Category: Education

Love Gymnastic!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It was William’s 4th class at New Hope Gymnastics. Watching William playing in the class is fun. He looks at the coach and tries to do what’s the coaching is doing, especially during the stretch time. He’s really enjoying doing any activity in the class. The only issue he has is to wait for his turn: he cannot sit still on his spot (he chose the red square on the carpet), he’d sit down for a few seconds and the stand up and walk around the room; some times he’d run out of room to the hallway or just to sit on the chair in the waiting room. I’d try to remind him to ask the coach’s permission whenever he needs to go.

Coach Paul

Last week there were no-one showed up so it was just coach Paul and William, he did great, no running around and listening to coach all the time. I guess one-on-one would be best for him because he doesn’t have to wait for his turn.

There are 3 other children in the class who’s about the same age: 5 or 6 years old: 2 girls Kira & Olivia and 1 boy Dean.

The class starts at 6:30 PM on Tuesdays; around 7:00 PM, the coach will take them to the big room to play in the foam pit or to work on the rope. This is William’s favorite time. They stay there for about 15 minutes and then go back to their room, which I think is a good size for the children: enough space for few children and there are 2 bars which are appropriate for their height perfectly.

Coach Paul is great; he’s so patient and nice; never see him mad or yell when the kids are not listening or running around. He’d just talk individually to the child in a very soft voice to make sure the child understands what he/she did wrong.

Learning to do cartwheel

At the end of the class, everyone gathers & sits down around coach Paul and gets to pick 2 stickers of their choice before going home. There’s always a smile on William’s face when we’re leaving the gym.

If I know he loves gymnastics so much, I would send him to this gym sooner.

Got Bit By His Peer

Posted on by MICHELLE N

On Monday, I got a call from a nurse that William got bit by Ethan; and that Mrs. Newman was doing a report to the principal.

I asked if it hurts in the evening when I got home from work; he said “No!”.

Seems like Ethan and William don’t get along well; the other day William said Ethan hit his head.

Update:

It’s been a week but the mark is still dark!

Gymnastics

Posted on by MICHELLE N

My sister Eliza told me about New Hope Gymnastics, where she sent her children to. She said that she saw lots of children about William’s age taking the class. Being hyper all the time, this maybe a good place for William to spend his energy?

So last week I took him in for the free trial: he loved it! He got to roll, to jump, to stretch, to play in the foam pit. So I signed him up for once a week: every Tuesday at 6:30 – 7:30 PM with coach Paul.

Today was his first day after the free trial class. He got so excited that he could not sit still. He sometimes did not listen that the coach asked him to go sit with me: he’d run around without waiting for his turns or he touched the bars without coach’s permission. During 1 hour, he was asked to sit out 3 times! He behaved better when he took the free trial last week.

The class has total 4 children about his age or younger (including him). Looks like coach Paul had his hand full with all 4 kids that some time don’t listen to him.

William loves it here so we’ll continue to come but I’m just afraid that the coach will not like it if William’s compliance is not improved. Let’s see!

The big room where the foam pit is
Waiting for the class to start

Back To School Nite – Kindergarten 2019

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It’s “Back to School” night at Lincoln school. I took off work early around 4 PM and got home around 4:30. William was on bed but aunt Lily already woke him up. Around 4:45 we walked to school.

In the Multipurpose room, the principle Ms. Veleta introduced the teachers. Then we walked to William’s classroom, room #54. Nothing changed much since last year. Ms. Newman put some cookies and bottle water on the table. William ate some chocolate cookie and ran around with Ethan. We stayed and chatted with Ms. Newman and Ms. Sandy and Ethan’s mom for about 10 minutes then we left. Not sure if anyone else came after we left.

Ms. Sandy and Newman (from left)
Daily Schedule

It’s Friday!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

It’s been 2 weeks since William is back to school. Teachers have been complaining a lot about his non-compliance and taking stuffs from his peers.

This morning when I just pushed his stroller out of the door, the feet holder broke so I told him we had to walk to school. He was ok with it.

While waiting for the teachers at school, he was so hyper, running around with a happy face. Love my little boy!

Meeting With The School Principal

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now that William is in Kindergarten, his school ends at 2:00 PM instead of 1:00 PM like last year. This conflicts with the Speech therapy at Providence of Speech & Hearing center, which is 1:30 PM every Monday. I planned to pull him out early around 1:00 PM on Mondays to take him to the speech therapy because the speech center doesn’t have any availability to move his session to later time.

So I stopped by the office to talk to Ms. Velado, the Lincoln school principal. At first she said the district will not allow it because it’s the parents responsibility to send their children to school; and we could go to jail if there’s so many absences. I explained to her our situation; she then asked how old is William. ‘He’s 5 now, will be turning 6 on November!’. She then said it’s ok until William turns 6 because the district only enforces the rule for 6 years old and up. So we have about 3 months to pull him out early on Mondays. After that we need to have a solution to our problem. The issue is easy to solve if the Providence center has new available spots; but then after a long day at school, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to send him to speech therapy. 6 hours at school is a long time for a 5 or 6 years old boy.

Lately his speech therapy complains that he doesn’t comply well. So maybe we take a break from speech therapy at Providence center. We still have speech therapy at school; 15 minutes a week.

I’m not sure what to do. It’s a hard decision to make because it’s really hard to get a spot at Providence center; If we give it up, there’s no guarantee that we’ll get a new spot that fits our schedule.

Last Day at Children’s World Preschool

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Now that William’s aunt Lily (Tim’s sister) is available to babysit him after school, we’ll stop sending him to the daycare, starting 8/20/2019. This for sure a great arrangement for both William and me. For me, I don’t have to use my lunch time to go pick up him at school and drop him off at the day care and then driving back to work. Every day I have to rush to do that in order to finish the whole driving loop within 1 hour; every minute counts. For William, after a long day at school, he can sleep on his own bed till whenever he likes; and he can eat something and have milk before going to bed; which means he will never be hungry when he’s ready for his nap.

When I pick him up at the school, I usually bring something like a cheese sandwich or hot dogs and let him eat that in the car for about 10 minutes before driving him to the day care. He’s a slow eater so in 10 minutes he can only finish a few bites so if he doesn’t eat much at school, he’d be so hungry while napping at the day care. This always bugs me because I can’t stand the fact that my boy is hungry from 1:00 PM until he gets home around 5:30 PM. Even though I pack some cookies/juice in his lunch bag but he rarely touches it. I keep reminding him to open the lunch bag after nap; and also asked the teachers to remind him that but not sure what’s going on. He’d not go get his lunch bag unless someone remind him to do so.

So the new arrangement is Mrs. Lily will pick William up at school at 2:00 PM, and then walk him home. She’ll stay with him until we get home around 5:30 PM. She babysat William few times before when William was younger; I know she loves him and she’s really good at feeding him.

I just hope that she’s always available to stay with us. I’d hate to send William back to the daycare (any day care).

William’s stuffs at the daycare. The pillow and blanket has been with William at the day care for almost 4 year. The lunch bag with the Pokemon character has been with him for about 2 years. I bought him a new lunch bag but now that we don’t need it any more; I returned it to the store.

When I dropped William off at the day care on Friday – the last day; I said good bye to Mr. Gary, Mrs. Rose Marie and Mrs. Angelina. I can’t believe it has been almost 4 years! I know Mr. Gary loves him; he let William to hang out in his office a lot; and William loves him too. He said if we ever need him/daycare, just give him a call. Saying goodbye is never easy, I had tears on my eyes.

I know for sure William will be happy to stay home with Aunt Lily; that’s all that matters the most! I’m trying my best as a mom to keep my baby healthy and happy. Love you son!

Back To School – Day 3

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Wednesday, it’s day 3. Nothing new. I took some photos before pushing his stroller out. He doesn’t look straight to the camera as usual, doesn’t matter how many times I told him to look at the camera.

Back To School – Year 2019 – 2020

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Summer break is over, time to go back to school. I prepared William mentally for the last 2 days that he would go back to school starting today.

Same school (Abraham Lincoln Elementary School), same classroom #54 and same teachers (Ms. Newman, Birdie and Sandy); except that William is now in the Kindergarten, and his class hour is from 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM (not 1:00 PM anymore)

Waking him up is hard as usual; and “I want to scratch my back!” is the first sentence that he said. He whined as usual, asked for few more times to scratch his back but eventually everything was done and we were ready to go to school. At first I wanted him to walk so I did not bring the stroller out but he said, “The school is far!”. He refused to walk so I had to bring out the stroller.

William’s sleepy face

It was good to see everyone is back: Ms. Newman, Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy. (We did not see Ms. Newman and Ms. Sandy during the last month of the last school year, before summer!)

Ms. Sandy with the boys, walking to the class room.