First Parent - Teacher Meeting

Last Saturday, we were scheduled to have our first parent-teacher meeting with Teacher Liza. Initially, the plan was that hubby and I will just go to school without the kids. But some things happened again with my other yaya and we were left with no choice but to bring the two kids along. When we arrived teacher Liza was still in session with another parent. We waited for around 10 minutes before hubby and I went to Kai's classroom together with teacher Liza. The two kids were left in the office with my other yaya.

The discussion aims to give us parents an idea on how our kids are doing in school after about a month. Of course the first discussion was regarding Kaila's attitude of being left alone inside the classroom. Teacher Liza of course was happy that there was already a big improvement on Kaila. She can now be left alone inside the classroom as long as there's an assurance that ate is waiting for her outside. But there's really a need for improvement on Kaila's social skills. She's still so timid and shy in class. That's why they would get excited when Kaila participates actively in class. According to Teacher Liza, Kaila still needs a lot of coaching and convincing before she would do some of their activities. Teacher showed us some of Kaila's paper works and crafts. But as what Teacher Liza said, she doesn't want to put pressure on the kids that's why I'm not bothered as of the moment for Kaila. The main reason why we enrolled her in school is really to have an experience to be with other kids. I just want her to enjoy schooling first.

There were further discussion on the "Montesorri way" of teaching. Always expect a discussion with hubby on any topic. But it was a good discussion and it was a learning experience for us parents as well. We are looking forward to our next meeting and we hope that Kaila will do better each day in school.

Busy Days . . .

Monday to Wednesday was a hectic day for me. With forecasts and other deadlines, it was really stressful. Plus there are people around me that makes it more stressful instead of making my life easier. Anyway, I hope today would be a breather. I have a lot of backlogs on tags from my blogging buddies. I'll try to update it once workload is a bit light. For now, I'll try to take a nap before my official work time starts. he he he . . . The kids and I slept around midnight already. I don't know how to revert back to their old sleeping schedule. This has been a regular schedule for us for over a month. So, I barely sleep for 4 to 5 hours a day on a weekday.

Separation Anxiety . . . An update ! ! !

I am proud to say that finally, Kaila has adjusted to school! She's now left alone inside the classroom without any "crying spell" before or after the class. Although she would have tantrums at home while the yaya's preparing her for school. At times, they would have a hard time to dress her up or fix her hair. Anyway, what is important is that she goes to school and she enjoys the activities.

Last night, she was even singing songs from school. I make it a point to ask her how her day was in school and I ask how's Caira and Kane ( her crying buddies ). She would reply, "wala na silang ate. Si Kaila wala na ring ate". At least she can say that now without being teary eyed. I always say very good everytime she would say that. I also make it a point to tell her how exciting it is to go to school. Right now, I can see that Kaila will be a good student as she always wants us to have her "study session" with me or with yaya.

Looking forward to more learning experiences with my daughter.

A Relaxing Weekend . . .

We didn't have much too do last weekend. I can say that I was able to rest and regain my energy for the coming week. Last Saturday, we just went to SM Sta. Rosa to buy some kitchen stuffs and clothes for the kids since hubby got his semi-annual allowance :) It was also a treat for Kaila since she can now be left alone inside the classroom. Hurray! ! ! Just as we arrived in SM, my mom was calling in our PLDT prepaid phone. Good thing that I brought the phone with me. They were supposed to go to our house so I just told them we can just meet in SM. After buying the stuffs that we need, we just went around and brought merienda for the kids. As usual it's Jollibee fries and burger. We went home afterwards, leaving our two yayas to watch the promo tour of Sara and John Lloyd.

Last Sunday, we woke up late. I think it was my first time to woke up that late in a long time. It was a refreshing experience. I was still having a bad cold that day so hubby was kinda pampering me that day. He went to the office for a while and returned around 3pm. JM and I had an afternoon nap together. We were awaken by dada's arrival. Hubby told me that he'll cook tinola for me so that I can have a sip of a hot soup which will be good for my cold. Hubby also brought me some chocolate bars ( I love chocolates ! ). I love it when he's pampering me. I jokingly told him that I realized that I don't need to get pregnant again to be pampered by him. he he he . . . Thinking about it, it was always hubby who really exerts the effort to be sweet and thoughtful. Need to do some "bawi" for hubby.

The two kids just played outside with their bikes while we were having merienda. Hubby brought some munchkins and ice cream. It was just a perfect day for the whole family.

TGIF . . .

Friday is PE day for Kaila. I was able to be with her during her first PE class experience. Here are some pictures:

What a relief ! ! !

After a roller coaster ride of emotions yesterday including an argument with hubby over the phone, all's well that ends well! I won't elaborate more on what happened yesterday. I just want to express my happiness. After all that's been said and done, Kaila seems to have adjusted to school ( keeping my fingers crossed ). For the first time yesterday, the teacher's comment on her diary was not about her "crying spell". Guess what? It was just a single sentence but it gave us a relief and reassurance that Kaila will soon be outgrowing her "separation anxiety" problem. What was written on her diary was, "VERY PARTICIPATIVE!" Hubby and I hope that it will be the start of her fruitful learning experience. Plus, when I checked her books there were a lot of new activities and tests and she got perfect in all of those tests. I'm so proud of her! Manang mana sa mommy. he he he . . . Syempre sa daddy rin. :) Btw, thanks dad for the stickers!

I'll be keeping in mind as well the others tricks and techniques shared to me by my fellow moms. I posted my previous entry in my n@w e-group and a lot have replied to me for their suggestions of how we can solve this problem.

Separation Anxiety . . .

It'll be almost a month of schooling for Kaila and yet she still has this "separation anxiety" problem. We've tried almost every trick to convince her that being alone inside the classroom is ok and yet she would still cry every time yaya will go out of the room.

As far as I can remember, during her first week of school yaya was already out of the classroom. There was just one day when yaya called me and told me that Kaila was crying inside. I asked her what happened and she said she don't know. Kaila just cried. Knowing Kaila, I asked her what they were doing. That time they were listening to a story over the radio. I can even hear it over the phone. I further asked their other activities and nothing unusual according to the yaya. I tried to talk to Kaila over the phone but she was really crying. Since it was 3pm already, I just told yaya to finish the class since they'll be out in 30 minutes. I told hubby what happened and our initial assessment was that Kaila was afraid of the voice over the radio. Kaila has this thing, wherein she would just cry every time this certain commercial is aired over the t.v. As in she would cry out loud! When we got home, we found out that they also had an art activity wherein they did a puppet butterfly. My gosh! Kaila is afraid of butterflies! Why? I really don't know. When we talked to Kaila why she cried she just told us about the butterfly and the story over the radio. So I guess we had the correct assessment.

The next day, they don't have classes because it was Rizal day and it's a non-working holiday in Laguna. I reported to work that day because we switched the holiday to Friday so that it'll be a long weekend for us. I was happy because I can go with Kaila to school. So after the crying incident on Wednesday, it was just this day that she'll be going to school again. When we arrived in school, Kaila immediately cried and doesn't want to go inside. So teacher Liza told me to go inside first. There were also a few yayas and moms inside. Again, I took the opportunity to take pictures. When inside the classroom, Kaila would participate and answer during their activities. It's no problem with her as long as I am inside the classroom. Since Friday was PE day, they went out of their classroom to play outside. Just when they were about to go out Kaila was already calling me. I just told her that they'll go out to play. She was about to cry so I told her that mommy will be going out as well. She was playing with the kids but she's not the type who would ran around where the ball goes to unlike the other kids who was really running over the place. So, after their activity they just went inside to freshen up before they were dismissed.

On the second week, teacher Liza told the moms and the yayas that we won't be allowed inside the room anymore. So, we were trying to "condition" Kaila on the new set-up. Come Monday, I immediately called yaya to ask where she is. According to her, Kaila cried so she went inside. The following day, the 4 kids had a special session with teacher Liza on a separate room. They had the same activities as the other kids so the only difference is that there were only four of them inside the room. Teacher Liza told Mommy Charisse that they'll try this set-up first cause the kids might be overwhelmed by the number of kids inside the regular classroom. This continued until Friday before their PE activity. The "crying kids" needs to join the rest of the class for their Friday activity. They joined their class but the yaya went inside again.

Last week, they already tried leaving Kaila inside the room alone. Yaya was with her on the first 30 minutes then she would sneak out afterwards. Kaila will cry for a while but eventually she will stop. This went on the whole week of last week. We thought that this will improve this week since she was already progressing. As of today, she would still cry at the start of the class and of course she'll stop eventually.

Hubby and I are already stressed everytime the yaya would inform us that Kaila is crying in class. Disappointed? A bit. But of course Kaila is just a three year old kid. I think it's still normal for her age to behave that way. As I said to hubby, I would have been mad if Kaila is already at the age of 5 or 6 and she's still behaving that way. I'm still hopeful that in time Kaila will outgrow this separation anxiety thing.

For the moms out there, do you have any proven tips or tricks on this type of problem? Please share with me your thoughts on this. All suggestions will be highly appreciated.