Life's Just Exciting!

My Preschooler

August 14 was our big day. I said "our" because I'm probably more excited and anxious at the same time as Luis who is starting preschool. I hope I did my best to prepare him for this big change in his routine. But who really knows what can happen, and for how long?

The School
After careful study of the whole "menu" of preschool methods available nowadays, Do and I agreed Luis will benefit more if he gets montessori training. And we mean the real montessori method, not a regular kindergarten or playschool with the montessori word attached to the school name. Being a first born, only child (for a long time), sigurista-type we feel Luis will learn more to be independent and secure in a montessori setting. We also like it that this method emphasizes and builds on the child's love of learning, promotes and develops comprehension and concentration and not just rote & shallow memorization and definition of information. I am not an expert on the montessori method, but if you are interested to know more, click here.

The 1st Day in School
The first 3 days in school was designed to facilitate orientation and familiarization of new students. They were short -- 45 minutes -- sessions with one parent attending together with the child. Our first day was uneventful save for Luis wanting to go home after only 15 minutes in the classroom! The directress (your equivalent of teacher) managed to engage him for another 15 minutes but after that he conveniently positioned himself beside me and got contented just watching the activities going on around him instead.

The 2nd Day
The second day proved to be a lot, lot, more challenging...and scary. Challenging because Luis did nothing the whole 45 minutes but cry and thrash about. How to get him interested in the many materials available to him and how to get him involved in an activity proved to be more difficult than I (and probably the directress') initially thought it would. Scary for me because I was beginning to ask myself if it will be the same scenario each day, for a long time. His tantrums get sparked by the slightest nod or comment or movement by anyone in the room. The school administrator and Luis' directress kept telling me afterwards that it's all normal and that they see the same thing happening all the time. We went home with my fingers tightly crossed.

The 3rd Day
After a few howls as we enter the school compound, silent whimpers as we wait for the time in the front porch, and a few kicks of protests upon entering his classroom, I had to totally leave Luis under the care of his directress so I can attend the parents' orientation at the second floor. Ten minutes into our meeting I got a positive nod from the administrator saying Luis was doing okay, and has stopped crying as soon as I was out of the door. When I went down for a peep (through the one-way mirror, of course) after our meeting, the kids were already singing their goodbye song and I saw Luis joining in despite the tears in his eyes. I thought my heart will break at the sight!

The 4th and 5th Days
I was both proud and sad. Proud because Luis, suppressing his cries, willfully entered school when one of the directresses took his hand and led him in. He was trying to be brave, to be the big boy I keep telling him that he is. He was greeted by his class directress and upon seeing her, he let out his tears and gave her a bear hug. I jealously thought, oh, that should have been me he's hugging! Both days he vomitted before the start of session. On the second occasion I happen to still be around the school premises so one of the other moms told me to go right in. Luis cried upon seeing me and proudly proclaimed "see, mommy will watch you" (he still refers to himself as 'you' most of the times). After cleaning him up I walked him to his classroom, and he went without protests, only a slight turn of head in my direction as if wanting to ask for the assurance that I will just be around to "watch him" even if he doesn't see me.

Today we missed the school bus because he vomitted again, this time at home, just when we were about to leave. After changing his clothes he tried another 'delaying tactic', declaring he needs to poop (eventhough he's done it twice already earlier in the morning). I was bracing myself for a bigger show of protests once we get to school. Surprisingly, when we got there he just went right in when he saw the door open and took the hand of the first directress he saw in the hallway. He was led to his classroom with only confident steps of a little boy who has finally found his school a great new place to hang around.

posted by lala @ 7:09 PM