Monday, January 28, 2008

MC is Ready for School

MC is now ripe for school, I hope. Because sometimes she does think like she's a small adult and sometimes she bursts like a small baby. Well, all I know is that I am surely seeing developments on her.

Since last year, she's been busy with small projects in kindergarten focused on pre-schoolers: yoga, nutrition, learning her ABCs and 123s, etc. But what tickles her really is that she would finally be together in the same school, with her close friends from kindergarten. Telling her that E, her friends, would be in the second grade when she enters this school year is not enough to cool her excitement. Main thing is, she is in the same school as E.

And then we got a notice that MC should register in the school this March; since we are on holiday during that time, we called for an earlier appointment. With the result that, MC is the first one in her batch to be registered. And what was her reaction? The day before the registration, she simply refused to even think about going. She was in tears, saying, she wanted to stay in kindergarten. I had to make it clear that we would only go for a short visit, she would need to introduce herself and that would be that. After learning that she would not be going to school yet, she prepared her clothes for the morning. And she chose her favorite skirt and blouse, 'I want to be chic,' she said.

Well, the short walk to the school was a breeze. We found the rector's office and there she opened up easily; even managed to inform the registrar about our home number, wow! Why does it feel like she grew and walked taller after that visit, huh?

We parents were also being prepared for the school year. Last week, I attended a parent-teacher meeting for pre schoolers and learned about their activities for this year. I also got a glimpse of how MC is doing in the program. As expected, she is a bit shy; but with gentle prodding and patience, the techers said; MC manages to talk and share, too. I also confirmed that she really loves to draw and do creative works.


And then this morning, she passed the doctor's check-up for pre-schoolers with flying colors. Of course, they wondered why she is so light; but when they saw me, they simply nodded their heads; just like mom :D

And how do we prepare her for school and how did we know that she's ready for the big leap?

1. She has been getting homeworks from us since she got interested doing them two years ago; we started with simply asking her to write her name which gradually increased to the whole alphabet or the numbers from 1-10; now she's experimenting with other words and names.

2. She has her notebook for homeworks so we could monitor her progress; and she would know how she's doing. I even started giving her stars which gave her more energy to work.

3. We read books for her and let her summarize them by asking her to tell the story back to us. And these past months, she's been so interested with the Atlas and knows the flags and the could pinpoint the continents and some countries to us. (I guess that's the influence of knowing we could be flying to Asia, soon)

4. We do a lot of art works at home and loads of homemade things as invites, or gifts, etc.; invitations cards, table decors, postcards, beads, etc.

5. She got a wristwatch with big numbers so she would slowly learn how to tell the time. It also helped that we have a grandfather clock that indicates the time, so it was easier for her.

6. She is allowed to tip the computer keyboards to spell things; in close supervision from us.

7. She could only watch tv for a few hours on weekdays. And we have been trying to bring them to bed earlier than usual.

8. We keep game boards and card games that help creative thinking and decision-making.

9. She makes her own bed, tidy up her room, and chooses her dress for the next day. I hope she'll stay so organized.

10. She is also very much interested with helping in the kitchen; either by washing and cutting veggies, stirring the soup, preparing the table, baking, etc.

11. And she is acting more like a big sister to IC.

And most of all, we encourage her and we feed her with love.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL at the "I want to be chic" comment from MC! Kudos to you for raising your kids right!

haze said...

Having responsibilities at that early stage is just impressive! Now that only proves she's a grown up and thanks to you and your hubby they very well educated ! Lucky kids too they are pampered with love!

Anonymous said...

wow, that's so exciting. my experience when my son first went to school was kind of bittersweet. hahaha! corny ako.

lovelyn said...

Whew what a list! She's really ready for scoula grande(school for he big ones) as my son calls it. It takes a didicated and hard working mom to do that.

For me, my son is ready academically with reading and writing his letters and numbers. Yun lang, he is so dependent on me to tell him what to do do in the morning. Pero pag tatay nya babangon para iprepare sya, he is like a little adult who grooms himself alone and eats his breakfast quickly.

This post made me think, nasa akin ata ang deperensya hahaha. I tagged you btw, come check it out.

Anonymous said...

wow ate kenkgs... ang susyal ng anak mo akalain mo my yoga na cla.. hehehe.. pkisv ky mc!!! gogogo kya nya yan.. adja!

raqgold said...

greymom - oh yeah, being chic means having enough time to dress up, to finish their hair style, etc :D patience is also needed.

haze - thanks, haze. as long as they are interested to do those things, why not encourage them di ba?

lady cess - i would think i would let my husband be the corny one this time kasi he's a softie rin e. or else iyakan lang kami lahat sa first day of school hahaha.

lovelyn - you think it depends on you, hahaha. i think he wants to act more like a man with his papa simply because they are supposed to be men. sempre with mama's dapat cuddly sila; which is okay, too :D

repah - salamat sa encouragement. go go go MC talaga!