It is not a myth – Some kids really like to study.
I remember as a kid, I enjoyed going to school, completing my homework and even assessment book homework given by my tuition teacher. It’s something my little brother cannot fathom because he absolutely hates them. He often tells me, growing up, that I belong to a rare species of mankind who enjoys studying. Now that I have kids of my own, I’ve realised that while not every kid would enjoy studying, there are some who actually loves it very much.
Little Jayne has been complaining that she doesn’t get to do any homework (since she is still in Kindergarten 1 this year) when her big sister slogs over her homework every night. You should totally see Joey’s expression whenever Jayne complains - ‘You don’t know what you are asking, baby sis.” So, to make it fair, I bought assessment books for her to work on every night. Some friends exclaimed when they heard that – Assessment books at K1??!!!
It’s actually not that surprisingly because I have friends whose kids are in K1, and they are already in tuition and enrichment classes. In case you are still unaware, kiasu-ism is a generally accepted norm in our society. In fact, I’ve been given looks of disbelief and disapproval too many times, because my kids attend zero classes, whatsoever.
Anyways, Jayne was really thrilled that she now has some serious work to do every night, instead of just coloring and drawing. She takes pride in it and even marks her homework herself. I think she secretly thinks that being a teacher is cool because a teacher gets to mark homework, with a red pen no less.
In case you are wondering, her assessment books are all pretty simple stuff – Matching similar objects, coloring the bigger object between the two, counting number of items etc. The real motive is really just to pass time, but if she gets some form of learning from it, I’m happy of course.
It was a pleasant surprise though, when she was flipping through her Chinese assessment book, that she could point out some words and read them without a problem! I was very impressed, indeed. Looks like some serious learning does take place in kindergartens after all.
Now, if only she can keep this level of enthusiasm for learning, when the REAL homework arrives in approximately 1.5 years’ time when she enters Primary One. Heh.
Linking up:
