Learning in School

Well, it has now been almost a month since Tay started school and I don't know for sure if she is enjoying every minute, but I do know that she is already learning things and putting many wrinkles in that brain of hers. In the first week, she learned the days of the week through a song she would sing over and over when she got home:

Seven days, seven days
In a week, in a week
Sunday Monday Tuesday
Wednesday Thursday Friday
Sat-ur-day
That's a week.
(sung to the tune of "Are you sleeping")

She also learned about the color yellow (she already knows most of her colors, but that was a color they covered last week) and this weekend she was singing "Yellow Submarine" over and over...:) 

She learned about squares and learned to draw squares. She also learned about the numbers one and two. A few letters, too. She is also practicing cutting and glueing. Who knew she'd do so many things in the first three weeks of school. Last Friday, Tay had her very first "school assembly" that I had the pleasure of attending. When I arrived, almost all the children were already seated on the floor in their areas and many were looking for their parents to enter the assembly hall. When I finally got through the door into the hall, I saw Tay eagerly looking around at all the parents to see if I was there yet. I snuck up behind her and gave her a big hug...she was so glad to see me. I told her I'd sit back in the seats behind her with the other parents. As the little presentations went on, many of the children, noticing that their parents were there, began to cry for their mommies. It was almost time for her class to get up and go do their short presentation when Tay turned around and made eye contact with me...and she mouthed, "Mommy, Mommy" and her little eyes started welling up with tears. Panic! Do I run up and grab her and hug her or do I sit and wave her on to go up with her class to sing? Well, I froze in place and gave her a sad face (which I'm sure didn't help), but the teacher and the assistant helped shuttle all the kids up to the front, even as she started rubbing away the tears in her eyes. I summoned a weak smile and mouthed to her, "It's okay!" Not sure that helped at all either. Anyhow, once the kids were all lined up, the teacher motioned counted to three and had all the children bow. Tay just looked so sad and slumped up there, but as soon as the teacher said, "Bow," she followed the command and bowed and continued following along with the song and motions. Don't think she smiled through the entire event, but she got through it and came back to sit down in her seat. I met her on the floor and gave her a big hug and told her she did a great job! I told her I had to go back to work now (since it WAS the middle of my work day), she grabbed me tighter, so I sat down on the floor with her for a moment and held her. As the next class went up to do their presentation, Tay just sat on my lap and I held her for about five minutes. After the song was over, I told her again that I had to leave and go back to work. She then said, "Okay, Mommy" and climbed off my lap, kissed me a few times, and went back to sit in her seat in front of her teacher. My sweet sweet girl. I snuck out the side and went back to work. By taking those extra five minutes, I avoided a potential meltdown and got to cuddle a little while longer with my baby girl. Glad I made that decision.

That evening, Jeff and I attended our very first "Open House" as parents instead of the student. Quite a different experience, I think. All the teachers and faculty were introduced to us, a nice little table full of refreshments were shared, and then we went up to the classrooms to talk with the teacher. We got a brief rundown of the class's day, saw some of the art projects that the children have done, got some explanation of the teaching techniques, learned about the "discipline" technique (green, amber, red - associated with three minute time-outs), and the sticker chart.

I'm very excited to see how she progress throughout the school year. She has already had a few mornings where she told me she did not want to go to school, but it wasn't because she didn't like school...it was because she wanted to stay home with her Tita and her sister. She did end up missing three days of school, though, because she ran a fever and was sick. Hopefully we won't have too many sick days!

Well, life's just rolling along...faster and faster it seems...at least it's still slow enough to enjoy those few minutes of cuddle time every day with the family...<3