6Y0M 4Y3M 小学校入学 Arata's primary education has started

アラタ、小学校に編入。我が家にとっては一番楽な選択肢である英系のSCIPSに通うことにした。一クラス24人に先生が二人なのは嬉しい。その上新築校舎が完成したばかり。

スクールバスに初日から乗せた。初めの2日は私が先回りして学校で出迎え、教室まで連れて行ったが、一週間もしないで慣れた様子。同じコンドから何人もの子供が行くので、お世話をしてくれるお兄さん達がいて、かなり助かった。

それにしても、びっくりしたのは、教室が幼稚園みたいなこと。丸テーブルにレゴ。決まった席もなく床に座って先生の話しを聞く・・・。今までナニアで思いっきり遊ばせたから小学校からはみっちりと勉強・・・と思っていたが・・・。

英国の小学校も同じようなのかもしれない。ナニアが気に入っていたので、レセプションから行かせられなかった事、1年生の1学期もミスした事など、いろいろ悩んだけれども、杞憂だったようだ。読み書きはほぼ皆無で入学したが、プレッシャーが強くないし、すぐに追いつくだろう。

そして、私が一番心配していたお弁当。その事を考えるとあまりにも鬱だと言ったらJasonが「俺が作るよ。」初日に、Jasonのサンドイッチを食べて帰ってきたアラタは、「おいしくなかった、みんなもっと大きいお弁当だった」と不満顔。結局、お弁当デリバリーサービスを利用する事で落ち着きました。よかった～。

そして、ローカルコーチによるサッカー教室。大好きで頑張っています。

Arata has started his primary school. In the end, we chose the easiest option for our family. He goes to SCIPS, British international school. There are 2 teachers for 24 children. The new school building has just completed. Good timing.

Arata was on the school bus from the day one. In the first 2 days, I saw him off, then drove to school first to wait for him, then took him to his classroom. But within less than a week, he got used to the routine. There are quite a lot children from the same condominium and some of the older children are so kind to him. It was so good for him to settle in.

I was quite surprised to see the classroom of year 1. They have a couple of round tables, no assigned desk for a kid, children sit on the floor to listen to the teacher.... Not much different from kindergartens. I expected and wanted him to learn lots from now as we let him play till now at Taska Nania. Probably it must be like this in primary schools in the U.K. Different from Chinese or Japanese schools.

I had worried too much about Arata missing his reception year, or the first term of Year 1. But I think I shouldn't have worried that much. It must be easy to catch up with other children, although Arata's spelling and reading is poor at the moment. The school doesn't seem to put too much pressure on kids, which is good for the start.

Another big issue for me - preparing lunch for Arata. Well, I was too depressed with the idea that I eventually had to start preparing lunch boxes. I was so stressful, Jason offered to make sandwiches for Arata every day. Arata came home on the first day and said to us, "The sandwich was not nice, and other children had much bigger lunch boxes!" That's it. Jason gave me the green light to go for lunch delivery service, which is the service lots of parents are using at SCIPS.

One more thing for Arata. He started football with other kids. It's once a week lesson by a local football coach. He really enjoys it and getting better each time he attends.