My husband kindly told me today that I have been an irresponsible blogger. I honestly haven't meant to, it just seems like the last few days have had stuff come up during my usual blogging hours. So anyway, I hope I haven't been making you all worry about me; not that I think you don't have anything better to do. Well, here's an update on the kindergarten situation...
We decided to go back, as we had planned, on thursday. I wanted to spend the same amount of time there with emma that we would have her spend there by herself. We got up early, got dressed, and were both out of the house on the way to the bus stop before 8am. (I felt like I was back in 8th grade, walking down the street to the bus stop) We got to the kindergarten, and emma and a few other kids started eating breakfast while the others were arriving. We played a color game during class time, went back outside to play the bunny game (this time emma did a little better!), and then got to play on the playground for a while. We went back inside for inside play and lunch, and then after lunch (when the other kids get ready for their nap) our day there was done.
Emma had a fun time, I had a good time. No major issues came up. Josh and I laid in bed that thursday night and talked about our goals. With the kindergarten, the goals were simple: learn language and make friends. We both realized there are many more lower-stress ways to meet this goal. The truth is, as my wise father pointed out, I am not ready to send emma to kindergarten yet. The original purpose of this (many months ago when we first started thinking about it) was so that I could have a break one or two mornings a week; but in actuality, last week was so unbelievably stressful, I couldn't imagine those days ever feeling a break at this point.
We decided together that as long as I am making the effort to make sure our two goals are getting met, then whether or not she goes to the kindergarten right now is not such a big deal. I've enlisted my house helper to help - and now she will be trading some of her household duties to devote to emma three mornings a week, for an hour-and-a-half each time. I will be planning weekly emphasises (not really like lessons, because again, emma is just barely two...much too young for much formal education!) each week with activities and a goal of words and concepts we'd like her to be familiar with. We're not talking math and science, here...just basic things like, one week have fun activities and songs (in asianese) centered around shapes, the next colors, the next fruits and veggies, etc. Basically, just fun things that I do in english with her just in asianese. So that accomplishes (or at least helps accomplish) our language goal for the time being.
And then when it comes to friends...there's a few options there too. I'm working on setting up playdates with different friends of mine, that can be held at our house or theirs, once a week. There's also a place in town where you can take your child for weekly classes in music and art that we are considering. And I feel that if I am more active in planning times to take the girls out to do stuff, we will naturally meet friends and start relationships that emma can benefit from.
So...that's what we decided. Find other ways to meet the same goals as kindergarten, while still giving us the amount of supervision and guidance we want at this age. We're not going back to the kindergarten right now. Not because there was anything wrong with that kindergarten, but just because I hadn't dealt with the implications of that decision yet. And, with blessed happiness, I feel very at peace with the decision. I feel like it's the right decision for us at this time.
In six months or a year, when emma is older and more able to communicate her questions and concerns to us, we're going to revisit the issue. Eventually, we want emma to be a part of kindergarten here. I think she'd have a great time. Even tonight, she wanted to sing "Jesus loves the little children" but wanted to make sure that I sang "Jesus loves all the children at the kindergarten". I just want to make sure that I am ready - to help her process the experiences she will have - and that she is ready, that she'll be at a level to communicate those experiences to me.
I really want to thank all of you for your prayers and words of wisdom. I read and re-read them all over and over again, trying to imagine each of you saying them! It was such an encouragement to hear your thoughts and stories about the issue. And truly, I'm sorry to keep you hanging for so many days! My most heartfelt love goes to all of you tonight - and hey, isn't my little clock thing great? I know it's hard to remember what time it is here, so I thought that might help!
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