The Big Girl School

In Kolkata, the biggest challenge for new parents is getting their children admitted to a school of their choice.

For some choosing the school is a matter of prestige, for others its the quality of education and for some its just a matter of convenience.

Recently Anaya graduated from Montessori/Play school and got admission at The Heritage School, Kolkata.

Last day at Young Learners (Montessori)

Heritage was our first choice for Anaya. The reason for us choosing Heritage was Heritage’s Holistic approach to the child’s development, it being a co-ed and a day boarding school. We were ecstatic when we came to know she got through. The icing on the cake was the fact we got this news on her 4th birthday.

First Day at Heritage

Heritage is a day boarding (not at Anaya’s level, but at higher levels) and focus more on holistic education including dining room etiquettes, development of interpersonal relationships etc. etc.

Being at a new school, taking a school bus, having meals without parents/grandparents around, I have a lot of questions for Anaya. However, asking her will only elicit the following responses:

“School is good”

“Bus ride is ok”

“Got this this this for my meal”

However, I have come up with a solution where beating around the bush actually helps.

So instead of asking her how was school, I usually break it down into the following questions:

What did you learn today?

Did you have fun at school today?

What games did you play today?

What activity did you do today?

Did you make any new friends today?

Follow up question: Are they in your bus or are they in your class?

Usually once I ask these questions, follow up questions automatically crop up and I get a much better understanding of what is going on with her.

In my experience asking specific questions to kids helps them to answer you succinctly and to the point. But the bottom line still remains all children are different and it takes a lot of patience at the parents end to understand what works for each child.

Let me know your experience with your kids in the comments box.