Every Last Juicy Detail About the First Day of Cheider

ORIENTATION

On Friday, August 31 was orientation for Zusha. We all arrived, and Zusha and Gedalya ran for the toys. The day was basically supposed to be like a short school day, but with the parents staying with the boys. The Rebbi was alternating between playing with the children and answering any questions that parents wanted to discuss.

Every new boy got a lollipop. Zusha, as it happens, does not eat lollipops. He thinks it's paint. (He also thinks that Tangy Taffy is clay. He once saw a little girl eating blue taffy. Once the shock passed, he shouted, "Mama, vos meidele est? Meidele est CLAY! Meidele est BLUE CLAY!" -the girl is eating clay!!)

So he opened his lollipop happily and started "painting" on a magnetic drawing board. I took this opportunity to talk to the Rebbi about junk food. That we don't stuff our kids with garbage. He seemed taken aback.
"So what should I give him when I give all the other boys lollipops and he's crying?"
I told him I'll bring in raisins, dates, select cookies.
"But those won't calm a crying child."
"They're good enough for him. He actually won't be calmed by a lollipop. He knows he can't eat it. He'll get a stomachache."

A little after this conversation, Zusha came to the Rebbi's desk and took another lollipop. The Rebbi gave me a look, which said, "See? He wants it. Are you going to forbid him?"
I answered, "He wants to paint with it, not eat it. Just watch."

In the middle of orientation (10:00 am-12:00pm) Hillel took Gedalya home. Soon after that I told Zusha I will leave for a little bit and then come back to take him home. It didn't go too well, as he tried to follow me. But it was a crucial step to adjust him to the idea that I will leave and come back. I just went to the pharmacy around the corner to buy him a small prize and a snack, but when I came back, he was standing in the doorway of the building. I told him how dangerous it was to do that, and how he must NEVER go anywhere in the school without me or his Rebbi accompanying him.

Zusha enjoyed his first cheider experience IMMENSELY and was thrilled when I told him on Motzai Shabbos the I'll be taking him tomorrow again.

THE VERY FIRST DAY

We arrived to cheider on Sunday morning, September 2nd. There were some cuties already sitting at the table, hard at play.
Over shabbos, Zusha has been dreaming about the cubby he was going to have. He wanted a yellow one. His Rebbi assigned an orange one for him. Zusha was ecstatic anyway.
I helped settle Zusha in a bit, said bye bye to him and assured him that I will come back soon. I guess his idea of soon was different from mine.
Meanwhile, I didn't want to go home, as I was planning to pick him up early. He had gone to sleep at 10:00 pm, having crashed unexpectedly for a long nap on Shabbos. He was working on 9 hours of sleep and could not handle a full first day. So I went shopping in the area and came to pick him up at 11:15.

I met the Rebbi outside the classroom (the children were with the assistant) and he told me that Zusha was crying for the last half hour. He opened the door to bring Zusha out, and the poor kid was all blotchy red and sobbing. I scooped him up and calmed him a bit. I asked him why he was crying, and he said that his stomach hurt. I think it was more as a result of his crying, rather than the cause of it.
The Rebbi said that he was playing great, until they began davening. All the children sat down for davening, but Zusha started to fidget, run around and then cry.
On our way out, Zusha said bye bye to his Rebbi and assistant very nicely. It seemed that he liked cheider all in all, just one incident got him upset.
Later that afternoon, Zusha told me that the reason he was crying was because another boy took away his tzedaka coins and ate them. Don't know if he really ate them, but he definitely took them away!
What an exhausting day. Zusha went to bed at 6:45 pm. Surprisingly, he said he wanted to go back to cheider the next day and was excited for it.