She suggested an Arabian Nights theme. Isn't it a little soon?

Congrats to our Harimau Malaya team for bringing home the AFF-Suzuki Cup. For that, we get a day off on Friday. Tapi macam ala-ala wet blanket la to me because my office will be closed that day anyway for New Year's break ;p

Such luck.

Speaking of which, or you could call it fate sticking its tongue at me, this person from my and Merry's past... the one I've avoided adding as a friend in FB when the request came in... well, it appeared that his daughter goes to the same school as Mira. On top of that, they may be classmates.

What are the odds of that? Although, I shouldn't be surprised seeing that he was an ex-SJI and if I remembered correctly his sister was an old-girl there Wrong info daaa. I didn't count on him having a same age daughter as me lah kan.

So yes, Mira's new school orientation went rather well Wednesday morning. She's very pleased with herself and the school. Very excitedly told me how much she really like that school. I hope her enthusiasm lasts for a looooooooong time. Hehe. 

Once we're at the hall for registration, we picked up her personal dossier (with loads of stuffs to be filled) and took our seats. After everyone has settled, they started to call out the girls' names according to their class. They've already pre-pick a class but I'm not sure if it's confirmed because they still had to sit in for a test. So, probably the test will determined to which class you'll be sorted into... Gryffindor? Hufflepuff? Ravenclaw?

Sorry, no Slytherin. They've only 3 classes for each year in that school. I hope she'll be sorted into Gryffindor. Of course, this is no Hogwarts. As an all-girls school, their classes are named after flowers -- Orkid, Teratai, Mawar.

While the girls took the test, the parents were given some briefings about the school, their achievements, short introduction from the PIBG, basic school rules & regulations, etc. I've decided I prefer their strict old-fashioned school rules. Probably because it's something I have experienced in, something I know well of. I didn't appreciate it then, but later in life I see how it helped builds character and discipline.  

After all the talks, we were asked to adjourned to the class rooms to pay the fees, collect the text books as well as to purchase the other books from their tiny bookshop. This is the stack of Mira's text books:

Do you know there's a new school syllabus this year? Neither do I. Lol.

I'm glad I stuck with my decision not to appeal to get her into school 1. This one has a more balanced approach in terms of ajaran dunia dan akhirat gitu. Ada mengaji every Thursday, so she'll be released from school an hour later than usual. And once every few months the school will organise something like 'Qiamullail' session on a weekend.

Still, there're the duniawi part... they're rather active in other co-curriculum. For primary one, we can choose to let the kids to take up taekwondo, art class or rhythmic gymnastics. I haven't decided what to do with this bit of information yet. If I let her take up any one of those, she'll have to stay back until 3pm-ish on some days.

All these are new to us, we'll see how the year unfolds. The first three weeks will be just purely integration session. Real school work will start on the last week of January and by March, they'll sit for their first assessment. 

Before this week ends, I need to go look for her new school bag, a couple of white ribbons and black pins for her hair, plastic book covers and other tidbits for school. I also need to stick her badge and name tags. Iron her uniforms. Ugh. And wash her school shoes because harus la dah kotor kan baru semalam pakai.

Come Monday, we'll have a new routine which will last for the next six years, insyaallah.

Good luck to me ;-)

xoxo