Max went to nursery school for the first time today. Mommy doesn’t start work for a couple more weeks, so she’s going to take him every day this week just for a couple hours in the mornings. He starts going every day from next week… This is such a trip. Time flies by so quickly. It sounds like he had a great hour or so with the other kids today singing, clapping, and even falling off a slide and bumping his head. Mommy kept out of sight until it looked like he wanted to go home. When he saw her, he cried. That was enough for the first day.
Meanwhile, Mina is growing so fast its kind of scary – she can partially lift her head up off the bed from a face down position! It took Max months to do that! She is one month old tomorrow.
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Max’s nursery school is called Anuban Ruk Rak. We chose it mainly because we know the people running it (the mother of an English teacher at Nam’s uni). The secondary reasons were that there are ample outdoor areas, they let the kids play with and in the dirt, and it’s kind of old so it’s not filled with snotty yuppie tadpoles. Moreover, the owner tells parents up front that she believes a light swat on the hand or (diapered) bottom is sometimes the only way to dissuade them from doing dangerous stuff. Wow! Common sense being embraced at a school? I feel like Max is growing up in the fifties (did they have nursery schools in the fifties?)!
Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Cherish the times! They grow up far too quickly! (I can’t believe Yannick will start school in September…)
Scary cool how times flies. It was always both exciting and sad to see you and your sibs off to the first day of nursery school and the way and just like Nam, I used the “baby steps” approach. Depending on the emotional readiness and personality of each child, it was either a confidence level of “taking to it like a ducky to water” or “NO WAY!” Max seems to be a very social kid who has had lots of exposure to people, so he’s got a high Emotional IQ which will help him adjust fast, I’m sure! Good Luck!
Welcome Max boy to school. The faster the kids growing the older the papa & mama are.
Okay, I re-read your statement about “yuppy tadpoles” and wonder what your perceptions are about the yuppy tadpole pre-school you attended.
It was hard to save up for (dad worked extra hours for tuition) and I had to drive 45 minutes to get there, but we felt you would flourish in a clean, safe, emotionally rich and IQ stimulating environment with first-rate Montessori teachers, as well as a beautiful outdoor play and picnicking area. They even had a mini petting zoo.
Do you remember their cute Welsh pony, Itsy-Bitsy who you loved to ride on? Yes, you got pony rides every Tuesday, cowboy hat and all!
They also had playtime in a warm swimming pool, gymnastic classes, lots of cooking classes (you loved to bake cookies), music and instrument class (you loved the drums) and story time sessions every week.
Take that, you yuppy tadpole! 🙂
Yeah I think I enjoyed that.
I thought the pony’s name was Spider. Oh, well.
Max loves drums, too.