on fri we went to a birthday party and stayed late swimming. then we popped round to a sick friend and had dinner along e way. by the time we got home it must have been close to 10pm. (oh and the kids had wanted to sleep at granny's that night too!)

e next morning i woke with a start at 8.25am, dh telling me in jibberish that "u hv to be at kynan's thing today." me, "er what?" eyes still half-closed, trying to turn and sleep again. "u know, kynan's thing. kynan's thing at school." me, bolt upright, eyes wide, suddenly dawning, "oh my word, it's today? today's saturday? wot's e time? wot time do we have to be there?" i bolt out e door to my diary b4 he has chance to answer. "principle's address 9pm. phew, we still hv time. "oh no, 8.30am collect name tags!"

from then on it was all go...!  i whisked e kids out of bed, dressed us all, made sandwiches, sorted an asthmatic kynan with a few puffs, and had dh run us down. ky was last in line and sat sweetly in place. no time for goodbyes and fare-thee-well's...i hurriedly introduced myself and explained his wheeze to e new teacher, then i half-dragged kay up the stairs, with the principle's address just beginning as we found our seats. :) phew, i breathed a huge sigh of relief!

dh arrived near the end of the speech and helped relieve a very bored little girl for a while.

afterwards, as i headed off past the library, i saw kynan sitting intently listening to a story, and later, holding a little girl's hand at the front of the line. (he asked later if i noticed what a very sweet face she had, esp the way her hair framed her face and hung just so... and did i notice she was wearing a nice pink dress. he pointed out that they were the only 2 in the class to have brought along their waterbottles that day.... (isnt it amazing what kids notice!)

while i spent an hour filling in forms, he had a tour of e school facilities... ( i had the short end of the straw for sure!)

this is what he said of it:   "my teacher took us to the dental clinic.  there's 2 dental staff there to do the kids teeth, and 1 nurse who just goes ard e school all day checking all e kids to see if they're healthy, like not too fat or too skinny."  he says he also saw e computer room, the science lab, and had a show put on for them by the band.  "they gave me a form to fill in so i can join e band. they let us try some of the instruments, and the band-kids gave us these stickers,"  he added with wide eyes.

friends?

-the 1st thing he said wen he saw me, "mum, the naughty boy is *not* in my class!"  (referring to a mischievous little monkey from our neighbourhood ;-))  "i waved at him to say hi"... (so they mt well become good friends! :))

-"i made one friend. i dont know his name, it's something chinese. he sat next to me in line at the beginning.... and he has a friend called Zooryhmee. u know, like zoo-ryhme-me. that's what i thought when i heard him say it, so it's easy to remember.  ("is he malay?")  "no" ("so do u think he's chinese?")  "no he's english"...   "and there's one little boy who had a lot of white stuff on his shoulder, and a big sore covered with white stuff on his neck. ("excema?", i ventured, suggesting he try befriend him perhaps)  "ya mb. we didnt know his name cos he wdnt say.  and another boy lost the namecard in his nametag, but he *did* know his name!"

what else?

-"i followed nicely in a line. e teacher told us we had to. but nearly all the other kids didnt. they just messed around going all over the place."

-"e teacher said we will get a library card and we can take out 4books. her name is Ms W_." ("Ms O_?" i query...)  "no, Ms W_.  she says her grandmother and grandfather were Mr and Mrs W_. so it's definitely that."

-"e book the teacher read us in the library was this biiiiiig!"

-"there are 22 children in our class, and 4 of them were not there." ("not 30?") "no, not 30. only 22"

-"e teacher asked if we'd all had breakfast. 1 child hadnt." ("what did she say then?") "that's too bad!..."

-"there's lots of stairs! did u see?!"

-"it's a reeeeeeallly big school!"

did u have fun?

-"ya, but i still wish i didnt have to go to school!"

and what tickeld me?

-a library book sale, $1 each, a bargain! ... e P5& P6 kids did brisk business fundraising.

-"be prepared for camps in P1." woa hooray!

-"no reason why P1&P2's shdnt be doing weekly cca's" . whoopdeedoo!

-"new guitar club starting this year, open to P1's."

-"band open to P1's.... start them early so they can become proficient."

-"gymnastics classes for P1 kids, run by a private coach" (beginners though, but great just for fun!).

-"we share resources/ facilities with e affiliated sec school, incl basketball courts etc"

-"no examinations in P1"

-"we are developing a programme to stretch our top performers."

-"we are a family. let's behave like one!"

any shocks to the system?

-the price of all e P1 books for e year!

-the total no of P1 books needed (esp all e workbooks!!!!!!!!!!!!)

-e price of uniforms!

-e price of p/e kit!

-kynan holding hands with strange girls!

***what an incredible new journey we are abt to begin!***