The Chronicles of Mommyhood: September 2009

Tuesday, May 26th 2009. Felicia's 1st day at school!

Well, at least for the trial base. We decided to try the PreSchool program offered by SURABAYA MONTESSORY SCHOOL. So that morning, Lawrence, me and my Jakarta mother in law visited the school. Felicia was excited, mainly because they have LOTS of toys.

She wasn't afraid of the other students, who were accompanied by their parents/grandparents/nannies. At one point, we encouraged her to shake hands with this one other girl accompanied by her grandma.

Felicia considered the merit of it for a while, then she held out her hand, promptly shook the other girl's, and then without further ado, grabbed the other girl's toy, turned her back, and played by herself again. Of course, I apologized profusely for her rather rude behaviour, but the grandma said it's okay.

She also still did not know the concept of "Waiting for Your Turn". She's playing the sliding toy, and of course must wait for the other kids in front of her. When the boy in front of her took longer than she thought he should, she promptly pushed him aside, and the teacher had to remind my darling girl that pushing is not acceptable and she should wait for her turn.

Although she's not the oldest student, and definately that was the first day, she seemed more interested with the class' activities compare to other students (of course I can be rather subjective here). She was curious about the singing and dancing, she often looked at us and smiling and we could tell that she really wants to join but still a bit unsure and shy. The other kids...well, it seems to me they barely have any expression. They didn't smile, didn't cry, they played and stayed close to their parents like Felicia did, but they didn't seem as curious/enthusiastic as Felicia.

At first, Felicia refused to speak. Then the teachers distribute cups of sweet tea. She's immediately curious of course, and after the first sip, she gulped down the entire thing and said, "lagi !"

I encouraged her to ask to the teacher, and she stepped forward, and held out her cup and said loudly "Lagi!" I reminded her to be polite and so she added "P[l]ease!" Needless to say, the teacher was rather impressed, since despite it was Felicia's first day, I know she's the only one in her class who ever said something.

By the end of the day, when it was time to go home, I tried to have a little chat with the teacher, telling more about my daughter, but Felicia wrapped it up pretty impressively when she said,"Pa, dangdut Pa!" and request her favorite song back then, Cucak Rowo...(she has since upgrade her taste in music, but that's another post altogether...)

Since then...

Though the trial was in May, the school year started on Monday, July 13th. Felicia didn't join the class she took in trial, she went to one level higher because of her age. Still in Toddler Class, Felicia supposedly came unaccompanied except for the first two weeks. Long story short, due to the fact that 90% of the class went hysteric and caused the rest 10% to promptly follow suit when the nannies/mommies left them in the class, the school revised their policy and allowed the nannies/mommies to accompany them as long as it takes for them to feel comfortable and to start trusting their teachers.

There were originally five students and two teachers, but now there are eight students in the class. It was three times per week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 08:30 to 10:30 am.

Felicia LOVES the physical activities, climbing stairs, and the Bouncy activities.

I know. PICTURES needed. Will try to snap pictures later....

I accompanied her during the first week, but afterwards She was with her nanny.

Guess what, she makes friend already!!

If you asked my 23 months young daughter, "Felicia, temennya dikelas namanya sapa?" She would answer "CANDY!"

I was told that once Candy arrives, she would call her "Feli! Feli!" and Felicia would look for her too. So sweet eh? but there's more...

Now, though Candy was supposedly her friend, and they did share food together during snack time ( I've always packed extra for her friends), Felicia REFUSED to share her nanny. Candy LOVES Felicia's nanny, but she knows Felicia doesn't want to share, so she'd wait until Felicia got distracted and went to her nanny. Once Felicia spotted her though, she'd came to them and shoo Candy while saying, "Gak Usah! Gak Usah!" and waving her hand off to push Candy.

I was also told by her teacher that Felicia has another friend, an 18 months boy called Nathan. Nathan hasn't been able to speak yet, but he loves socializing, loves to smile and approaches other students. The teachers said that everybody in the class LOVES Nathan. Anyway, Nathan and Felicia have one thing in common: They love to play in the Kolam Bola.

They would play together and the teacher said it was pretty obvious Nathan wants to say something to Felicia but he can't. He'd follow Felicia around during this time and Felicia was pretty cuek [seriously, what's the appropriate translations for this?]. Then afterwards, Felicia is able to get out of the ball pool by herself, but Nathan, being overweight, cannot. So Felicia's nanny would help him, and of course, once Felicia spotted that, she'd go to them and said, "Gak usah! Gak usah!"

On last Parents-Teachers Meeting, the teachers shared another story too. Apparently, there's a girl in Felicia's class named MacKenzie. Now, she's not that close to Felicia. But during snack time, the teachers notice that Felicia swapped food with other students but not with MacKenzie. So the teachers asked Felicia to share food with MacKenzie too. You know what she did?

She THREW the food at her!!! the teacher stopped her and asked her again to share it nicely. She threw it again. I was concerned that Felicia showed early signs of being a bully, but the teachers assured me that it wasn't the case, it's just that MacKenzie wasn't in her circle of friends and she never shared her food with Felicia as well. Anyway, I told them I found that unacceptable and asked them to help correct her reactions.

The thing is, when I tried to talk to Felicia about Candy and her nanny, she would at first confirm it. E.g: "Felicia, Candy kalo mau pinjem Sus nya felicia, dipinjemi ya?" She would promptly said, "Nggak Mau!" Then of course I would talk to her about how sharing is important, how Candy only "borrowed" the nanny for a while and that the nanny would still go home with Felicia, and that's what friends do.

And Felicia completely turned deft ear and ignored me. She turned her back and did something else. I found it amusing. For now. Am not so sure if I'd think the same in the next few years. SHE's NOT YET TWO!!

So I thought Felicia's teachers would need to immediately get involved too if they saw something like that happening in the classroom.

The teachers think that Felicia is quite outstanding academically. She can recall the meaning of Chinese words (that I don't even know) that they taught in the school. Also, when the teacher mixed two different kinds of wooden puzzles, she's able to solve it. But she wouldn't do it in front of the teacher. She told me that Felicia refused at first, but once the teacher moved away (but observed her behind her back), she'd solve it easily. Hmmm...interesting eh?

Other than having outstanding academic potential, the teachers thought Felicia is Cuek and Bossy as well from her interactions with her classmates and her nanny. I thought about it and would like to add that she's also quite Proud [but NOT arrogant] as well.

So far, that's what happened at school ... and here's some pics from the Independence Day Celebration in her school....