Hannah’s First 2 Days @ Playgroup

We ‘chope’ (reserved) a place for Hannah at a nearby playgroup late last year. Although the playgroup could take in toddlers as young as 18 months old, we were advised by the teacher that 21 months would be a better age to start.

As parents were required to attend the first 2 days of playgroup with their toddlers, I took 2 half-day leave to accompany Hannah. I was quite confident that Hannah wouldn’t cry for mommy on the first day at her playgroup as she seldom displayed separation anxiety. Well, she didn’t at the start but when she couldn’t have her way during the session, she started her tantrums and crying. Sigh, it wasn’t the crying that bothered me but that Hannah couldn’t conform to the structure of the playgroup programme. To be specific, she couldn’t cooperate during singing of nursery rhymes, follow the  teacher’s demonstrations to dance to the music and line up orderly to wash hands. I felt embarrassed watching her messing up what would have been an orderly, peaceful session.

On day 2, the teacher suggested that I stepped out of the room for a while. Hannah didn’t cry. Apparently, my presence encouraged her clingy behaviour and hence wanting mommy to carry and play with her. At the end of the session when I returned to pick her up, the teacher was pleased to report that Hannah was able to join in the activities with the rest of the toddlers.

From day 3 onwards, her nanny will be the one doing the fetching for her Mon-Fri playgroup sessions. We hope that Hannah would enjoy her playgroup and learn good stuff along the way.

I took the opportunity to capture Hannah’s behaviour on our video camera. Below are 1) her making her way to her playgroup on day 1, and 2) playing by herself while the rest of the toddlers were trying to learn with their teacher.