We decided to send him to Tadika Permata Pintar (TPP). It's far - 25 minutes drive and expensive as it's using the Fungates system but we felt it would be worth it because Fungates also places an emphasis on character building.
3 January 2008 - Sean's first day at kindy. I woke him really early and to my surprise, he didn't make a fuss but was really excited. He wasn't jumping-around-excited but quiet-excited. I, on the other hand, was nervous. I was wondering how to help him adapt to kindy. Specifically, how to be on his own for the very first time in his life. TPP allowed parents to be with their kids for the first week only. So, I decided that I'd encourage him to make friends and try to distance myself bit by bit. But Sean stuck to me like glue.
We were early, in fact, he was the very first of his class to arrive. Teacher brought him to a round table and gave him building blocks to play with. Smart woman! Soon, other 4 year olds arrived (and they all look like 3 or 4 year olds where Sean was confused for a 5 year old. Turned out, he's the tallest in his class.) and were also given toys to play with. I tried to encourage Sean to talk to them but he didn't want to. I left it at that and just sat by him and started taking photos.
This is the first photo I took. Yeah, awesome isn't it? The first photo of his first day at school and he's showing off his glorious gums in an almighty yawn! heh heh!
In the next photo, he pulled a cheeky pose.
Sean's kindy hours are 8.15am-11.45am but the kindy worked towards it slowly. The first week, kindy ended at 10.00am. Next week at 10.30am and so on. It was easy going the first few days. More activities than actual lessons, to ease the kids into the routines of the class. Sean stuck by me the entire time. It was rather embarassing because by day 2, most mums had left leaving only 3 of us mums-with-sticky-kids....surrounded by crying kids! ha!
I decided to leave Sean on his own on day 5. I informed the teachers on day 4 and they were ready. Teacher Betty walked him into the school and I took off without Sean knowing. Boy, it was kinda difficult! I felt bad for sneaking off and was worried that he'd be difficult to handle. I almost cried. *sigh* Yeah, I'm a softie.
I was greeted by a very loud "Mummeeee!" when I arrived to pick him up. He was so happy to see me he ran to hug me and he wasn't angry with me for leaving him because....the teachers had told him I went for breakfast and was caught in a traffic jam. Huh?! Well, I wasn't entirely comfortable with that fib but I let it pass. The teachers told me he cried very loudly but not for too long. They gave him a sticker when he stopped crying. He proudly showed me the stickers he received for good behaviour.
All in all, he cried for 3 days. You could've knocked me over with a feather - I was that shocked! I was bracing myself for a week or two of tears and fears but Sean proved me wrong. I was so proud of him!
Now, I'm happy to see that he's slowly but surely making friends. And get this, whenever I go to pick him up after kindy, there'll definitely be more than one little voice yelling, "bye-bye Sean!" including one or two 6 year old girls! I have no idea how that came about! He'd proudly show me the stickers he'd collected for good behaviour. He'd pasted them on his hand but after a few days of "ouch-es" cos they hurt when he peels them off, he wised up and pasted them on his uniform instead.
Here are more photos taken during those first few days....
Sean in class. They were given a bean bag each and the teacher was encouraging them to be creative and imagine it was a boat, elephant, etc and then they'd sing an action song.
Snack time. At TPP, that means biscuits and fruit. Yup, fruit. Teachers would encourage the kids to eat the fruits by rewarding them with stickers.
The very best part of kindergarten - the playground! Sean was quite taken with these rings the first two weeks but he grew tired of them cos he was rather tall for it to be comfortable.
This is Sean's all-time favourite (though I can't see why). It's just an enclosure of sorts. This yellow-tee uniform is for Fridays - activity day. Mon-Thu, it's the light blue and pink uniform.
Sean gets some ideas from a 6 year old kid. The boy can do a full sumersault on those rings!
More kindy stories later!
