All About Your Child

We went for the teacher-parent meeting today. Two words – 100% Satisfaction!

Keatkeat’s English Teacher’s Review:

I expressed my concern (as written in yesterday’s post) to her and I wondered if my 5year old is a different kid when he is in school. I am soooooooo happy to hear that other than lack of concentration, Miss W is often impressed with Keatkeat’s creative expressions and constant willingness to participate.

What’s TRULY REWARDING was this:-

I have been trying all sorts of method to get him interested in reading and boost his memory in words that he had learned. To me, its a simple principle, Kids Learn Best in What Interest Them. I know he is interested in internet games and watching TV.

So over the past month, I saw improvement in him. Whenever there is a pop-up window on the screen, he would ask me to read. In no time, he recognises and remembers the words. So now, words like ‘Games‘, ‘Play‘, ‘Cancel‘, ‘Exit‘ have become his ‘friends’.

But I still do not know how can I bring in more words into his vocabulary.

Yesterday he was watching Ninja Warrior. As the whole show is in Japanese language, he had only the subtitles to fall back on. For the VERY FIRST TIME, he attempted to READ ALOUD!!! Amazing!!!

He has always been a Thinker. Though there were words he was not familiar with or saw them for the first time, he was ABLE to ‘guess’ correctly! In order to form the entire sentence. I’m contended.

So after hearing all of that, Miss W said “Maybe Cheng Keat belongs to the type of kids who are born-leaders. Someone who has their own ideas, own reasoning and do not waste time doing meaningless things. Hence EVERYTHING that he does, or spend time on must be for a purpose or to achieve a goal.”

Whoo-hoo!!! I was so thrilled to hear this! You know, how you can have mind-block after several tries on one thing and nothing seems to work. And now! Finally you hear something different from what others say. This is like a chain broken off from my struggling body! OMG! This is So Exciting!!!

And so she suggested that I start him off with a Journal! Hey hey, that was a FANTABULISTIC IDEA!

So this is how its gonna work:

Whenever he is excited about something, I’ll get him to DRAW, he loves to draw. Followed by  a sentence to say why was he excited or on what he drew. At the same time, I will be able to get him to repeat that sentence in Mandarin words. Hence he gets to learn BOTH language!!! Yippee!

On top of that, he can practise his motor skills and indirectly learning new words and spelling! That’s Killing SO MANY Birds with One Stone. I am Jumping with Joy!

So I’m all ready to start him once I get a book of his choice from the bookshop. The more he likes the book, the more he would want to fill up the pages. I used to have a drawing book for him, he finished the book in a week! *laugh*

I CAN’T WAIT! *huge grin*

Binbin’s English Teacher’s Review:

The review that I’ve been waiting for all week! The very first time an outsider spending hours with my boy almost every day. I wanna hear ALL that she has to say!

“Cheng Bing has no problem expressing his feelings, his ideas and his tempers too.  He has very good social skills, able to mix around with all his classmates. He doesn’t really stick to particular few. He may be over-expressive towards his friends whereby he will SCOLD his friends when they do something wrongly, or when they didn’t keep their toys after play; but he is never rude to teachers. He has a very common pose whenever he is angry. (She imitated. Putting hands on her hips, shook her head and went “Tsk Tsk”.) Always willing to participate ((Oh boy talking about that! Remember my post about him being the ONLY ONE Dancing in class, while other kids in class were seated, when the teacher started to sing?!)). The only concern, which is not a real concern anyway is lack of concentration, which is rather common for his age.”

Bottomline is, Binbin is no different in school as he is at home. And I love that!

She was giggling half the time and so were we. *giggle*

Keatkeat’s (6yrs in Nov) and Binbin’s (4 yrs old) Chinese Teacher’s Review:

She saw what I witness every day— Binbin is more superior than his elder brother in many ways.

“Cheng Bing can remember what I just taught, but Not Cheng Keat. Even after going over 4 to 5 times with Cheng Keat, he still can’t remember. Cheng Keat’s mind often wanders off . During every lesson, I have to ‘call his soul back’ so many times, but for Cheng Bing, all I need is 2-3 reminders and he can pay attention for a longer period. What really surprises me is Cheng Bing’s pronunciation of Chinese words is so much better than Cheng Keat’s.”

None of what she said surprised me. Then again, every child is different, each to his own. Remember my post yesterday? I’ve stopped putting expectations on Keatkeat and I’ve stopped comparing them.

One thing she concludes for me: I am NOT wearing a pair of ‘bias-spectacles’ to look at my two boys. ‘Cos I was accused before that I favour Binbin more, hence saying that Binbin’s development is better. Oh well, so now I’ve got a supporter that what I say is True. *wink*

And FINALLY!!! After more than half a year, the school has a principal!

*clap clap clap*

Yesterday, my MIL was especially pissed when my 2nd BIL and SIL didn’t come over for the usual Sunday gathering. MIL forgotten that this week was exam week for my eldest niece and it is a common practice that the family DO NOT COME OVER during exam week.

Being the only child, all hopes are pinned on her, and so is pressure. *sigh* 2nd SIL insisted that she told my MIL, but MIL can’t recall. Lots of food remained untouched during lunch and she didn’t like it; even though NONE of us minded eating the same yummies again for dinner.

I’m not a parent who is very academic focused when it comes to my kids. I did pretty well in school, I should say, but it was because I had NO pressure from home to perform well. *laugh* Its the same for my sis too. I think this weird genes runs in the family. The only tutor she ever had was because SHE WANTED TO BE TUTORED; whereas most of our friends were sent to tuition centers because THE PARENTS INSISTED.

Keatkeat and Binbin are not in Primary School yet. Keatkeat will be, next year. Then, will I become another person? Will I start giving him pressure too? Will I become like my SIL, not going over for family gathering during exam weeks?

I don’t know. I hope not.

Allan said “No, we should never be.”

I agree. Cos’ the old folks are really old and you never know when will it be the last gathering.

Piority. Piority. What’s yours? Family or not? There is never right or wrong. Life is just full of too many grey areas. If life is as simple as black and white, living would be too boring. Everyone has different piorities in life.

Sometimes you may think, “Oh please, its just for a week, what harm can it do?” But what if that week was the last, will you live with regrets?

I would.