Tara's First Day at Day Care School

We enrolled Tara into a day care school in September last year. And today, she starts her first day of school. The school is Creative O, located at Creative Technology building in International Business Park at Jurong East. It's not very convenient if I have to take a bus, but heck, Bob is in-charge of chauffering the little lady everyday. And on days he's out of town, I get to drive his car so no issues there, besides, there is a straight bus from where I work, so no issues if I do have to pick her up after work.

I've been preparing for her school since a month ago. Buying all the necessities. Blanket, towels, baby pillow, toothbrush, mug, comb etc. I need to get lots of bottoms for her too, as the school's uniform is only a t-shirt. I even sent the blanket and towels to Beach Road to embroider her name onto. I'm told to write with the marker but I decided that sewing her name is much more permanent and definitely looks neater and nicer.

And I also bought a label machine just to print labels for her water bottle and mug. Over the top? Yeah, I know. But I can't help it.

I even made tags for her daily and weekly bag!

Can't see properly? A better view here.


Bob wasn't in town so I had to send Tara to school myself. I almost thought I couldn't make it cos I was running a fever last night. I'm still not fully recovered from food poisoning from my Kelantan trip (I'll update this later) and the symptoms are showing slowly. I popped 2 fever medication and hope that the fever will subside in the morning. And lucky, it did.

This morning, I kept telling Tara not to laze around and that she will be going to school soon. It's only when I put on her t-shirt that she realised she's indeed going to school, cos she looked at me wide-eyed, pointed at her t-shirt and said "读书啊?". The t-shirt is in blue, and I matched it with a blue shorts too. To make her less boyish, I put on a clip for her, but the clip did not managed to stay for more than 15 mins. Picture of Tara in her uniform.

While we were walking to the carpark, Tara refused to walk the usual path that leads to the carpark and instead, kept pointing to the front direction and after a while, I finally understood what she was trying to tell me. She thought that her school was the one 2 blocks away, the one my FIL brought her to every day on her morning walks!

It was a chaotic first day, as most parents of the playgroup kiddos are there. Quite a bit of bawling. Frankly, I can't understand why some parents would leave their kids alone on their first day in a totally unfamiliar environment. One little girl looked pretty scared and was crying quite a bit for quite a while. Tara was shy at first but after some sessions of singing and dancing, she relaxed and little and start mingling with the other kids.

Tara's own cubby hole!

Part of the school

Outside the school. My favourite part of the school.

Tara playing dough

Tara called out to the front during story telling. She's mimicking a dog woofing.

Playing at the make-pretend kitchen.

The little boy standing beside Tara is the son of a local Chinese DJ. The boy wasn't able to stand and walk properly but this Tara kept shoving him aside to play with the basin. I was half expecting the famous Mummy to come confront me.

It's really a PLAYgroup. They were playing most of the time, with dough and then with toys and make-pretend kitchen. There's also one session of story-telling which Tara didn't like. She never likes to sit down and listen to stories. She was roaming around while the other kids sat down quietly. And Tara totally loves the toilet. Because she loves washing her hands. She went to the toilet and the washing area for at least 5 times.

Tara loves to wash her hands

Lunch was rice with tofu, carrot and corn cooked in gravy. But Tara only ate a few spoonsful. Other kids were having 2nd and 3rd servings but Tara refused to finish her food. The school emphasize on training the kids to be independent and they have to clear their bowls and spoons themselves after the meal.

It all went well, even when I had to leave her side for a parents' briefing. She didn't come look for me and even bid me goodbye when I had to go out for my lunch. Everything went better than I thought. While I was having my lunch, I decided to change my plan. Initially, I wanted to go with the school recommendations of letting her stay till lunch for day 1, and for day 2, till nap time and full day for day 3. But since she was coping well, I decided to let her stay full days for all 3 days and I will accompany her full day on day 1, half day for day 2 and leave her there on the 3rd day.

But I didn't have a chance to go with my plan. When I went back to the school, Tara was just stepping out from the toilet after her shower, sobbing hard, calling for me. The teacher told me she was okay during my absence but started looking for me when she was having her shower. Her cries pierced through my heart. It was so heartwrenching. She clinged on to me and asked to go home. I tried talking to her, and hoping she will stay but she walked to the door and asked to leave the place. So I brought her home. In my haste, I forgot to sign her out and even forgot about her water bottle.

It's not a pleasant experience for her, I guess. Cos she kept waking up crying, during naps at my mum's place and even when she slept just now, she whimpered in her sleep. She's sleeping in the hall now and while I was typing this entry, she woke up suddenly and went looking for me, crying. It really breaks my heart.

I spoke to Bob earlier, and said Tara said she didn't want to go to school when I asked her and he said we just have to let go. Yeah, I know. But it's not easy. Especially after school today, she refused to let me out of her sight.

Now I just hope that Tara will be okay with school tomorrow. Crossing my fingers.