All About Your Child

This coming Monday, ((OMG! Did I just said ‘This coming Monday’?!?!)) Keatkeat is going to the Big School, for a length of time which is DOUBLE of what he spent in Kindergarten. During the Primary One Orientation, the principal mentioned some of the most common fears of parents of Primary 1 students:-

1. Fear that their children will get lost in the BIG compound.
2. Fear that their children do not know how to buy food for themselves.
3. Fear that their children will not fit into the new environment and start crying.
4. Fear that their children will not get ‘enough’ attention from the teachers, now that the class is bigger.
5. Fear that their children do not know where the toilet is.

My fears? My worries, are NONE of the above.

Because of Keatkeat’s motor skills, I fear he might drop the plate of food while trying to struggle to hold the money, wallet, spoon, fork or chopsticks. So I have been training him to get the sequence right.

Pay first – Take Change (if any) – Check if Change is correct – Put Change into the wallet – Put wallet into his pocket – Take utensils (spoon/fork/chopsticks) with left hand – Hold plate/bowl of food with right hand.

**I intend to give me more loose change so that he can give the exact amount.

During training, I tried to ‘add a little weight’ by putting tiny balls of paper. He still drops something, somehow. I cannot imagine if he is holding a bowl of macaroni soup!!! *heart sank*

So I told him, worse come to worst, take the bowl/plate of food to the table first, get his *buddy to look after, while he goes back to take the utensils. (*an older student will be assigned to every Primary One kid during the first week or two at every recess.)

NEXT…

I am worried about his nose. As usual. All my ‘old-time’ readers know the battle I had with his nose for 7 months. The battle needed 3 posts to FULLY expressed how much ‘struggles‘ Keatkeat and I had gone through.

It took 7 months – the Beginning
It took 7 months – the Progress
It took 7 months – the Finale

Though its been ‘Solved‘ then, its different now….

He can no longer run to the sink, everytime he sneezes, like he used to when he was in Kindergarten. The sink was INSIDE the classroom.

My boy has an issue whenever he wipes his nose with tissue paper. He wipes it across his face!!! Mucus is like rouge across the cheeks! *faint*

I have corrected. I have demonstrated. I have held his hand and guided him the ‘right’ way of wiping (for ONE year) but he still does it ‘his‘ way! *faint*

Other then making himself untidy, he sneezes MORE! *eyes rolled*

Only when he washes his nose, does he truly stops sneezing.

The toilet is far from his Primary ONE classroom. It is just unimaginable, if he had to keep running in and out of the classroom just to get his nose washed.

*Deep Sigh*

My Worries are truly Like NONE Other…..Hhmmm…

Doesn’t he look like a big boy now in that Primary School Uniform? Aaawww… my boy has grown so much!

Last Saturday we went for his Primary One Orientation. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime.

He was led to a classroom where he was accessed, while we were at the hall addressed by the Principal.

After 2hours, we met up again…

Keatkeat: “Mommy, so did you guys had fun?”

Me: “Yup! Did you? What did you do?”

Keatkeat: “Yes. I do 10pages of worksheets. Many spellings. Then I draw something too.”

Me: “What words were you asked to spell?”

Keatkeat: “Clock, Frog, People, Chair, Ball and… I forget already.”

Me: “So do you know how to spell them?”

Keatkeat: “My teacher very nice. She say ‘Good Try’.”

My sis and I exchanged looks. We know very well what does ‘Good Try’ meant. Its just a nicer way of saying ‘You have Failed the Test.’

Indeed, when I asked my boy to spell the above words, he could only get 2 correct. Yup, that’s his standard, just like what his preschool teacher said in my previous post.

So that is how the newbies of the Primary school are being separated into their different classes since a few years back. The smart with the intelligent and the slower ones with the need-more-time-to-coach students.

I would not be surprise if my boy landed up in the latter class. Like I have said in my previous post, it does NOT affect me, so long as it does not kill his eagerness to learn. *smile*

***Dear Friends, these weeks have been a roller coaster ride for me. Now that school holidays have started, my ‘own‘ time-table is greatly adjusted. Hardly have time to blog or even blog hop to your place. So sorry… Once I get the new momentum, I’ll definitely leave a footprint over there…