Guess Who Had His First Day Of School Last Week…

Fuh-inally. De Day. First Day At New School. I made a big fuss about lunch and snack packing and uniform fitting partly so Rockstar would feel he had something really important coming up that – yes, got him his own share of attention, what with the new baby around. And oh, that happens to be schoolwork.

(Not say, trip to Disneyland or whatever – because I didn’t think I could swing 1) handling baby; 2) keeping track of Rockstar’s schoolwork, 3) making sure he gets Daddy Time while Kings is keeping odd hours AND 4) making Rockstar not feel neglected with new baby arrival by bringing him to Disneyland and what-not. So I shall do 2, 3, 4 all together and nix Disneyland unless I can find something educational to talk to him about that might also potentially cut my future workload preparing him for Show n Tells etc.)

(Am I allowed to laugh? His school bag is totally wearing him. But he is very small.. The reception uncle said, “Wow, going camping?”)

Tried to make the school bag as light as possible – hardly filled his water bottle, and all he’s got in there are a change of clothes, sun hat, very small pack of flushable toilet wipes and his snacks/ lunch. He picked everything, and his food is where all the weight is – chicken nuggets and whole grain toast (or a salmon sandwich), breakfast cereal and two different fruit smoothies in squeezies. (<sheepish> but he can really eat when he wants and it’s his first time with longer school hours so I was kiasu; his dinner is already more than mine – two eggs, rice, a big cup of of stir-fried broccoli/carrots, a third-to-half of a medium-sized steamed fish.)

All the kids except one who is pulling a Lighting McQueen bag along on wheels are also carrying the standard issue school bags so I guess he will have to get used to the size/weight. (I do ask his teacher when she comes to say hi to all of us; she checks and suggests I take out his change of clothes.) Rockstar gives me a look when he sees the Cars bag because he wanted a very similar one just the day before and I’d said No, When Are You Ever Going To Use That… Fortunately it dissipates when he sees everyone else using the school bags…

Another mum and I have arranged to bring our boys, former classmates from Kindy, 20 minutes early so they can play together before going up to class. We needn’t have worried. After 10 minutes there’s lotsa other kids who’ve shown up early to play in the playground before their staggered* first day. That I can see, there are at least a few kids escorted by both parents – some work-shirted dads are even carrying proper cameras along with their briefcases (not just say, taking videos on iPhones).

(*10 kids come to school at a time, per class, on different first days throughout the first week, I guess so the teachers get to know them better, before the entire class of 30 finally comes in together)

The first morning Rockstar had asked me to put in a request for him to get a male “bus buddy” (in their first few days first year bus children are escorted by older children, Rockstar naturally has been fervently hoping for an older boy) and so I asked his teacher, who promised to try, but said allotments were already made earlier. There I’m feeling all pleased with myself for getting that in, in the midst of returning school outing consent forms and various medical/ allergy/ swimming confidence etc information on forms – and then watching his class climb the stairs to their classroom, I overhear another mum worrying repeatedly about whether her child will be put on the bus because she wants to pick him/her up.

In fact it seems like they have a lot more “walkers” (i.e. their parents will come pick them up) and I have a moment of self-doubt – I put some effort into talking to Rockstar, getting him prepared to take the bus (in fact I put him on the Kindy summer camp bus thinking to get him used to the bus going to a familiar destination first, whereupon he apparently got extra McQueen stickers for good behavior so now bus experience totally rocks) – instead, should I just have not let him take the bus on his first day?

So I go back and call out the PTA email with detailed bus schedules and stops. I’m pretty sure I have the right bus stop, but…… People are really serious about this. They’re all going to pick their kids up and everything and I hadn’t even thought I might need to. Better make sure I at least have the right stop. I email to check – and in record time receive a reply with a map attached, indicating the exact bus stop.

Rockstar comes home very serious about assembly and trying to win what sounds like an inter-class challenge for good behavior. I don’t know if that’s an actual challenge trophy or class privileges like getting to break first – Rockstar’s mentioned both. Also a slightly scraped knee after tripping over someone’s seatbelt while getting on.

Hearing the awards reminded me when I made those typical school challenge trophies hoping to use them at one point for Equity Derivatives Inter-team Challenges among  RMs (wanted to fill the cups with Hershey’s Kisses even, thinking to make the whole going after P/L a little more fun…) And then local ex-colleagues had explained to me that as little kiddies in the local schools they would get “little white rabbit” stamps if their schoolwork was neat ‘n nice (and “pig” stamps if it wasn’t).

So I had “Little White Rabbit awards” made – out of Jonathan Adler napkin rings I found online on sale, which I then had the trophy place glue to a base with plaques, for RM assistants who were error free in trade booking/ follow up settlements… (while it was meant with a little irony, there were real reasons for “rewarding” good housekeeping, especially if/when the market was busy… Clients either all didn’t want to do anything, or else they all came back at the same time. Booking errors cost money or huge compliance problems and once you’ve had to hunt an assistant down to enter the trade or clean it up you quickly appreciate those who don’t make you do that…) And yes I remember on the i-bank side they like to call the commemorative plaques “tombstones.”

Anyway. Rockstar would later tell me his teacher chatted with them at break time, got to know them while they were playing and more relaxed, that his lunch was checked out, that he really likes his teacher… Also that they’d looked at his band-aided forehead from when he’d run into a banister last weekend… It all made me feel comfortable he was well looked after, hadn’t even expected they would notice the skin-colored bandaid half hidden under his hair…

When I finally remember to ask, he tells me his bus buddy was……… a girl. But that she’d been really nice and he’d liked her (i.e. could live with her not being a boy, I suppose lol)… I guess better for him to get used to adjusting for when things don’t totally go his way as he gets older…

As Rockstar launches into another extremely serious account of his new school’s happenings….

Me: What was that?

Rockstar: I said the boss says many children with their aunties (i.e. helpers) were running, and –

Me: Yeah that, who’s “the boss”?

Rockstar: (Name). That’s our school principal.

Me: <hiding amusement> How did you pick that up, from the other kids?

Rockstar: Yeah. Some of my friends on the playground.

Me: Does he know you guys are referring to him as the boss?

Rockstar: No, he wasn’t there. There are pictures of him in the school, you know.

Me: And why do you guys call him that?

Rockstar: <authoritatively> Be-cause he is, he’s in charge of the school. And it’s easier than saying “principal” all the time. <shrugs>

(I just thought it was really funny, Rockstar’s totally serious “the boss” thing like he’s in an italian mafia movie… I’d like to be the fly on that playground wall, bunch of little kids talking seriously about what “the boss wants”… Rockstar comes home one day “making me an offer I can’t refuse” I’m gonna fall off my chair)

I'm yet to watch it. But the quotes transcend the movies. Some of the kids must have parents who love the show or something...

Ps: In the 30 minutes I was pumping my milk while Rockstar munched a sandwich next to me before we went to school for the first time… I’d suddenly remembered that I hadn’t run through whether Rockstar could still write all his ABCs and numbers, albeit he pens simple thank you letters and cards, mostly by deciding what he wants to say and then following what I have written on a scrap of paper, so I ask him to get the magna doodle….. His “J” and “S” are backwards, that first morning. And “Oh, my “Z” is facing the wrong way too, right?”