First Day Of School Traditions

The other day a blogger friend asked me if we as a family observe any first day of school traditions.

This year will be the 4th year that we will be welcoming the first day of school with our little girl. Traditions?

Well, apart from me ensuring that I personally prepare her lunch box and snacks (at least) during the first week of the school year, I'm not sure if it can be considered a tradition but we have been consistent in the last 3 years of ensuring we have our family photo taken in front of our house.

We're just going on our 4th but when I look back at the last 3 years, I can clearly see how much this little kid has grown. I personally miss the chubby cheeks she had when she was still in preschool.

When she graduates from Grade School, I think it would be nice to gift her with a collage of all these family photos, don't you think? I sure will try to keep on doing this as long as we can.

How about you? What first day of school traditions do you observe with your kid/s?

Sharing these interesting ideas for first day of school traditions that I found online:

25 Fun First Day of School Traditions : The Dating Divas

Photo Blog: First Day Of School Rush

I posted about our first day of school experience here. And of one of my well-accepted baon recipe here (I say well-accepted because she requested for me to cook pasta for the entire week). I don't have a lot of school anecdotes to share yet because the little girl has been very privy of her school experience so we don't press. We will wait. For that day when she openly shares her everyday adventures in school. For now, we're just happy with her coming home excitedly to show us the stickers and stars that she's earned for being well-behaved. Well, actually we're just happy to always have her home safely from school.

i caught myself staring at this.
it's probably reality starting to sink in.
i still feel the excitement more than the anxiety though.
i hope it stays that way. so i can be a better parent to my preschooler.

So here goes the photo blast (again if you're not up to it, would suggest you skip this post ^_^)! I'm glad I  was finally given the opportunity to take pictures again using an actual camera (thanks for letting us borrow your camera lolo!). It was nice break that I really welcomed with open arms since I was kind of getting burnt out (read: tired) already looking at lousy photos from my faulty phone camera. Is there a raffle out there that's giving out free cameras? I'm willing to try my luck since I don't think I could squeeze in our budget tighter to make way for a new camera anytime soon. Lolz.

tiny shoes, tiny socks ready to share new adventures with our little tot!

"Mommy, ako na magsasara ng butones ha?"

maia's first day baon that she helped prepare with me.
i wasn't able to get some seedless grapes earlier so we had to peel and seed them out manually.
it was a fun bonding exercise for me and maia anyways.

admiring her sandwich masterpiece

Mandatory First School Day In Uniform pose

Another obligatory pose this time inside her school shuttle service
while waiting for the other kids. She's the youngest in this batch
but she doesn't seem to mind. And she's starting to love the rides to school
since she gets to horse around with the other kids. 

One of the things that our little miss preschooler is really excited about is the playground time. And to see plenty of kids to play with is more icing on the cake for her. When we arrived in school, guess where she immediately went.

THE PLAYGROUND! 

At almost 11am, the sun was already blasting at it's hottest but little kids don't really care too much about that, do they? It's a good thing they had shortened classes the first week and PE in the middle of the week so she had plenty of play time and wasn't immediately subjected to a barrage of school work. Kid has unlimited energy, I'm telling ya. I'm deeply hoping she will have the same amount of energy for schoolwork when they all come pouring her way.

Anyways, I'm glad I didn't have to sift through a lot of photos so here's just a few more that I'd like to document (there's a bright side to not owning a camera after all!) These are our first day parting shots. 

happy to see her daddy waiting by her classroom door

with her pretty classroom adviser, teacher jam

So that's how our first day of school went. Kid slept like a log a few minutes after the school shuttle left the school to take them home. She gets tired, after all (what a relief! hahaha). But the minute we got home, she was wide awake and ready to share her first day of school experience to her village friends. 

School Adventures Officially Begins!

And so our big school adventure officially kicked off today. Maia couldn't sleep well last night, but that didn't really alarm me because she's always been like that when she's looking forward to something new the following day. Although, I was already armed and ready for a tantrum-filled start brought about by lack of sleep. But the minute the little miss was up I knew we were off to a good start because she was extremely cheerful and ever ready to start the day.

We started by preparing her baon for school. I called the school yesterday and I was told they were going to shorten the class periods from 3 to 2 hours until Friday to give the kids some time to adjust so there's really no need for us to pack heavy lunches. I've been thinking of preparing a weekly menu for Maia's lunch pack but that remained to be just a plan and as expected, I crammed. I aimed for an ambitious lunch pack but ended up with a bag of mini-sandwiches, peeled grapes, a few packs of biscuits and some yogurt drinks instead. Nothing healthy. Nothing fancy. But then again, at least the little miss was all so eager to help me prepare her school stuff. She cut the sandwiches into her preferred shapes (it was a heart-shaped cheese and a flower-shaped hazelnut sandwich)

To keep the spirit of 'stage parenting' alive in our household, both Tibs and I took a day off from our respective jobs to personally send our little miss schoolgirl off and as well as fetch her after school. Being the realistic working parents however, we made it clear that it's all just going to be for today. She seemed to have understood. In fact, she initially refused to be accompanied to school - "wag na kayo sumama, Mommy. kaya ko na 'to". But then the school service operator was apprehensive and wanted us to help ease her adjustment to the new environment so she pleaded for us to be present on day one. And yes being the stage parents that we were, we eagerly complied.

As I've anticipated, it was a chaotic first day rush when we got to the school. I had a happy realization though. I wasn't the stage mother that I thought myself to be. I call that a happy realization because that made me feel (in a nice affirming way) that I'm on the parenting path that I'd really hope to be in. And that's just somewhere in between and nowhere the extremes. I support but I also let be. My kid wasn't clingy at all when I led her to her classroom door. And she couldn't wait for me to leave her. Surprisingly, I didn't feel heartbroken at all when my daughter shooed me away. I felt pride in fact.

I bid her goodbye, blew a few kisses then silently but happily walked out of the preschool building and made my way towards the auditorium where the preschool parents' orientation was going to be held. It was a short orientation (about 30minute I think) and it just gave us an overview of how our preschooler’s day would be like while in school - grading system, feeding programs, PE schedules, class parties, raising and discussing issues with teachers and guidance counselors, and a short open forum where anxious parents were given the venue to voice out their apprehensions and fears out in the open. The teachers were gracious enough to listen and I could personally say they won my trust just by merely affirming to us parents that our kids are their priority (I am that mababaw, see?).

So I guess, having had a smooth experience during our first day has somehow padded the issue of separation anxiety (on Maia and us, most especially). But that doesn't mean I'm finally closing that phase of our school adventure. I'm still bracing myself for next week because I'm thinking that after all this excitement ebbs down, that's when the real idea of separation anxiety will start to work its magic (black magic nga lang). I don't sound very optimistic, do I? Well, I really just wanted to be prepared. Wish us luck!

camwhoring with mom inside the school service
while waiting for other kids