Sabe starts summer school

It's getting so hard for me to blog nowadays since Sabe has officially started summer classes. My day is spent driving him to school, waiting for him to finish the 2-hour class, then taking him out after for milk tea (his favorite!). I also usually do errands after with him in tow, like the grocery. When I get home, it's playtime with Miley and of course back to having Skyler attached to me with his marathon nursing sessions. I usually just want to lie in bed with the aircon on since this heat is making me too lazy to do anything!

Anyway, just like Miley last year, we enrolled Sabe in this month-long summer program (9-11 am / M-W-F) to get him used to the classroom feel before classes start in June. I already knew it would be more difficult with Sabe since he's more attached to us and has a bad case of separation anxiety. Unlike Miley who loves interacting with other children, Sabe also prefers to play alone or only with his Ate. He's also very possessive and hasn't really learned how to share (well, we're getting there...). Oh, and he bites too sometimes (ayayay!). So naturally, we were nervous on how he was going to act in a new environment with other kids.

As expected, it was already a struggle getting him to wake up early and get dressed. When we rode the car, he kept saying he wanted to go to the restaurant and not to school! When we got to the school, he seemed excited at first, but that only lasted for about a minute...

Since it was the first day, there were a LOT of kids crying and clinging to their parents/yayas. What was funny though is that all the crying kids were the BOYS! The girls were all very good, just playing happily with the toys and each other. I guess girls really mature faster than boys hehe. I mean Miley last year was also a bit hesitant on the first day but she didn't cry and enjoyed herself thoroughly with all the activities. We only needed to accompany her on the 1st day and then we were able to leave her already by herself by the 2nd day.

Now with Sabe, he started to panic once we stepped inside the classroom and he saw the crying kids. He immediately clung to me and started asking "WHERE'S ATE MILEY???" When he realized that his sister wouldn't be there, he started bawling and wanted to go home. I was carrying him trying to calm him down but he would reply to everything I said with a big fat NO or I DONT LIKE! He was screaming, crying, pulling me to the door... "I WANT TO GO HOOOOOOME!!!!!" I was already so tired, sweating like crazy, my hair a mess. And this was only the first 5 minutes! But don't worry, Sabe wasn't the noisiest. There was another boy who was worse than him lol! ;p

After a few more minutes, I was thankfully able to calm him down. The teacher called all the other kids to the front of the room to sing and dance. We were just in the back and Sabe agreed to play with some toys. He would occasionally join the song though (The Wheels on the Bus) so I knew there was hope!

Anyway, when it was time to play outside, Sabe actually got excited when he saw the slide. He played for a bit, then started to look for me again. He then remembered that he wanted to go home and even got his bag and started pulling me again towards the door. All I know is that I kept encouraging him to finish the class (maybe even some bribing was involved lol). He also did an arts & crafts activity and although it was only for a short while, I was still so proud of him.

I was able to take some pictures and it's so funny because when you look at it, you'll get the impression that he had so much fun and it was such a breeze. WRONG! Haha like I said, don't be fooled by the pics since he was crying almost 80% of the time! ;p

If on the first day almost all the parents/yayas were in the classroom, on the 2nd day we were only about 3 na lang. As expected, the school encourages the guardians to stay in the waiting area already so that the kids will learn to be independent. So I slipped out of the classroom, leaving Sabe when I saw him playing with the teacher. But after a few minutes, I could hear someone screaming and it sounded a lot like Sabe. So when I peeked in the window, I saw him being carried by the teacher crying unconsolably. I tried to give it a few more minutes but he wasn't stopping so I asked if I could go inside. Once he saw me, he stopped crying and just wanted to be carried. Of course, now he wouldn't let me out of his sight! But there was a huge improvement already since he was more willing to join in the activities compared to the first day. There was also less crying, as long as he could see me around.

We decided to already leave him alone in the next couple of days, so he could really get used to being in class without us. Of course, he would still cry and it would take all our effort not to go back inside but we know it's for his own good. The first day we left him, the teacher said that he was crying almost the entire 2 hours, but then after a while, he was able to calm down and even participate in some activities. The next day, the teacher said he only cried for about 10 minutes, then was already ok after. He still cries whenever we leave him but I know it will definitely get better (hopefully soon!).

He is definitely improving everyday and whenever we pick him up, he's so happy and excited to show us the stamp in his hand. We're halfway done with his summer classes so I hope that by the end of the program, Sabe will already be ready for his actual school in June. Fingers crossed! :)