Amelie has just had her first homework! Ray did it with her. It involved Chinese: spot the odd items in the different areas of a room (Ray and I argued about which was right!) and circle the shorter items. Then English, put the letter A stickers in the right place and complete the apple, then colour it in! So sweet. Want her do it well and neat, but she can hardly hold the pencil properly and scribbling is her favourite pass time, so we had to do a lot of rubbing out! At least she did it all herself though.
Amelie loves her little school. It is a local catholic kindergarten so she will be fluent in Chinese before long. She loves her teacher Siu Lo Si, and the other teacher with a bun! She has a little rucksack for her books (which I carry to the door, or the bus) and she has a progress book which we always look forward to seeing. The teacher has told me that she is a very good girl, but she doesn't eat much - they get a snack to eat whilst they are at school. She does 9-12 which is plenty for such a little girl!
Last week she started to get the school bus which I was terrified about. I put her on a mini bus full of little children at the bus stop outside the house, and met her there again just after 12. There is a woman on the bus who takes her from the door to her seat and looks after them, and another lady who drives. The fact that she shot off as the lady and Amelie staggered to the nearest free seat had me slightly worried, but then they all drive like that here.
I pick her up from school some days too if we are going to do something in the afternoon. The mums queue up outside and wait for them to be brought into the main hall, which they do in a beautiful line, each holding onto the bag of the person in front! Its lovely to see her little face in the window! She puts her two fists in the air and I can see her mouthing Mummy, yeah as she jumps up with delight at seeing me and Anthony waiting outside with the other mothers!
Amelie was so brave she didn't cry on her first day. I went in to take her into the classroom, and as we rounded the corner, you could hear the screaming of most of the other children. Most are older than Amelie (the school year running from Jan to Dec), and it will have been the first time they had left their parents/grandparents. I told Amelie to tell them not to worry and be nice to them! I'm sure she was.
Rachel do you speak Chinese? I swear I'm terrified of my little one's first day
ReplyDelete, you are a good brave mother, new school and new country. I could picture in my head then walking in line holding the back pac of the kid in front.