Starting Kindergarten!

Charlotte says:

I’ve finally started Kindergarten! Here in New Zealand children can start Kindergarten at 3 year’s of age. Three afternoon’s a week I go and play, learn and have fun. I have only just started (at 3 years and 7 month’s old) as I used to be very tired in the afternoon and needed a nap. Prior to Kindergarten I enjoyed Playcentre, where I learnt to play with children of different ages in a group. It has taken me a while to get used to this, as I used to find large groups of children very intimidating and preferred ‘play dates’ instead. After I turn 4 I will be able to go to Kindi five morning’s a week.

On my first day I decided a raised wooden structure was a boat and 10 children followed me! I didn’t realise at the time that I was ‘captain’! All I wanted was for Mummy and Sophie to join me onboard. I kept telling them to, ‘Get out of the water, there might be sharks!’.

Mummy has yet to leave me by myself at ‘Kindi’, but whilst I’m there I’m very independent. A few times during the session I call out for Mummy and go to find her, but on the whole I am doing very well. Sophie loves playing at Kindi too and all the other children think she’s a ‘very cool baby’ as she can climb as well as some of the three year olds and is very active! Today she lasted all session (despite not having had a nap) and when we left at 3 o’clock she fell asleep within minutes (she was exhausted!).

I don’t like ‘mat time’ yet (as I find the noise ‘hurts my ears’), though today I managed to get involved for a little while. The teachers are lovely and don’t push me, but encourage me. Kindi is all about developing the skills I will need at school. I will go to school when I am five year’s old. I haven’t really made any friends yet, or really try to, but enjoy focusing on one activity at a time in a very concentrated manner. I feel threatened when other children want to interact or change my ‘creations’. Sometimes I get quite angry and need to learn to use my ‘quiet voice’.

At home I love making lego creations and play very well by myself for long period’s of time. I also love swinging in the garden and playing with my next door neighbour, Josh. I love to bounce on the trampoline and ride my trike.

The weather has been great and I love spending time at the playground and the beach. We recently collected lots of pebbles from a local beach and have been painting them with plant names to help learn all the ‘green stuff’ in the garden. I love eating parsley and learning about the different herbs and how we can use them. Mummy and Daddy love having fresh coriander on their curries! At the weekend Mummy used our spinach ‘crop’ to make spinach soup and ‘spinach pots’ (I like the spinach pots and Sophie likes the soup). I like helping to take things to the compost bin, weeding and raking up the grass cuttings.