Transiting to Primary One is a big deal for kids. It's the beginning of formal education in Singapore and for many of the kids, it's their first encounter with serious and intensive studying. Apart from the kid feeling the stress and heat, the parents usually get stressed up and nervous as well, especially if it's the first time for them. I started this series to document the chronological order of events, my intimate thoughts and emotions on this journey, and it will continue until Joey settles down in Primary One. Hopefully, as we go along, the posts would become more and more positive and encouraging. I do believe in that. :)
Monday
4 February 2013
12.02pm
I don't know how many of your kids are like mine (I'm hoping all), but Joey and Jayne are both very well behaved and obedient in school. I say that with a tinge of jealousy because they obviously are not like that at home. Well, at least not all the time.
Every meet-the-parents session is a minor shock to me because the teachers would praise the girls to the skies, go on and on about how obedient they are, how well they take instructions, and especially for Joey - How she has great leadership skills and would execute the teacher's instructions to the dot, and would make sure everyone else does too. The first time I heard that, I thought it was common for teachers to be positive about a kid's performance and generally leave out the not-so-good stuffs, but I overheard the teacher's conversation with another kid's parent and realised it was not the case. =P So, it seems like my girls do generally behave well in school - In other words, different from when they are at home.
Something to do with respect for authority? Hard for me to swallow that theory because it only meant that I carried no authority on me. Darn.
Anyway, this manifested even greater now that Joey is in Primary School because everyday after school, I would be screaming and yelling for her to bathe, eat her dinner and take out her homework, in that running order. It can be very frustrating when the girl's eyes are glued to the TV (having been deprived from it the whole day, and out of my MIL's kind-heartedness, had switched it on immediately when she reached home), and the fact that she responds to my (high-pitched, bordering on hysterical) only 20% of the time. After a hard long day at work, that's hardly what I look forward to. I whine to my hubby, "That's my least favourite part of motherhood." and I mean every word.
Then out of the blue some time last week, Joey came home with a look of mission in her eyes and declared as-a-matter-of-factly, that she needed to get started right on her homework because she's got 1 English worksheet and several pages of Maths workbook to complete, plus a full page of sight words which I was supposed to test her on. She announced that she didn't have time for dinner and certainly, no time to bathe at all. She got right into action at the table, forgot about TV and got started on her homework.
I was frankly, impressed for a moment.
Turned out, Joey's Form Teacher had told the kids in class that they have to remember to finish their homework when they get home, because they are all to be handed in the next day. It was a casual passing remark, and possibly just a gentle reminder by her teacher, but to Joey, THOSE WORDS WERE GOLDEN.
And obviously, they weighed much heavier than my incessant daily nagging. Ah well, I'm not exactly complaining. Whatever works. Whatever.
I am perfectly alright if the Form Teacher's words were important to my little girl. But the biggest blow came when she came home another day and did the same because her school's LIBRARIAN told her to do a book review of the books she had borrowed, seeing how she had been an avid borrower and reader so far. That was not even a proper piece of school homework that needed handing in! It was merely a 'CCA' if I could call that - Something for her to do during her leisure time! Yet, she conscientiously did everything she was told.
Seriously, what's the world coming to? My daughter listens to the Form Teacher and the school librarian, but NOT ME?
A phrase that my mum used to use on me jerked right back into memory, "不要把我的話當作耳邊風！"
Whatever you sow, you will surely reap. How true.
