Category: Education

Daddy got back to work after 1 year of unemployed so we had to send William some where.  2 more weeks then William will turn 2.

I called & visited all the babysitters who put their ads in Viet Bao newspaper but could not find any one at all; some houses are so dirty, some babysitters look old and not in good health, etc.

A good friend (Nam Quan aka William Trust on Facebook) introduced me to babysitter Thuy, who was taking care of his children .  I was so happy because I hoped William would have some friends about his age to play with at Thuy’s house.  1 week passed by and I sensed that Thuy was not happy.  On Friday when I picked him up; she told me William was too difficult to take care so she would not be able to babysit him anymore; she said William cried too much and so clingy that she had to hold him all the time and didn’t even have time to eat lunches.  I just think that William just needed some time to adjust to new environment; he was barely 2 years old, of course he’d be scared to spend the whole day at a new place all by himself.   I wish she could give William another week to adapt!

So I called babysitter Loan, who babysat William when he was little (from 2 months to 1 year).  I was so happy that she said ok because I know she’s a good babysitter with a clean and roomy house; it’s just that her house is a little bit far from our house.

I was happy to drop William off at babysitter Loan’s house and went off to have a meeting with Love2Learn staffs about William’s speech sessions.

15 minutes later while I was waiting for my appointment at Love2Learn office, Mrs. Loan called and asked me to come to pick William up!  She said William ran and felt on his face so his nose was bleeding; and that he made so much noise that would wake up the 3 months old girl that she was babysitting too.  So 1 hour later, after the meeting with Love2Learn counselor, I picked William up at Mrs. Loan’s house.  His nose was still bleeding lightly; he didn’t cry but he looked so sad.

That means I need to find a babysitter FAST!  My sister introduced me to a friend’s mom’s friend, so I called her up and came to her house to check it out on Friday’s evening.  It was a small and old apartment with a small living room that was only big enough for a couch and a TV.  Next to it is a small kitchen with full of stuffs.  Next to the living room is a room that was rented out to a woman who made a living by sewing; that explains why there was a huge stack of fabric on the couch. Which means there’s no place for William to play!  But I really had no choice because I needed someone to take care of William starting on Monday!  She agreed to babysit William with the rate of $30.00/day from 8 AM – 5:30 PM.

Monday afternoon when I picked him up, I found William was standing inside a crib.  She said that he ran around and pulled things down so it was better to put him in crib.  That was where my poor little 2 year old boy spent his whole day!  He ate, slept and played in the small crib!

On the 3rd day, William refused to go! He cried & kicked his legs when I made a left turn to her house.  I felt bad because I knew he was not happy at this place at all.  So the term “Pre-School” came to mind; and his Dad also mentioned that as an alternative.

After work I checked out Sun Flower preschool in Westminster; At 5:30 PM there was a long line of cars waiting to get to school, I guess parents were coming to pick up their children, and there was not that many parking spaces at school.  Anyway, they said it was full and that they had a long waiting list; so I put William’s name down in vain hope.

I looked up Google to find any pre-schools around our area.  Not that many unfortunately.  Then I suddenly remembered that some of my nephews & niece went to Mr. Gary’s Children World Preschool when they were little; so I called him up.  He said he could only accept 2 years and older kids; and William was not 2 yet!  I tried to convinced him that it was only 1 more week before William would turn 2; and that my nephews and nieces came here; and they learned great things from this school.  Finally he said yes and told me to stop by the school to pick up the paper works. How relieved I was because I knew William would be better off at this school then at any babysitters houses.  My only concern was that he could not feed himself yet but Mr. Gary assured me that his staffs will try to teach the boy self-feed.

The Children World Preschool rate is $175.00/week which is fine with me.  First few days William cried and threw himself on the floor but then 1 week after he was fine.  The only concern I had was that he didn’t each much at lunch time, the daily report most of the time said he ate “some food only” which means that he had been hungry; that explained why when we picked him up he’d drink a full bottle of juice in a jiffy and ate whatever we gave him like banana, cookies, etc. (which when at home he would not want to eat voluntarily).

Update 2/10/2017:

Now it has been 1 year and 3 months we’re still sending him to this school but only half day because he goes to Michell Child Development Center in the morning.  I dropped him off at 1:30 PM after picking him up at Mitchell; it’s nap time here at Children World Preschool so he is put to bed right away.  I can hear his laughing on my way out when Ms. Mo or Ms. Leila tickle him trying to pull up the blanket to cover him.  For sure he’s happy here!