First Day At School!

It was the first day of the new school term. Both Afzal and Farzana are looking great in their white and beige uniform. Another milestone in the history of these kids. For Afzal, at least, while I was still lingering in his class, he actually told me,"Why are you still here, mummy?" That's a change from the usual whiny "I want my mummy in class" when I sent him to childcare in Singapore a few months back. Maybe it's the coming of age, maybe it's more fun here. At least, he is more independent now and is looking forward to school.

A new friend was made. I was surprised at the friendliness of the White girl. She actually mistook Farzana for her friend Helen and was embarrassed after the phototaking that Farzana was not Helen. But we made them friends. Farzana is one of Tahir's colleague daughter, and she is in grade 1 while Afzal is in kindergarten. That girl, I think her name is Casey or something, is from Grade 4. By the way, that cute little girl in blue is Sabrina, Farzana's little sis.

We came back during Afzal's lunchtime at 12.45pm. Afzal and a petite little girl named Hope were Mrs Smith's little helpers today. Hope was the first to stand in line and Afzal was made to stand by the door to let the other kids out. A lot of disciplining was going on as Mrs Smith mentioned that they have to get the students used to the routine. We headed to the cafeteria and though Afzal had brought his lunch pack, he still wanted to queue for the food. Since I've already informed Mrs Smith about his dietary limitations, we were there just to see what was the situation like. It may be tough but I think we just needed to educate the teachers and staff a little about our religious obligation and I expect that constant gentle reminders maybe needed.

We started by writing a letter to Mrs Smith, as if it was written by Afzal to introduce himself. It was more so to explain about how we write our names - I mean sometimes it's hard to explain that we don't have a first, middle and last name. Also, the fact that we have certain dietary limitations. We have taught Afzal about halal and non-halal food but just in case.

After getting their trayful of food, the children move to the designated tables and the serving was in fact quite large for these little kids. The works would include taco with meat sauce, some kind of colored rice, corn, cake, chips, choice of salad, peach, apple, juice and milk. After their meal, they were expected to put all thrash on the tray, wait for instructions, before they moved in one line to put their tray away, separating the fork into a "chute". Being kids, they were noisy, some eat, while some doesn't. Then it was loo time before they headed back to class. By the way, the Americans call toilets, restroom.

When the kids came in the morning, we had to fill up a form of how they were going home - by car, school bus, walk or aftercare. Today it was by car but we will get him on the school bus from tomorrow. And it's free. We do not have any school fees to pay as well except for a $5 registration and whatever amount we want to spend on school uniforms and materials. You can buy your uniforms from any departmental stores that sell them. So you can compare prices as well as the designs. Though the color is the same, the girls' uniforms have different styles. Some girls may prefer to wear skirts, others may prefer skorts, pants, jumper, pinafore etc or it's up to you if you want everything. There's not much choices for boys though.

Each grade level has a different material list that includes scissors, crayon, washable markers, composition books, hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray, paper towels, tissue box etc and so far we have spent about $75 on materials and uniforms. We think it's a decent amount bearing in mind that there are no school or transport fees. Lunch is $1.50 unless you are given discount because of your family situation which we doubt we will get that. Also, you don't have to buy lunch if you bring lunch or you can pay 35 cents for a packet of milk or something else that you want. Breakfast... yes breakfast is provided unless you come to school by 7.40am and it's a flat rate of 0.60cents unless you are under financial aid. Formal school starts at 8.20 am until 3.20pm. So that's the gist of my little kid's life in a public school here...