how sonny's first full week at school has been. The doors open, sonny runs out. I bend to take his bag from him, he dumps his bag on me and....... runs away from me. Into the play area!! As I stare, open mouthed, Z, a fellow-mom, pats me on the back, with a "yes, darling, they can be pretty heartless that way".

Sonny's teacher tells me - he's taking his time but adjusting well. He doesnt speak much, but can understand all instructions. There are no more tears, either when we drop him off or otherwise.

The next week sonny tells me - he wants to come home on the school bus. I may not be ready to cut the umbilical cord just yet, but sonny sure is ready to jump into newer experiences. It also means, I am not required to go to school to pick him up - the bus will drop him just outside the home. Hmmm, maybe, just maybe, the green eyed monster peeped out. Sonny had his wish - he comes home on the school bus these days.

The next week, as I put sonny to bed, he tells me, "Kal schkooi. Miss L wait" (Its school tomorrow - Miss L(his teacher) will be waiting for me). I swallow hard. Yes honey, your teacher is waiting for you.

His teacher keeps informing me of his progress. He now joins the class in circle time, dancing, singing. He has friends in class. He just about bites into into his snack box. He's come a long way - from looking around the class,dazed, to parroting questions after his teaching, to understanding and replying correctly as she ran him through numbers, colors, shapes, flags.

Every night as I put him to bed and we finish our routine of stories, he tells me "Tomorrow schkooi. Miss L wait. Good mornin Miss L". And that just about tells me - what I want to hear.

Sure, there still are unresolved issues. He wont use the school bathroom. He just has a bottle of milk before he leaves for school - no breakfast. He eats about 10-12 grapes at school. Thats it. He's bone tired when he gets home.

And yet, the smile on his face, when he jumps off the bus each day - tells me - maybe just maybe - we may have made a good decision by sending him to school.