"Ikaw not leave me? Ikaw come back?" Phrases that broke my heart.
I enrolled Andre in summer school in order to prepare him for the upcoming schoolyear. He was soo excited because for him, school meant that he was in the big league, along with his Tito Leonid and Ate Meggy. Maybe he thought that they would actually be with him in class.
Summer school was a rude awakening for my poor little man. Not only was he with people and children he didn't know, they tried to wrench away his security blanket - his yaya. Don't get me wrong, the teachers weren't cruel -- far from it. They were very friendly and tried to ease the transition. But they were not able to get his trust or his friendship. One offshot was that Andre became very clingy to those he knew, refusing to let them out of his line of sight. I guess that was to be expected when Yaya Jocelyn was told to sneak out of the classroom whenever Andre seemed to be distracted or preoccupied. It also didn't help when he would be greeted by "Ayan na si Andre, iiyak na naman".
Miles and I decided to transfer schools to a preschool whose philosophy revolved around play centered learning. The school is located in a spacious house filled with organized chaos -- kids are banging away in the music room, sorting puzzles in their classrooms or doing a monkey in the outside playground. Andre's Teacher Mark has gone out of his way to become Andre's friend and adjusts to his personality (like a cold diesel engine, Andre requires quite a bit of a jumpstart). The trust is slowly being rebuilt.
So far so good. When we drop him off, Andre's face no longer crumples in near tears and his hands are no longer clammy. I picked him up from school a few days ago. The first word out of his mouth were..."Sartak go my house?" Who's Sartak? "Sartak's my friend". *phew* =)
I enrolled Andre in summer school in order to prepare him for the upcoming schoolyear. He was soo excited because for him, school meant that he was in the big league, along with his Tito Leonid and Ate Meggy. Maybe he thought that they would actually be with him in class.
Summer school was a rude awakening for my poor little man. Not only was he with people and children he didn't know, they tried to wrench away his security blanket - his yaya. Don't get me wrong, the teachers weren't cruel -- far from it. They were very friendly and tried to ease the transition. But they were not able to get his trust or his friendship. One offshot was that Andre became very clingy to those he knew, refusing to let them out of his line of sight. I guess that was to be expected when Yaya Jocelyn was told to sneak out of the classroom whenever Andre seemed to be distracted or preoccupied. It also didn't help when he would be greeted by "Ayan na si Andre, iiyak na naman".
Miles and I decided to transfer schools to a preschool whose philosophy revolved around play centered learning. The school is located in a spacious house filled with organized chaos -- kids are banging away in the music room, sorting puzzles in their classrooms or doing a monkey in the outside playground. Andre's Teacher Mark has gone out of his way to become Andre's friend and adjusts to his personality (like a cold diesel engine, Andre requires quite a bit of a jumpstart). The trust is slowly being rebuilt.
So far so good. When we drop him off, Andre's face no longer crumples in near tears and his hands are no longer clammy. I picked him up from school a few days ago. The first word out of his mouth were..."Sartak go my house?" Who's Sartak? "Sartak's my friend". *phew* =)
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