When the brand new year dawned, a brand new chapter in chotu’s life dawned too (how tacky!). He went to school for the very first time and it was a milestone moment for us.

It is a Montessori set up and I think, it will suit him just fine. We went through the whole grind of selecting, shortlisting and finally zeroing in on this school. It suits most of our requisites as well.
(a) Montessori set up
(b) Limited class strength- max only 12 students per class, chotu’s class has only 8.
(c) Close to where we live.

The other things I like about the school are:
(a) Uniform – saves me the trouble to think of what to dress chotu in every day (yeah I’m lazy and laid back that way)
(b) One parent could stay back in class or just outside the class room (for the whole of the first week) to watch the proceedings and to also make the child feel comfortable.

We have been preparing chotu for almost 6 months now, that he would have to go to school, a place where appa and amma would not be  present for the time he is there. I do not know how much of this he understood or did not. In a way we (I) were (was) also preparing ourselves (myself) for the separation period.

Day 1:Got off to a good start. Chotu mistook his classroom for a birthday party venue and was wondering when the cake and the candles would come and when he would get to sing the happy birthday song.
It was an introductory session and we were let off in one hour after we were handed over the uniforms. (Chotu refused to remove his uniform and even went to sleep in it).

Day 2: Went along with chotu and sat in the classroom. Watched him from a distance and he seemed at home with the whole experience. He was his shy self, but did not seem very intimidated. He cried his lungs out when it was time to leave.

Day 3: Based on the positive response I got from him on Day 2, I decided to sit outside his classroom and watch him from an open window. Chotu would however be unaware of my presence. The first half of the class, chotu was fine and settled in. He did not even realise that I was absent. Then , I think, he wanted to go to the loo and was too scared to ask his teacher to direct him to one. He let out a frightened ‘ammmmmmmaa’ and it was all downhill from there. He refused to stop crying and finally the teacher asked me to come in, so I could help him in the loo. This done, he still refused to go back to class and clung to me.

Day 4: A slightly (very) intimidated chotu had to be literally dragged to classroom. The teacher suggested that I sit outside and that she would manage if he cried. As predicted, chotu cried almost from the word go and calmed down when she gave him crayons and a sheet to doodle on. Once the crayonning session was over, chotu resumed crying and it got so bad, I had to intervene and carry him back home, with 15 mins still left to go for the class to end.

Day 5: Chotu is by now, terrified of school and I still decide to sit outside. His teacher takes him in and it’s heartbreaking to listen to his cries. The teacher picks him up, sits him in her lap and conducts the proceedings with him seated that way. Half hour into the class, chotu gradually calms down and now back to how he was on Day 1. By the end of the class, he is waving to his teacher, classmates and the assistant and on the way back  home even sings a rhyme his teacher taught him!

An eventful week packed with lot of learnings for us. More on what I learnt and will apply, coming up next.