This year starts off for me as a parent another milestone! The day my lil tinkerbell starts going to reception in school. Reception is the year that children attend before their official Year 1 and normally they start attending reception after they turn 5 years old. Lil Tinkerbell was an exception because of her ability, she was accepted one term earlier.
So, on her first day at school she was up bright and early. Excited about wearing her school uniform and having her new school bag, everything was daunting to me but to her, she was more than happy to start school than staying at home for the past few months already during the holidays. She started on Wednesday and so far, we have been very impressed with the school and how they manage the children.
First of all, there are only 15 children in her class so that means, she gets more attention from her teacher. Then, the school provides all her stationery to books and they have them all wrapped as well so we didn't have to do anything.
Next was the hours of school. Her normal school time starts at 8:45am and ends the day at 3:10pm everyday with two breaks in between for snacks with fruits and lunch recess but for the first week, we were advised that their days will end at 12:30pm followed by the second week at 2:00pm and from the third week onwards, they will resume their normal school hours. That was a very good move especially for the kids who are not used to the long hours at school so by slowly giving them more time to get used to the school hours and for us parents too (especially me) to get used to the idea of not having our kids with us for the first half of the day.
Well, it just gets better cause they even offer free after school activities each term and this term, I have signed Lil Tinkerbell up for hip hop dance. So every Friday, she can go dancing where refreshments will also be served because class sessions are 1 hour and will end at 4:30pm. Now how good is that? They have given us a whole plan of Term 1 where important dates are marked down and that includes a zoo excursion for the kids and every Fridays in the morning, the kids get taken down to the beach for walks too! Hmm..school here is indeed so much better and refreshing.
And like a proud parent, there I was armed with my camera snapping away pictures of her on her first day at school:-
Their tables are all clearly labelled with their names so they know where to sit and they each have their own labelled drawer where they keep all their notebooks.
Their spots are all clearly labelled with their names so they know where to hang their bags. 
