First Day Riding

She did it!  Aleena rode her bike to school today for the first time, and I got a slow one kilometer jog to start off my morning. 

Aleena's first ride to school was a bit longer than Nalin's first ride, and she was a year younger.  When Nalin was in first grade she rode her bike to school, but it was probably only two hundred meters.  In fact, most of the time we lived in that place we just walked to school because by the time you parked your bike it was a little faster to walk.  Aleena was also easier to teach to ride the bike.  She didn't have a lot of accidents, and didn't yell at everyone within sight when she did.  When Nalin was learning, when she fell, she would yell at anyone around.  "Aleena, its your fault.   You were looking at me!"  she would scream in an angry and frustrated voice.  Aleena's only real complaint with riding her bike would be that she was tired and wanted to play instead. 

So this morning we left about ten minutes earlier than normal so that we would have fewer bikes sharing the path.  That strategy worked, as we didn't cause any major traffic jams due to our slow pace.  Aleena did a great job.  She had two stumbled.  Once she got her tires into the three inch drainage gap between the sidewalk and the bike path.  Its a terrible design, just a magnet for bike wheels.  The second time she actually tipped over onto the sidewalk.  At first I thought that she might cry on that one, but she was okay.  Ten or fifteen minutes after we started, were made it to school.  The guard let me park her bike in the front behind the other bikes.  I was grateful since I didn't want her to have to ride through the rows of parked bikes on her first day.  Sometimes bikes stick out too far in the aisle, or people block the aisle, so it would have been a little more challenging for her.

When we got to school I told her that I was going to tell her teacher.  "No, no!" she said.  We went to drop off her book bag at the classroom, and Tim stuck her head in and told the teacher.  Got me off the hook. 

The Kindergartner routine here when they arrive at school is to hang their book bags on the hook outside their classroom, go play on the "little toy" playground until the first bell rings, then line up by classroom.  The teacher assistants then come and take them to the classroom.  Aleena and a few of her friends always goes and washes her hands after the first bell and before getting in line.  For a while, she and her friend Suhani would go and pick up flowers off the playground.  Today, she was playing with Ryko, who was licking the top of a muffin that she had brought for breakfast. 

The downside of Aleena riding her bike, aside from my sweating on the way to school, is that I need to help her get home.  She is not ready for Yaow running next to her yet.