Our Day Care Journey: Watching My Son Thrive

Hello fellow Hivers, this post covers my son’s development at his Day Care. We are almost done for this school year’s activities. So I thought I could share a little bit about how he has improved over all.

My son is 4 years old and I entered him to a Public Day Care. Here in the Philippines, Day Care is not a requisite for entering Kindergarten. But just the same I enrolled him because I feel like this will enable him to develop himself on how he can interact with other kids. I am not particular about how he fares in his writing or reading since I also teach him and guide him whenever I got home. What I really wanted was for him to get used to playing and sharing with other kids and experience how to be independent.

Since I have work at an office nearby I drop him off there and gradually lessen the time that I have to spend watching him. I want him to get used to not seeing me whenever he looks over his shoulder. Elementary schools are much more strict in that regard. Parents are not allowed to stand and look or peep along the corridors because it disrupts the attention of the kids. I for one agree. We as parents have to encourage them to rely on themselves.

His teacher was very patient with him; she gives him ample opportunity to talk in front of the class so that he can overcome his bashfulness. My son’s first language is English; he cannot communicate in our native language which is Tagalog much less our mother tongue which is “Ilocano” dialect. He can understand simple words but he is not able to speak it. That was the part I wanted him to develop. He cannot just learn another language if he does not have anyone else to interact with. This is his practice ground.

Fast forward to December of 2024, I am proud to say that he had made a friend and has learned tagalog phrases that he uses whenever he plays with the other kids. He participates well inside the class, he finishes all his writing and coloring activities easily and after that the Teacher allows them to play toys inside. They aslo have various activities like talent showcase but my son was not able to attend because I have work and I cannot take him to practice.

My son enjoyed it there he constantly plays with his best friend at the school playground. I see him take turns with the swing and because he was quite taller than his friend and older for only a few weeks he acts like the big brother and constantly helps him up.

I also got to see and observe another personality about him I never thought he had. This was something no one can teach him, because no one really prepares how a kid will react to different situations. One time, they were having their daily morning exercise on the grounds. He was a little shy, I was observing him and his movements were minimal but he was slowly engaging himself and was halfway to overcoming it, when suddenly he got pushed by his classmate. It was deliberate, I saw it but did not react. I wanted to see how he responds and I want to give the guardian of the kid the opportunity to correct the attitude. Unfortunately for my son, the damage was done, his smile faded a little so did his enthusiasm about the activity. But he was still trying, he made sure to stay away from the girl’s path. Few days after that incident he was playing with another kid and suddenly the same girl went over their side and played. My son is not one for displaying rude behaviors but it surprised me when he stood up from their play and went somewhere else. I paid attention to this behavior and it it me. My son do not hold grudges or fights with kids who wrongs them but once you did something to him, he makes sure to steer away from them to avoid trouble. I was so proud of him. I know he did not hold grudges because he let the girl play with the stuff he was initially playing with. He just knows his boundaries and he knows to remove himself to situations where it is possible to end up in rude or violent acts.

I am glad I enrolled him to the Center, I was second guessing at first since our daughter did not go to Day Care, she just started immediately on to Kindergarten and she did pretty well after just a week. But of course, that one week was wrecking, she was constantly crying begging me not to leave her there. I was constantly late because I couldn’t leave her seeing her like that. I wanted to avoid that with my second child so It was necessary. Again, I’m glad I did.

A lot of things have happened at home and that is a story for another blog, in the end we had to say goodbye to everyone at the Center. As I have mentioned in my First ever blog Although all was going great for me at work, I cannot deny that my family needs the care of a mother full time. It was a difficult decision for me. You see we live in the City, but my work is at the barrio in another Municipality. Our set up is a mess, we only ever really get to be together all four of us every weekends. And one problem after the other it all came down to being present for all of them. So the inevitable happened. I regret nothing from that decision. I have long prayed to God to be able to reunite us under one roof and He did.

After my son’s Christmas Party, we bid farewell to his Teacher, his best friend, and his classmates. He still misses them and talks about them frequently. Now that we stay at home together I am able to continue guiding him in writing and phonics and patiently teaching him how to respond in tagalog. He is still clingy and I do not know how he will fare once he starts Kindergarten so, pray for us. I know that he will make more friends in the City since there are sure to be other kids whose first language is also English. Now we are all together, happy, and forever grateful to our God the Almighty.
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