One Down... a million more to go
Clark successfully attended his first day of First Grade. Woo-hoo!
We journeyed out (all four of us) to the bus stop at 6.50am on Wednesday morning. At 7.10am, the big yellow bus (complete with air conditioning and DVD player) rolled up to the appointed spot and awaited Clark's arrival. We jumped out of our vehicle and Kevin took Clark by the hand and made sure he got on to his first ever school bus ride.
At this early hour of the morning there were already another 15 or so students on the bus who apparently live even further from the school than we do. Shocking, I know. There was a mix of Indian and Korean students, as is so common for international schools in this area. Clark, however, was the only white face. Clark was all smiles as he got on the bus.
Although we do not really know what happened after that, he (in theory) made it to school by about 8.15am where he then followed the crowd into the large school building and searched for his classroom -- Grade One, Section G. He had been to the room at the orientation we all went to last Saturday, so he was roughly familiar... but I have absolutely no clue how he found the class. When asked if anyone helped him find the room he said, 'No, I just knew."
Clark reports that he enjoyed playing basketball for the first time and he made a lovely card with cut out shapes glued onto blue paper... and on the inside he had written "For Mama and Dab" (yes, Dab, not Dad). For lunch, he says that he waited in line with the other children and then the 'uncles' in the lunchroom served him rice, dal, curd, muttar paneer, roti and a sweet. He said he ate everything.
They had a short naptime during the day - heads laid on desks... remember those days!? He says he got in trouble once for talking... and that he really enjoyed the afternoon hot chocolate milk that they served.
His bus was nearly an hour late in the afternoon because the monsoon skies opened up and the bus parking lot was flooded. Thankfully, the school administration sent bulk SMS messages to all the parents informing them so we would not worry. He jumped off the bus with his brilliant and yet innocent smile, eager to tell us as much as he could remember about his day.
The key question? "Do you want to go back tomorrow?"
The answer? A resounding, "YES!"
Ah, sweet success.
~lk
We journeyed out (all four of us) to the bus stop at 6.50am on Wednesday morning. At 7.10am, the big yellow bus (complete with air conditioning and DVD player) rolled up to the appointed spot and awaited Clark's arrival. We jumped out of our vehicle and Kevin took Clark by the hand and made sure he got on to his first ever school bus ride.
At this early hour of the morning there were already another 15 or so students on the bus who apparently live even further from the school than we do. Shocking, I know. There was a mix of Indian and Korean students, as is so common for international schools in this area. Clark, however, was the only white face. Clark was all smiles as he got on the bus.
Although we do not really know what happened after that, he (in theory) made it to school by about 8.15am where he then followed the crowd into the large school building and searched for his classroom -- Grade One, Section G. He had been to the room at the orientation we all went to last Saturday, so he was roughly familiar... but I have absolutely no clue how he found the class. When asked if anyone helped him find the room he said, 'No, I just knew."
Clark reports that he enjoyed playing basketball for the first time and he made a lovely card with cut out shapes glued onto blue paper... and on the inside he had written "For Mama and Dab" (yes, Dab, not Dad). For lunch, he says that he waited in line with the other children and then the 'uncles' in the lunchroom served him rice, dal, curd, muttar paneer, roti and a sweet. He said he ate everything.
They had a short naptime during the day - heads laid on desks... remember those days!? He says he got in trouble once for talking... and that he really enjoyed the afternoon hot chocolate milk that they served.
His bus was nearly an hour late in the afternoon because the monsoon skies opened up and the bus parking lot was flooded. Thankfully, the school administration sent bulk SMS messages to all the parents informing them so we would not worry. He jumped off the bus with his brilliant and yet innocent smile, eager to tell us as much as he could remember about his day.
The key question? "Do you want to go back tomorrow?"
The answer? A resounding, "YES!"
Ah, sweet success.
~lk
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