Books for revision

Next week, Ethan's kindy will be having the 2nd semester evaluation. Teacher has given back the books. Mother asked why so many books then Ethan's response was teacher asked to read and do revision during the weekend. Mother really doesn't know what to read to him since the books already done by him and got answer so no need to ask him to do it again by looking at the book.

What mother worried is his BM subject as we seldom use it at home. Even sometimes mother did read the BM story books for him but compared with Chinese and English it was far less. The BM story book mother read for Ethan is quite simple and few words in one page as mother knows that his BM standard cannot beat his Chinese and English. Mother did hope that during the school holiday can close up the gap of his BM language with others.

Calculate the chinese stroke

It was quite sometime that Ethan did not count the Chinese word stroke. He almost forgotten about it. Today he brought back his Chinese subject and mother found out that he wrongly calculated the stroke of the Chinese word. Mother gave him advise him that some of the stroke even look like a lot of stroke but actually it is counted as one. After getting the advice from mother, the next few days, he manages to get all the stroke calculation correct. Well done Ethan....

His drawing

For us this was a surprise as this is Ethan's first drawing that mother had noticed. It was part of his school homework. We never think that he can draw. We were please that the school had taught them how to draw.

Mini Sport Day

Yes, finally Ethan gets to join the school event. These few days we did hope that everything was smooth sailing. We went to market to buy the bread for today sport day because we need to arrive at the field at 7.30am.

We managed to arrive on time but the sky was gloomy. There was a small rain drizzling as we parked our car. We brought along two umbrellas just in case. Luckily the rain stopped after awhile. At 8 something all the children need to straight file according to their team based on the color of their sports wear. There were few kids leading all the children marching into the field. After that, National Anthem, State song and school song "卫理幼儿园. The two warming up exercises had been danced by all the kids and including the parent participant before the sports events started.

There were several games played by the children like "Wild animal race", "Recycle game", "Drinking game", "Gunny sack" and the last game was the "Tug of war ".

The school stopped the game for the kids to have some drinks

The last game needed the parent to participate. According to daddy, Ethan was afraid when daddy was pulling the gunny sack.

After the game every kid has been given a whistle plus a bubble from the school. We went back home to let Ethan have a bath before we headed for lunch.....

More homework

Ethan had been back to school this week. Mother felt that after the school started 2nd semester, the homework he brought back became more and more. Sometimes one day he needs to finish 4 books of homework. In 1st semester, he seldom brought back homework. Even there are some, they are only one or two simple homework but not now. Guessed the kindergarten have been speeding up the teaching material after the kids had enjoyed 6 months of honeymoon periods.

Last time he can finish all the homework before he takes his nap time but not now. He will not finish the homework even already 2 something in the afternoon. Mother will ask for his opinion whether he wants to continue to finish it or wait to finish after he wakes up from his nap. His 100% choice will be to wait until he wakes up.

Now the homework is increased but his speed is still slow like a snail when he does his homework. Hoped that he can improve it later.

Parent and Teacher interview

Today is the last day of the school before two weeks holiday. No school today because the school is conducting the parent and teacher interview. We brought Ethan along so that he still can meet up with his friends in the school. Because it was raining so mother asked daddy to park nearby the school before the main entrance of the school but the daddy said it will block other parents who want to drop the people in the school. But immediately we saw other parents directly parked inside the school. Mother asked daddy to see and he was speechless. Some parents don't care about other and they only want the convenience.

We headed towards Ethan's class teacher and we were given Ethan's progression Report. We were told by the teacher that Ethan is the number one amongst the morning and afternoon class. We did not expect that they got 36 students in the K1 class. When Ethan saw his progression report, he did not have any facial expression at all. Mummy had some discussion with the teachers while daddy and Ethan went to see his school art work and writing which were posted on the board.

After we finished the conversation, we went to QBM to have our lunch.

Short discussion with prinicipal

Today mother had a short discussion with Ethan's principal when dropping Ethan to school. We discussed about Ethan's progress in the school.

Mother asked about Ethan's attitude to learning, the feedback was good compared with his first few weeks at the school. He learned and socialized with his friends. The principal said Ethan is a bit perfectionist as she observed from his work. She said he erased the color he was putting on the test paper, at first she thought that maybe he answered the wrong question but "NO", his answer was correct only that he did not want to use the same color as the other questions.

After he erased it, he will choose other color. Mother told the teacher is it like that? As per mother observation Ethan is really poor in coloring, he did not like to color or do art at all. All he likes is the number. Mother told the teacher that Ethan already finished learning multiply and now mother is considering whether should teach him the division or not.

The principal said since he likes the maths a lot, why not let him go and learn the mental arithmetic. Mother's response was don't want to put any pressure on him. The principal observed that Ethan's physical movement is not as good as his peers. Mother knew that since he is a self protective kid. When he knows the movement will harm him, he will not do it. The principal said even his physical side is poor but recently he was trying very hard to finish all the movement requested by the teacher. The principal conclusion was Ethan is very smart in brain works but the physical side needs to be improved.

The evaluation result

Today Ethan came back from school with some junk food and presents. Mother thought that it was his classmate's birthday party again. Well, not this round. He told mother that all the things were given by the teacher. Asked whether is it everybody got the things? He said no because he is the only one who get the sharpener from the teacher. We were asking why then he only informed that student get 100% will entitle to get the present from teacher. For him whether get the present or not, he seemed like not having any special feeling at all. This is because when mother went to pick him out, he didn't happily announced that he scored all the subjects and gotten the present from his teacher. He just kept quiet as if nothing happened. If we did not probe him, we would not know what happened. From what we observed, whether he scored or not, he seemed like "tak apa".

Mother was glad that he had done the evaluation on his own without mother doing any revision with him. It proved that he really learned in the school. At night, daddy asked whether want to reward him for such a good result. "NO" was the answer from mother. Mother doesn't want to let him have those thinking that 100% mark in test will get reward. Mother doesn't want him to have the think of learning with a motive. What we wanted is to maintain his current "tak apa" thinking then he will not have any pressure in learning and also facing the exam in future.

Back to School

After resting two days at home, today finally mummy gave the green light to go back to school. Don't know whether this fellow got rest so much in the house when mother claimed that he need to go to school, he uses his hand to put on his forehead and told mother that he still has fever. Now he knows how to use the excuse not to go to school. Of course, his plan did not work out. He still had to go to school. We used the paper mask to cover his mouth as he still have some cough.

When mother went to pick him from school. Mother asked him about his school test. He gave back the answer "I don't know". Mother knew that he doesn't like to talk about his school things so his answer always don't know. Mother had been asking him, do you know what is examination or test ? He gave me the blur face. He doesn't know the meaning and mother also lazy to explain to him. Just let it be. He doesn't know means no pressure on him. Mother doesn't want to pollute his thinking yet and let him enjoy his childhood.

Something will happen....

Don't know why each time when come to school exam, surely got something happen to Ethan. Last time he got the HFMD during the second day of the test. This round, he got flu, cough and fever the night before his second day test.

At first, mother still drives him to school but on the way mother felt his body heat is up and up. So mother has to turn the car back home. Mother called up the school to inform the teacher regarding Ethan's situation. Teacher asked Ethan to rest at home and she will get him replacement test when he comes back to school again....

We hope that this situation will not happen in future .....

1st Semester Evaluation

So fast that it was nearly half of year 2010 had gone by. Next week Ethan's school will have the evaluation for the 4 subjects i.e. BM, Chinese, English and Maths. The school has given the parents the scope and the area of the evaluation.

Got revision from mother? Of course not. Mother wants to know what Ethan had learned from the kindergarten. Helped him to do the revision will not know how much knowledge he had absorbed in the school. Let him try his best on his own....

No photo from us

Today when mother dropped Ethan at the kindergarten, teacher asked whether Ethan has informed his parents to bring the photo of mother and kid. Ethan had forgotten once again.

Gone home, mother had to drag out the photos that we have developed. Shame to say, we did not develop the photos after we were back in Malaysia and also mother seldom took photo with Ethan. Now what did mother do. Mother dragged out the old photos which we had developed when we were still in Shanghai and provided to the school. Hope that the school don't mind.

Miss the school outing

Today Ethan was supposed to join the school outing to the park but unfortunately he fell sick a day before. Mother had to call up the school to inform that Ethan cannot join.

We brought him to see the doctor after that. He had mild fever, slight flu and cough. What a bad day for him....

The school sports wear

Finally it arrived last week. Mother had kept on waiting for this sports wear. The main reason is mother no need to rush to wash his school uniform everyday. The kindergarten requested the kids to wear sports wear every Wednesday as the kindergarten will have some exercise activities for them.

This morning mother had to take Ethan to the school since daddy had an early meeting. The teacher felt relieved when she saw Ethan wearing the clothes as the teacher was worried that the clothes is too small to fit him.

How he learn the spellling

Today, mother let him write on some exercise book since mother got it from Popular Bookstore promotion. After he finished writing the number in words suddenly the question mark flipped through mother's mind whether Ethan knows how to spell the words after he had written it?

Mother just simply asked him, can he spell the number one in word. He surprised mother. The mother continued to test him for the subsequent numbers in words. He amazed mother again. Mother asked is it that he learned to spell in the school ? Yes and he sang part of the number song to mother. Yup, he learned to spell the numbers in word through singing. Mother was pleased to know that the kindergarten teaches the kids to learn through playing game and singing a song.

His first song

Finally he knows how to sing and remembers the lyric of the song. The kindergarten had taught the kids how to sing a song according to the the words that they learned. We were surprised when we heard Ethan singing the song. We think that we had made the right choice of putting him into this kindergarten since he is very happy. Once in a while he will surprise us constantly with what he had learned.

Registration for Standard 1

Time flies so fast. This month of March, it was time for Ethan to register his primary school. We have chosen the school nearby our house.

Mother told him that we will register a new school for him today, he was afraid that he will need to change his current kindergarten. He said "no" to it and we have to explain to him that this school that we are registering is for his standard 1. He still can enjoy his current kindergarten for another one year plus. We told him that after the age 6, he will not be in kindergarten anymore and he is a big boy.

We came to the school at 1pm plus but the security told us that the office only open at 2.00pm. So we went to the supermarket to buy some stuffs before we came back again. Daddy needed to fill the form and passed over to the admin office and it took about 30 min to finish the whole process.

Unexpected situation

The situation changed so fast. This week Ethan had an attitude problem in the school. The teacher had a short discussion with mother few days ago. Ethan had been throwing tantrum in the school. We don't know why he suddenly became like that. Last few weeks he was happy in the new school but this week thing had changed. Too fast.

The teacher asked whether is it that Ethan hates doing homework. Well, if compared with the previous kindergarten, mother thinks that this new school got less homework. Mainly because Ethan never bring back homework to do. After short conversation with the teacher, the comment from teacher was to ask the parent to talk to Ethan and try to find out what is the cause. Well, not really gotten any answer as Ethan doesn't like to talk about the things at school. When we asked him about his school, he just kept silent then the parent started to ask is it like that or what, then he will respond a bit. We are all guessing and we did not know what is the true story.

Right now, mother had to ask the teacher everyday whether he throws a tantrum or not. Well, the second day he was Ok then the third day he threw the tantrum again but only on particular subject. Really headache.

Currently, we will monitor him for a certain period, if the situation still persist then we will find a way out. Maybe will get advice from the doctor and we really hope that we need not have to go down to this stage.

At the end...

In the end, not much revision had been done because mummy doesn't know what to do. At first mummy just read the book like what mummy did for other story books. So only two books. The rest gave up. Just let it be. Guessed the kindy teacher should have done some revision with them. Hope so....

Let him be happy at home since already so much academic at the school.

Party in the school

One notice had been inserted in Ethan's school bag regarding the party in the kindergarten. Parents are requested to provide some food. The first thing that mummy think about is no junk food for him to bring to school. So mummy went to supermarket to buy two bags of raisin.

So far Ethan has been receiving three bags of junk foods from his classmate's birthday since he went to this kindy. In the end, all the junk food had gone to the parents' stomach. We did not let him eat it. So far he only get to choose to eat the lollipop but he never finished it.

No offense or hurting feeling to those Ethan's classmates' parent. Knowing that all of you have been kind to give the goodies and share the happiness of your kid's birthday but mummy disagree to buy junk food and distribute to the kids.