Today (November 7th) was Miles’s first official day at school. He is attending the Holy Family School in his neighbourhood. It’s a small Catholic school that offers day care, pre-school and elementary school. Miles was originally assigned to a different school, but recently his parents were informed there was a spot vacant at the Holy Family school which they liked better so they immediately got him registered.
This morning the three of them went to school. It They entered the playground and the director welcomed Wiet and Heather with a cup of coffee and a brochure while Miles got a cookie. Miles went to his class with his fellow students. It was almost impossible to get a good picture of Miles amidst all that activity. There were 13 kids present and three teachers plus lots of parents. Miles is in a “starters” class for all kids who are at least 2 and a half, so the number of kids will increase throughout the year as more kids reach that minimum age. Today, because it was the first day for several new classmates, all the parents of the new kids were allowed to stay for the first half hour. When Heather and Wiet eventually left the classroom Miles didn’t mind – the “tryout days” of two weeks ago clearly helped. It seemed as if saying goodbye was harder on his parents than on Miles.
At 4 pm Wiet rushed out of his office to go pick up Miles. School is finished at 3:15 pm but many kids including Miles stay in the after school day care. Wiet was afraid to find his child in tears, totally exhausted, but when he entered the gym where all the kids were playing Miles was not in any hurry to leave. It was slightly disappointing for Wiet to realize he was not as indispensable as he thought… But maybe that’s a good thing.
