All About Your Child

Its the 4th day since school re-opens. Some children have stopped crying. Others continued. Kids who didn’t cry previously started to cry today.

Desperation on the parents’ faces of children who haven’t been cooperative since day one were obvious.

Some have chosen another candidate to bring the child to school, while hiding behind the pillar and hoping for miracles.

Rewards were withdrawn and coaxing words have changed to threatening sentences:

“STOP CRYING or I’ll cane you”

“Don’t force me to beat you in front of everyone here. Stop Crying!”

“You are a disgrace! Look! Other children are not crying…”

“Stop crying RIGHT NOW or you’ll ‘get-it-from-me’ when you go home later!”

“Stop these nonsense (kicking and screaming) now, or I’ll LEAVE YOU HERE!”

“If you continue to cry, the teacher will lock you in the toilet!”

HUH???!! Horrible words were already so piercing to my ears. Can you imagine what is going through the little ones’ minds?! As if it wasn’t bad enough, even the Teacher has became the ‘bad’ guy. If I’m the kid, I’ll rather get the cane than to leave me in that classroom with a Monster!

Oh parents, I know your patience have exhausted but please… watch your words…your little one would think that you do not love them anymore….

Too bad, the teacher was too busy with another yelling kid, whose parent had  ‘ran’ away after ‘pushing’ the kid to the teacher; I’m so interested to see her reaction to that ‘accusation’….

I love what Mdm Normah did when Keatkeat started his preschool life 3 years back. She asked me to join my crying son into the class, till he was emotionally stable or when he was too engrossed with the story-telling session; before I ‘sneaked’ out.

For Binbin’s class, some parents just stayed in even though its obvious on the teacher’s face that she would rather handle the crying children then to have the parents in class….

hmmm…..

I truly appreciate the school’s idea of having an hour for the first week. Tomorrow will be the last day for the 1hour class. *Deep Breath* I can’t imagine what would happen next week, when the crying kids have to stay in for 3 hours….

…what will be, will be….

My dear Binbin did not cry again! *Yippee* I didn’t call my MIL today…I just don’t want to make it so obvious that I WANT TO PROVE HER WRONG! *laugh* Thank you Clement for passing me the hammer! *laugh*

Allan and my sister think its hereditary. Nope, not from Allan; ‘cos my MIL said Allan cried for 1 YEAR! (That’s so hard to believe, isn’t it? Oh well, that’s what the lady said) Anyway, they think Binbin has my ‘genes’ ~ the ‘like-to-go-school’ genes… *laugh*

I remember how excited I was when I knew that I’m going to school for the first time. I wanted my boys to have that excitement too. I remember WHY I was so excited and wanted to prepare my boys based on what I’d experienced. But because of my commitment in my retail line, I didn’t prepare my elder one for it, and he cried for the first 3 days.

I must make myself clear: I think its perfectly fine for kids to cry on first few days of school. Its understandable. Yet its preventable when the parents put in some effort BEFORE the child starts school.

I realised it only too late. I couldn’t help my Keatkeat, so I put in my all for Binbin. Guessed it worked… here’s how I did it…

Its a year long preparation. Throughout 2008, I make sure that I brought Binbin along whenever he is woken by his whiny brother in the morning. Binbin saw what it is like to GO to school. What to expect, things like: parents were not allowed to go in with the child; the door will be closed; the windows would be locked. I gave him the MENTAL preparation.

Next, I created chances for him to mix with other children by bringing him to the playground. For those of you who are not aware, Binbin is a ‘people-magnet’! People, be it young or old, black or white, like to approach him, stroke him, chat with him and kids often come forward to ask him to join in their games. (*sad* unlike poor Keatkeat who hardly get such attention) Hence, the SOCIABILITY / ADAPTABILITY preparation.

Finally, whenever Keatkeat brought home an artwork from school or a party-goodies bag because of his classmate’s birthday, Binbin’s eyes were always filled with envy. Or when Keatkeat went for an excursion, Binbin would often say with jealousy, “Aaaawwww…. So Good! And I can’t go!” My response often act as a reminder, “Binbin, when you start school next year, you’ll have all these too and even more. So do you want to go school?” “YES!!!” was always the reply. When a kid is frequently reminded of the ‘goodness‘ of something, their emotion towards it will be positive. And that’s the EMOTIONAL preparation.

To prepare a 2-3 year old kid for something this big needs a much longer time. I would say, I paid extra attention over last year to prepare him for the big day (yesterday)… I’m glad my effort paid off. *hooray*