Hannah has been with her nursery school for a full one term of 10 weeks now. The both of us decided it was about time to speak to her teachers and see how she’s been in school. We do get the regular report cards, updates from her Nanny who picks her up after school everyday, but nothing beats talking to her teachers on-site.
We made the decision to drive her to school this very morning, and with the benefit of hindsight now, we might not want to do it again. Hannah bawled when we tried to leave her with her teachers. She normally has no difficulty arriving in school by her bus everyday, so it was just separation anxiety again on her part. Her wore her very swollen eyes from that wailing for the rest of the school morning, up till when we returned to pick her up and speak to both her teachers. From them: Hannah gets along very well with her classmates and seems quite well-adjusted and happy, and loves to sing. Then again, her teacher remarked that when Hannah cries, she takes forever to stop LOL.
I was also taken aside by her Chinese teacher too who’d noticed that Hannah seems rather disinterested when her class watches videos of Chinese songs to learn the language, and asked if we speak Mandarin at home. Whoops – the truth is out now.=(
Pictures. These were all taken after school when we picked her up.
It was a pretty tough day, if the number of times she bawled is any indication. She bawled in the morning at school, bawled at the store when she had that ‘accident’, bawled when she didn’t want to go to her Nanny’s in the afternoon, and bawled when she was put to bed.
Ha ha. Reminds me of my current student. I teach him Eng & Maths & recently, Chinese was added to it as the parents felt they had no idea how to kickstart him when he absolutely detest & fear the language. I actually discovered him hiding his school’ chinese homework at the bottom of a drawer one day. Haha. Anyway, what I did with him was a lot of reading. Not sure if it will work for you but it did for me. Parents & I were able to progress further once the interest is there. :)
Thanks for sharing your method, Ally! Sigh, my Chinese proficiency is really pathetic. But I shall try to get my hands on easy Chinese story books to read to Hannah. Yes, I should! :D
Hi Ling
My 18 month girl is starting to attend a half-day preschool since last week. At the same time, I am noticing that she has very strong separation anxiety. For example, at home, I cannot be out of her sight otherwise she will throw a big tantrum. With her around, I cannot do anything. Also, whenever we bring her to Sunday school, she would also cry a lot and the teachers are having a tough time to calm her. The crying is so bad that she vomits at times.
I am just wondering whether your daughter has such strong separation anxiety and how you overcome it, especially, in terms of going to school.
By the way, I am wondering whether is it convenient for me to contact you via email to seek your advice on parenting issues?
Regards
Hi Theresa,
Sorry it took a while to reply to your comment! We just returned home from a 6D5N vacation at Telunas Beach Resort in Indonesia.
Ah, the situation your 18-month girl is going through reminded me of an advice given by Hannah’s playgroup teacher. I wanted to enroll Hannah at 18 months too (since that was the earliest age stipulated for playgroup) but was advised to wait until she hit 21 months. I don’t suppose that 21 months is a magic age to start preschool but the teacher was speaking from experience and we were glad that we heeded it.
Hannah’s nanny was responsible for fetching her to the playgroup. Initially, she also displayed separation anxiety and once the nanny was able to ‘disappear’ from sight, she was able to settle down. I think it is the ‘out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ kinda method. A quick goodbye and off the caregiver goes.
Again, children are all different. I really empathise with your situation. Give it some time to run its course or perhaps if it is possible, restart the preschool when she is a bit older.
I’m more than glad to share my experiences on parenting Hannah with you :) Not that I know-it-all; just learning and feeling my way around too. Will email you my email address soon. :)
Hang on! :D