Ian Goes to School

Ian has started going to school today. It’s the same child care centre that Vanessa attends. He arrived at the centre, loitered around the common area with Vanessa for a while, then was introduced to his classroom. He walked right in, straight for the toys, sat down and started busying himself. This is despite another little boy in the classroom crying his lungs out. When it was time for me and the Wife to head off for work, we called out to him and he waved his goodbyes. I was pleasantly surprised that it was so fuss-free.

It was the same with Vanessa too, back in March 2009. But I was a little apprehensive that it might be different for Ian. Vanessa had been very excited about starting school, even before she actually started going to school. We can see how excited she was. Ian is different. He seemed quite unexcited about the idea of attending school. It’s not that he didn’t want to go, or protested about it. He was simply indifferent.

Going to the child care centre would also be his first time attending any sort of class without either of us or our domestic helper accompanying him. Vanessa had attended classes where the child-minder does not accompany the child the entire time. All of Ian’s classes, so far, always had a child-minder accompanying throughout. So I thought Ian might be somewhat more anxious to be left alone in his class.

Of course, maybe the fact that his sister was in the same school might have been comforting enough. However, Vanessa’s classroom was on a different floor. He wouldn’t see her all through the day.

So, how was Ian’s first day in school?

Well, no fuss at all. He did not cry, and didn’t cause any trouble. Really nice. It seemed like he even fared slightly better than Vanessa did on her first day.

It’s a good thing that this is a short week for him, so it will be a gradual introduction to school. He was supposed to start on Monday, but fell sick, so stayed home on Monday and Tuesday. Thursday will be Children’s Day celebrations, and Friday is a holiday for the kids.

We’ll see how he does on the subsequent days.

Update: He was still good on Day Two.