Preparation for school

(pic googled from the net)

I promise my best bud Izzi that I'll create this post for her, as guidelines to help her in preparing for Amirah standard 1 enrollment.
I'll try my best to cover all aspects, but kindly let me know if I might have missed out on anything.

1. Pre-registration : We should register our kids at most a year ago, as to which school we want to enroll them in. The school may want to see your house-bill as to check the address because priority will be given prior to home address.
2. Follow up enrollment : November is the month to check with the school on the registration/ enrollment/ orientation date.
3. Books :  The list of books can be obtained from the school bookstore.  My advice to call up the school beforehand and check if the list has been distributed by the ministry of education.  Also check the bookstore opening hours.  Buy all the exercise books listed because I find all the books to be very useful during revision time.  The loan text books will be given to parents on the registration day. The workbook (buku kerja) however will not be completely used.  Maybe just half of the amount - depends on the school.  Hence my advice to not write your kid's class on the front of it, so that it can be carried on for the following year.  Reminder to write your kids name on the top front cover of the books.  Easy for teachers to distribute the books and for kids to not get them mix up with other kids' books.

4. Book cover : The plastic cover, now they invented it as slip cover, in the size of the text books and the workbooks.  Hence, we no more need to buy the clear wrapper and cut it and cello-taped it to fit all the books perfectly.  Thanks to this latest invention! Saves tons of time. 

5. School bag :  Oh boy.. I can't say much about this because I am biased.  I hate the school bags with wheels.  I think they are huge and will only be in the way of other children walking.  I know that books are heavy and our 7 year old are such tiny tots, but really, these bags are huge and I personally think it is cumbersome. Especially when now the text books are all have been divided into modules and no longer come in thick sizes.  I bought just a simple Crumpler backpack for Amin.  So again, this is up to you and your kid preference (and your kid's body size too).

6. Uniform : Standard design.  You can get it from any malls.  But as for me, hubby has his most trusted shop over in Penang.  The number of clothes, for Amin, we bought 5 shirts and 4 pants because kids at his age will not care as much about being clean, so, we're assuming that the shirts and pants will get dirty easily.
7. Socks : There are school socks made special with black soles.  Buy this one! You will never be stressed over seeing dirty socks anymore.

8. Shoes : We bought two pairs, due to the fact that Malaysia is an equatorial country experiencing regular rains.  And be prepared to buy new shoes after 5 months as the kid's feet grow sort of rapidly.
9. Sports attire : No need to buy extra, a pair is enough - a tee-shirt and a track bottom.  This is because that they will only be having sports session once a week.  Sports attire available at the school's bookstore.
10. Stationary :  Equipped them with just this - a pencil, an eraser, a sharpener and a ruler inside a pencil case.  Not more than that, because every single day, one item shall gone missing.  You will get annoyed in the first place but believe me, this is common.  Therefore, advisable to buy in bulk amount for all items.  Saves you the numerous trip to buy the stationary when lost.
11. Food : We provided daily snacks for Amin.  Either chicken balls, or bread with nutella spread, or mini cereal.  We didn't give Amin any money for the first 4 months.  This is because that I personally don't trust canteen food.  And I also worried for Amin to have to fight with other big kids to rush and buy food as their break time only lasts a few minutes.

12. Spending money :  Since Amin has daily snacks from home, therefore we only give him RM1 per day.  Which at initial stage, he spend all of it at the bookstore.  Either buying an eraser, a pencil, a notepad or a pack pf plasticine.  Later he spend it on buying a pack of raisins, and sometimes a bottle of nutrigen drink.  Don't give too much to your kid because he still doesn't know the value of money yet, and will definitely spend it, instead of saving up.
13. Labeling : All items must be labelled with permanent marker.  Apart from for the clothes, the shoes must also be labelled.  This is because that at times when they have to take off their shoes while entering the prayer rooms (when attending Islamic lesson) or the library.  There is high probability of shoes get mixed up.  Although labeling the stationary will not prevent it from going missing, it could however slow down the loss frequency.
14. Emergency kit : This specifically refers to the extra under-pants.  Yes, you can never be over confident that your child will not have the bathroom accidents.  This doesn't only applied to the unfortunate discharged, but also relates to the uncontrollable water hose in the loo.  So, what I did was that I packed an undies inside a plastic bag, fold it up and placed it inside the slip in compartment inside the school bag.  Please make it your responsibility as a parent to go to the school's toilet and test using it.
15. Contact number : I consider this as priority one.  Very important item for every child.  I wrote mine, hubby, my parents and mother in law's phone numbers onto a piece of paper, and placed the paper in a pouch together with shillings 10cents, 20cents and 50cents.  This pouch stays inside the bag at all times.  You must teach your child how to use the public phone or teach them how to ask for help from the teachers or school's staffs to call parents in case of emergency, like if your child feels sick and wanting to go home.

Ok.
Izzi, that's all that I can think for now.
Will update you and other readers if anything pops up in my head later.

Till then, have a great weekend ya'ols!