03.08.2009 - The start of an enriching journey for my second-born, Mika’il Rusydi. It was his first day at childcare and it turned out to be a fun and interesting one. We arrived slightly after breakfast and headed straight to the music room. The music room was in the same ground unit as Toddler (Dewey) class, but in a totally different section from Nursery 2 (Eriksson) class. Therefore even though his sister, Misha, is in the same childcare centre, they are logistically separated.
So what did he do on his first day in an alienated place? Lots of exploring! He didn’t join some of the class activities conducted as he was busily helping himself to the vast number of toys there (especially huge lego blocks). By ‘helping himself’ I mean attempting to *eat* those toys!
The music room was spacious enough for the little tods to play ball and explore battery-operated bicycles (which was the theme lesson of that week). It appeals to me that Mika found great interest in these.
Just before lunch, his form teacher did some class reading, to which he consciously ignored (he’s still engaged with lego blocks). The children then headed back to Toddler (Dewey) class for some bottle-cap and finger painting. Again, I was amazed at his interest at this activity as this was his first attempt at handling paint as an art medium. What I totally wasn’t amazed at was his refusal to wear any bibs over his brand new uniform, that resulted in splashing (acrylic) paint on the fabric that cannot be removed! Bummer.
During lunch, he ate what looked like fried rice with mushroom (the teacher later confirmed that it’s rice with stewed chicken). He wanted to eat by himself and didn’t want anybody else (me included) to feed him. Which is great, of couse, to show his independent self, but ultimately things got a little messy when most of his food ended up on the table and floor instead. Once lunch is over, the children took their shower, and Mika was the last one to bathe. Normally the teacher-in-charge shower two children at a time, but since it was Mika’s first day, he was set to bathe alone (probably to see how easy or difficult it was to handle him, I suppose. Because he *loves* to play with water!).
Half a day gone, and he’s ready to take his 2-hour nap, with a bottle of milk to lull him to sleep. Seeing that he’s adapting well thus far, I left him in the good hands of his teachers.
August 26, 2009, 1:51am Comments
