The Filipino Mom Blog

Bag? Check. Shoes? Check. Books? Check. Notebooks? Check. Change of clothes? Check. Toiletries? Check. Lunchbox? Check.

Everything is smelling new and looking new.

Wait… Camera? Check.

What’s the occasion? It’s YOUR child’s first day of school. Ever.

Days, weeks, or even months prior to one of the most exciting times in a child’s life, everything has been planned. From the schedule to the activities, clothes, and even menu of healthy snacks.

When my eldest daughter, then our only child, was ready to go to school, I already knew where I would enroll her. At this wonderful school I have heard about, where some of my students with developmental problems go to. I knew they accommodate children with special needs but I still wanted my daughter to go there.

Why? Because I wanted her to go to school with these children, not only for her to understand the kind of children I dealt with at work but for her to be able to see that people learn differently.

Why else did I want to enroll my daughter in this particular school?

• The school needs major repairs, that is obvious. But that is secondary to me, seeing the happy faces and the wonderful disposition of the children that I have seen during brief visits to the school.

• I fell in love with the vast space the school occupied and if you ask me, so did my daughter.

• Though it was along the metro’s major thoroughfare and even the mass railway transit can be heard during lull times, there were trees in the school grounds and plenty of space to play in.

• The preschool children were not forced to sit-and-listen-to-the-teacher. They have different learning areas in the classroom for them to explore. They moved around in the classroom and these movements were all necessary for their learning activities.

• They were not forced to write when they were not ready. Instead, concepts were pasted in their notebooks for further follow up at home.

• Their art works were proudly displayed on big bulletin boards outside their classrooms.

• The fact that my daughter does not want to be absent, goes home with dirty clothes and oftentimes holding a jar with a bug inside, makes me smile with her joy of discovering these things that she would not be able to experience had she been in another school.

• Healthy snacks were being served like native food, sandwiches, porridge and pansit (noodles with vegetables).

• There is respect and welcoming of children of all faiths. Catholic children have their own Christian Living instructors as well as those from other denominations.

• Home-school partnership.

• Friendly teachers and where teacher turnover is not an issue. Yes, the teacher seem to have been there forever. fact is some of my daughter’s classmates’ parents were also the students of their teachers now.

I did not regret sending her to this school.

In fact, I think my daughter’s first experiences about school made her more eager to look forward to spending time there, where she is now in seventh grade. She passed her high school entrance test but we decided to go with grade seven instead.

I really wish these experiences that my daughter had when she was preschool would be experienced by other preschoolers.

I believe that learning should take place even in unexpected places and that children should not be stressed at an early stage. They should learn how to balance things like studying and playing and their parents as well as their schools should help them with this discipline.

My thoughts exactly, it’s NOT the academics that is important but development of a whole child.

Let me just quote the school’s philosophy from the school’s handbook:

“This early childhood education is anchored on discovery and learning, freedom of spirit, preferences and choices, understanding and appreciating oneself and others, acceptance of diversity and differences, ultimately balanced developmental and growth takes place.”