Category: Schools

Break Time Cannot Be More Than 60 Minutes

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Thursday Afternoon, got this email (sent to everyone) from Nancy (our company’s office manager)

“Hello All,
As we all know, meal breaks are important to employee health and company productivity. Therefore, I would like to remind you that it is encouraged that you take regular meal breaks but meal breaks should not exceed 60 minutes.
Thank you.“
I went to the bathroom and cried.  This means that our boy might be starved when I send him to the day care after school.
Most of the time William would not eat much during breakfast and lunch provided by school; so every day when I pick him up, I’d bring him 2 pack of juice, 2 mini corn dogs and a little bag  of cookies and let him eat them in my car before taking him to school.  In order for him to finish the 2 corn dogs  and juice, it’d take at least 30 minutes.  And he’d finish his chocolate filled cookies while I’m driving him to the day care.  And we can’t do this within 60 minutes!
Driving from Work to Lincoln School is about 18 minutes, from school to Children’s World Preschool is about 11 minutes; from Preschool to Work is about 20 minutes so total of 50 minutes of driving.  I need some time to stop by the house to get his snack (5 min), which is only 1 block away from school.  So in total I’d need 70 minutes, and that doesn’t count any delay in traffic.  To keep 60 minutes requirement from the company, I’d have to reduce his eating time from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.  The boy has to eat faster!
If they’re starting to count the time, should I start to count the time that I’d willing to work at nights to fix bugs or to meet deadline? Of course I didn’t get pay over time for those extra hours!  Also, the company offers 15 minutes break for every 3 hours which I never take.
I just wish that I don’t have to work so that I can take William home after school and care for him.   But if I don’t work, we’d be in deep financial trouble because I make twice as much as Tim makes a month.
Dreaming for winning the lottery, hopefully one day my dream will come true!
From Work to School – 4.6 miles (18 minutes)
From school to Children’s World Preschool – 3 miles (9 minutes)
From School to Day care – 9.2 miles (20 minutes)

Getting Cold – Summer Is Almost Over

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Thursday morning 7:45 AM.  It’s getting cold in the morning so I put a jacket on for William before heading to school.  Last night he felt asleep around 11:30 PM which is good so assumably he had enough sleep.

William’s sleepy look
Pick up friends from the bus with Mrs. Birdie
With Mrs. Birdie and classmates heading to classroom. William is the smallest compare to other 4 peers.

 

 

 

William’s New Teacher Angelica

Posted on by MICHELLE N

One day when I dropped William off at the day care after picking him up at Lincoln school, Mrs. Chastity asked me if I’m OK to move William to higher level.  The other day Ms. Jennie told me that it’s better for William to move up to higher class because looks like he likes to play with older kids; and also with older kids he can learn to talk more.  Huy also asked me if it’s possible to move him up; I guess Jeannie talked to Huy about that.

So I said Yes to Mrs. Chastity, the goal is for William to talk more, with this Yellow Bird class, mostly the children are 2 or 3 years old who don’t know or don’t talk much.  So it’s natural that William would want to play with other kids about his age.  William is almost 5 now, not sure why they still keep him in the Yellow Bird class.

Today I took him to his room as usual, I met Mrs. Angelica, she told he to took him to the other room.  To explain, she told me that William is now moved up to Red Bird class.  Surprisingly I asked, “Since when?”, she said “Since today!”.  So now he’s officially in the big room with a nicer cot to nap :).  His cot is next to the wall and the standing fan, which I think is very nice location.

Another School Day

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Monday morning; I took William to Lincoln school as usual.  This is the 3rd week since school started.   Tim did not have to work today so he followed us recording the video without William knowing it.  He only saw his dad when we were at the traffic light.  When we got the the gate, he refused to go in with Ms. Newman and started to cry “Papa is not going!”.

Bring the box of cards to school as usual
In front of our house
Still sleepy, had a tough time to get him to brush his teeth, “no tooth paste” he requested.

 

William’s Second Swim Lesson At Australian Swim School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Saturday 10:30 AM.  When we told him we were going to the pool, he kept saying “No, no”; and then kept saying “I want to go home!” thru out the 30 minutes session.  There was only William today so he had full attention from the swim instructor Anthony.  Despite the fact that he sometime cried, he did very good.  He put his face in the water and lift face up when he was out of breath.  Today he learned to swim face up: he was scared at first but toward the end of session, he was getting much better.  Seeing how he can learn so fast, we decide to let him continue the swim lessons.

Afterward, we took him to the Mc Donald per his request; he loved the playground here.

William and the instructor Anthony

Before leaving the Australian Swim School
Mc Donald playground

 

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I Want To Try Again!

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Thursday’s noon at 1:00 PM at Lincoln Elementary school;   William was crying while walking with Ms. Birdie to the gate where I normally pick him up.  He kept point his hand to the classroom and said “I want to try again!”.   And the story is:

The teacher took him to the bathroom every half an hour but he would not pee.   After lunch he told Ms. Newman “I want diaper!”, Ms. New said “No, no, let’s go to the bath room”, so she took him there but he did not pee.  When they returned to the classroom then William peed in his pants!  But that’s not why William cried: he cried because he did not get the last star (for peed in the pants) to get the chocolate that he wants.  He wanted to try the bathroom again so that he could get the star, and of course the chocolate that he wanted so badly.

He continued to cry for about 10 minutes in my car and kept pointing his hands toward the school “I want to try again”.   He only stopped when I gave him my phone so that he could watch youTube.  Looking at him watching videos, eating chips and drinking juice, he seemed to forget about the whole thing while I was driving him to the daycare.

 

William’s First Swim Lesson At Australian Swim School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Saturday 10:30 AM.  William liked his swim lessons at the daycare so much that I decided to sign him up for swim lessons.  After searching and asking around, I signed up at Australian Swim School in Santa Ana, which is 15 minutes driving from our house.  It’s 30 minutes per session for every Saturday; the tuition fee is $86/month.

He didn’t want to enter the door so we had to carry him; and when it’s time to get to the pool he kept saying “No, no!”.  Anthony, the instructor said he would not mind if William cries, just take him to the pool and hand William to him so I did.  William kept saying “I want to to home!” and eventually cried toward the end of the session so we took him out of the pool 10 minutes early.  To reward him we took him to Mc. Donald for some chicken nuggets and fries.

Waiting to register at Australian Swim School

Playing before leaving the swim school
Mc Donald chicken nuggets and fries for lunch

 

Second Day at School

Posted on by MICHELLE N

Tuesday 7:50 AM.  He sat on the stroller voluntarily and said “Stroller”, meaning we will take the stroller, no car.  And he didn’t cry at all.  I took a few pictures of him wearing sunglasses in front of our house before going to school.  He put on the sunglasses himself, not sure why!  I took him to the classroom and took few more pictures of him and the colorful wall right next to his classroom.  We were early!

On the way out, I took few pictures of the school.  I think most students are Mexican; the fact is I have not seen any Asian students.  In his class, William is the only Vietnamese.  It’s just my observation, nothing else.

Ready to go to school, no crying today. He takes the playing cards with him everywhere.
He was still very sleepy.

That door is to the Office
Parents looking thru the fence watching their children after dropping them off. The doors are locked inside and outside; you need to have a key to get in or out.