School life for Haley and Me

I majored in Human Development back in college when I have absolutely no intention or interest in teaching children.  Is it fate?  I would say it's all God's plan.  An opportunity came and now I am a preschool teacher.  As a new teacher, most of the curriculum is planned by a teacher in another campus, but there are still many areas for my creativity in hosting the class.  I enjoyed every bit of preparing for and during the class time.  Most of the students who comes in on my days of work are around age 4.  They are all pretty self-contained when comparing to the younger ones who have no group playing experience.  Haley is behaving ok having mom in school.  She will cling onto me sometimes and refuse to participate.  I explained to her that she need to participate and stay with her group so I can continue to work in the school.  She understands it but she needs some time to get used to seeing mommy at school.  I wish I can take more pictures of her during school time, but I don't think it's appropriate to put too much attention to her when my role is a teacher.  I still managed to video couple clips during the Mandarin circle time.  I am so glad that she speaks out and responds when Ms. Chen asks questions.  Haley makes a very good progress in that.

One of my main duty is to lead the first circle time and cover things including:  Letters, shapes, phonics, colors, weekly reader, bible story, bible verse, calendar, storytime, science, cooking, etc.  Ms. Chen takes care of the second circle time teaching Mandarin and review some materials bilingually.  We have an assistant Lina to prepare materials on worksheets and projects.  I think I have a pretty good rapport with both teachers and director.  I am sure I will learn new things from teachers, children and most of all from the preparation of approaches in how to teach.

Haley is doing additions.

Haley almost did all these by herself.  She first started to count by her fingers, and troubled when the sum is more than 10 fingers.  I helped and suggested to use the bottle cap to count.  I am proud of her and I never knew that she is capable already.

Haley proudly showed her work to daddy as soon as he came home from work.

Chester saw what Haley did, and he quickly brought over his work to show daddy as well.

A day at home...

Fingerprinting.  Chester hesitated at first, but soon he loves to get his hands dirty.

 Fingerprinting is only the beginning to Haley's fun.  She looks forward to the after-activity, washing her hands and playing with water in a bucket.

 Chester copies everything that Haley does and says.  They will keep calling me "mama, mama" until I respond to show me their silly tricks.

 Trying to teach Chester to find the matching alphabets, but he got distracted after finding A & B.

Pulling grass to throw at me.

First day of school for me & Haley 2012-2013

Today is Haley's first day of school for school year 2012-2013.  It is also my first day to be a preschool teacher.  Owen took a day off so Haley can get full attention from daddy while I'm with other children/parent.  It is sad to find out the enrollment is so low, there is only 7 students.  The school has many children attending the after-school program and the director Sandy explained their school always has late enrollment for the preschool session.  Hopefully and prayerfully we will get more students soon or later.  Parent participated in activities like helping their children made their sign-in books, journal, and measured their weight and height.  Haley is 38lbs and 41 inches.  The other teacher Ms. Chen and I led the children to sing songs, played games, and make a little craft project while Sandy hosted a parent conference to go over curriculum with them.  I was exhausted after the 3-hour school day.  My working schedule is M/W/F from 9-12.  Haley will have the same schedule as mine, and Chester will join us when he turns two in October.  Thanks to grandpa's help.  He will come to our home early in the morning to take care of Chester while Haley and I are in school.  

Haley helped mommy in final set up before the parents and students come in.

 Haley missed her best friend Kaylie from last year in school, but Kaylie is going to kindergarten.  It's good that she found a new friend Olivia to bond with on the first day of school.

 Preparing her journal.

I brought a little game to play with the children.  They all love to roll the set of BIG dices.

Last summer activity before school begins - Oakland Zoo

Choir performance at church worship

The youth minister from the church, where Haley went for music camp, invited the music campers to sing one of the camp songs during their Sunday worship today.  There were not too many campers showed up as it is a labor day long weekend.  In a small group, Haley and the other children did very well and the congregation enjoyed their performance.  I am going to let Haley continue in their choir practice once a week, and she will get to performance every third Sunday of the month.  It is amazing how she can praise the Lord and show His glory at this young age.

Camping at our own backyard.

Haley was excited about sleeping in the tent, but Chester tried to escape when we first went in the tent at night time.

The neighbor's dog barked till I didn't even know when, but it didn't seem to bother the three of them.  Garbage truck came pick up trash early in the morning, and it still didn't wake them up.  Maybe we should consider camping out more often.