Adieu, mid-year hols

As the mid-year hols come to a close, I bid goodbye to my days of idling. Days when I do not have to rush back after work and hasten through dinner to oversee homework and assignments, to plan and prep for the weekly spellings, 听写s and the show & tells. When I can let my mind idle and put my legs up, not needing to worry if I had forgotten to pack his bags or if his pencil case was in order. And most importantly, of the days when I do not need to fret if he had been bullied in school. 

Term two had been one fraught with many difficulties and new realisations. To elaborate briefly, there were instances when S had 'given' his money to someone else and, in his naive explanation, told me that his friend didn't have any 'gold' coins but only had 'grey' ones. When he had his colour pencils vanish into thin air and I came home to realise his pencil box bare with only 2 miserable pencils. He tells me that they were 'stolen', and while I cannot be sure of that, neither am I convinced that his friend had accidentally packed his ruler, eraser and colouring pencils into his own bag. 

And the instance when an unknown student had approached him during recess and snatched his money away, leaving him hungry with only 20c and not enough to buy any food. That afternoon, he came home ravenous from school and promptly gobbled down a whole bowl of rice.  

It puzzled us at first why he was left with so little money, yet he claimed he ate nothing for recess. Upon probing further did we find out the reason. Needless to say, I was incensed. I asked him why he didn't retaliate and say 'no', or inform his fellow students or teachers for help. His sad reply to me then was 'because the teacher said must respect your friends'.

I was heartbroken by his answer. My heart wept for his naivety and helplessness. For his, as well as mine.

Knowing that I had only heard one-sided versions of the stories and even then, it wasn't the whole story since his relating skills were still pretty poor, I explained to his teachers at length that although I didn't want to fingerpoint, I wanted the situation improved. If teachers and parents could work close together, we could better bridge the gaps and intervene sooner when needed. While his teachers were very understanding and acknowledged my concerns, I understand that there is only so much they can achieve. On my part, I will have to monitor and handle whatever situations that arise along the way and feedback to the teachers when necessary. 

In the end, we managed to solve only one of the issues. His colour pencils were never found, and the girl was never identified. These two incidences were subsequently taken on as learning points for S. Since then, we have been emphasizing and reinforcing on how he should behave should such incidents happen in future. I am not sure how he would react should he be 'put to the test'. We can only try and hope. 

I can easily replace the things that he lost, but not the mentality that it is okay to be bullied/taken advantage off/pranked on, and staying silent about it.

And so, my days of rushing, planning, prepping, worrying and fretting begin once again. The cycles of school that parents can never avoid. As I refill his recess money and replace new colour pencils into his pencil case, I gear myself up for the cycles to come. His bag has been packed and is ready for the start of the new term. I only hope that his heart and mind are equally prepared. The month long hol had been a great break, but now it has come to end.

I believe Term 3 holds even more difficulties and obstacles for us to overcome and realise. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't dreading it. It is scary to be expecting unknowns, but come what may, we must struggle and continue pressing on, moving ahead however slow the pace might be. 

So, come on Term 3. Let's do it.