Kindergarten. Aack! I think it’s really a love-hate relationship….more hate, probably….

It’ s been about ONE WEEK since I started my first day of kindergarten, and I have to say I haven’t fully grasp or adapted yet. Everything new is surely scary too and that is one area I am trying hard to work on, as I move into my second week of kindergarten.

So, today I’d like to reflect on my first week of kindergarten – the happy times and the sad times…

(cue flashback music…)

It all started on 4 January 2012 when Papa and Mama brought me to kindergarten. What immediately struck me was the huge crowd of strangers and scary looking teachers. Some may think I’m pretty used to big crowds due to my exposure in my church’s Sunday School but this is a whole new experience for me. As a matter of fact, I’m still slightly terrified and shy with the Sunday School crowd too. Heh.

Anyway, I was led into this room called PH2 Carnation ( I think it is some kind of flower. Dunno why flowers were chosen for the class themes. I would have been more comfortable with names like Diprodin and Zyrtec) where luckily for me, there was an empty seat right at the back. Good thing too, since I am tall and want to remain unnoticed for as long as possible. I managed to drag Mama into the class with me, although she did look kinda awkward in the room filled with tiny chairs and tables.

Some kids started crying and throwing tantrums. I couldn’t understand why…until Mama motioned to me that she needed to leave and that I would be ALL ALONE…Gasp! The panic button was automatically hit and I started to join in the commotion and cried and cried too.

Eventually, the teachers brought out some art and craft stuff and even some form of lego-like toys for us to play with, but I still remain scared and shocked at the entire situation. I kept crying and insisting for Papa or Mama to stay close to me.

After some time, the kindy teachers seemed to give some (ill) advice to to Papa and Mama to just let me go and allow me to independently adapt to the crowd. This caused me to cry even more but after a while my wailings became mere sobbings as I braved myself to sniff and sit through the class..

My first day became much better when the bell rang (literally) and we were dismissed. I only managed to start smiling when I got to meet up with my ‘big sister’ Angie, who is in the Year 6 class. Papa, Mama and Angie’s daddy were waiting outside to meet us and fetch us back to Auntie D’s house  for the rest of the afternoon.

These are the more happy photos taken on my first day at kindy…

My conclusion of kindergarten? It sucks. SIGH.

Do I still need to come here tomorrow?!!! SIGH.

Day 2 and 3 was more of the same. Plenty of crying when the classes started and my day would only brighten up when class was dimissed and I got to see Angie and go back with her.

Things started to improve the following week on Day 4 and 5 when I noticed I started crying only “a little bit” as I would tell Papa and Mama. Probably also because I may have cried out my entire tank of tears already! The teachers also seemed nicer now and some even noticed I can be quite attentive and focussed when given things to do, like drawing or colouring.

Day 6 was a breakthrough day for me when managed and succeeded to survive through the entire day in kindy WITHOUT crying! Yay me!I proudly announced it to the world every 5 minutes so people would know it.

So far, kindergarten has been all about my crying and adapting that I cannot really recall if I learnt anything important at all! Papa, Mama, Auntie D and just about everyone else seems to like to ask what new things I learnt or what I did in kindy, but for some strange reason, I am unable to recall what I did!

Hmmm….now that I think I have finally conquered my crying fears, I think I will try to focus more on learning some stuff from kindy for the weeks to come…:-D

Has kindergarten been tough on you too?