My son's exam - my stress or his stress?!

Finally my son's exams are over. Phew! It does sound like I'm having exam too, isn't it? Anyways, those 3-4 weeks of review were quite tiring. In fact, it was definitely harder on my son, Ryan who had to go thru 2 to 3 rounds of tuition plus school everyday. In fact, he was asking for the tuition teacher to come in the morning session before he went to school and right after school. After that, it was followed by my session with him. You see, the tuition teacher and I split work. She took up all subjects in Chinese and I took English and Bahasa Malaysia. I focused quite a bit on BM - going very slow, word by word making sure he understood each word. I wasn't expecting him to remember all but at least 80%... that's quite demanding too, I guess. Towards the last week and exam week, I did a lot of practice with him using KSSR workbooks and UPSR workbooks. I thought like what I used to do in SPM, practice makes perfect and hopefully, the teachers would use some of those questions from the published workbooks. I know that in my days, my teachers used to copy questions from different workbooks to make up an exam paper.

A word of warning though. Don't rely on workbooks that mention on covers that they are on KSSR syllabus. Some publishers just used KBSR books and put a cover saying that they are KSSR books. The syllabuses between KSSR and KBSR are very different. You know what I did? I used my iPhone and snapped my son's text book's content page and then, went to the bookstore and check the workbooks book by book before I bought them. 

So, what I did was, after reviewing a few topics on text books, I gave him practice the same topics on a few workbooks. I aim for repetitive learning. Within reach was a dictionary which I train my son to use. So, it was a very slow and painful progress. When exam came, I found that Ryan had quite some confidence. I'm very happy. I'm not expecting 100% but an above average grade will do so that at least some subjects will help to pull up his overall grading. 

On the last day of his exam, I rewarded Ryan with 2 sets of encyclopedia which he loves. This time, I bought him encyclopedia in Malay language. I found it by chance in Sogo. I'll take some pictures and show you next time. Too comfortable now in bed, blogging. 

Actually, I was pretty much in dilemma just before his exam. I knew I pushed him very hard and he has been a good boy trying to please me by studying hard even though he was very tired. I felt very heartsick to push my 7+ year old like that but I asked myself if I had a choice. Two days before exam started, Ryan said to me just before bedtime that he was very worried. Worried what if he couldn't do well in his exam. Worried what if he didn't know how to do. I told him to try his best and try not to make careless mistakes. He told me that he wanted to be a good boy and he wanted to do well. My sister in law also just told me that Ryan told her that he was stressed a few days back. I felt really bad. Have I pushed him too hard? I told him that he has improved a lot already. Even if his results are not as good, he has already improved. He can always try to do better in the next exam. My husband told me to relax a bit. On the extreme, we don't want him to get depress like those children we hear in the news who went into extreme actions like committing suicide. That got me real worried. Straight away, I sms-ed the tuition teacher telling her not to push too hard. I relaxed a bit on my coaching method as well. And I prepared a reward on the last day of exam to boost up his spirit. Actually, it wasn't so bad. He was pretty confident with BM and English. So, let's see... the results.

I don't know I was lucky or not that I don't need to coach Raymund and Rachel. At last minute, about a 2-3 weeks back, there was a notice that MOE abolished exams for preschoolers. I'm not very sure I'm that happy about that. I feel that these children will get quite a shock when they move to primary school. My son Ryan has gone thru both environments - kindy with exam and without exam. I feel that kindy with exam is preparing preschoolers better for primary school. They will have enough shock going to a new school .. much bigger.. stricter ...and definitely, with teachers with less personal touch and care.

The Best English-Malay-English Dictionary for Kids..that I have found so far!

I've got something to share!
And yes! I'm probably one of the most irregular bloggers ever. Just the same old song... if only I have more time of my own.

I was browsing in the bookstore the other day. For some reason, I remembered a friend of mine was looking for English-Malay Malay-English dictionary for her 6 ear old son. So, I decided to browse along the dictionary section. My son is currently using Oxford dictionary for English-Malay-English references. Not exactly ideal as it is meant more for older kids and adults. I've been revising with Ryan on his Year 2 Bahasa Malaysia syllabus for his very-soon-to-come exam. To instill some interest and memory, I've been asking Ryan to look up words that he doesn't know from his dictionary. My kids' English is ok but their Malay is horrendous. With the Oxford, I felt that the words used are a bit too 'adult'. I'm looking for one which is for kids who are starting to get familiar with the language.

So, I was browsing. And I picked up this Collins dictionary and decided to flip thru a bit. To be honest, I always have preference for Oxford despite everything that I have said and I have always viewed the Collins is not exactly on par. It is that brand thing that gave me that sort of impression. No particular basis really. So, flipping thru, I actually liked what I saw. I wouldn't have appreciated it if I had not started revising with Ryan on his Year 2 Bahasa Malaysia. I went to the Malay-English section and found that the dictionary is meant for young readers. For each Bahasa Malaysia word, it indicates KATA NAMA (nouns) or KATA KERJA (verbs) or KATA ADJEKTIF (adjectives) etc. For example, for certain words like KATA NAMA, it proceeds to explain the meaning of the word and then.. gave an example of the usage of the word in a complete sentence... and not just that, it also proceeded with variation into KATA KERJA with examples on the usage of the word and so on. I should have taken a picture of the inside/content. Regret! I was so tempted to buy but Ryan has a dictionary already. I didn't but I'd like to share with you if you are looking for one.

It is not the regular Collins dictionary. Look for this one.

COLLINS EASY LEARNING
ENGLISH-MALAY BAHASA MALAYSIA-ENGLISH DICTIONARY


If I remember correctly, it costs RM39.90 thereabouts. You can find it in all major bookstores. I saw it at Popular Bookstore and Borders.

Hope this helps.

Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre for Chinese & Bahasa Malaysia Enrichment

I have discussed at length on Bao Bei a while ago. You can check out this post 'Just Checked Out BAO BEI Reading Wonderland (Chinese Enrichment for Age 3-10)' for details. 


My friend told me that a comparable and perhaps better Chinese enrichment is this centre called Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre or 葉老師創意教學中心. I decided to check it out today.







Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre is not operating a franchise. This was one of the 1st questions I asked when I got there with Raymund and Rachel. I prefer that it is not a franchise. At least there will be more consistency in standards and offerings. 


The selling point for Teacher Yap CLC is that the teaching focuses on full attention 1 to 1 learning for children aged 3 to 12. They stresses that the learning levels depends on the child's capability. For the very basic level, they will start with big flash cards with simple to hard chinese characters. They will use interesting interactive ways to teach the child to absorb and remember the characters. The basic level also includes reading the Odonato 'red dragonfly' series. I have written about these Odonata book series which comes in series of 100, 200... all the way up to 1200 characters recognition. According to the facilitator, the founder Teacher Yap had put together various compilation of chinese characters initially for her own 3 kids. When she found that it worked on her kids, she proceeded to set up the Centre to get young children ready for Primary and thereafter. The Odonata is the reading series supporting the flash cards piece. The centre does not believe in teaching children long sentences and pushing them to go for difficult reading. Like Kumon and Enopi, children will know and familiarize before moving from level to level. The methods, they say, are very simple and easy to understand and fun to increase absorption. The teaching comes with some fun activities like drawing and such. At the beginning, the kids will be given 'homework' which they will need to complete in class. The focus is yet again on 1 to 1 teaching. The facilitator also stresses that it is important for us parents to talk to our children, particularly in the language that they are learning. Coupled with what they learn at the centre, it would be easier for the kids to apply, understand and speak. 

Interestingly, the Centre also provides Bahasa Malaysia enrichment. Parents get to choose to go for either 1 language or both. The teaching remains 1 to 1 as is their focal point. For BM, the basic level starts of with sounds and suku kata and so on. The aim is to get the kids ready for Primary KSSR. BM and Chinese syllabus for Standard 1 today is not what it used to be. In my time, what they are studying now in Standard 1 was our Standard 3 syllabus. Poor kids! It is no wonder that us parents are frantically starting our kids young. The stress on the young children! And a great investment opportunity for those who pursue their career in offering enrichment for children. 


Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre has centres in Sri Petailing, OUG, Bandar Kinrara, Bandar Puteri, Bandar Mahkota Cheras, Kota Damansara, Taman Segar and Taman Equine. The first centre was in Sri Petaling started in 2007. The contact is:


Sri Petaling: 26-1,Jalan 14/149L, Bandar Baru Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-9059 5991 / 016-2155 377




The minimum number of lessons per week is 3 and up to 5. Each lesson is 1 and half hours. Depending on whether you pick Chinese or both languages, it will still be 1 and half hour each lesson. 


Their fees structure for now looks like this:


  Registration fees = RM100
  Material fees  =  RM50 for 1 subject   or RM100 for 2 subjects


  For One Program, One Teacher  (ie. 1 language)
     3days/week  12 lessons/mth   = RM300 per month
     4days/week  16 lessons/mth   = RM350 per month
     5days/week  20 lessons/mth   = RM400 per month


  For 2 Program, 2 Teacher  (ie. both Chinese and BM)
     3days/week  12 lessons/mth   = RM350 per month
     4days/week  16 lessons/mth   = RM400 per month
     5days/week  20 lessons/mth   = RM450 per month




If you are interested in this, hope this info helps.


I have yet to decide as I have a main problem since I'm not a SAHM. Timing and Transport!! Sigh!

My Sons First Days in School, My Eldest in Standard 1

I had a very nice 2 and a half week break but it's never long enough. My husband was also having a break at the same time. It was good. We had some quality family time, fixed up what needed to be fixed in the house. I felt it was a very fruitful break at least where my family is concerned. I extended my leave to cover the 1st week of Jan... naturally, it was because it was the 1st week of school.

Ryan is in Standard One this year and Raymund for the 1st time will be attending kindy alone. Quite a change and my husband and I were pretty worried, particularly with Ryan. You see, my kids are really 'bananas' or what the chinese will call banana people / 'siang jiau ren' which basically refers to people who are yellow on the outside (Chinese) and white on the inside (amoh). I speak excellent cantonese, but I'm totally hopeless in Chinese. But my husband is a Baba so his Chinese is also 'koyak'. Hence, home language is purely English. Why am I worried about Ryan? We sent him to Chinese school... there is no way I can help... and what's more his school is very strict and obviously very Chinese. Yak Chee has proven record and I was also told by some that if the kids do wrong, they will get caned. Sigh! Biting the bullet and looking on the bright side, he will get disciplined.

We attended Ryan's orientation on Fri 31Dec. Everything was in Chinese! Briefing and even between students and teachers. Ryan got scared and worried. I supposed it was also my fault. My worries had channeled to him. He lost confidence in his communication as everyone were speaking chinese and he wasn't familiar with money, how to buy food from canteen. He kept telling me over the weekend that he didn't want to go to the school. I realized then that we were giving him alerts on areas of his weakness rather than encouragement. Big mistake! We changed tacts. We started assuring him that we will accompany him on his 1st day and that his friend (neighbour's daughter) is his classmate. So, nothing to worry.

In the morning, we checked out Raymund at his kindy Year 5. He went to school in his school van and we went later. He was real steady. Playing with the toys and so forth. More so because his friends from Year 4 moved with him to Year 5. Gave him some hugs and assurance. We told him we will wait for him at home. Cool as cucumber!

Then we rushed back and took Ryan to school. The school is very strict. They let us stay till the students got to the classroom and then ask us to leave to come back during recess. And then leave again to come back later and fetch them back. Us parents ran about like monkeys on a rainy day (of all days!) but frankly, I'm very assured. Assured that the school knows what they are doing and the facilities are ok. Still worried coz all his classmates are fluent in Chinese. Not him.

My husband and I decided to watch by the side and guide in on his 1st day. He paid for his food. He went to find his seat. Washed hands after eating. All by himself. In fact, he was half ignoring us - very proud that he knew what he was doing. Ryan actually feels embarrass when his daddy and mummy goes to his school even when he was in kindy. Cute really. We let him try for himself and pointed out when he was not sure during recess. At the moment, I was quite pissed with other parents. They cut queue and elbowed their way through the Standard One kids and bought stuff for their kids. No doubt that they are worried but is that the way? My husband and I were then quite appreciative that the school was strict enough to shoo parents out. We were only allowed to accompany our kids on the 1st day, with so much restrictions. We decided not to fetch him back from school but to take his school van instead. The van was familiar to him as it was the same one he took to his kindy. Now guess who was worried after that :) My husband and I were out of the house waiting for the school van at 6:15pm till he arrived at 7:20pm.

He came home proud. Declared that he can now speak Chinese - flashed a few simple sentences in Chinese though it sounded like amoh. We played up that confidence and saying 'Wah, Ryan is big boy now and in Standard One'. Works :)

The next 2 days, we watched for depression and signs of unhappiness. So far, steady. People advised me to talk to him after school. We did, asking what he did, what his teacher did with him and if he made new friends ... again played up that being Standard One is something that he can be proud of. He was proud and said he likes his new school and he knows how to speak Chinese and English now. Not bad.

I know I have to continue to monitor him as 1st week is very light and easy. His usual tuition teacher is also on standby to help him. Chinese school is well known for homework and homework and homework. And they are all in Chinese. Sigh!

I'm not the only going thru this. I felt that the Indian and Malay parents I met in Yak Chee are very brave to put their kids in a Chinese school. Takes guts, plenty of it. I met a Malay father in school with his Standard 2 daughter who proudly told me that his daughter had 80% for his Chinese assessment last year. Gave me hope :) even though Ryan is not a very fast learner unless it is something that he is very interested in like science :) Talk about this later.

Going on next post and next topic now :)

Joanne

Chain Post #2.. Then Comes The Panic!!

Fingers were depressing the panic button... and still not letting go. When do mothers normally freak out like that??... I would say it's usually something that involves her beloved precious children.

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.

Phonics or Words Recognition... and Sight Words??

I learnt something new... and all from this new kindergarten parents briefing at SuperFun Learners. If you have been following my blog, I have always been trying to figure out whether Phonics or word recognition is the better way to teach my son English. My husband and I came from the old school as with all of us in our generation. We used to read and memorize and horrifyingly used Malay Suku Kata to help us pronounce English words. We didn't have Phonics. To this day, I hear friends pronouncing English the Malay way - eg. 'auto' as 'owto' (imagine suku kata). So, my hubby has been arguing with me about why not teach my son our way and here I am trying to tell him, Phonics is the way now. Then, the struggle came when some words do not work with Phonics. How? I used word recognition. I got Ryan to memorize with writing and spelling. Works well. But I was still confused as to the right method.

Guess what, the kindy briefing to parents answered this question for me. The good news is that I have not been wrong in teaching my son BOTH Phonics and Word Recognition. As we already know that there are some words that don't follow the Phonics rule. And my husband has always been saying that there are also words that he should already know without attempting to blend the sounds. And of course, I'm also arguing that he still needs to learn Phonics so that he can read new words. We are both right. We learnt from the briefing that there are SIGHT WORDS around. If you are like me, still trying to figure out what works best for our kids, then this is an eye opener. The English teacher in the kindergarten explained that preschoolers will learn Phonics, sound blending AND over and on top, sight words.

What are Sight Words? There is a comprehensive definition in Wikipedia (just click on this link) or you can Google for more. But here is a short and sweet one here. Sight Words, sometimes referred to as the Dolch Word List, are some of the most frequently used words in English. Once upon a time, before I was born, a guy named Edward William Dolch introduced a new way to improve the way reading was taught to new readers (mostly preschoolers to young children). He compiled a list of words that cannot be pronounced phonetically or even illustrated in pictures. But these words >300 in all are words that comprises about 50-70% of any reading materials, particularly children's books. There are 220 'service words' making up of pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and even verbs... plus another 95 common nouns ... all arranged by grade level. Sorry, I have given back to school the definition of some I have just mentioned :). In short, this is just common, frequently used words in books, that must be taught by sight, ie memorize. But by itself it cannot use in isolation. It is a supplement to balanced reading program. Hence, Phonics is important too. arguably, some says that there are words in the list that are no longer frequently used words since this was created in the 1940s. To me, who cares!

What prompted me to look this up. Of course, the kindy teacher answered my question. Then, I was looking up to download a Sight Words application to my new iPhone. The applications in the iPhone have brief description about this Sight Words thingy..then one thing leads to another... I checked it out further and now blogged about it. If you have iPhone, I suggest that you take some time and download Sight Words Flashcards too. It helps when you can flash it to your kid as and when ... like I did it to Ryan in the restaurant today. My kids find it cool to touch the screen and move the flashcards too. Makes the learning a bit more exciting.

I found a site that gives me all >300 words in a page, printable. Sharing with you. Click here.

Ryan's Home Tuition Going Well

Ryan has been having home tuition for 2 weeks now. His tuition teacher previously his 5 year old class teacher has been very diligent in coming to coach my boy. Hardworking lady who said that she is trying to earn more besides her permanent job as a kindy teacher. This is the 3rd week already. Last week, Ryan had an intensive one since she was available - Mon to Thurs, 2 hours each. It started off with 1 and half hours per lesson but since she has to teach both Chinese and Malay, the timing was a bit stretched. Perhaps she was also trying to be a bit more hardworking while benefiting my boy, we have agreed on 2-hour lessons. Min 2-3 a week depending on her availability until she gets her kindy schedule for 2010. I'm ok with that as Ryan is still on holiday. Earlier, we agreed on RM35 for 1 and half hours and she prorated for me for the 2 hour lessons. I have seen some good in the lessons and I don't want to be too calculative. I rounded it to RM50 for 2 hours and hopefully keep her happier to do a good job in coaching my boy.

In fact when Raymund is ready in half year's time, I intend to get him to join in as well. Nothing is better than personal attention. And now that I have started work, it is difficult for me to allocate time for my kids' studies. And, I'm pretty comfortable with this teacher simply because:

1. No ice breaking - Ryan already knows his class teacher
2. She is a kindy teacher. She knows what and how to teach preschoolers.
3. Most importantly, she knows how to handle young children versus asking university students to give tuition
4. I know her too. So I'm not too worried about having a stranger in the house while I'm at work.

While I left the coaching to her, I did in fact told the teacher what worked for Ryan when I was coaching him before. I told her about his behavior, how Ryan catches on - which is normally the day after. It is quite enlightening. What appeared to be difficult lesson to Ryan on a day - when he was having difficulty remembering, absorbing - became almost like a piece of cake the next day. There was no revision in between. It could be that subconsciously he had already absorbed earlier but was too tired and jumbled up to respond. It was not just a one off occasion but almost always like this. The teacher also realized it recently.

I have arranged this tuition mainly to drill on 2 languages - Chinese and Malay. But because I don't have as much time, I have asked the teacher to slot in some English Phonics reading during some lessons. I have many English Phonics books like the Clifford Fun series, the Big Book series, some short easy to read stories, etc. And to make sure that the Chinese and Malay are more or less structured, I bought quite a few reading books as well as practice workbooks. A good place to get these is from the Popular Bookstore. I've got the Sukukata Malay series from there too. Cheap and relevant - a set of 8 mini books costing about RM5+ each book. The Chinese ones, I went by publication. Sorry I am Chinese illiterate and have no idea what the kids nowadays are supposed to know at kindy level. I got some from Pelangi and so forth. The teacher said that they are good. Phew! I will take some pix another day. Too lazy now :P

To facilitate the learning and adding a bit more spice to it, I prepared colouring pencils, handheld white board and marker (Ryan loves this), exercise books (both square (medium in size) and lined exercise books), cards (for flash cards) etc for them. I told the teacher not to be too strict on homeworks as I don't want Ryan to be stressed up. Moreover, his 6 year old kindy class will come with quite a load of homeworks, I was told. When kindy reopens, I have asked the teacher to go through his kindy books and lessons to help him reinforce his learnings as well as to help him with his homework. I'm so glad that at least that part is settled. Hope it works out well. I'll have to coach my kids still - but wait till I get fully adjusted to my time. I intend to advance my son in Maths and English... and then there is Raymund who will start school now.

Ryan's 1st Home Tuition Today

Ryan just had his 1st Home Tuition day with his ex class teacher. Initially he was 2 hearts when I told him about his tuition. He was excited to have his Teacher come to his house but his holiday lazy bones were getting the better of him :)

Turned out good, I would say. I put them at the 'study area' that I prepared in my family hall upstairs. I prepared exercise books, paper and pencils for them. I forgot about the color pencils ;p. I have already got some Malay and Chinese reading and workbooks from Popular bookstore. They were really cheap and practical. They got into study mode almost immediately. I could hear them downstairs. My 2 younger kids were a bit noisy. I didn't want to distract the learning upstairs and so, I got them to play in the room downstairs instead. Little Raymund was eager to join him. He thought it was fun. To him, going to school and seeing teacher means he will get balloons. You see, Ryan came home from kindy one day with a balloon. He told his brother that his Teacher gave it to him. That's why Raymund got that idea :) At the same time, I think he feels a bit left out and wants to learn too. Good start! I didn't want to stress him yet - definitely not ready for home tuition. Instead, I have begun some basic prewriting exercises, shapes and colors with him. I'll blog about it later.

After today's lesson, the Teacher told me that she has to start from scratch. I agreed with her as I wanted to strengthen his foundation 1st. The same with Malay. I'm happy with today's outcome. His Chinese characters looked a lot better now. His Teacher was particular that he writes better. Believe me, his writing was atrocious before!!

Anyway, the lesson lasted 1 and half hour as agreed with the Teacher. She is charging me RM35 for each session. We are arranging for 2-3 (or sometimes more) times a week going around her busy schedule. I don't mind more since Ryan is on holiday now. As long as he enjoys his lessons and benefits out of it :).

Another thing I forgot to mention to his Teacher. I don't want her to give homework to him. I know practice makes perfect and I so believe in it. But he already has E.nopi homework and come next year, his new kindy will be loading him too. I don't want him stressed up. I have to constantly remind myself that he is still a little 5 year old boy. He is tall and big for his age. A good half a head taller than the next kid in his class. And he is the eldest amongst his siblings. It's so easy to forget that he is still a very small boy.