The (little) Graduate

Akram finishes his summer school at 'Little Angels British Nursery' today. It was a heck of a journey. Every single day of these past two months I had to persuade him (plead sometimes) to attend school. It wasn't easy for him. First of all, he had to change his bedtime routine. Back home in Jakarta, he could stay up until 11pm, especially when his uncles are in. Since school however, bed time changed to 8.30-9pm. He gets up everyday at 6.30, has an apple for breakfast, brushes his teeth and changes clothes (with my help of course), and finally goes downstairs to wait for the schoolbus.

The schoolbus is the hardest part of them all. He tries to pull my shirt or headscarf off so he can escape the bus. It was very frustrating at first. He cried and screamed and tried to run away. We were quite an attraction. Even the security guards at my building would come to me and asked, "is the teacher beating your son at school?" Oh my God...I was sooo embarassed. I explained to the guards (by the way..they're akram's favorites! men in uniform) that it had nothing to do with the school or the teachers, just my son coping with separation anxiety. A month and a half goes by...and he's not crying anymore, just a little complain once in a while. One day, he even asked my husband and I to take him to school again after he just got home! What an improvement.

Next week it's going to be a whole new world for Akram. He's going to survive kindergarten for the next two years. Sure hope everything will go smooth for him.