There's A Little Kitten in Class

Babies grow indeed so fast! Cliche as it is but I really couldn't agree more. Yesterday my daughter was just busy nibbling her fingers, now she's coloring them. And we are moving on to another stage which makes me a bit sad and happy. Lia is turning two soon so our hunt for toddler school is on!

My 21-month old daughty. Not a morning person, so we had a hard time waking her up for her trial class last week.

School year is ending soon so we were lucky enough to be accommodated for a trial class in this school last week. It's important for kids, especially young ones like my daughter, to attend a trial class first before finally giving a go to check their readiness for school. It's also an advantage for us parents so we could see the facilities and find out how the actual class goes before finally shelling out the moolahs (toddler schools these days aren't cheap!)
The class starts at nine and runs for two hours. The school we went to uses progressive type of learning where children are taught that school is a part of life with emphasis on their cognitive development. Other schools employ the traditional school setting.

Source

I am no expert to tell which one is better so if you'd like to know more, you may check the following sites:
1. http://www.wingraschool.org/who/progressive.htm
2. http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~cac/stuff/philosed/tradvsprog.htm
3. http://www.hrmars.com/admin/pics/333.pdf

In our case, we plan to send Lia to a progressive school given that she is still young and her attention span is really short -- can't even sit still to wait for Momme to finish reading a story book. At this stage, I think she'll learn more through actual experience and playing. But I guess big school has a different story so we'll just decide by the time she's about to hop off to it.

Going back to our trial class, Lia preferred to paint during their free time. I was actually surprised to discover her interest in painting. It was the first time that she used a water color and she nailed it (stage momma talking here).

The class normally has a theme everyday and on that day the theme was ocean animals. They made jellyfishes! I was glad at how eager Lia was to paint her jellyfish but my favorite was watching her stick those tiny stickers on the tentacles. See her first artwork here.

The teachers stick these stickers at the back of the students to let the parents know about the class' lesson on that day. There are some kids daw kasi who tells nothing when the mommies asked about what they did in class. Oh, Kiddos!

I am one proud Momma!

The teacher-student ration here is 1:4. I was happy because it means more supervision for each kid. They also have a time for some story telling, circle time, play time and snack time. Good thing I was told to bring snacks for my little girl and she was so motivated to eat after seeing other kids eating as well. Good sign!

Hand washing before eating. I love their cutesy toilet and wash basins for little people

I was allowed to stay in class to see how the activity goes. The teacher was happy to find out that Lia socializes well with other kids. Feeling close na kasi agad. She wasn't scared to play with them and she talks to them in different languages (well, Lia can't speak well yet so none of us really understands what she's saying, not to mention the kids). One of the teachers even asked me "Is she always active like that?", haha. Super likot!

While other kids were hugging, Lia was reading (or pretending to be)

Sieggy's Sophie was there. The first time she and Lia met was at the hospital when she visited with her Mom. In class, she calls Lia "her bestfriend from the hospital". Too cute!

Side kwento from their story telling activity. The teacher opened a book with photos of sea creatures.

Strike 1. First page, a WHALE. 

With all the kids sitting, my daughter stood up confidently "Fis, fis (fish)" with matching pointing of finger to the blue whale.

My inner self talking: Okay anak, I love your confidence. *blush*

Strike 2. Second page, a SEAL.

Still standing (and no plans of sitting anymore) Lia blurted "Dod (dog), AW AW". 

And we all laughed.

Hahahahaha. At least she's trying. That's my girl!


One of the primary reasons why we want to send my daughter to toddler school already is that we lack time to teach her. Please don't roll your eyes at me. After her hospitalization, Lia's finally sleeping early that most of the time, she's already sleeping when we arrive home from the office. And usually, she wakes up late that we don't see each other in the eyes before we leave for work in the morning. Sheeesh.

There are some disadvantages in sending a kid to school too early. One of them, as Dr. Saulog has been telling us, is that kids can easily pass viruses to one another. But of course that will not always be the case so it is still the discretion of the parents. At the end of the day, we only want what is best for our kids :)

P.S. Does any of you know if it's very important for a toddler school to be DepEd accredited? I mean, will there be a big impact by the time the kids enter the big school already? Thanks in advance :)