Story no.1: "My Child… Leila"

 

            As I stood in front of the door of the School Bus, I had no idea how school would really be for my child, Leila.  Will her teachers be kind to her? How about her classmates, will they bully her? Those questions were in my head as my feet lead me to my house hold chores and then, to my office. I couldn’t concentrate on my paper works and even at my meeting. I was thinking of Leila.

            Hours passed. It’s already 3 and she would be home by now. Although Leila had been to school already back there in our hometown at Ontario, the environment was a little different. We just moved to Canberra and there should be some adjustments.

            Day by day, we ate breakfast together. I used to wait (and sometimes expect) for her to say that school was no fun and it’s a lot different in here than in Canada. But there was none I heard. I then asked her, “Leila, is everything OK at school?” Then I was surprised to hear my child say, “School is great… I love being there.”

            “Really…What makes it great?”

            “Mama, yesterday, Mrs. Thompson taught us about how to measure the volume of liquids. It felt good to hold a beaker… and a graduated cylinder… and then getting to its measure. Oh you remind me, today she would teach us how to weigh… just like in the market… she said we’re going to use a weighing scale. Can I bring some of these?” Leila was pointing at the oranges. “Mrs. Thompson said that we should bring items that can be bought from market and has weight. Oranges are good… I wonder what they’re weights are…”

            “Perhaps, you can try bringing me there, I have weight too, you know?”

            She giggled… and then we laughed together. I was glad that my child enjoyed schooling.

            After sometime, Leila told me that she was selected as one of the representatives in a Quiz Bee.             “What’s the coverage of it ,honey?”

            “Uhm… it just have some mathematics, some calculations and well… my teacher said that we just have to develop our thinking… say, Addition is Subtraction turned upside down… Multiplication is just addition in a fast forward sequence… It should be easy.”

            I just stared at Leila. She was indeed… growing up.