It was D-day for our
little one going to big school with her older brother. It was the day when she would
finally board the yellow school bus she’d so wished, just like her older
brother. It was the day to put on “The Samhita Academy” uniform and continue to
wear the same every day of the week, just like her older brother. It was
also the day that we were dreading as it seemed near impossible to get
her ready as early as her brother which is almost two hours ahead of her
usual time the last two years!! Well... it’s finally here... with
both our kids going to the same school ... and gone by 7.45 AM... we may
finally get some quiet time for ourselves before our daily grind!!!:-)
While choosing the right school for the kids is a much
discussed/debated topic in most households, it was quite the opposite with us.
It was more of "We came, we saw and
we enrolled....." with my older one who has happily continued in the
same school ever since he first joined in UKG or Upper Kindergarten on our
return from the US. So it was but a natural progression for his baby sister to
be going to the same school, albeit a year earlier for LKG or Lower Kindergarten
after two years of playschool. While we
didn't dwell too much on whether it was the right call to make when we filled
out the sibling admission forms last year followed by a seemingly smooth admissions
process, it is only in the last couple
of weeks that we began to get cold feet over preparing our little one for her big
day and had misgivings about whether it is too early to send our little one to a large school that
is more than half-hour commute away or would it have been prudent to let her
continue for another year in her close-knit Montessori school that's literally
only a stone's throw away from our house. Added to this mix were several
pre-occupations like work getting hectic all of a sudden, the fracture of my
older one’s little finger at the start of the academic year, and my mother-in-law's
backache, all of which only compounded our concern over her ability to fit in and
our wherewithal to enable her to do so! But
when the D Day arrived, without much fuss, our little one held her brother's
hand and just climbed on to the school bus! We even followed the bus into her school and hid
behind other nervous parents to watch her alight at the school entrance and
just as we were about capture the moment on camera ......she noticed us ...
and waved out to us as if it were a "first day of school-red
carpet", reassuring us that she was
going to be fine!! :-)
It had to be a special book to celebrate the start of our
little one's journey in the yellow school bus, and I went all the way across
town to "The Lightroom bookstore" to find it! Sounds too dramatic
isn't it? Well, actually I managed to finish work in North Bangalore early
enough to be able stop by the bookstore, that I had visited many moons ago. Browzing
through the well stocked shelves of independent bookstores like "The Lightroom
Bookstore" and a few other in South Bangalore, is such a joy that can't compare
to the convenience of online shopping and
a friendly owner like Aasthi Mudnani and her courteous staff helping you the
find the right book only completes this delightful experience!
So we picked a few books and best liked "First
day Jitters" by Julie Danneberg and illustrated by Judy Love, a
part of the "Mrs. Harwell's classroom adventures series" by Charlesbridge
publications. School year has just begun and Mr. Hartwell has a tough time
waking up Sarah for her first day at the new school. Just like anyone with
starting trouble, Sarah refuses to budge from her bed and has to be goaded into
getting ready for school, with her father gently persuading her at first and
then resorting to sterner methods to get Sarah to look forward to the new experiences
in her new school, dismissing all her apprehensions. Despite all her diversion tactics from her
head hurting to feeling sick, she is finally ready and packed off to the school
in Mr. Hartwell's car and is welcomed by the school supervisor/principal who
ushers her into her classroom.... and the readers as well as the students are finally introduced to Mrs. Sarah Jane
Hartwell ..the new class teacher! :-) We
could relate to this ..... as except Aadya, everyone else from her parents, her
older brother, paternal grandparents at home, maternal grandparents at a distance,
and to her day-time nanny were all experiencing 'first day jitters"!Have a great school year without any jitters....my kindergartner!