It’s quite an exciting day. Finally Briana is going to school. A pre-kindie for kids age 15 months up to 2 years old. Her school is interestingly referred as Montessori Children Academy. Not a kindergarten, but an academy. How cool is that.
School days only twice weekly – Monday & Tuesday. Because English class was fully booked for the next term, we signed her up for Mandarin class. The other option was German class. *sure, let’s get the lil one more confused since we speak 3 languages at home* Hopefully she gets English class on the next term.
Besides being the only international school within the vicinity – that is, within 20 mnts drive from where we live, as opposed to an hour and half drive downtown, it’s a montessori system, plus the teachers – pupils ratio is very good. They keep a small class with 2 or 3 teachers plus an ayi (like a babysitter to tend for smaller kids). I think they mention something like 10 students in one class max. Well, there’re 10 kids in Briana’s class, but today I only saw 4 of them. Most of them are about 2 years old so that makes her the youngest in class as she is only 16 months old. That I find very good so they can give more attention to each kid, more personal approach to help them develop their unique skills.
If they notice already during the Open House introduction day, Bri is more of a physically active girl – she would jump into the pool of balls, climb and run. She’s not the sort of kid who would play Barbie combing hair and play dress up all day. There was a miniature kitchen with all sorts of rubber food and cookies in the corner of the class. Being Bri, she threw all the plastic eggs against the wall, stomping on the pretend fried eggs and whack a boy in the class with slices of pizza. Satisfied with thrashing the miniature kitchen, she moved on to the musical section. I quickly left the classroom as teachers started to throw the “congratulations-you’ve-raised-a-little-monster” look.
Here’s their daily schedule:
8:55 Arrive & welcome
9:00 Group Lesson (sing songs, calendar, weather, theme)
9:30 Snack
9:45 Art – Craft – Drawing – Painting
Working time in the Montessori classroom
11:00 Indoor / Outdoor activities
11:45 Story time
12:00 Lunch / brushing teeth
12:45 Nap / Quiet time / Social development
14:30 Group Lesson
14:55 Clean up
15:00 Discharge
But Briana is taking half day only. So she goes home during lunch time. It’s perfect timing actually since around 11:30 to 12:00 is her nap time. It’s her long 2 or 3 hour nap. If she misses it, guarantee she’ll be miss-cranky-don’t-mess-with-me.
I enjoy fiddling with her pink backpack, filling it with items that she’ll need for the next day in class. Her diaper pouch, wet tissue, snacks & biscuits, sippy cups, indoor shoes, change clothes…. Reminds me of my early school days in the pre-kindie when I was 2.5 years. Barely remember in details, except that I enjoyed playing by myself for the first couple of weeks that the teacher had to climb up the ladders on the playground to fetch me when the class started. Sometimes they just let me play and started the class without me. We did a lot of drawing and sticking colorful seeds on glued paper. That’s about it. I remember a lot more of my time and my friends from kindergarten. It’s funny how memories just pop up when you go through things with your child. Out of nowhere and clear as a daylight, like it just happened yesterday. Somehow Briana took me through my pre-kindie days again, things that I used to love to do, friends that I made although I can’t remember their name or what my mom used to pack for my lunch.
One thing that I still have to figure out is her brekkie time. She usually have several course of breakfast for over 3 hours. The big brekkie is at 10am. Now we have to squeeze them in by 7am, so that lil vomit bag will have time to digest her food and NOT VOMITTING in the car. By 8:30 we have to be on our way to school – with mommy covered in towels just in case lil one decides to do food dumping on mommy.
But first day no vomitting and no crying. What a brave lil girl! Didn’t cry or scream in tears for a “don’t leave me here” cuddle. Well, maybe a little when other big kids are crying, but she didn’t seem to understand why according to the teachers.
* Note to teachers: your rule about no photos in class sucks!!! boo hoo…..
waaaaaaaaaaksss.. udah sekolaaah.. horeeee !! bentar lagi kuliah, emak makin tua hihihi..
klo minta izin dulu tetep ga dikasih ya ambil foto ? ato kali mereka khawatir kalo ngambil foto sama anak2 lain kali. Di sekolah Nisa bole asal izin dulu, kadang yang foto2 malah kepala sekolah nya..trus kalo gue minta langsung dikirim ke email koq mak.
niwey, emang bahasa apa ajah di rumah ? hehehehe..ternyata bukan cuma nisa yang bingung bahasa yak..
.-= fitri´s last post …..Ramadan Mubarak =-.
wow! anak elo udah sekolah, cepet banget waktu berlalu. gimana mak kabar elo, gile udah gak bisa facebook-an lagi ya disana? kangen oy… elo ngapain aja kalo si Bri sekolah half day?
So proud of my Lil’ Monkey!! Great to spend the day with the family getting familiar with the academy and what Briana will be getting involved in.
Proud Daddy!!!!!
@ Eliza: iya mak, gw ga bisa buka FB. Ga tau nih pake vpn tapi teteup aja kena blokir. Ya sutralah. Untung website gw ga kena block.
Ga berasa banget dia udah mulai sekolah, rasanya baru kemarin gw gendong2 bayi merah.
@ Fitri: gw nangis maaaaak, waktu nganterin anak gw masuk ke kelasnya. Soalnya dia yang langsung asik maen balok-balok di pojokan, lupa sama sekali. Pasti nggak berasa tau2 dia udah kuliah, udah ga perlu minta gendong & usapin air matanya kalo dia nangis…. Aduh, gw nangis lagi nih
Foto udah minta ijin, cuma mereka sensitif banget kalo foto ruang kelas & mainan2nya diambil.
You didn’t miss a lot, daddy. She’s doing great in class. Brave little girl. Sure she’ll learn so many positive things in her school. I’m very excited too.
Welcome home HOPSCOTCHBABY, kiss kiss Briana. Apa kabar?, sekarang sekolah lagi ya.
Makanya kak jangan dikutik2 melulu, ilang deh hopscotch nya. Ibu sampe kuatir gak balik lagi.
Whoaaaa… I am so proud.. but also a bit sad.. kelewat lagi deh satu stage lagi… huaaaaa….. Seneng ya kak liatnya.. udah bisa ngomong apa aja kak?
No update for many days…..looking forward updating
Brianaa, belajar apa tadi disekolah?. Cerita lagi dong sama nenek.
o..o…o…. si unyil udah masuk sekolah ternyata yah, cepet bener