Javi's First School and First Movie Experience

I mentioned in my last post that we'll be trying out a toddler program last Saturday and here I am to blog about what happened. We tried the Learning Lab program of Gymboree.  We arrived a few minutes early before the start of class so Javi was able to play at the play area.

He was so happy he thought he was there only to play.

And then the bell clanged to signal that we need to go inside the classroom. There were maybe 15 toddlers during the class so it was a bit too tight in the room. It took maybe a good 15 minutes just on the introductory part of the program where they get to say hi to each of the kids. After that, the teacher brought out some toys for them to play only for a few minutes. And when I say a few minutes, that's just 1-2 minutes and then they need to pack away agad agad.


Playing with the rattle

Then story telling time. The kids were given snacks which Javi consumed even before the teacher got to the 3rd page of the book hahahaha! Sayang wala akong photo but he basically shoved all the breadsticks inside his mouth and then said, "Mommy, water!" ahahaha! After that, there was a writing and painting activity.

Packing away the marker that he used

Painting waves

Javi didn't finish the entire class because after the painting activity, he wanted to get out of the room already. Ay sus! Hahaha! All in all, we decided not to enroll him there. One hour was too short for him to get at ease with all the activities plus there were too many kids during the class. I know we enrolled Miya to the same program when she was younger but this won't work with Javi. I don't know why he wasn't as receptive because at home he can sit longer compared to his Ate to concentrate on a specific task. It's easier for us to talk to him and give him instructions because he will listen as compared to Miya who will ask a million questions first before following. So it actually baffles me that he wasn't receptive to instructions when we tried it out last Saturday. I think he was interested in the activities, it's just that he didn't have enough time to warm up to his surroundings.

*****

Okay, after reading my post about Miya's experience to the class, I might rethink our decision in enrolling Javi. But one other thing is the teacher:student ratio in the class. I don't want to enroll him if there will be the same number of kids in each and every class =(

*****

After Gymboree, we went to watch Despicable Me 3. This is Javi's first time to watch a movie in the cinema. We were all excited for him. Miya was even telling him all the rules inside the movie house. He can watch a full movie at home - we've watched Cars 2 a million times (we don't have a copy of the first movie hahaha!) and he likes watching the movie shorts of the minions so we decided this can be his first movie experience in the cinema.  We don't have a decent photo of him outside the cinema because (a) he doesn't want his photo taken and (b) there were no more Minions standees/movie poster in the movie house  we went to.

He doesn't look happy because he doesn't want his photo taken. 

After the movie gusto na lumabas agad hahahaha!

He was able to sit through the entire movie although he kept on telling me to go outside. Di naman sya nag-insist ng todo-todo kaya we were able to finish the movie. Yey! He was also happy with the movie, panay ang palakpak pag lumalabas ang minions or banana as he calls them.


***********

My dear little boy,

Over the weekend you had two milestones, first you went to your first classroom experience and then you went to watch your first movie in the cinema. I know you'll enjoy school because you like learning new things. We just need to find you the perfect one for your personality. Don't worry, Mommy and Daddy will research more. We don't want to force you into something you don't like. We want you to enjoy going to school to play with your friends and teachers. As for the movie, we're happy that you were happy while watching. We can't help but smile every time you clap when you see a minion hehehe. Our next movie date will be the new Cars movie. We can't wait to see it with you.

Love you,
Mommy

A Quickie

I have so many things to blog about (including Miya’s 2^ndbirthday). I just don’t have enough time in my hands to complete them so I haven’t been updating my blog as often as I should. So I thought I should make a quick update here.

Last weekend was quite full for us. On Saturday, wehad Miya’s Gymboree class in the morning. Then we headed off to my office forher and Daddy’s dental visit. I also took this chance to get her ID picturetaken. I’m amazed at how long she can go now without her morning and afternoonnaps. But she still needed them, when we arrived home around 3pm, she was knocked out for her nap until 6pm. Here are some photos:

Miya OOTD: Dress from Ninang Charline, Mickey Mouse socks from Tita Aines and TOMS mary janes

Hurrah! The "My Dentist" book and training at home worked! She fully cooperated for her dental check-up.

Photo-op at the garden at our office

The next day, Lolo Arthur treated us for a post-Valentinedate. We went to Ayala Triangle hoping to eat at Amici, only to find out theydon’t open until 12 noon – we were there before 11am. So we picked Poco Deli toeat in and we were happy we chose this restaurant. Their food is delicious – weordered their Bacon Slab, Truffle Oil Pasta, Sausage Platter and Citrus Delightfor drinks. We also bought cake from Banapple for dessert but we brought thathome to eat. And before we left the park, we bumped into Mands and his family.

Parehong ngiting aso hahaha

Learning Lab

I finally enrolled Miya again in Gymboree. I was planning to enroll her in Music class again but when I found out Gymboree offers Learning Lab -  a preparatory class for pre-school, I immediately decided to enroll her on this one. You see, I want to enroll Miya in school already by June this year because she will be two and a half by then. But Joema was adamant that it’s still too early for her. In a way, this is a compromise since she still gets to school but not everyday only once a week.

Her first class was not a success, I must say. She kept on walking around the room and didn’t want to sit still to listen to her teacher. At the end of the class I asked her teacher if that’s okay. She said most kids are like that on the first day because they are not familiar with the surrounding. Although she said it might also be because Miya’s too young to participate in class and she has short attention span. She also noted that Miya seems to really want to learn and she participates when she wants to. She told me to try again the next week and we’ll see from there. When I enrolled Miya, this was also a concern I told the lady in charge. She also said the same thing that the teacher will evaluate if the child can continue with the classes or we should transfer her to another class – Music or Play or their other classes whichever I prefer.

Letter J for her first Learning Lab class

After the class, I taught Miya over and over again the things we learned that day. How to write letter J, the things she learned that starts with the letter J, the name of her teacher (Teacher Roof (Ruth) she says).

The next week, she was mostly seated all throughout the class (I think  this time there were 4 students). She only started getting bored when it was reading time. She started learning the routine after weeks of going to the class. We are now on our fifth week this coming Saturday. And I’m happy to say that she’s now more engaged in the class. She sings along now, she does what the teacher says, she answers when asked, she even eats the cookies during reading class.

The flow of the class goes like this: they sing hello to everyone and then Leap (frog who sings the alphabet song) is introduced to the kids. And then the teacher asks about the letter they studied the previous week and then a new letter is introduced and how it’s pronounced. Then the kids are taught how to write the letter and one by one they are asked to trace it on a big letter. The teacher then brings out different photos for the kids, each object in the photos start with the letter of the week. Afterwards, it was clay time where they use clay to trace the letter. 

Tracing the letter L with clay

Then coloring time where they are given a sheet of paper with the letter and some objects starting with the letter. 

She doesn't really know how to color the pictures yet so I just let her doodle with the color

After washing their hands, it’s reading time! Each kid is given cookies to eat while teacher reads them a book. After reading, it’s art time. This last activity is usually varied, they can glue papers to the letter or paint the letter but it always involves the letter of the week (of course). 

Using paint and  leaf (for letter L) to make art. I love her apron! 

Then it’s their goodbye song. After that, the kids line up to the teacher for their stamps. Miya always gets five stamps. She asks for stamps for her hands, her foot and her tummy hehehe. She's always so proud of her stamps especially the one in her tummy.

After class, it’s playtime...until the next Play class starts. 

She never gets tired of going over, under and through the different areas of the play gym

I plan to enroll her in Play class. I’m just trying to figure out if she can do two classes in a row. Because usually after LL and then playing for a bit in the play area, she falls asleep immediate when we get home or during the ride home. So I’m still undecided if we should enroll her in Play or Music class in conjunction with LL. Or we can wait for her LL class to end (I only enrolled her for 12 session) and enroll her in a different class. But I really think LL is good for her, to prepare her for school. We’ll see.

UPDATED: Here are photos of the classroom:

The kids are allowed to have one companion inside the room

Teacher Kat

Miya with Teacher Kat

This is Teacher Kat, Miya's Music teacher in Gymboree. We love her to bits! When she sings she captures Miya's attention. Aside from my daughter's smart genes (ehem-ehem haha!), I think she's one of the reasons why Miya still remembers the songs from Gymboree. Even now when Miya watches her video from her Music class she remembers the activites. Like this one, when Miya watches the second video she uses her two hands to tap the bed or floor (wherever she's seating) and does exactly what Teacher Kat did that time we sang that song in class. 

I can't wait to enroll Miya again for Music classes. I'm hoping Teacher Kat will be her teacher again (we had a new teacher for her last day in Gymboree).

Day 8 of 30 (x2)

Gymboree Music Class Day 2

Miya’s 2nd class in Gymboree was a more pleasant one. So I think it was definitely not the class to be blamed for a not-so-good turnout the last time we were there. The songs for this class were still the same from last week but Teacher Kat used different instruments and different actions for the songs. For the first song there was a part where you sing “Haaaa….haaaa” softly. It was so cute because one by one, the babies started saying “Haaaaa”. Here’s a video of the song, although I wasn’t able to capture Miya saying “Haaaaa.” Look at how attentive she is.

Teacher Kat was also happy with the class, she kept on saying that the babies were really participating. Here’s Miya “horsing” around. They were really supposed to copy what Teacher Kat was doing – pretending to be a horse.

See how happy she is during class? Every time I see her smile, I always think that the money we paid for the class is really worth it! Looking forward to her next classes!

Day 11 of 30

Miya’s First Official Class in Gymboree

We finally enrolled Miya in Gymboree, just a four-week music class this summer. For her first class, Joema was able to come with us and witness Miiya’s interaction with the teacher and the other babies. For trial class, he was not able to come and only watched videos taken by our yaya. This time around there were 5-6 babies and I think Miya is the eldest. Most of the babies were below 1 year old.  For trial class, Miya had only one classmate (that was on a weekday). Also, this time I’m not really familiar with the songs during the class. For our trial class, the songs were from Queen so the songs included “Bicycle”, “Rock You”, etc. which are all familiar to me. Last Saturday, the theme for the class was North Western Isle (?) songs, I’m not really sure but I think songs that originated from United Kingdom (Ireland, Scotland, England). The only song familiar to me was “London Bridge” hahaha. So even if the lyrics of the songs were on the wall, I can’t sing with Teacher Kat. Plus Miya was extra likot that time. I’m not sure if she’s really likot na at this age or just that day. For our trial class, the teacher was able to get her attention for most of the one-hour class. This time I think Miya’s attention span was shorter. At the middle of the class, the time where they were being taught to pass the ball, Miya wanted to nurse. And since she’s big enough, she tries to grab my shirt and pull it down to get to my breasts. Hay! We had to excuse ourselves for her to nurse. Also I think she was uncomfortable the whole time because she had poopie in her nappy. We didn’t have time to change her and feed her properly before the class started because Miya with yaya arrived ahead of Joema in Gymboree (they arrived late in Shangri-la while I came from somewhere else for that financial seminar). They were dropped off by Joema while he parked. We only had a few minutes for me to nurse her. I was feeding Miya in the Mommy lounge when they were called in for the start of the class so her nursing was cut short. The classes already started when Joema arrived with our diaper bag. I was a bit out of my mind also because looking back, I could have excused myself and Miya from class and changed her nappie and fed her properly. I was just really irritated and angry at Joema at that time because I specifically told him to leave home early because parking might be difficult at the mall because it was a Saturday. And guess what, I was right. I really hate it when he’s late. So there, hopefully next Saturday will be much better for Miya. No more poopie and she’ll be full from feeding before classes start. Sorry, Anak, next time Mommy knows what to do. But all in all, she still enjoyed the class especially that London Bridge part.

Saying "Hi!" to Daddy who's outside the classroom

Day 4 of 30