all gone and all growing
all four of my children are attending small world Christian kindergarten.
all morning i am alone.
this is not technically true, but it does sound dramatically impressive, doesn’t it? if i accompany sebastian, jasper, sela and carys to school then we leave the house at 8.20am and i get back approximately one hour later. if i go with de to pick them up from school then i have to leave the house at 11.20 and come back approximately one hour and 15 mintues later (loading kids in to the car takes time).
the kids are loving being in school almost as much as i am loving having them out of the home.
because they are only gone for a few hours a day it is no BIG THING for my heart. when sebastian goes to full day school next year, that will be a BIG THING. a VERY big thing.
watching the girls go to school was not overly difficult. they had each other and they walked in to the class, holding hands, after removing and pushing their knapsacks into their cubbies. they smiled and chattered.
they’re very montessori at school, when i came back to pick them up, they were playing with bowls placed on a tray, scooping out items and putting them into the next bowl. when they saw me, they put the bowl back in place instead of leaving it on the table.
this skill of putting things back, which seems second nature to them at school, is a skill that apparently cannot be achieved or remembered at their playroom, pokfulam road, hong kong. they look blankly at me when i suggest clearing up.
they love school and their teachers, miss jovina and miss helen. today, miss jovina gave me the good news that carys is talking more, therefore feeling more confident. this made me very pleased. we walked down the steps and sela barked orders on how we needed to walk on the red line and hold the handrail. carys repeated her, as she often does. but, according to her teacher, sela is talking more, thus, i need not worry about anything !!
technically, life is much easier. i know it is for lita, who has admitted she loves the kids being gone more. she is cooking them singapore noodles and other fun stuff, which they love.
it is also easier for me. i know i should feel remorseful, and at times i do dig up a little sorrow when they come home telling me a song they learned or a country (malaysia) they learned about. if they were unhappy, i would be in bits. but they are not. they are very excited about their new world. sebastian loves having "his triplets" at school and bossing them around a bit in his loud, loud voice. but i am enjoying the quiet and myself right now. later the sorrow will come. but for now, it’s all good.
all four children are attending small world Christian kindergarten.
they are growing, and so am i.
