Phy the Pre-School Teacher (Well, Not Anymore)

Hi there,
During my time here in KL I had no idea how long I was going to stay so I decided to fill my free time with working as a pre-kindy which is only a lift ride away from my sister's apartment. It was kind of like a suicidal project because I never, and I mean NEVER had any experience in taking care of children. I am the youngest in my family and never took care of my younger cousins or anything like that.

During my 2 week stint I learned how to change a diaper, bring kids to the toilet (and clean them) when they want to 'shishi', coax kids into eating their veges and eating in the proper manner, bathe them (which believe me, is kind of  like bathing a pet cat or dog. Meaning you end up bathing too... With your clothes on). I got to know the kids, their temperament and how to handle them as individuals. I also teach them, fill their time with activities, etc.

Sounds easy right? Wrong!

I can handle the first portion of the job. It's only a matter of practice after all. Teaching them and maintaining their interest while trying to sync with their individual personalities was a total FAIL for me. Some were very attentive and interested to learn, others were easily (read: understatement) distracted. Of course there were those who wouldn't listen and becomes a bad influence to others. Oh, did I mention that I had to keep my eye on a 1 year old baby at the same time too?

Communicating was also a problem because my kids were international. I had Koreans, Indonesians, Malays, Chinese kids in my class. Most of them don't understand the English language, let alone Malay.

 Trying to get the pirate-ish kids to participate..

Believe me, reading to pre-kindy kids is never this serene.

 Them being spoiled little rich kids didn't help either. It's hard to teach them something that their parents don't instill in them in the 1st place. Some of the parents or family members would also do the 'security rounds' as I personally call them. I'd see them peeking through our windows, looking to see if we were doing our job well and up to their expectation. Which means we have to be super careful when we scold the children which we can never avoid.

Eventually I let go of the job. Some people might call me flighty, or even a quitter. After all, I did resigned from two different jobs in the span of 6 weeks. I don't see it that way at all. Before I resigned I did all that I could to see if there was any way, any way at all that it could work out for me. When I didn't see any way that could happen, I decided to not waste my time. After all, life is short and it would be a shame not to use it to do something more productive.

So that's what happened and how my teaching career came to a halt. I was glad that I did it because now I wouldn't be like a deer caught in the headlights in the event that I would have to bathe, feed or change a toddler's diaper. I am also able to rule out pre-kindy teacher from my list of potential careers.

So this is all for now. Cheers and wassalam.