School Days, School Days, Good Old Golden Rule Days

Someone is about to start school. We can hardly believe it. When Luk Chaai started school a few years ago, it was fairly traumatic for both me and him. The first few days of school he reported his activities solely as washing his hands and crying. While this was an accurate, if limited, description of his days, it broke my heart more than a little.

These days he loves school. In fact, just last week he complained when I picked him up early. I hope Ying loves school too.

We’ve been practicing for school. She has the requisite new book bag and lunch bag, and we’ve been working on opening and closing them. At first I had ribbons on the zippers, but her OT swapped those out for binder rings, which has made it easier. She uses one foot to hold the bag and uses her toes on the other foot to manipulate the zipper. If she gets impatient ,she uses her teeth. It’s effective but likely to earn us the ire of the dentist.

Two more school tips:

I bought two of these portable storage totes from the office supply store, one for Ying and one for Luk Chaai. I file important or extra special school papers or projects in here. Everything else I photograph against a piece of white poster board so that it has a white background. Then I turn those photos into a photo collage in their photo books.

After everything has been photographed, I tiptoe outside in the dead of night and deposit the artwork into a storage receptacle also known as the recycle bin.

Finally, maybe I’m the last one to figure this out (in which case, why didn’t anyone tell me?). If you’re helping beginning writers, tell them to keep their letters between the blue sky and green grass. My instructions have been been ‘stay between the train tracks.’ The sky/grass trick admittedly makes more sense. (I learned this handwriting tip at therapy; just another added perk of therapy!)

Happy school days! May it be much more than just reading and writing and arithmetic.

The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.
~ Jean Piaget