Reagan's First Day in Pre-nursery Class

I knew towards the end of my 2nd trimester, it becomes more difficult for me to handle Reagan myself at home. Therefore I decided to put him into a half-day preschool so not only he gets to attend class, I also get to have more rest time for myself now, after birth and during my coming confinement. The school allows a parent to stay with him for the first 3 days , so now I shall write an observation report on Reagan's first day of school (at 21 months)!

 

We woke up at 7am, fed him milk and dressed him up in his school uniform. Reagan was very sleepy and wanted to go back to sleep until I told him that he is going to his new school today, going to meet new friends and play lots of games together. That helps to get him a little more excited and immediately he went to look for his shoes.

 

However on the way to school, he fell asleep in the car.

He is not used to getting up so early, furthermore he slept late last night (as usual), so I knew how tired he was, but I'm glad so far no whining and crankiness at all! I'm also quite confident that he would get all excited again once he saw the new place, new friends and the new teachers.

At the same time, parents-separation anxiety has never been an issue for Reagan, especially when he had people to entertain him and new activities to distract him.

 

As expected once we reached his school, the new teachers greeted him and he was thrilled by all the attention he was getting. He went around smiling and waving to everybody he saw. Then he walked to the pile of toys on the floor and started playing with them. He was so "busy" that even when I told him that I'm leaving ,he waved "goodbye" to me without even looking up at me!

The mandarin teacher asked him to follow her to the toilet to wash his hands after snacks, which he did and that somehow impressed her. She asked if Reagan had attended any other schools before since he seemed to adapt very well and was so willing to follow around any teachers who called him. His English teacher praised him for being very well-behaved, cheeky and smiley to everyone, and commented that it was a very good sign for a child's first day of school.

 

An hour later, more students arrived, and we heard more and more cries. There are students probably still in the middle of adjusting and some of them burst into tears once their parents left the school. Reagan began to have this worried look on his face when the cries of other kids got quite intense. And just then, he signed to me "baby" "cries" "sleep"....he was telling me that they (referring to the students who were crying) were crying because they are babies and want to sleep. Instantly I almost choked by my own laughter. This was our own private little joke. I used to tell Reagan not to cry because he is not a baby anymore, and only babies cry and that's because they want to sleep. I found it very amusing because it seemed that Reagan was trying to gossip with me about his classmate being a baby...haha! That really made my morning and is something I will remember for very long. I realised I love my darling boy even more.

 

After an hour, he was still in his usual happy & cheeky mood and I got him to smile for my hp camera which he gladly did. He loved the puzzle blocks below and each time he completed it he would clap for himself. And that amused his teachers as well.

Then he wandered off to do his favourite activity and that's reading again! On and off , Reagan was taken aback by some sudden loud screaming or yelling by the other kids. He would look up at me with his worried expression and after I assured him that everything is fine,  he tried not to focus on them and continued with what he was doing.

 

At 9am, the teachers prepared the student for their outdoor play. Reagan was very cooperative and followed his teachers and classmates all the way to the beach. Never once he turned around to look for me and it really shows that my existence doesn't really matter to him at all

I found a spot far away from him and sat there to rest. I wondered if Reagan would notice that I'm not near him and would come look for me. Well throughout the entire sandplay activity, he didn't. As mentioned earlier,  he didn't seem to care where his mommy is...

His teacher suggested that I can leave and pick him up later as from what she observed from morning till now, he doesn't seem to need me to be around at all. I was more interested to observe him in the next activity, so decided to wait a little longer before leaving.

 

After their sandplay, we returned back to school and the students lined up in the toilet to change their diapers. Reagan began to whine for me when the teacher attempted to remove his diaper. He probably don't feel comfortable getting "exposed" in front of his new classmates and teachers. There were also a couple of fights that happened between his classmates, then followed by their screams and cries again... Reagan was quite intimidated by what he saw and ran towards me again for comfort.

Soon the kids were back to their classroom again where the teachers blew bubbles. Reagan loves the bubbles and danced along.

 

Just when I felt I was ready to leave the class, one of the older girls chased after Reagan and hugged him from the back, refusing to let him go. Reagan is not used to playing rough so it really scared him and he cried pitifully for help. For a few seconds he was pinned on the floor and started wailing for me. The teacher went to his rescue but it seems that he was already quite traumatised by then and clang on to me tightly like a baby koala bear. To make it worse, another fight broke up between his classmates again and the loud cries by the other kids scared him even more.

 

I knew this was a bad time to leave the classroom now, but still I did, with a heavy heart especially when Reagan was crying for my comfort at that time. I really want Reagan to learn to handle this situation without me around. In every school there is bound to be tears and fights especially for an age group that young. Not every student is an angel in class. I trust my boy to adapt to this "real" situation as well as the teachers' ability to handle the kids.

Sometimes I feel that Reagan is in his make-believe world of  "Barney and Friends", where all the kids are so nice to one another, a lot of sharing and thank you, hugs and kisses and singing of the I love you song. Now he knows the real world is far from that !.

 

After around 20 minutes, I sneaked up again and peeped into the classroom. They were having lunch and Reagan was siting at his table quietly, munching on a slice of apple. Teacher told us that he stopped crying a short while after I left, and he even managed to almost finish up all his bowl of rice. Reagan has an issue with food and is a very picky eater, so I was quite surprise that the teacher managed to feed him an entire bowl. Usually he doesn't even finish half a bowl at home. Or maybe he was too hungry after his last big cry earlier.

 

 When we were about to leave, his teachers assured us that Reagan was already coping extremely well for his first day, only towards the end of the session he got scared by the fights he witnessed, and the accumulative cries and screams he heard.

 

A photo of his scared and sad face.

I'm sure after a couple of days (or maybe weeks) he will toughen up and learn to stand up for himself, and now this is his best opportunity to learn to do so.