I took E to a Drama Sampler class at
Act 3 International in December to see what it was all about. For the Drama Sampler, parents were allowed to accompany their children during the class and E had a blast pretending to bake a cake (or brownie?), making a pretend toothbrush and playing a game called Grandma's Footsteps which is what I used to play in Primary school but we called it What is the Time, Mr Wolf?. It's a listening exercise for the kids because they are told when to move and when to freeze like a statue.
1 December 2013
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| Making a toothbrush |
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| This is the way we brush our teeth |
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| Gargle in the pretend bathroom |
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| And a great time was had by all |
After the Drama Sampler, I asked E if he would like to go again, but this time without me in class and at first he said no, then he said yes and it was a consistent yes answer after that. So I signed up for a term (10 weeks) and started prepping E for when class would start.
I found a great book by accident at the library called
Llama Llama Misses Mama about a llama's first day of preschool and E loved that book. He wanted me to read it for bedtime every night for a week. And E is familiar with the concept of school from watching
Timmy Time which is about a lamb going to kindergarten.
So first day of class rolls around and we take E who was pretty excited to go. But when it came time for me to leave the classroom, he had a major meltdown and started bawling his eyes out. It did not help that there was another mother in the classroom who absolutely refused to leave and that kind of made E wonder why that kid had their mother in class but not him and he continued bawling. An extra teacher had to go in to comfort him and talk to him and she said he was participating in class but still crying. After class was done, he came out still crying albeit quietly instead of his earlier yelling.
It was not an auspicious start.
For the second class, we decided to let E enter the class when he wanted to instead of bringing him into class and just leaving him there crying (which I think was a rather traumatic start for him, at least it was for me!). Both daddy E and I were at our wits end. First we tried coaxing, then reasoning then it was a downward spiral into taking away his TV time, favourite toys and saying we were disappointed that he did not at least try. I even told him that if he participated in this entire class and still did not want to come back at the end of it then I would cancel the rest of the classes. He just flat out refused to go in.
There was a very kind staff member L. who really took the time to talk and coax E. She let him open the classroom door (it's made of opaque glass with a very small clear strip at adult height) and peek at what the children were doing inside. She offered to let me go into class with him or that he could sit by the door and just watch but he refused to put a foot into the room. He refused to enter the classroom until it was sticker time, which was at the end of class, so he got a sticker and lined up with the rest of the children and said goodbye to the teacher. After everyone had left, the teacher, Miss A., let him come in and explore the classroom on his own to try and get him comfortable in the space.
At first I was ready to cancel the rest of the sessions and withdraw E from the class. But I think we'll stick out the rest of the 10 sessions for this term and see how it goes. Daddy E and I are also determined to be more proactive in keeping our tempers in check and not use the word 'disappointed' because it's not E's fault that he is not comfortable in a drop-off class when he has been with me his entire life.
Fingers crossed for E's 3rd class this Sunday!
