Kindergarten for big kids

Jonathan is 1 year and 9 months old and this means that it is time to place him in a kindergarten class that has bigger children in it, kids Jonathan's age and up! I do not think I am a fussy or over protective mother, but the transaction to the larger facility and into a class with 25 children has me all wound up! Jonathan on the other hand seams quite happy...

After a year and a half in the baby class (into which I entered him when he was just 3 months old), Jonathan is moving up in the world – to a kindergarten for bigger kids! The facility is larger and there is a real sand area for play and more toys and swings and slides. Everything that an average two year old can enjoy, board games and puzzles and a large variety of figurines! There is also new staff and the location is changed (closer to our apartment actually). All this takes getting used to, for the parent as much as the child. Leaving behind the trusted staff who took loving care of my boy for so long (and with whom I got on fabulously), and also watching the baby class being renovated just as we leave it behind, made me feel like I was leaving a home!

The start of the year takes into account this adjustment process and in the first three days parents are expected to be available for their children, spending the first two days with their kids in the kindergarten and being there only for half the day. In the third day they are no longer expected to be with the kids but they must stick around to be near if a need arises to call them back to assure their children. All this is supposed to serve for the children to be accustomed to and familiar with the new place and for the parents to develop a trust towards the new team of caretakers.

Although Jonathan loves for me to be around, as as close to him as possible (come, sit here!, get up ...always giving me instructions where to station myself in his vicinity) he also likes to play and run free! And so, once in the new kindergarten, he took full possession of the kitchen corner, cooking for mommy and offering water and coffee and making sure I sit down near the table, but also pushing away any other child (including children who are sometimes a year older that himself) away from the kitchen, not allowing others to play with him. Did I say possess? My boy showed full ownership from the first moment! In the garden this was repeated. Pushing kids so he can slide and pulling me to sit in the specific location in the large yard that pleased him. And so we happily passed the first two days of ciaos in the kindergarten, going home at lunch time.

25 children with their parents and the staff can be quite an over whelming experience for the average parent! (especially one with a first child – an adult that has to care for just one child in normal times can be hit quite hard by the presence of so many toddlers...) I admit I felt very uneasy about leaving Jonathan in such a large group (although recently in the baby class they were also 22 children – even though only 15 are permitted, still babies are calmer, stay in one place and seam smaller and less threatening to my big boy). But this morning, as parents of the older children (who are already attending the kindergarten a second year) did not stay, and parents of the new children stayed only a short while, things began to calm down and I felt a little better. There are 4 ladies in charge of the group of 23 children (I counted yesterday at breakfast) and one must hope they will get it all under control. My biggest fear is that Jonathan will simply walk off unnoticed. He can open the gate to the smaller sand yard, so if for some reason the large gate to the kindergarten is open (it has an electric lock, but sometimes a parent can leave it open unawares..) the boy can simply leave the kindergarten, and if there are so may kids in the group, will they indeed miss one that has left? Jonathan is also independent enough to try and leave...after all he is in an age of exploration and an age in which one has not yet quite learned to understand (and obey) all the rules. In addition, kids will always be putting their borders to the test, unaware of the dangers envoled. I can only hope that the staff is indeed watchful enough.

This morning I left the kindergarten after staying only an hour, I called about two hours later ands the kindergarten teacher said Jonathan was doing just fine (as expected...he is truly a child that adjusts to his environment quickly and easily – I am truly blessed). Although it was not the original plan, I decided along with his teacher to try and leave him there all day, including a mid-day nap. Hopefully this will work out. After all next week I am back at work (after indulging in three days off for the purpose of transferring Jonathan to the new kindergarten) so there is really not much choice but that he get used to the new place. I got recommendations regarding the staff (especially positive about the kindergarten teacher), but its not easy letting him go in such a large group. As a parent. you feel he may be exposed, unsafe and that he may suffer from lack of personal attention when the staff (however well meaning) has so many children to look after. But then again, in the Israeli school system this only gets worse, with up to 37 children in a classroom from a very early age. So he might as well get used to it early (actually I might as well get used to it early...)

And this has always been the case, classes are few and over crowded and teachers underpaid and overworked. In my attempt to be a good mother, I tried to look up the law about the rate of children per adults in kindergarten and found no rules for children of two years of age. For children of 3 years, where the supervision is better, as it is organized by the state, 30 kids are allowed with one teacher and an assistant by law.

I counted the children in my kindergarten – a picture from when I was five years old and found that with one teacher and one caretaker, we were 33 kids! And I was living in a nice village , not in a large city or a poor neighborhood. A picture of an “end of the year” party from when I was 3 years old, also suggest a large group of children (though I cannot tell exactly how many). The number of children in my kindergarten was not for lack of funds, its just the way things are here! So all this considered, with 25 kids and 4 staff (one teacher and 3 assistants) Jonathan is doing all right...it is I who needs to relax and adjust, he is well satisfied getting full of sand in the playground ( another new horror for the average mom...) occupying himself and playing happily, hardy mouthing a complaint (just a small cry of protest that last only as long as he has no sand in his spoon), as I leave the grounds and allow the staff to take over...

Bath time & WC

Jonathan loves water, so bath time is usually fun time. He is always learning and becoming more independent during his bath, and in general. He knows what he wants and strives to get it, instructing mommy in the process as to what she must do....now!

Jonathan has the unfortunate habit of coming in to the toilet when I am in there. It all started because the baby books said I should allow him to come in so he will see the concept of toilet from an early age, and so he will understand that there is another option except diapers, making the transaction from diapers to the toilet an easy one, when the time comes. Well the time has not yet come, and he likes to watch me in the toilet, because he just likes to be near me all the time (stuck to my aaa... literally). I have already begun to tell him he must leave the toilet when I am there, and sometimes he goes. Other times he shows me that my time is up! And I should come with him! He does this by coming to me and pulling up my pants and trousers and taking away a magazine I am reading (if I have brought one with me...) and to top it all, he starts pulling me to get up and leave the toilet! In the mornings he brings me my glasses as a sign that now that I am able to see better, I should get up and come with him!

Signaling that I need to come along, get up, sit down and lie down are all a matter of course to Jonathan by now. He communicates very well with his hands and body and has little need for words, and yet I understand perfectly what he wants. Pushing and pulling he shows me where I should locate myself. He can also show resistance and lack of satisfaction, and this comes very often when we must stop watching a DVD. The only time he will not come to the bath is if he is watching a DVD. Once in the bath he enjoys the water and soon forgets he ever refused to come. He likes to put all the shampoo and soap bottles in the tub and sit on them and between them, arranging them like boats. He enjoys the splashes he gets when he throws the bottles into the tub! He also has learned to soap himself. He extracts the liquid from the soap bottle (his favorite is a Johnson's & Johnson's tearless shampoo) and then soaps his belly and sometimes also his head. He also uses the brush to clean his feet (as I have done for him since his first bath) and also brushes his teeth alone (no toothpaste yet...) In the mornings if he sees me brush my teeth, I offer him his tooth brush and he brushes his teeth too. Now I am trying to teach him to stay in the bathroom during this morning brushing process.

Jonathan likes to sing! He is very musical and is getting close to the notes and repeating sounds and parts of words as he goes along! This is not new, what is new is is improving ability to truly sing words. Until now he also sang basically with the DVD tapes, but recently he has taken to join my singing, especially in the bathtub, when I sing the “i am so clean and so cute” song, that I learned from one of the tapes. The song is about washing hands with soap and water and becoming oh so clean and oh so cute...very suitable for bath time. He joins me to sing it even out of the bath, and his father likes to request that we perform the song together... It never fails to amaze me how exact he is in his singing, and that he always gets better.