Start of Primary school

Wow! Been so long since I posted!

Since then IZ turned 6 in Dec and started primary school too!

Life got so busy the first two weeks, I felt really overwhelmed (with new routine and information overloaded). Didn't help that I had to go for a short business trip on the 2nd week of school.

Before my memory fails me more, here's bits and pieces of the past 3 weeks.

Something to be thankful of, IZ enjoys the start of his primary school, and look forward to going to school everyday, including weekend. He would countdown to Monday on Saturday morning when he woke up. (While deep inside, I was like, Monday please don't come! - already Mon-bluish on Saturday)

4th week into P1, he's grown as a person.

Having helper since he was born, he (and I'm guilty as well) is completely reliant on others for EVERY LITTLE THING.

He's more independent now. We forced onto him to learn to clean up after himself after pooping. He carries his plate or cup when he's done with his meals. Brush teeth on his own.

I've also taught him to pack his school bag from Day 0. I wrote a list of things to pack, and since then he has never looked back. He took it upon himself to pack storybooks for his silent reading too (odd week Chinese, even week English). Well, he lost a Chinese storybook, and he felt upset about it. I felt heartache. :-( But this is the growing journey, I hope he would learn to take care of his belongings real soon.

There was one day he came home without any books nor his water bottle. He left everything underneath his desk. I am not sure what he was thinking about either. And that was the day he had the 1st school homework. I asked him to confess to his teacher the next day, and face the music himself. Surprisingly, the teacher was very nice about it, and told him she'd give him only one chance, the next time he forgets, he'll get marks deducted. Sigh.. I was hoping for something more severe. I wonder if he knows what's marks deduction means. :-D

Buying food has been fun for him. He enjoys spending money in the canteen. The fun of buying a bottled drink from vending machine, the power to purchase a sandwich in the canteen. He decided he eats too slowly (or maybe he's been chanted way too many a times that he's convinced he couldn't eat any faster), that he chose not to buy noodles nor rice. He opts for sandwiches, cakes or buns for lunch.

First day, he bought Yakult and a pandan sponge cake.
And subsequently alternate between pandan sponge cake and sandwiches.

Worried he wouldn't get enough nutrients, I decided to pack recess box for him. Of which, he gave me a schedule in return, to pack on Tuesdays and Fridays, and give him pocket money on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Now we fall into routine, which sometimes screwed, most of the times worked for us:

Morning:
Wake-up: This is difficult, it's not easy for the kiddo to wake up at 6am. So the first 3 weeks, we had to rush like mad. This week onwards, he wakes up at 5.45am. Makes everyone's life easier.
Breakfast: a cup of milk with sometimes biscuits or bread or pau.
Shower: Warmed up after breakfast, he takes a quick shower to freshen up. I believe morning shower makes a difference on how he looks (fresh or not). Haha!
School bus: pick-up from downstairs everyday.

Afternoon:
Depending on which day of the week, the school timing is not the same everyday:
Shower: first thing to do is shower after cooling down
Lunch: first proper meal for the day
School Homework / Spelling Practice* / Mom's Homework** / Violin Practice / iPad / Play: all these in no particular order as he prefers, but priority is for school homework, he has to finish them before I come home for the day.
Playground / Lessons: We are dropping all the weekday classes (drawing, violin X 2) so that he can play more. Starting Feb, he'll only have 1 lesson on weekday which is CHINESE! We cannot afford to give up Chinese!

Evening:
Violin practice: if there's no lesson for the day
Spelling / Revision: if there's time left
Packing of school bag
Reading
Bedtime by 9pm (sometimes he'll knock out straight.. sometimes exasperatingly, he'd roll till 9.30pm)

*I make him responsible for his own spelling. He'll plan for himself on how many and when he would learn to spell the words in the Spelling list given by the teacher. Then he'll ask helper to test him. When I get home, he'll get me to test him. I find this way works for him, I do not have to sit down to work on it in the evenings, and focus on revising what teacher has taught for the day / week instead.

**Mom's Homework means homework dictated by ME, the MOM (not Ministry of Manpower). I put aside some workbooks including Word Search, copying of Chinese sentences, Maths work for him to do on days he doesn't have any school homework. I have been doing this for the past few months, he's been doing the work diligently. I think this is really important to start from young age so they take it as part of their daily routine.

Weekend:
Cartoon
Orchestra practice
iPad
Revision
Play
Swimming lesson : on Sunday
Movie night
Sharpening colour pencils / pencils
Reading
Bedtime