A few years ago, I immigrated to the United States with my husband and gave birth to my son [Cat Darling] in 2013.
After traveling around, I found a university with its own kindergarten, California State University at Fulton.
This kindergarten is specially designed for [mothers and students] who have children in the school. The relaxed attendance time and extra long care time make mothers and students have no worries. Importantly, there is also a nursing room where mothers and students can nurse their young babies during recess.
With some other reasons, I came up with the idea of taking my son to study together and was lucky enough to enter this university smoothly. Let me introduce this different kindergarten to you.
A small [global] village
He is said to be a [village] because the kindergarten has a small [farm] with turtles, birds, rabbits and vegetable gardens, all of which are all kinds of vegetables grown by the children themselves, and of course there are many plants.
He said he was a [earth] village, because this kindergarten is a large family besides most white children, as well as children from Mexico, Vietnam and South Korea, and my Chinese son.
Teachers treat each other equally, and the children play together and enjoy themselves.
A kindergarten that can be entered after just three months.
At the beginning, I was worried that the kindergarten would not accept my son when he was less than 2 years old. I didn’t expect that the kindergarten would be able to enter the kindergarten after 3 months. The oldest child was 5 years old, and the older child could enter the age of compulsory education in the United States.
This kindergarten is divided into three classes according to age, but the same class may be divided into multiple groups:
1. Baby class, 3-12 months
There is a bird’s nest group in the kindergarten class. The rigid ratio between teachers and children at this age is 1: 2. Parents are required to carry formula milk or breast milk, supplementary food, red fart cream, etc. Teachers are responsible for feeding children and changing diapers at certain time intervals.
Each baby has its own fixed bed, small swings and massage chairs suitable for babies, and a relatively open area for older babies to climb.
2. Preschool classes, 1-3 years old
There are two groups of children in the kindergarten class. One group is the turtle group, which is a 1-2-year-old toddler. The ratio of teachers to children in this age group is set at 1: 3. The other group is butterfly group, 2 ~ 3 years old, with a teacher ratio of 1: 4.
3. Preschool, 4-5 years old
There are several groups in preschool: rabbit group, garden group, rainbow group and sunshine group.
In addition to dividing classes, children are divided into groups at a level according to their age every half year old, and education plans are customized according to the interests and abilities of children of different ages: cognition, body, social emotion, etc. to help children grow up healthily. The number of students in this university kindergarten is still quite small, and children can be better cared for by more teachers.
Squat down and say hello to the children.
The director of the garden is very kind. The children can call him by his first name. When talking with the children, he will squat down and look at the children to understand their needs.
Here, even if the language is not clear, through body language communication and the teacher’s patient repetition over and over again, children with poor English can quickly understand the teacher’s meaning and both sides can get good communication.
This kindergarten is mainly to cultivate children’s sociality, that is, to cultivate children’s social and independent living ability, so that they can integrate into society as soon as possible.
Younger children focus on learning to eat and dress themselves, exercise their self-care ability, and learn the world through games and entertaining. Older children focus on learning to communicate with other children and to talk with teachers.
In less than half a year in kindergarten, the two-year-old cat darling will wear her own clothes and shoes, although most of the time she wears them backwards. Little people can eat independently and no longer lose rice grains. Can take the initiative to help my mother carry a bag and pull it to the door. Able to voluntarily throw their own garbage, diapers, empty beverage bottles, etc. into the garbage bin; I will cover my own quilt when I sleep at night. Every person has a sweet mouth. He will call his uncle and aunt and say hello…….
All this surprises me.
Different admission times
The working hours of kindergartens are from 7: 00 a.m. to 7: 00 p.m. for 12 hours, which can be convenient to parents who are busy and have irregular hours to the greatest extent.
Moreover, for parents who are also students themselves, they can put their children into kindergartens at the same time according to the class schedule, which greatly facilitates [mother students].
The loose admission time corresponds to the strict school leaving time.
It doesn’t matter if you come late, but the time to pick up the children must be observed. If you are late, you will pay $20 in the first 5 minutes, $1 in the second minute and settle at the end of the month.
Because they think that work must be paid, teachers cannot leave work, they have to work more, and you have to pay for the work. Of course, occasionally a few minutes late, also not so haggle over every ounce.
Occasional [sheep-herding] management
1. Do you like to eat or not
Kindergartens provide meals, but for older children, the children eat them themselves after the meals are served, and the teachers do not feed them or force them if they do not eat them.
The teacher thinks that children will eat naturally when they are hungry.
Step 2 Sleep as long as you want
During the nap time, you can roll over and over in bed, but you are not allowed to talk or get up.
My son can often sleep for more than 3 hours. The teacher said that he is a master of sleeping. He can’t wake up when others play. I am very worried, [why didn’t the teacher wake him up? [We have no right to wake him up from his sleep,] said the director. [We have no right to wake him up from his sleep.]
The teacher believes that no matter eating or sleeping, one should develop according to the nature of the child.
A non-demanding kindergarten
The main job of these kindergarten teachers is to make children have fun in kindergartens, cultivate their independent personality and help them to better establish partnerships with their peers.
The kindergarten not only takes the children to play in the yard every day, but also has art classes. The teacher will put the children’s works in the personal belongings box outside every day and take them home by the parents.
For a long time, I found that Cat Darling’s work is to draw a line on a piece of white paper. Or three lines, see other people’s masterpieces have a lot of colors and lines, the in the mind is very uncomfortable. But the teacher said that cat darling didn’t like painting very much recently, but he liked dancing very much. He was very happy to swing with music. He should find his own interest and respect the children’s interest. The teacher’s focus is to stimulate potential and creativity.
However, a month later, he suddenly fell in love with painting again, and there were always [masterpieces] that surprised me.
Discipline of children does not depend on beating, but on time-out.
For disobedient or naughty children, teachers can neither beat nor scold them, because it is illegal in the United States. Once reported, teachers will be suspended immediately, followed by investigations and prosecutions, ranging from fines to prison.
How do you discipline it?
When confronted with disobedient children, the teacher will usually let them sit in time-out, which is a kind of punishment. Let him sit alone on a small high stool and multiply his age by 2 to punish him, for example, a 2-year-old child sits for 4 minutes and a 3-year-old child sits for 6 minutes.
Don’t underestimate these few minutes. The United States advocates freedom of personality. These short minutes have no freedom. The shock to children is big enough. The teacher’s move [timing isolation] is very deterrent to children.
Extra detailed daily reports
When parents pick up their children at night, the kindergarten will prepare the children’s records of the day in the kindergarten for the parents, including the children’s eating, drinking, pulling, scattering and sleeping.
Clearly record the poop situation on that day, how much water you drank and whether you had a good meal. Parents can know from this record that their children have made what and eaten what today.
Of course, the kindergarten will send the specific contents of the weekly recipes, studies and activities to parents by email in advance for reference.
Safety awareness, starting with dolls
California is dry and short of water, and is also an earthquake plate. Therefore, earthquake drills are a compulsory course for children.
With a deafening sound, all the children quickly moved to safety hand in hand according to the instructions, and the infants who could not walk were moved by the teacher.
Recently, there was also a fire drill. The teacher and I praised the cat darling, saying that he responded quickly and listened to the instructions!
The internal settings of the school are also very detailed and safe. The door locks, drawers, closets, refrigerators, etc. in the kindergarten are all covered with condoms, which children cannot easily open. Furniture is generally specially designed for children, with rubber cushions on sharp corners. The power supply is plugged with plastic sleeves. Indoor play areas and outdoor playgrounds are equipped with suitable facilities and cushioned according to age.
In such an environment, children can run freely and safely.
Now the cat darling will say to me every morning, “good morning, mom!” Shall we go to kindergarten today? ]