Jonathan's First Day at Nursery

Today was a very special day - Jonathan's first day at nursery. The first day schedule was from 8-10am, just two hours to let the toddlers get used to the new environment. They will try to stretch a little as the days go by to the eventual 4hrs.

Simon drove us to the nursery which was just two streets from our home. I told Jon to say bye to daddy and Simon drove off to work, while I stayed on to make sure Jon's OK.

The toddlers were let into the play area first, while parents handed their bags to the Teachs, passed special instructions, etc. The Teachs would take the water bottles, snacks if any, and put them into a basket. The basket will follow the toddlers as they go from class to class for the different activities. I think I was one of the few who had labelled Jon's bag and water bottle. If you didn't, it's a simple write-on-masking-tape-and stick-it-on.

Checking out the slide. Then a house...then the sand box....

...and the house again. For a minute I thought he was looking at me, but nope, he forgot all about me! Each time a toddler cried coz he/she was separated from the parent, Jonathan would stop his activity and go nearer the kid to see what's the crying about. He couldn't figure why the kid was crying.

After like 20mins of play, finally he saw me and wanted me to go in and join him. Sorry, no can do kiddo. Soon it was time to bring the toddlers to their classrooms. They started with the crying kids first. My guess is to take them away from the view of their parents and perhaps inside the classroom, they will get distracted by the many toys and stuff.

Independent Jon saw the office with the colourful rainbow and toys and went there instead of waiting for Teach to bring him to class. Teach was OK with im inside the office and brought another two kids who were crying in there to pacifiy them. Jon was wondering why they were crying. With that, I said goodbye...and waited. No goodbye from Jon. he seemed contented to be left at nursery, and so I walked back home, a short 5mins away.
When I came to pick him up, he was in this room playing with playdough. Jon didn't want to sit down to play with plasticine, clever Teach asked him to help her cut her worm. From then on, he became the official worm cutter.
Helping Charmaine cut her "worm". Hethen made his rounds and helped a boy Raymond cut his plastic worm, and another Teach's worm.

Before Jon left, he got a goody bag from Teach. It was the birthday of one of the girls, who had left already. Wah, first day already have goody bag! Jon showed me his fave room. It had a toy plane inside and one of the walls had decals of Disney Cars.

Jon waved goodbye to the Teachs, and high fived a couple of them. Not a word...not a single word. Sigh, still the cool big boy.

PS: Jon's the second biggest sized kid in nursery. There's a caucasian girl who's a head taller than everyone else.

PPS: Got feedback from Teach that Jon was nice, and he explored every room (sometimes on his own). Aiyo, this one cannot sit still!