She adapted to her new school very well and made many friends. I was proud of her for being able to do well where ever she is. It was finally my girl's turn to graduate! We attended her graduation and final preschool concert at YMCA.
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| Tiger year doesn't have that many kids: only 2 kids were from my girl's school, the other two were from other branches. |
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| Looking so cute in her graduation gown! My grown up and very beautiful girl =) |
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| Accepting her scroll from her centre's director when her name was called |
Definitely proud moment for us! I couldn't help but visualise that this is probably how she will look, albeit taller, when she graduates from university! What a day that will be for us! (#ifyoucanseeityoucanhaveit) =)
After the graduation ceremony, we watched the kids perform the routines that they had been practising for almost half of the year!
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| They were dancing to Elvis' rock and roll, hence the outfit |
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| Enthusiastically waving the pom poms |
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| Dancing and shaking |
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| Rolling and swaying |
My girl also got the chance to introduce herself and one dance to the audience. She had rehearsed it a few times and nailed it. No stage fright at all! #proudmama (^_^)
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| My girl with her whole school and her teachers (it was a really small child care centre with low teacher-student ratio) |
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| Great job girl! We are so proud of you! |
A few weeks later, she had to say goodbye to her friends for good as it was truly her last day in preschool. It was just as sad for her to know that she will be leaving her friends to go to Primary One where she now needs to do "big girl stuff" like pee on her own, order food and count coins, all without the privilege of riding a stroller. She's probably thinking, "man, this Primary One thing does not sound fun at all.." I know right.. tell me about it..
I have come up with a longer list of Pros and Cons (couldn't squeeze all in an Instagram post) about how I feel about my girl going to Primary School just so that perhaps I can feel better about it. Well, here goes:
Pros
- Paying ZERO school fees simply because we're Singapore Citizens
- Sorry to say this but we ain't like the rest of the non-SC who can run back to their home country if Singapore is ever in trouble. We're like stuck here for life so yah, we deserve this privilege! *laughs*
- That's $700++ that we can save every month, which I can now use to send her for enrichment classes that she likes =)
- Not having to send my girl to and from school
- Yay for her $60/month school bus! =)
- My girl learns how to be more independent
- such as buying her own food, boarding the school bus, writing her homework in her notebook
Cons
- When my girl has homework, it's like I have homework
- her teachers send all the parents a message every time the kids have homework or spelling and I'll have to make sure that it is done
- Having to give free tuition to my girl after I'm tired as hell from working the whole day
- Granted, this does not change since I've been getting her to do Primary One assessment books since she started K2 but NOT because I wanted her to get a head start and be better than other people. No, I wanted her to start earlier so that this lazy mum can take it easy and not be stressed out so much when she actually starts Primary One.
- It's really not easy being a Full-Time Working Mum, a Part-Time Blogger and a Part-Time Tuition Teacher *sigh*
- Travels with my girl can only be done during school holidays
- when everything is more expensive!
Having to wake up early- Ok scratch that.
- This one is only applicable to my girl and my mum-in-law as my mum-in-law is the one who sends my girl to take the school bus and fetch her back. She knows my girl will be late for her bus if I was the one who sends her to school. I'm a night owl and can't wake up before the sun is up!
- I know, I'm terribly spoilt (^_^)
Well, well, what do you know.. it's a tie! *laughs*
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Anyway, from here on, I'll be talking about our Primary One experience without any photos as I would like to protect the privacy of my girl so please bear with me.
On 3 January, my girl woke up at 6am for school for the first time in her 6.5 years of existence. She had worn part of her school uniform, comprising of a collared T-shirt and P.E. shorts, to sleep the night before so that the mum-in-law has one less thing to get my girl to do in the morning. The girl is exactly like me you see; our brains don't wake up until 9am and even then, they're not fully awake.
If you know what it's like to dress a drunk person, you will know what it's like to dress a half-asleep, almost-like-drunk 6.5 year old weighing 22 kilograms. It's so much easier to just get her to put on her skirt (yeah, I get her to wear shorts underneath like the rest of us chor lor girls did back in the day. Some of you girls know what I'm talkin' about..). And thankfully, she doesn't even need to wear the skirt on days when there's P.E., which also means less ironing for me! Woohoo! *fist pump*
I mean, how great is her school uniform?! Especially her BLACK school shoes. I mean, no need to do white polishing like ever? Yeeesssss!! *more fist pumps*
Possibly one of the main reasons why I chose this school over another more popular, all white uniform, top school in the vicinity (not like we could get in or bothered to try to get in anyway).
The mum-in-law walked my girl to board her school bus while the hubby and I drove to her school to meet her there. All parents were allowed to observe the kids going through the school assembly for the first time. There were cameras and flashes everywhere, even during the national anthem and the pledge! Like hello, what kind of example are you setting for your kids?!?! *shakes head*.
The Assistant Head of Primary One was this young but very stern teacher who looked very sweet but talked like she meant business. She called out instructions to all the students and they all looked genuinely frightened of her. It turns out that she was my girl's Form Teacher, which made me really happy because I know my girl does better with strict teachers =)
The kids were then led to their classrooms and parents were not allowed to follow. We were to attend parent workshops and wait till recess before we were allowed to observe the kids again.
My girl was paired with a Primary 3 buddy who helped her to buy food. My girl was munching on her slice of pizza when she spotted us and came over to say "hi". Seeing that she was doing well, we told her that we would be leaving and will see her later when she's back from school.
While all the parents were anxiously watching their kids, we left for our date (we're chill like that), just the two of us, in an almost empty JEM where we had free flow wagyu buffet lunch. It was the best lunch ever! =)
The girl came home from school still pretty cheerful that she managed to survive her first day. I didn't want to douse her excitement but I knew it was going to get less cheery as the days go by. But well, we'll just take one day at a time...
I have to say that I do appreciate that her two Form Teachers make it a point to communicate with us parents either via Whatsapp or the app ClassDojo. They send us regular announcements and updates on homework. One of the two even send us photos and videos of the kids enjoying the lessons in class. I enjoy and appreciate all the photos she had sent.
The school's Principal shared with us that she has approximately 30 years of experience in education and has four kids of her own, proving that she is more than capable to lead this school. I sensed that she has a genuine love for children, which was very reassuring.
I am quite happy with everything so far and felt beyond a doubt that I had picked the right Primary School for my girl. Let's hope that years down the road, we would not regret this choice =)
