Ella's First Day of School in Singapore

Zoe was already on her way to school and it was time to get Ella ready. She needs to wear her hair in a tight pony-tail so we washed her hair and pulled it back, putting a yellow elastic in it figuring that it would blend best with her hair. Her teacher pointed out straightaway that it should be black or blue next time but she would excuse it today.

But we're getting ahead here. Ella got dressed and we grabbed her backpack and headed out. Usually she will take a school bus, but we needed to walk her to school today and finish filling out some paperwork in the office.

Anyone who knew me in school will be shocked by Ella's favorite pose. It's actually a dance pose but it looks more cheerleader to me.

This is her other favorite pose, called the Lyra because it reminds her of her cousin.

We took the steps this time and headed outside.

Through the path to the back gate.

Normally, Ella will pick up the bus right here, but not today.

Our path takes us through two different HDB (citizens' housing) blocks.

And the school is next to this Chinese temple.

But first we stop at the guard gate to write down our ID numbers and handphone numbers.

We're heading in!

Inside, Ted slyly snapped a few pictures.

This is the cafeteria, er uh, canteen. You can see the different choices she will have for meals.

Waiting in the front office.

An aide offered to take the whole family's picture before she told us that we could all walk with Ella and the other new students to the auditorium and watch the welcoming ceremony that starts off every day.

She looks so little here!

This is the daily assembly. The kids here are all in P1 and P2 (1st and 2nd grade) sitting together with each class that has both a grade number and an important quality name. Ella's class is 1 Humility. Fitting.

There she is talking to another new student who will actually be in her class.

It was at this point that I realized something terrible: we had been so eager to leave the house that I forgot ALL of her school books there. Crap, crap, crap. I shot out of my seat and took off running. Ted stayed and took some more pictures.

That's Ella in the middle joining the rest of her class.

During assembly, they have announcements and they sing the Singapore national anthem (in Malay) and then recite the pledge (in English). We gave permission for Ella to recite the pledge even though she is not a citizen. Before any of this happened I made it back with the books. I sprinted home in 6 minutes and back in 8--the books were heavy. Ted and I talked the teacher who is wonderful! She was so thoughtful and asked great questions as well as anticipated ours. She has it together. She told me about Ella's hair tie, how her belt needed to be sewn (but she could be excused for that today too), and what kind of earrings are appropriate (only plain gold posts, also excused for the day). We have a lot to do to get ready for tomorrow!  After the song and pledge, the P1 kids watched a quick cartoon (Hansel and Gretel) while Ella's teacher directed us to the classroom so we could drop off the books.

This is one of the courtyards in the middle of the school. Trust me, her school is beautiful. It doesn't read well in these pictures, but it's a very nice school. 

After Ella and the rest of the class went into the class and got settled into an activity, the teacher came out to talk to us about the books. We are ahead of the class with math, thank goodness. But the teacher looked through the books that Ella had started and noted that she sometimes writes numbers backward, which is unacceptable. She looked at the handwriting book and I could tell she was appalled. She asked: "Would you like to see my standard?" and showed us another student's work. She is going to be a tough cookie, but in a good way. Ella has a lot of work to do, but it will be good for her. Humility, after all.

Her teacher asked us to peek inside the class and say goodbye to Ella. When I did, she looked up, looked at the boy next to her, ROLLED HER EYES, and looked back down, ignoring me. Apparently she is a teenager now.

We left, bought the few things the teacher said we still needed and headed back home with a sleeping Wyatt in Ted's arms. Ted worked from home while Wyatt and I played for two hours before it was time for Zoe to return.

Much time passes.

We went down to pick up Ella from the bus. Auntie Purple was picking her up from class and taking her to the right bus. Auntie and Uncle are terms for adults here. Purple refers to the color of the bus. Ted had taken some time to discuss with the bus drivers where Ella would be dropped off. They said at the back gate. Well, we weren't sure what that meant so Ted asked if it would be by the MRT stop or not. They said she would be dropped by the MRT stop (train station). I was waiting there with my camera and Ted was at the playground with the other kids. I started getting nervous as time passed because to me it seemed that the bus would be on the wrong side of the road coming from her school. Surely, they wouldn't expect her to cross a busy street? And we didn't prepare her for that, the directions and all. I ran back to the gate and yelled in for Ted that I wasn't sure about this. He said he would walk around to the other side of the building in case she got dropped off there. In the meantime, Ella was dropped off on the other side! She sat down, poor thing, to wait for us for a few minutes. When we didn't come, she used her card to get into the building and took the steps to our condo. No one was here. I'm shaking as I type this, thinking about how scared she must have been. So she went back down to the first level and outside to see if maybe we were on the playground. We were not at the time because I was on the road and Ted was walking to the other side. Ella did a very smart thing, finding an adult and telling her that she couldn't find her mom or dad but had their phone numbers written down. The woman was going to call us as Ted walked up to them. Ella was crying and ran to him and they eventually made their way back to me to explain everything was okay.

And did I mention that all of this happening at 7, which is when the sun sets? It was suddenly dark.

How frightening. I can't tell you the scenarios that went through my head while waiting for her. It was only about 10 minutes after she was due but every minute ticked slowly. She did all the right things though. She is a smart and brave girl who is laying down with me now, in need of cuddles. She just told me that this didn't make her lose her trust in us, bless her heart.

She recovered pretty quickly.

You can bet we will be getting to the correct drop-off spot and getting there early tomorrow and the day after that and so on. Until she feels ready to try to come up on her own again, trusting that we will be here that time.

But she said she loved school, every minute. She had art and Chinese today. You can tell all the Somerville folks that these guys get only a half-hour for a combined lunch and recess. Ella didn't know that so she missed recess because she took too long eating. She made some friends, including a girl in our building. I could maybe tell you more but instead I'm going to hug Ella and read her a story.

Good night!