I admit… being a mom is not a joke… worse, a mom with a preschool child. I just can’t believe that there are kids outhere who are just so smart that even on the second week of school, they’re already reading their second book!
Here’s the story. On the first week of school, the teacher took all my boy’s books, except the two books (one is the Commnication Book from the teacher to the parents and the other is the Book 1). I didn’t know that for the first week, you have to teach your child how to read what’s in the Book 1. So, on the second week, last Tuesday, I happen to see and hear this one Chinese boy reading out loud his book to his teacher “Bubbly and Whizzy” something. I was amazed! How did he do that? Well, more like, how did the parents teach him how to read?
After school, I happen to browse thru the boy’s book. And then I realized I haven’t been teaching him or reviewing with him coz the book has a note that says introduced but not recognized. So I started reviewing his book. One more thing I discovered that they’re teaching the kids how to read by memorization. How in the world can a three-year old child read “who” and “this?” (What’s more with Bubbly and Whizzy?)
So being a stage mom (got this term from a stage mom friend Lalaine) that I am, I started reading with the boy. Today, Thursday, I was very proud that my boy could read “Who is this” already and so I told the teacher to ask him to read. The teacher was still busy with the other child so I watched them. And I got more upset when I learned that the child who was reading was reading his second book already. And my boy could barely read the first three pages of his book!
Is that boy a real advanced kid or my son is just real slow?
Anyways, I’m taking up the challenge. My boy must learn how to read. What a pity though… he’s only three years old and he’s already expected to read “This is Bubbly and This is Whizzy.” Well… I have to go to Kinokoniya bookstore again and browse thru their teaching-your-kids-how-to-read section.
Our purpose in sending him to school was more on having a social interaction with kids his age. What happened to my purpose? Well, that’s a reality that I’m glad I have learned early on. We actually planned to send him to school at the age of 5 last time when he was still a baby. But it changed coz we noticed that he’s far… way far behind with his social skills. And am I glad we send him now. At least he won’t really have a hard time catching up later on.
Nowadays, standard of education and level of intelligece are different than last time.. like decades ago. Decades ago, at 3 years of age, if you can recognize some letters, you’re already considered advanced… (like how I thought my son was three weeks ago. LOL)
Anyways, I don’t wanna push him. I just want him to enjoy his preschool days… and yet, I don’t want him to be behind his classmates. I appreciate some tips from Moms who have/had preschoolers too (am talking about Moms who have preschoolers this decade).
Looks like I’d be ranting more on my boy’s progress these days. So please bear with me.
