The little guy turns 18 mths old this month and I signed him up at a non-parent accompanied Montesorri playgroup near my place. He’s on the waitlist of Julia Gabriels like for the longest time and honestly its going to be a logistics nightmare sending him there. So I figured I would just settle for this Montesorri place if its not too bad. The advantages of having it being so near and not needing someone to go in with him are big pluses.

Today we went for a trial class to see if he’s going to be alright by himself. It’s a 2 hr playgroup. The first half hour, the children will play toys on their own. I think the Montesorri program encourages independent free play where the children can learn through playing with puzzles and wooden toys etc. The next half hr would be music and movement where the children will sing and dance along to songs. After which they will have phonics or story telling, followed by snacks and then 15 mins of Mandarin.

For the first half an hour, I went in with him, sitting a distance away watching him play. He soon got absorbed in the toys and before long was walking around the classroom looking for new toys to explore. When it was time for the music and movement, I went out of the classroom.

Music and movement about to start!

I think he started to look for me for a while, looking around the room but the songs and dance proved too infectious that before long he was clapping and shaking his bumbum to the music.

Grooving to the music!

After that was phonics and the little chap actually stood up and shouted “M” when he saw it as this is one alphabet that he recognises.

They were then led to the table to do some colouring. The rest of the children all had their own individualised worksheets except him and he looked so downcast when everyone started colouring and all he had was a crayon in hand but nothing to colour on.

The teacher quickly reappeared with a sheet for him to colour and it wasn’t easy with the paper going everywhere as he doesn’t know how to anchor it down while colouring.

Trying to colour…

The teacher with a quick eye saw that too and quickly came by to help him.

Colouring properly now with the help of the teacher!

At the end of the day, I must say I am not like WOW over the premise, or the curriculum or the teachers but it will suffice as a nice learning environment for the little boy before he goes to pre-nursery at his sister’s kindergarten and I think he is going to be just A-OK going in unaccompanied even though he’s the youngest in the class.

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