Preschool Hibby Jibbies

                                                                     

Starting today, our three year old, Tara Annie Kurian, is a preschooler at Child’s World and Sheena has been preparing her, reluctantly, for this day. Reluctant not because the school is big enough for the child to get lost but the stay-at- home Mommy is not really convinced that pre-schooling is as worth as what’s being advertised. She finally gave in because few kids of Tara’s age are seen in our neighborhood park on weekdays and she started to warm up and play with other kids of her age. And on the flipside, there will be some quality time freed up while the baby is at school, to catch-up with the long pending reading list or to clear up the sleep backlog.

Tara was always with her mother. Sheena quit her job when the baby turned eighteen months as she was not able to mange working from home with her being around. It was fun to watch the baby growing up and it made no sense to miss a moment. While working from home, day nannies were coming in to be with her on work hours. We had about a dozen babysitters in eighteen months as we mostly engaged students and people in between jobs. When not working, Sheena was feeding her, bathing her, cooking for her and then was driving her around the town, showing places. At Des Moines, she mostly had an indoor life learning how to flip crawl and walk with occasional visits to parks and play areas in nearby mall. At Monterey, she loved going to the grainy sand beach spending infinite time making castles, figuring out seashells and creatures and scaring away the seagulls.

 

At Irvine, she loved going to parks with green blue and yellow slides, floating in the swimming pools and running away from waves inLaguna beach. Always fascinated by shopping cart rides, she was a dependable and entertaining companion for otherwise dull grocery and household shopping. Graphic books, well wrapped candies and fancy toys always showed up inadvertently at the checkout counter and at times some of them made their way to home, after an enduring defense session with her mom. And here is the cliché ..she grew-up fast to be a preschooler!

 

Tara never had a play date with her class mate or never met any of her classmates long enough
to feel comfortable in the new place. Even her teacher was absent on the ‘Meet-your-teacher’
day because she was ill. So the recipe for a disastrous start was in sight but we were optimistic
as the baby seemed quite eager to go. I took a day off from work and wanted to drive the mom
and baby to school on day one. May be I just wanted to be there when the Mom go frantic.

While waiting to open the school gate, Tara showed me the big green pumpkin and red and orange color cherry tomatoes at the garden. She knew the place from the last visit and was excited to show me the play area and other fun stuffs. When the gate opened, we met the teacher and the assistant and introduced the baby to them. She was thrilled to see a hammering kit on the table and right away started driving the plastic nails to the form board.A couple of other kids also joined her as they entered the room. We left the place in another five minutes as the parents are not allowed to stay. Tara appeared slightly concerned and alert when Sheena hugged her bye and said that we will come back and pick her up later. We waited outside in the parking lot watching out to the gate for a crying youngster running out of the classroom in a green pinafore. Nothing happened in next ten minutes and no one called on the cell phone so we drove back home.

We came back fifteen minutes early to pick Tara up and parked close the fence. A few minutes
went by and we saw her walking out of the classroom, sad faced, with a plastic cup and got
busy picking cherry tomatoes in the vegetable garden. There were no other kids in the garden
so we got curious and stepped outside the car.That’s when she spotted us from the distance
and started running towards us crying. She held her mom’s hands from behind the fence and
complained that we left her alone there in our mother tongue and the teacher said STOP. She
then insisted Sheena to come inside and be with her. Tears were running down her cheeks
and a look of doubt crossing her face was heartbreaking to watch. The teacher came out and
picked her up and tried to distract her with the tomatoes she was holding. A little nervous but
she appears to respond to the teacher fine. The gate also opened at the same time and she
wanted to be held and was cuddling on to her mother, not paying attention to the toys or other
kids. She complained again that teacher said STOP and we re-assured her that it’s okay for the
teacher to say STOP and asked her what she did before the teacher said STOP. She gave us
a ‘you don’t understand’ look and just repeated that the teacher said STOP.

When I looked around the scenery was pretty much the same. Most of the kids were held and some still sobbing with their hands tightly wrapped around their moms. One little boy appeared frantic as he could not see his mom among the crowd as she was late to arrive and the assistant was trying to pacify him. We stopped by the teacher and enquired how the day was and she said Tara did fine for the day one. She was playing with other kids and was very happy going out

in the garden. When they returned to the classroom she grew fussy and wanted to leave the room. She screamed at another kid for taking her toy, tried to pull teacher’s hair and attempted to kick her couple of times. She also spitted the snack, a piece of apple, and the teacher said STOP to all of them. She was let go outside all by herself and that’s when we saw her coming out. Sheena was certain that it’s the temperature inside the class room made her testy. The day
was unusually warm and the classroom was not air-conditioned and she always had trouble with coping up with such settings. We apologized to the teacher and explained her that a hot and stuffy interior always made her behave erratic. The teacher looked more than convinced when I added that she was born in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

After pre-school, we had plans to eat at Little Tokyo in Los Angeles and also to watch a play at East West Players. In fact two events coincided today: Baby’s first day at pre-school and Sheena’s birthday. While driving to LA, Sheena asked her why she spitted apple in the classroom. She said it had skin on it. Sheena felt bad because from young days she always encouraged the baby to spit the
skin of any fruit to avoid chocking. I promised her a strawberry ice cream to perk her up and
she had three of them by the evening. End of the day, she agreed that she liked her school and
reluctantly accepted that she liked her teacher!