Hiccup in Annual Concert Participation

Dr. Kadam felt that Ria had progressed due to our hard work and recommended that we continue doing activities that stimulate her in a structured manner.

It was March, and preparations were in full swing for the school annual concert. As seniors, Ria and her twin were dancing, going to wear graduation gear, and get certificates and commemorative mugs.

Chandni had a meeting in the evening one day, but the children wanted to play downstairs in the garden. She took her laptop along, but sat in the middle of the garden, since the signal was poor in the play area.

Ria and her twin’s friends were coming down too, so Chandni thought they’d be safe. Ria did come crying to her while she was in her meeting, but she thought she had had a fight with her friends, and shooed her off.

When they went upstairs, Ria was still crying. She wasn’t able to bend her elbow. Chandni rushed her to the emergency room in the hospital. After an X-ray, the doctor said it was a greenstick fracture.

Chandni was stricken. She asked Ria what she had been doing, and her twin too. She discovered Ria had slid down a small slide on her tummy. She was going too fast and had put out her arm to slow down. The entire pressure of her body had gone on her arm, hence the fracture.

The doctor set Ria’s arm in plaster, and said she would have to avoid jumping and similar activities for two weeks. She would have to have her arm in a sling for that time. Chandni took Ria to school next day. Her teachers were concerned and Ria was crying, upset that she wouldn’t be able to do all the dance steps in the concert.

Her teachers told her she could still take part, and showed her some jewellery they had got for her from the rental shop – Ria was acting as a Goan in a skit. Pacified, Ria calmed down, and the teachers signalled to Chandni to leave.

The annual concert went off well. Chandni even spoke about how supportive the school had been in encouraging Ria to flower, given her hyperactivity.

It was time to apply to big schools. Dr.Kadam suggested a few, where the academic pressure was less and the management was understanding and did not push children. Chandni visited them, but didn’t like the infrastructure in most of them.

Ria’s preschool prinicipal suggested one with a lot of co-curricular activities, that had good infrastructure. Chandni visited it and thought Ria would like it – there was a room for art and craft, another for music, a third for dance, etc.

Ria and her twin liked the school when they visited it. As early birds, they just had to speak with a teacher for a few minutes, write their name in a notebook, and so on. Ria did these better than her twin.

Chandni found out later that during admission later, the school had an eight page test in English, Hindi, Marathi, so she was thankful that they had started looking for a school early and chose this school in their early bird offer stage.

To be continued...

This post is part of Blogchatter A2Z.