Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Not A Dull MomentLast Friday, J and I both took leave to attend our first Parents-Teachers Day at Little Skywalker's kindergarten. We chose to miss the last session (end of last year) as he was only enrolled for 2 months. This time around, we get a chance to learn how he did in his exams, and more importantly, how he behaves in the classroom.
A little background on Little Skywalker's journey to kindergarten. We enrolled him to a newly opened kindergarten early last year. It was a tough 2 months as he was really reluctant to get up in the morning and refused to go. His attendance was at best 3 days in a week. We decided to call it quit in March before he cultivates a lasting fear of going to school. It was still one year too early back then.
Then came September 2008, J and I decided to give him another go at a different kindergarten. We started off the right foot as we were invited for a Mooncake Festival party at the kindy prior to his first day at school. The party managed to change his attitude towards going to school. He came to think school as a fun place to be. It was almost smooth sailing from then on (although he experiences Monday blues from time to time).
Speaking of exams, we decided not to pile any pressure on Little Skywalker. We did not even wanted him to know what exams are really about. We just let him get on with his daily homework and activities (although my parents did helped him to do some revision) a week prior to his exams. We even brought him to Genting a day before his exams started.
Basically, we wanted to know if he managed to learn enough in school to help him pass his exams. We weren't quite bothered about anything else as he seems to be able to finish all his homework by himself with little help. In fact, he tends to be slower if others try to "help" him. He tends to talk and ask a lot of unnecessary stuff when others are at his side. I have to remind J time and time again not to "coach" him on his school work.Coming back to the original topic, we brought Little Skywalker to meet his teacher last Friday morning. We were quite lucky as most of the parents had their sessions much earlier and we did not have to wait. A jolly and friendly Indian lady waiting in his classroom greeted us and invited us (along with #2) to have a seat at those tiny little chairs meant for the 5-year olds.
To start off with, Ms Josephine handed Little Skywalker's "report card" and a file containing all his exam papers. Little Skywalker was his active self around his teacher. He kept running around the school looking for his favourite teacher, Ms Judy (who was in another session in a separate classroom) while we talk to Ms Josephine.
Ms Josephine began by telling us how "lively" Little Skywalker was in the classroom (not surprisingly). She told us that Little Skywalker always like to "hide" under the table looking through his bag. He was the most talkative student in the class compared to his peers. He would be flipping through the pages by himself when everyone else was reading. At first, she thought he did not know how to read. But when Little Skywalker was asked to read alone, he surprised her!
On his classroom antics, Ms Josephine relayed one funny incident that happened in the classroom. Little Skywalker was "busy talking" to his friends while class was in progress. She called out to him for attention. To her surprise, he replied with an annoyed expression on his face "Whaaaaat?". All of us did not know whether to laugh or cry over the story. Anyway, we told her that he does not behave any differently in school than how he does at home.On his results, he did surprisingly well in all his papers (straight As, LOL!), especially with mathematics. We were surprised that his weakest subject was Mandarin, as his spoken language is 60% Mandarin at home. The teachers were not worried about his grades. We were told his performance was on par with other students in his class. Anyway, we were just happy he did not "fail" anything.
Despite his "mischievous" antics in the classroom, he remains a joyful and active boy in the eyes of his teachers. Ms Judy's left us with a heart-warming remark "The class would certainly be dull and boring without him"...
Jotted down by Egghead :: at around 6/02/2009 08:16:00 AM :: and invited 0 Blah(s):
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