I‘ll be honest with you, I was not really sure that I was making the right decision, taking my daughter to school at 2 ½ years old.
Even the need to wake her up much earlier than usual and get her ready to leave home by 8:30 am was a challenge in its own right.
Photography – Charles Ngomo of Royal Reel Photography
But she quickly adjusted, and within less than a week she had come to accept her new surroundings. And these days she happily waves goodbye after I have dropped her in her class room.
READ MORE : HOW DO I SELECT A KINDERGARTEN
What convinced me not to throw in the white towel and wait another term before bringing her back to her play group was the fact that the 10 kids had two highly qualified teachers to look after them and guide them. The detailed curriculum included all kinds of artistic activities, PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) music, science experiments, number games, PE, literacy, and special topics like farm animals and body parts, a syllabus which also impressed my Mum, who has been a full-time primary school teacher all her life.
Mid-term has been a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the progress my daughter has made in just 7 short weeks; also because I have been able to take this time off from work and spend quality time with her 24/7 the past 1 week.
She has changed and developed quite dramatically thanks to the solid 5 hour per day stimulation at a professional level, which neither we, nor her nannies could provide in a sustained manner. Spending so much time with many other children has significantly improved her social skills and she is now almost consistently using the magic words like “please” and “Thank you” and “You’re welcome” and she expect to hear the same from us.
It is incredible how she and I can now carry out fairly long and complex conversations, and I love hearing her unexpected and sometimes witty remarks from her rapidly expanding vocabulary.
She has always loved to sing and dance, but has now taken it to a different level, very frequently entertaining us with one of the many songs she has been practicing in school, and inviting us to join in the fun.
Books have always been an important part of her daily activities. Now more often than earlier, she will go to her collection and pick out one which she wants us to spend time on with us. I could go on and on about her skills but most importantly she is still the loving, happy and bubbly child I handed over to the kindergarten a few months ago. Every Sunday evening she looks forward to return to meet her teachers and friends on Monday.
READ MORE : WHY YOU SHOULD READ ALOUD TO YOUR CHILDREN
This is certainly one of the best decisions I have made in the recent past. And one of these days, I will be posting a mini-me post.
But please feel free to visit her Instagram page @nielsines_closet to see what I dress her in.
