On the very first day, Karyn was so excited that she woke up at 6 a.m. even though she's in the afternoon session and can sleep all the way till 11 a.m. I called her from work at 11 a.m. and she had already showered and put on her school uniform.
The grandfather whatsapped me this picture of Karyn waiting for her school bus. Apparently, she was so overwhelmed with excitement that she didn't eat much of breakfast nor lunch.
I spent the morning clearing emails at work and counted down the clock to 12.30 to knock off and head to Karyn's school. In fact, my mum and I reached the school even before Karyn did in her school bus. However, we had to walk a long way to the canteen as the security guard didn't allow us to take the shortcut through the car park as there were so many coaches and private school buses there.
By the time we reached the staircase next to the canteen that leads to the hall, almost all the children were no longer in sight. They have all gone up to the hall for assembly. We just hung around at the canteen area and the VP came to ask her who we were waiting for. We told her we are P1 parents and she said that they are all settled in already and asked us to leave. We headed to the sitting area outside the bookshop, away from her watchful eyes, and waited for recess.
When the VP was gone, we went to the canteen to get a drink. A cup of coffee and a packet of Pokka Blueberry Tea only cost us $1.10! And the coffee was good, said my mum. While we were having our drinks, we saw some staff cordoning off the areas next to the canteen. Must be getting ready to keep the parents away from the children during recess. And in no time, we were "chased out" from the canteen.
So, knowing that Karyn's class is on the right side of the canteen and guessing that she would come down from the staircase there, we quickly headed there to "chope" a place to stand in order to have a bird's eye view of the on-goings in the canteen.
Soon, the children came trooping down, hand in hand with their P2 buddies. And this mummy hurriedly took a picture of Karyn and her buddy but it turned out blur.
Once the children filled the canteen, it really was a challenge trying to spot my Karyn amidst the sea of green and white. Managed to catch a glimpse of her holding something like a stick and walking back to the 1E table. "Oh no," I thought, "don't tell me she bought snacks instead of proper food..."
A while later, saw her holding a bowl and chopsticks and walking with her buddy to return the crockery. Whew, it was a relief that she had eaten noodles. Kept waving at her to catch her attention and she waved back.Then I saw her going to queue up again. She's still hungry! And this time, I really spot her holding a pack of crackers and walking back to the table. Oh well, at least she had some proper food to eat already.
It was about 20 minutes into recess time and Karyn had finished her food. I waved to her to come to me so that I could take a photo of her.
Then she said that she had to go to the toilet quickly and rushed off with her buddy holding her water bottle for her. We waited for her outside the toilet and managed to take more photos...
With her buddy Aisha
She ran in and out of the toilet saying that it was very crowded. So she ran up the stairs with her buddy barely catching up behind her to go to the toilet upstairs. Within 15 seconds, they came down again saying that they cannot use that toilet. Popped in and out of the ground floor toilet again (still crowded) and finally rushed up to second floor toilet (bell was going to ring soon) to settle her business. Poor buddy was trying her best to catch up with Karyn. Makes me wonder who is the P1 here....
My mum and I went home after recess. At 6.30 p.m., I went downstairs to wait for Karyn's school bus. As she hopped out of it, she mumbled, "No lessons, not fun, teacher kept on talking... blah blah blah..." Sounds like she had an under-engaging day in school.
While Karyn was getting undressed for her shower, I checked her wallet and saw that she had 60 cents left. Well done! And I encouraged her to put the money into the new automated savings bank that her Daddy bought for her the previous week. It's quite a cool contraption - it actually detects the amount of coin inserted and indicates it on the lid!
After dinner, Karyn suddenly turned to me and said, "Mummy, no need to come tomorrow. I can do it on my own." I was just stunned. "But I already took 3 days' leave."
"Then you come lor, but don't take photos or I'll run out of time." Oh well, what can I say?
