Vern's First Few Days at Playschool

4 January 2018 - Attending Trial Class

And now is time for my littlest baby Yiu-Vern to attend playschool.

He has just turned 2 1/2 years old (30 mo).
Shern koko went to playschool at age 2 years 8 mths.
Khye koko went to playschool at age 2 years 7 mths.
And so it is about time for Vern to go.

I chose the same playschool I sent Khye last time.
He even takes the same Mickey Mouse schoolbag as Khye! #passmedowns #thankyou3kaufu3kaumou
The playschool which I like because it is one of the few playschools in Penang that really emphasize PLAY!

The head teacher there tells me often from Khye's time until now, "When the kid has enough play, it is easy and the kid will be ready to absorb everything!"

How can you not love a playschool like this, right?
And at only 2 1/2 yo, what else do you want them to do other than play?

And so this playschool has lots of playtime and no academics.
They play outdoor for 1 to 1 1/2 hours every day. There are wooden playhouse with slides and ropes and stairs, and a big garden for them to run and to play with the balls, and sand and water, etc.
It's unstructured play which I super love for little kids.

Vern loves the sand and you can find him at the sandpit most of the time. His pants are usually sent home brown and now I send him to school with cheap pants I bought from the market! Haha.
He also loves throwing balls and just running around with the other children.

And they have singing, and art and craft time too.
He comes home singing some CNY songs. I'm surprised to see him repeating songs he learned at just 2 1/2yo.
And I love their unstructured art. They give them crayons and paints and an empty drawing block. And he brings home his masterpieces from time to time. "_"

And oh ya, he still brings his Turtle to school with him. Turtle stays in his school bag during school hours.
Look at him holding his turtle while preparing to go to school! ;)

4 Jan 2018

So how did it go?
First few days of trial classes were fine. He was all happy and smiley.
After 3 days, he grew smarter (just like all my kids when they realized this is an every day thingy!).
He wanted to go to school, but then he also wanted me to stay next to him!
Clever or not!

And so he started crying when I left drop him off in the mornings.
But after 3 days of crying when I left him, he stopped crying when he realized that I will always be there to pick him up after school.
And school is only 3 1/2 hours long! (too short for mummy!)

And so after about a week, there is now no more crying when I leave him there.
Just "kiss and hug mummy at the door" and "mummy will come back very fast"
And this recent 2 days he tells me "mummy go market first and cook rice for Yiu-Vern"! haha.
Very true. I think the aunties there tells him this and so he repeats after them.

And so now happy smiley face near school grounds.
I will say that he is now more or less quite settled in his playschool now.

And it helps when the head teacher quite often send me whatsapp photos of him playing/eating and also reassuring me my son is in good hands and learning to be independent!

11 January 2018

I hope there would be no more crying from now on.
I hope he continues to enjoy school and play hard in school.
Here is Vern giving you a GOOD sign (although he knows how to do good with his thumbs now!)

12 January 2018

And with my littlest baby now away in school, I realized all my babies are growing up.
One in Primary, the other one in Kindy and now the littlest is in Playschool.

Ooooohhhh...don't grow up so fast little Vern!


p/s - The first day Vern saw me picking him up from school, the first thing he said was "I want nen-nen (erm...breastfeeding time!)" and so I needed to tell him we can't have nen-nen in school.
And so now he will tell me "school have playground and food and friends but no nen-nen!"
"_"