Real "school" starts!

The first week of September is super busy and this year, at two and a quarter years old, Katy joined the busy-ness!

Here Katy is on her first day at DMK, with school uniform and all. What a cutie!
She started her real "school" on Wednesday 2 September - it's an afternoon putonghua playgroup that goes for an hour and a half on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It's not really her favourite thing but we really want her to have some Mandarin exposure and this is all that is available. The teachers are lovely, but it is not as fun and lively as we would like. The first week, I accompanied Katy to class and she just kept telling me that she wanted to go home. From the second week on, I decided that I would not wake Katy up from her afternoon nap for school, but we would just go late if necessary. Katy has been napping really well for her lately and I don't want to jeopardise that by getting her up early. It's such a shame there are no morning classes for putonghua. The nice thing about class is that there are only 6 kids and two teachers.

The third lesson, we were supposed to go into the classroom but sit to the side and leave the kids to play in the class alone. I was a bit apprehensive about this, but as it was, I caught a cold, so Mila had to do it and this is really much better for Katy. She doesn't get so upset as when I am there or I am the one to drop her off (and "abandon" her!). Mila said Katy did really well and didn't come up to her and ask her to leave at all. Mila also dropped Katy off on Wednesday for her first class alone, and Katy was ok. She whined a little bit going in, but not too much, and she was happy to see Tia afterwards. Apparently, some of the other kids get much more upset going in and coming out, so I guess this is all par for the course - rebellion as the kids feel themselves being forced into structures, rules and routines!