School

Alhamdulillah, Layth has started school and it's his 3rd day today. He's been quite happy. Nothing like the crying boy of last year hehehe.

Every day I send him and pick him up from his classroom. It just happens to be a rule that a 'responsible adult' has to physically be present when the kids go home. His class is on the top level. I could totally lose weight after a year climbing 2 flights of stairs 4 times a day. Unfortunately at the moment all I'm getting is some severe back pain from too much bending over putting baby in and out of the car seat, walking uphill and downhill and carrying baby up and down those flights of stairs. (Thauban is almost 6kg now! Ya Allah..he's so big. He has to wear clothes for babies aged 3-6 months now).

Anyway, to make matters more difficult, it has been raining heavily these past few days. I've been experimenting with ways to get baby out of the car and walk to the school without getting rain on his head. Umbrella, poncho, blanket, hat. Not too much luck. Plus, the umbrella is broken now! I should get one of those automatic opening ones.

Nevertheless, I'm happy that Layth has started school. It's probably about time for formal learning. Yesterday there was a parent-teacher interview and these are the things that the teacher said about Layth:
1. He's settled (Alhamdulillah!)
2. He doesn't join in when others are misbehaving.
3. He follows instructions well.
4. He can hold a pencil and colour in pictures really well (yes, all that practice during the summer hahaha). She showed me the class' pictures and Layth was the only one who had coloured the whole picture instead of parts of it.
5. He can do things by himself and not depend on others to do it (I noticed this a lot since Thauban was born)
6. He's a bit shy and doesn't talk much in crowds (ha ha ha...he compensates at home!)

So we set some learning objectives and by the end of the year we want him to make 3 friends and be able to talk in public. There's a new curriculum this year; they will be learning English, Maths and Science formally...it used to be just incidental learning. We'll see how he goes. Layth does love science. His library is full of encyclopaedias!