It started off on Friday... a lovely day, had a great lunch and some satisfaction in my work areas. Then the phone rang at 3pm!!
"Good afternoon, this is Teacher A from SFL kindergarten. I'm calling with regard to Ryan. He has brought home the new set of text books and exercise books, 13 in all. Pls help him write his name and wrap it all up in plastic .. and then bring them back to school on Monday..."
I was thinking... either that was a very good 1 to 1 teacher-parent service ... or that is NOT the reason for calling. Here comes...
"At the same time, can I request for your help to assist Ryan with his alphabets and numbers? He doesn't seem to know the sequence about what comes after what. Not too much about numbers but more so the alphabets. We need your assistance as our syllabus will go very fast starting next week and your son may have a lot of difficulty otherwise."
Puzzled. "What do you mean that he does not know alphabets? Can you pls give me a good example?"
"I asked him to tell me the missing alphabets in a sequence and he couldn't do it."
"Could it be that he was nervous?" I said... heart beating faster already.
Immediately after this call, I placed a call to Ryan's tuition teacher. I told her to check him out. She was his Eduland class teacher last year and she was pretty surprise when I told her that. She assured that it could be that Ryan was nervous at that time.
6+pm. I was on the way home, hoping to catch the tuition teacher before she left. I called her to make sure. She told me that Ryan REALLY does not know the sequence of alphabets! WHAT!! I have never focused on alphabets when I was guiding Ryan in the past years. All these time thinking that his kindy Eduland would have taken of that well. Imagine my horror! What has his kindy been doing? How come no one there picked this up? And it has to take a new teacher in a new kindergarten to pick it up within the 1st 5 days of school? What happened??? I have some insights alright... coming up later.
Then came Panic #2. I saw the new books! The syllabus are so advanced.. for all 3 languages. The English and Chinese are into short stories. English going into grammar. Math in double language - English and Chinese. My worry was mounting. I showed it to the teacher and she too was surprised. Ryan was just into a little bit more in sound blending in Eduland/Beaconhouse. As for Malay, Eduland/Beaconhouse was only introducing basic Suku Kata which all students were still wishy washy at the end of the year. Do you know that the books are already into narrations/stories and the respective language's basic peculiarities?? If I have to guess, it looks like Ryan is at least 1 year behind!! Who wouldn't panic!
I did some desperate moves. My husband and I agreed that he needs some intensives to pump up his foundation. Did these...
- Got his Tuition teacher to follow the new kindy's syllabus instead. And to reinforce his kindy's teaching and help him with his daily homework. Forget about the leisurely pace of revisiting Year 5 Eduland/ Beaconhouse work! The Tuition Teacher asked for more $$. We agreed but until Ryan stabilizes. Can't take the cost and I'm open for other options later.
- Signed Ryan up for Cambridge English For Life today. Joined the 3rd term JE1 class, instead of JE2 to brush up the foundation
- Stopped temporarily his GlobalArt classes since Cambridge is also on Saturday. It's heavy enough for him
- Tell myself to make time for Ryan every day, at worst every other day, to reinforce his alphabets and numbers
Panic #3. Did the alphabets with him after dinner today. He was really upset. He was not confident with the alphabet sequence or even able to say the name of the alphabets smoothly. Poor boy. I hugged him good after the lesson and explained to him that he has to put in a bit more effort.. otherwise, he would have trouble in class. I had a discovery. He had absolutely no problem reading out the sounds of the alphabets but not the name of the alphabets. Thinking back, I remembered that Eduland insisted that they teach and concentrate on the sound of the alphabets instead of the name of the alphabets in Year 4. I remembered that this was one of the contention I had when I was considering whether or not to let my son continue for Year 5 in Eduland/Beaconhouse. The kindy convinced me that they are different from other kindies who goes A ..(a sound) , apple....and that their method is much better so as not to 'confuse' the children. See what happened?!! Probably I would not have spotted this if I had not decided to change kindy for Ryan. I'm just thankful that I'm still able to do something about it before he goes to Primary school.
I do not want my boy to suffer at this very young age. Truly upset and hoping for a miracle.
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