I accompanied Darius for the half-day lesson today and it was so ‘draining’ for both of us that we went to nap after we returned from ‘school’.

The time to wake up and go was hard to get used to. Usually, Darius drinks his milk at around 7am and goes back to sleep till 8am with Daddy handling him while I continue sleeping. But today, we woke him up at 6 plus and was out of the house by 7am. No longer sleeping in til 8:30am… So both of us were tired when it was near 12pm and he had some cranky episodes.

However he seemed to have endless energy after we went out of the centre, running freely on the pavement and laughing to himself, making a passer-by laughed and exclaimed, “He really loves walking!” Sigh. What she didn’t know was that he had been confined for about 5 hours in the centre, so he was soooo glad to be free at last.

So how did our day go?

Shortly after Hubby left (his account here), I continued talking to the Assistant Teacher about him and learnt from her the routines of the centre. He kept going to the door wanting to go out because he always enjoy running outdoors and started feeling frustrated because there wasn’t anything to do there. They only allowed children to play with blocks in the center area and not any other toys and he happened to not enjoy blocks. So he was just walking around and reading some alphabets here and there.

Because the playgroup area was on a platform, he also went up to the platform and walked around and was able to point to a circle and tell me it’s Blue. He was also holding a purple block which he kept bringing to me and telling me it’s “Pur” (purple).

He longed to go out and run about...(T^T)

Later, while we were talking near the entrance, he left us and went to the platform area. I noticed he took something and quickly went to him. It was a pencil! Lately, he loves scribbling and scribbled on a wall at my parent’s house that day. Luckily, I spotted him before he destroyed the wall there.

We brought him to sit at the table to eat his breakfast. It was tuna bread today and so I helped him tear pieces off and put into his mouth because he still does not know how to bite-off. They drank from cups but I didn’t want him to make a mess so he didn’t drink the milo. The staff assured me that if he drinks and makes a mess, they will change for him. But since I was there, I wouldn’t want to have to wash the stains off his shirt later (he was wearing home clothes). Nobody was wearing a bib so I didn’t feel comfortable to let him wear one too.

Later on, while talking with the teacher, there was a loud sound and he actually fell down from the two-step platform area, flat on his face. I quickly rushed to him and checked that he was okay but a bruise developed on his head as he cried from the shock. The teacher then informed me that next time, we should let him join the centre and not run about as it would be difficult to look after him (Well, in the first place, she or someone else should have kept an eye on him while I was not there…)

Finally, after all these, it was time for the actual lessons. The Circle Time.

It didn’t go well too because he started crying as I know he would when the kids shouted, “Hooray!!!” Then, he started crying on and off again whenever any kid shouted. Sigh. It was difficult to get him to stay put in the circle because he just wanted to run away from all these strange screaming kids he saw. (That’s why I feel he needs to interact with more kids…he’s getting a bit anti-social and scared of noises)

Next was Story-Telling Time. But due to the earlier ‘scary’ experience, he just wanted to run away and not join in the class. The kids were so incredibly well-behaved as they sat on the platform and listened to the teacher while Darius was interrupting by trying to walk away and stamping his feet in frustration on the platform, whining away. None of the teachers was handling him but instead, they were trying to see how I handled him. But usually at home, I would have just given him some toy or play him some music if he starts some tantrum. There, I had nothing to use because they don’t have ‘regular’ toys and he’s not supposed to do that at that time.

Then, I remembered the one sole tactic we always used when he’s crying. Tell him a familiar story! I quickly threw a, “A Cow Says…?”  in a low voice. He had to stop himself to answer, “Oooh”. Then, I said, “A sheep says?” …so on and he stopped and listened as I went on to the Mr Brown Can Moo! Can you? Story.

After a tiring time wrestling with him, the Supervisor finally started the Montessori Activities and placed a mat for him on the platform while the kids were doing their activities on the floor in their allocated ‘brown’ square. I think anyone who sees the situation would be impressed at how well-behaved and independent they were. These kids were only 19 months to 2.5 years but they walked up to the platform, took their trays from the shelves, went back down to the brown squares, worked on the items and changed the trays when they have finished with the task.

He has a preference for his left hand...

The Supervisor would concentrate on a few children, guide them with the activities while the rest of the children remain seated on the platform steps waiting for their turns. Finally, all the kids would be settled in their mat doing their activities independently while two other teachers worked with one child each at a small table, doing a worksheet. Once the child had finished, another child would be called forward. All these times, Darius was left by himself with me, doing the scooping activity – using a spoon to scoop marcaroni from one bowl to another. After all the earlier frustrations, he finally had something to ‘do’ so he was really engrossed in the activity, doing it over and over again, never looking up nor moving from the mat. That is something good about him. He is able to concentrate on a task for a long time. OR maybe it was just him trying to ‘shut it all’ because everything was so strange to him.

Alas… he was so engrossed that he didn’t want to stop. And the king of all tantrums came when the Main teacher wanted him to go to the toilet to change or pee. He stamped furiously when the spoon was taken away from him and ran to the wall where he promptly knocked himself on the head. Oh my! At home, I would have given him a smack on the bottom and scolded him for that behaviour but I couldn’t do that in school… =.=”

The Main Teacher finally took over from me and carried him, telling him to stop the behaviour while he kept kicking and shaking his legs, crying in frustration. The teachers were a bit bewildered at his behaviour. I think they must be thinking that he throws tantrums even when I was around. Can’t imagine when I’m not around. That is something I’m trying to work on at home too. He’s getting very bad tempered nowadays and tends to throw a lot of tantrums when he’s bored with nothing to do or when I did not accompany him all the time.

She carried the angry Darius all the way to the toilet area where the kids were relieving or changing diapers. She asked me whether he behaved like this at home too, but I told her he doesn’t as he always have something new to be distracted with when I take something away. So she showed him some little books to calm him down.

However, I think he has been holding a lot of anger, fear or frustrations since early morning and it was all let out at the moment when he just refused to calm down, and kept kicking no matter how the Teacher tried to show him the books – HIS favourite thing. I was really surprised at his tantrum since I had never seen him behaving like this before. He usually calms down very fast. He even laid down on the floor to kick and cry while the little children were around him waiting for their turns and watching his antics. I kept saying, “Look, what is this? A… Apple!” It didn’t help and he just remained very angry.

Finally, the teacher gave him the small book to flip and he started calming down and flipping through the book quietly. It happened to be a book with the letter H, his FAV letter and he told me amidst his sobs that it was a “Hah”. I was really relieved after that and the teacher left to attend to other kids. Little kids came around us to take the other books around us after they had completed their business and each of them started showing me and pointing out to me what the pictures were. I was tired dealing with Darius so it was fun talking to other kids instead. Hah… I became their ‘teacher’, asking them, “What is this? Oh wow, a car!” They were really so cute! One little girl didn’t have a book and complained to me, “I don’t have a book!” Hee…

Soon, it was time to return to activities again and Darius complained once more. He just didn’t want to go back there or sit on the platform to listen to the Chinese Teacher telling her story. So, no choice, I got him to sit beside the shelves and took one tray for him to do some activities. This time, a metal spoon to scoop little plastic bears which was a bit too difficult for him but he still concentrated on doing it. I got him to look up at the Teacher when she started doing the music time when they sang the Carrot Song and he actually looked at them while playing with the spoon. The teacher also tried to engage him because she was facing him and singing. I was glad she did not ‘leave’ him out. His ears perked up when he heard her singing the song in Mandarin. I think he found the language more familiar so he finally looked up and watched them from afar while the children were lining up behind the teacher according to the song.

Soon it was time for early lunch at 11am, and it was another disaster as Darius wriggled in his seat refusing to sit properly and promptly knocked the WHOLE bowl of macaroni all over himself! My fault for not holding onto the bowl while he was swinging his hands about. I did not know he would throw a tantrum while seating. I was really drained and embarrassed as I stared at him and the mess and kept sighing as I picked him up from the seat, wondering how it could have happened. Only then the teacher told me, it’s okay and to bring him to wash up while they clean the mess and I quickly moved.

I spoke to him in the toilet and asked him why he did that. Had to change his pants because it was dirtied. He seemed guilty and knew he did something bad because when I brought him back to eat after another bowl was given to him, he sat quietly and did not move about any more. This time, I made sure to grab the bowl after I settled him down and fed him the marcoroni. He ate most of it quietly but didn’t want the fruits because he still doesn’t know how to bite off from a piece of fruit and he disliked holding the wet stuff.

After lunch, he was all whiney again and this time, the teacher took some colourful plastic blocks for them to play. Darius liked building them and he seemed to be finally getting used to the kids as he did not mind them beside him. He even tried to put blocks onto another kid’s ‘building-in-progress’ and took some other kid’s blocks. I became their substitute teacher again as I asked the kids what colour the blocks were. I just left Darius to play by himself among them, tired of dealing with him. They were all so cute and eager to tell an adult what they are building or holding. I was throwing them questions, “Where’s Blue Colour? Where’s Yellow Colour?” They would each come to me and point out to me the colour or tell me, it’s a house or it’s a train. Hah.. so fun to teach these obedient and cute children.

The Assistant teacher laughed and say, “You really love children.” ^_^ . “Yar.” I replied with a sigh, thinking of the choice I’m making now to send him here.

12.00pm soon came and it was time for us to go. Darius seemed to know we are going off and were much happier. Surprisingly, he started laughing and laughing at the children jumping about or twisting their bodies, waiting for their turn to bathe. After all the crying episodes, he started laughing? Really don’t know what he’s thinking.

I’m so glad tomorrow he would be accompanied by his Daddy while I go for an interview. I do not think I can handle this consecutively.

Never thought half-a-day of Preschool is so tiring!

No related posts.