Can you believe it?!? Well, I am still trying to get use to it...
Don't get me wrong here...Mona never went to childcare or daycare centers, ever! And she has never spent a day without either of her parents (or grandparents), ever! So when the time came for kindy (kindergarten), I became a total wreck! I secretly bawled my eyes out for days in advance, just because I couldn't believe the time had come for my baby girl to leave me...
I know this sounds super dramatic and silly, since it's just kindy, it's not like she is leaving home to study in another country like I did when I was 16 or anything, but it is still very much bittersweet none the less to me, since I am a stay-at-home mum and that Mona and me have pretty much been together most of the time since she was born!!
So, by the time the first day of school came about, I was absolutely terrified to take my sweet little angel and leave her to the care of complete strangers (not really strangers, we did visit the kindy a couple of times and met with the teachers too)!
And it's not that I didn't think that Mona was ready, quite contrary! I knew she was ready! She knew she was ready! The neighbours across the street knew she was ready! I'm pretty sure everyone knew she was ready! And it was that readiness that was bugging the crap out of me! Because that meant that she really was growing up and needed me just that tiny bit less than before!
And I knew that Mona was going to have an absolute blast at her kindy, because she has been wanting to go to school for a long time, and for about two years this is all we've heard about, since all her friends and cousins were either in daycare or preschool, so she'd already heard about it and was desperate to get in on the action too!
And being at home with me all the time, meant that I was able to really teach her on a preschool level at home, and now that she started preschool during the second term, she is doing everything the other kids do at kindy and then some! So yes, I knew Mona was ready and I knew she'd do just great!
Mona personally picked out her school shirts (one in pink and one in green with the name of the school and logo on them) and a pink school hat, when we visited the school the second the time.Her dad bought her a pink 'Dora' backpack, which is twice her size, and Mona wanted a matching 'Dora' lunch box, which was not very hard to find. She even choose her water bottles, a pink fairy one and a blue pony one! She also has a pink 'Dora' gumboots and pink matching raincoat for when it's a raining, since we walk to take her to school. Her Kindy is about 15 minutes walk (at Mona's speed) and it's a welcomed form of exercise for the 3 of us!
On Monday 19 April 2010, after a very extensive photo shoot of my little prodigy, my husband and myself very bravely walked Mona to her very first school day session!
When we got there, Mona went to hang her bag on the hooks outside of the classroom, and was very excited to get inside. A group of kids were already seated at the far end of the room for story time! After the teacher welcome us and gave the OK for Mona to go join the rest of the children, she super happily gave both her dad and myself a very quick and distracted hug and kiss and tossed an "I love you mum and dad!" over her shoulder as she quickly ran off to find a seat among the other kids!
I think that's when my heart dropped out of my body! I felt the tears rushing up and a huge knot in my stomach! I held my husband hand and he kindly reminded me to breathe! I followed his advice and felt somewhat better and immediately started to record this moment for posterity and for my dear blog readers (mostly my family and friends right!)
We previously had asked permission to stay at kindy in case Mona needed some time to adjust herself, and as it turned out, it was me who needed that time!
We stayed and watched her being introduced to her class, we felt proud when she started talking to the teacher and asking question, and felt ashamed when she wouldn't stop talking... lol.
We saw her sing along to the children songs and saw her made friends, when my husband reminded me that it was probably a good time for us to leave now... I really didn't want to leave, but I had to, because this was Mona's time and not Mona's and mummy...
We told Mona we were leaving and she so joyfully yelled out: "Bye mum! Bye dad!" and we sadly left the school and waited for her at a coffee shop nearby!
When it was time to go home, our daughter didn't want to leave! She was too excited and wanted to keep playing in the sand pit!
The teachers told us that Mona was doing really well for a first day at kindy, considering the fact that she hadn't been to daycare before. They said that she was very confident in what she was doing and saying and is also very independent. They said that Mona had a go at a bit of everything and made friends pretty easily. They think Mona will do just fine at school.
This post is getting too long, so here are the videos I made of her first day at school...
PART ONE
PART TWO
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the videos!
