Monday, in addition to being her birthday, was Ellie's first day of preschool. If starting pre-school at 2 seems a bit young, we agree. We thought it was really wierd when we arrived in Phnom Penh that everyone kept asking us if we were going to put Ellie in preschool. But we quickly learned that there are several high-quality, cheap, international preschools here. More importantly, since there are no parks or libraries, having your child go to preschool buys them access to playground equipment and a natural place to meet other kids.
We had three preschool options: Tchou Tchou, the French preschool; ICAN, a British-style preschool; and Garden & Gecko, a montessori preschool. We didn't really see the point of exposing Ellie to French when she's already exposed to Khmer and we have no plans to serve in a French-speaking country, so we ruled that out quickly. I toured the ICAN facility and it seemed impressive, but we heard from other parents that "British-style" means a heavy emphasis on academics from a very young age--not something we thought was appropriate for little kids. Ed toured Garden & Gecko. He liked the director, and during circle time--the closest thing they have to formal instruction--the 3 year olds were learning to do the hokey pokey. That seemed about the right level of formal instruction to us, so when a new class for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year olds opened up, we signed Ellie up the first day. She'll be going a total of 9 hours a week--3 hours/morning, 3 days/week.
Ellie did great on her first day! Nathan and I both went to drop her off and we were prepared to stay for an hour or so until she settled in and felt comfortable. We ended up leaving after ten minutes. No tears, no anxieties. She started playing with puzzles right away and seemed to like her teacher. In fact, I think saying goodbye was harder on her dad than on her.
2 comments:
Sounds like a very full few days! Ellie must take after Jen when parting from parents. Nate's first day at play group, he cried loudly when I left and I was so preoccupied that I backed out of the driveway and ran into the car of another mother.
Jen, This, too brings back memories of your pre-school days. Although you didn't like at all to be away from me as an infant and toddler, by the time you were pre-school age you had no trouble saying "Good-bye". We had checked out a Montessori pre-school for you that a lot of parents we knew loved, but we didn't like some things about it. It would be interesting to compare notes with you and Jess. Sounds like Ellie is ready for pre-school and will just love it!
Love,
Mom
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