And so it has begun...

Last Friday I reached home to a note from her school " Please collect your child's report card on Monday."

WTF!!! A frigging report card??!!! My daughter is getting a Pass or Fail grade in play school? Incredulous, stupefied and stunned. And shouldn't it read as a progress report? I don't like the pass and fail concept and then what would she be graded on? will she pass..heck I knew she would..but yet..damn I hated the waiting.

Finally Monday arrived and I came home to her Report Card. And to say I was floored is an understatement.

It was 2 huge files; one with all the work that she has done in school; all her paintings, her craft work, her scribbles from when she learnt to hold the pencil to sticking activities, to her homework, and all of them with the date. Its a huge thick file. The second one, with laminated sheets held together with a cutesy purple (incidentally her fav color) ribbon. This is like an index or rather a syllabus, with all the activities she has been introduced too, has mastered and is currently working on. Its exhaustive. And yes, it is titled the "Progress Report". And it is complete with pictures. And the last page is the comments by the teacher with a class pic at an outing they had.

I have no complaints. And now I know why my kiddo loves her school so much, she has way too much fun there...the coming 2 months are going to be harrowing for both of us. I just hope we don't tear our hair out in frustration.

It was such a refreshing change to not see the A - F grading system. And so happy that that I was right in choosing this school. The extended family can be such a nuisance at times, wondering why a toddler needs Montessori training and not to mention the fees. Looking at her files, everything was just so worth it. My only grouse is that the Government on India does not recognize the Montessori method, it believes only in the traditional one. Children would be so much happier in this method. The learning system is just amazing here. And of course, they would just love math.

I don't know where she is going to be 3 years from now, I have decided to not get hyper about it. I know most parents, rather the mothers know where their child will be going too, but I'm not getting into it now, gonna save myself the heartache and decide when its time for her.


My only wish, is that she enjoys it as much as she does now.

Resurrection..

Finally! yes I have my laptop back but minus the data. According to the HP center guys the OS crashed thanks to the automatic download of HP Live Update. And those service center guys are there just to fleece the public. The Bangalore guys said that we can fix it but will not take the back up, you need to go to a third party guy..who charges Rs 3000/- just for the back up. And the HP service center will take 1000/- to re-format and to de-fragment the disk you have to buy the software which costs about 4000/-. The Mysore HP service center says we need to buy the external hard drive available just for 3,600/- to copy the data. What kind of service centers are these? they do no have external hard drives to take back ups! Only after this did we start contacting friends who could help out. Turns out, you do not need to defragment the drive anymore. All the sys files are saved in the D drive and the C drive is the place to store all the files. And the HP laptops are configured in such a way that even with the software you cannot defragment the drives! Don't the service center guys know this? Why cant they just be helpful in the real sense.

Lesson Learnt: NEVER ever go to the service centre. Instead turn to your firends, it helps to know some who can work the hardware of a sys. And do not store files on the desktop ever, instead save them on the C drive.

The Flip Side, I had an awsome break. No work, No play time on the comp and all my time with my daughter and me. Fell sick, travelled to B'lore, read a ton of books, watched the pirated version of Janne tu and fell in love it it. Am so watching it again..wait I am going to buy the DVD when it releases.

Also picked out the school for my Angel. This was the first school I saw and fell in love with it. Its a Montesori Play School, in a quaint neighbourhood, great play area and clean classes. The biggest plus point, they are careful of the kids diets and their restrictions. Since my kiddo is Lactose and Wheat Intolerant, I needed a school which would keep a check on it and be careful during snack times, since children are always more curios and want what the other kid has. And this school has experience in dealing with such kids. Now just have to wait for her to turn 2.5 years. They do not take them earlier. Oh and they also have this really cute and well behaved dog who Angel just fell in love with instantly. yes I visited the school with her and she remembers the dog very well. On our second visit, she kept looking all over for him.

Another thing I noticed here, was that the children are very well behaved. They do not push, fight or yell. It was a really calm and quiet play time. there is slight bullying,which is natural but nothing to the extremes where one kid is pushing the other or fighting or hitting the other kid. they also have a really cute tree house. Looking at all this left my bro and me wishing us to be kids again. So now we go to this school once or twice a week, during play time to familiarise her with the school and the children.