Kelsea in Nursery

Yesterday was Kelsea’s first day of school. I prepared her books and notebooks which I was just able to put name plates and plastic cover the night before (talk about cramming!). It was 10:30 pm when I finished. Still early for me but I need to sleep early. I usually sleep around 3am (sometimes even 4am or 5am) since I work online when the father and daughter are already asleep and wake up around 6:30am-7am to prepare our breakfast. Lucky me when hubby wakes up early and cooks for us so I can get a little more time to sleep 🙂

Since we will have a new routine, I must wake up at 5:30am to prepare breakfast. Hubby’s assignment is to wake up Kelsea around 6:30am (make it 6:15am for muni-muni) and give her a bath. But if I can finish cooking and preparing her baon for school, then I will be the one to give her a bath. Since she eats slowly nowadays, we need to make sure she’s at the dining table before 7am and must finish eating before 7:30am so she can brush her teeth and dress up. School is only 10 minutes away from home.

We were successful with the above time frame yesterday and today. I wonder if we can keep it up LOL! We must!

Welcome pre-schoolers!

Classes for this week is from 8am-10am only. Then 8am to 11am next week. Regular classes of 8am to 12nn will start on the third week. Four hours in school for Nursery? Yes. They have a progressive approach so there will be time for free play, circle time, snack time, washing of hands, brushing the teeth, nap time and study time (this is in no particular order). This is okay for me since I know she’ll enjoy there and I get to do house chores and work for a few hours before I’ll fetch her. But I’ll wait for her maybe for the first 2 weeks only.

shoe shelves

We arrived early but so did the others. Not all kids have their uniform yet including Kelsea. Before entering the room, footwear must be left outside and put in the shoe cabinet. They were required to wear white shoes inside the classroom. Aside from that, each student must have a persona kit. It is a plastic box where they must have their own cologne, powder, face towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, extra undies and extra clothes. We put hers in the cubby hole assigned to her.

Kelsea’s cubby hole

 
In Nursery, there were 2 teachers assigned and a teacher’s aide inside. Then another teacher’s aide is waiting outside the door to accompany kids who need to wash their hands or pee and also to make sure no kid will go outside unattended.

I stayed with her for the first hour.

Expected from a first-time pre-schooler, she doesn’t want to be left there without mommy. So on her 1st day, I stayed with her inside the classroom for the 1st hour. Within this hour, I saw how hard it is to be a pre-school teacher. They must be given high salaries. Some kids were attentive but some are roaming around and playing with the nearby toys or reading books. But I know later on, the kids will learn the routines they will be doing everyday. This school practices a Montessori-type of set-up for Nursery and Kindergarten.

Not with mommy anymore

When I felt that I can already leave Kelsea, I slowly exited the room and just stayed outside the room peeking thru the window. She felt hesitant me not being on her side. There were some tears on her eyes. I wanna go back inside but I just remembered what the teachers told us during the orientation which is to trust them. And not to loiter in the halls and keep on peeking on the windows because when the kids will see their parents or yayas, they will surely beg us to go inside. Kelsea kept asking for me but eventually, she settled down. She’s a shy girl and likes to observe first what people around her are doing so there was a time when she just sat down and looked at the teacher and the students singing with actions.

Teacher Neri with her students

Parents and yayas were told that we were not allowed to go inside the room the next day. So today, I accompany Kelsea inside the classroom, the teacher was already waiting by the door and she immediately held Kelsea’s hands and brought her inside. I just told her that mommy will be waiting for her outside. She kept on crying and calling mommy. The teacher took care of her and led her to the other kids so she can already make friends and play. I stayed outside and not letting her see me peeking from time to time. For the first 30 minutes, she didn’t want to cooperate and just stayed on one area of the room. Good thing the Korean directress was also in the room to attend to the kids also. She was the one who comforted Kelsea and stayed by her side until Kelsea was comfortable enough to stay with her classmates and join the activity which is coloring. The directress was one-of-a-kind. I saw her concern to her students.

Mommies and yayas looking through the windows

After that, I felt Kelsea already loosen up and started talking to her classmates and responding to the teachers. So while Kelsea was already enjoying her time there, I was with other moms and yayas sharing each other stories of their kids/alagas.

Snack time

The kids during snack time were assisted by the teacher’s aide. And to make sure she will eat her snack on the first day, I made her a peanut butter pandesal and added some oreos which are her favorites. Then today she had choco wafer and small mamon. We were told that we need to avail of the mandatory snacks for the kids starting on the 3rd week. This will be prepared by the school. The reason for this they explained is to make sure nobody will get jealous or something like that when seeing other kids’ baon. It will cost Php700/month. This seems okay as long as they provide healthy and fun snacks for the kids.

2nd day: Nap time but nobody really fell asleep 🙂

 
Tomorrow will be another day. I hope Kelsea will enjoy more and have fun in school with her classmates and teachers. I was also happy that some of her classmates live in the same village we were in, so maybe in the future we’ll have a playdate with them 🙂