Dhanu's school teacher, 'meester' Joeri, offerred us parents to stay in the classroom during the day, if we really want to observe their activities. Dhanu has been in this class for about 4 months (since his 4th birthday) so we thought it's a good idea to give it a try. Especially since Dhanu brought up a bit of concern of meester Joeri because he didn't have the initiative to mingle with other kids. Indeed, Dhanu is always happy playing by himself while still enjoying the company of others. Anyway, I decided to take the offer and made an appointment to join the classroom yesterday, from 11:00 to 12:30 (school kids are out at 12:30 on Wednesdays, on other days at 15:00)
When I came to the school, it's already free-playing time in the class of meester Joeri. All the kids were free to chose what they wanted to do. Dhanu is at the 'bouwhoek' where containers of LEGO are kept, building his cars and trucks. Only four kids are allowed to be in the 'bouwhoek', so Dhanu was in there with three other kids. The rest of the kids were scattered all over the classroom.. in the 'huishoek', sitting at the computers, doing handyworks on their tables, or just playing 'pretend'.
I brought my sketchbook-diary and sat on the floor at the corner where I could see the 'bouwhoek' and most of the classroom. Rather than doing nothing, I started to make sketches while observing the kids. But it didn't take long until they crowded me and said things like, "What is your name?", "What are you doing?", "Wow you can draw really good!", "I can draw really good, too!", "Is that me you're drawing? Oh! It's Dhanu!".. and so on. And it didn't take long until some of them wanted to be drawn by me. So I did some sketches of Dhanu, Arwin, Fabian, Nisrin(?) and Oyo and Indy and Paula by request. After a while, they also wanted to draw in my book. I let Oyo drew me, and then Arwin wanted to draw me as well. Then he added moustache and a thick set of beard on 'my' face, and a container full of fruit on 'my' head. Oyo wanted to draw on the other side of the page, but I said that page is for sticking stuff on. So she went and cut out some empty food cartons, put thick glue on the cut-out form and brought it to me to stick on my empty pages. My oh my.
Approaching 12:30 the kids were told to clean up and put everything back in place, get their stuff (bags, shoes and jackets) and wear them and put their seats up on their desks. Then they had to stand behind their own seats while the meester asked them to count up to 100. Afterwards, they were to stand in a line in two's, holding hands, and then they started to march downstairs where their parents awaited to pick them up.
Well that was a very interesting 1,5 hours. Meester Joeri offerred me to come again in other hours, in the morning for example, when they have other activities - more a group thing such as reading together, or sport, or during a lesson. After a bit more of a talk, I and Dhanu departed the school. We went to Haarlem; I had an appointment with The Tjong-Khing at his house, but that's another story.
=)) =)) =)) Meester Joeri inpait elo untuk dateng lagi karena..... : wah, ini ibu ok juga nih, bisa menarik perhatian anak2 sementara gue ngaso sejenak =))
ReplyDeleteTapi seriously, inilah TK yg gue bayangin untuk anak2 gue (hmmm kalo gue sampe kepengen punya yaaa): fun learning. Terus, yg positif, mereka juga disuruh beberesan ya sebelum pulang? Pasti terbiasa dan bukannya ngandalin "MBOOOKKKKKK, ambilin lego ku dong" :D
Dan gambar2nya pun, walaupun nothing like yours, mereka berani dan PD bilang: saya juga bisa. That's the attitude.
Thanks ya Ta for sharing. Luttuuuuuu deh :D
Hahah iya ya Ven - padahal si meester juga punya asisten guru, namanya 'Juf' Anne Marie. Ngomong2, meester ini tampangnya mirip Fox Mulder-nya The X-Files lho, cuma versi segernya (Mulder kan ngantuk mulu ekspresinya).
ReplyDeleteIya anak2 sini dibiasain mandiri dan berani (ngomong dan berekspresi), sebab tuntutannya emang gitu, meskipun jadinya ya suka dibilang "kurang sopan" kali ya utk ukuran anak2 Melayu (saking beraninya bantah2 dan bener2 nggamau nurut begitu saja). Tapi gue lebih suka anak2 mandiri dan berani lah haiy. Gue sedang berusaha mendidik mereka dengan campuran yang pas antara budaya Barat dan Timur nih, semoga lancar.. :D
Hmmm.. Bilang dong dari tadi. Kapan nongkrong disana lagi ya Ta? Gue ikut deh :))
ReplyDeleteHahaha.. Makanya gue terima tawarannya utk ngendon di kelasnya Dhanu :P
ReplyDeleteHayuk Ven, minggu depan lageee *semangat*
cuma bisa ehm ehm..jadi yg menarik apane to mbakyu ? offering u/ datang lagi atau yg ngoffering-in...mbakyu..kapan2 aku disket ya..ntar tak invite ke sini..sembari aku kasih granny's deh...:p
ReplyDeleteSudahlah Dik nggak usah ehm ehm.. Tinggal ke sini bawa Granny's, semua pasti beres!
ReplyDelete