Moments in My Life

Yesterda, Wednesday, we visited daycare/preschool at Launching Pad Northrop Grumman.  This school provides care for employees of NG only.  Their rates are discounted for the employees but still rather high as they only provide FULL day care and no half day.  A child can share time with another child but both the parents must be an employee of NG.  You can work out the sharing time with the other person, say 1 day a week and he/she takes 4 days, 2 days while he/she takes 3 days.

There was some traffic and I had to take a detour to get to the school.  It is about 6-7 miles from my home and about 15-20 minutes drive depending on the traffic.  It took me about 25 minutes to get there yesterday.  We arrived there around 10am and waited a bit for the principle, she was interviewing someone at the time.  Then she took us to the toddler class (C2 room) to meet up with the teachers - Karen, Tiffany and Jeanette.  I was allowed to sit in the class to see how it was conducted and see if Brandon can fit in easily.  They had just finished with rug time when we got there.  We even saw another boy we known from the Torrance Adult School in the class.  But Brandon wasn’t too into playing with the other kids.  He was basically next to me all the time.  The first 10 minutes he was wondering around the classroom while the other kids were doing art around the table. 

There are around 12-15 kids there.  They are all around 2-3 years old.  At around 10:30am they were taken to the potty and then ready to go out to play in the playground.  There are two C classes, C1 and C2.  So both classes has the same outdoor playtime.  Brandon was scooping sand and pouring it from high above the ground.  I was afraid there was wind that might accidentally blow the sand into other kids’ eyes whom are sitting in the sand and playing.  But there was no wind so it was safe.  I was still worried.  I saw other kids are playing sand low below but not Brandon.

We went back inside around 11am.  The kids were told to take off the shoes to get rid of the sands inside before going inside the room.  Brandon and I already went inside before that as he needed to use the potty.  Then I think he was hungry.  I left his water and snack outside in the car.  They do not provide water in the class, children who wants to drink has to drink from the water fountain.  I tried teaching Brandon to drink from it but he felt weird.  He put his mouth near it but he didn’t drink the water, just wet the lip.

Anyway, when the kids got back from the playground, the teachers took turn to take the kids to the potty in group.   They went and washed their hands as well.  It took pretty long to finish the routine with all the 12-15 kids.  Then around 11:30am they have another rug time telling story.  Brandon didn’t want to sit with the other kids.  He was the only one walking around the room which was quite disturbing as the teacher had numerous time telling him to sit down but he didn’t want to and he came running to me (I was sitting by the door) and thought it was funny. 

While the kids were in the rug, the other teacher was wiping down the tables and getting ready for lunch.  Food were brought to the table in big bowls.  They were having pizza, carrots, orange and milk that day.  At 12pm, they allowed the kids to sit by the table to eat together.  The class was separated into two tables.  One teacher at each table.  The teacher divide the portion for the each kid.  One of the lucky kid will get to start eating first while the kid sitting at the other end of the table will have to wait till his/her turn.  I guess this is to teach the kid about patience and wait for their turn? 

Brandon sat in one table and he was third in the line for food.  He kept disturbing the stack plates, taking one for himself.  The teacher told him many times no, but he didn’t listen.  Like I said earlier, I think he might be hungry.  We usually eat around 11:30am and furthermore he had used up quite a bit of energy playing in the playground earlier.  The teacher took a piece of cheese pizza and a scoop of cooked carrot for each plate.  Then she poured half a small glass of milk for each kid. 

Brandon started eating but he is not quite used to be eating with bare hands so when the pizza sauce dripped onto his hands, he was upset and kept turning to me asking me for wipes.  I gave him one the first time.  Then he asked for it again when he took the second bite.  I told him to use the wipe he has but he ignored me and went to get a new wipe himself.  The teacher was a bit annoyed by him I think as he didn’t sit quietly eating with the group.  The teacher kept telling him to use his first wipe but he kept going back for more wipes.

When I interrupted him by not letting him getting more wipes, he got upset and disturbed another kid whom was sitting quietly eating his own lunch.  Brandon kept wanting to sit on the kid’s chair for no reason at all.  He then started to fuss and throw himself back to the floor and kicking.  I had to pull him up and he started crying saying he wanted to go home.  I thanked the teachers and excused ourselves to leave the classroom.

When in the car, he was back to himself.  I gave him some snack and water while I was driving back home.  Then back home, I made him more lunch.   

So is he ready for school?  I don’t think so.  I guess will wait for another few more months to see if he will do better with other kids and the teachers. 

Actually this is a daycare experience we went to.  I would be more interested to see how the pre-school schedule is.  It might be the same as it is a full day class too.  Most of the pre-schools here are full days to accommodate the working parents. 

What I want for him is a two hours two three times a week of formal class.  No nap, no lunch at school, only snack time.  Hmm … if I can’t find one, I have to do it myself at home.  Anyone home pre-schooling their kids and would kindly share their comments or suggestion on what and how I should do it?