Posted On: Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
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.
Categories: education, motherhood, school
really??they teach the kids to ‘read’ by memorization?I’m quite surprised coz all the while I thought that the kids need to learn the phonetic sounds of the letters first for them to read. Anyways, relax lng..Schenker is only 3 yrs old..:)
huh? ingana na sila karon? ayaw lng ipugos pag ayo si Schenker. Bata pa bitaw sya…moabot jud na na mabasa nya tanan na book niya.
don’t get pressured! coming from germany where kids don’t get any formal lessons before they step on first grade, i feel that the preschool years are better spent developing psycho-social skills. when we arrived here in singapore, syempre, shucks, it’s so competitive. but i talked to the teacher and made it clear what OUR expectations are. i don’t care what other kids can do. what’s more important is that my child views learning and going to school as a positive experience. yung academics, there’s enough time for that later.
by the way, my boy is 5, and is just starting to read simple words. i encourage him to practice, pero i refuse to pressure him.
i think if you nurture the love for learning, mas long-lasting ang impact non.
opinion ko lang.
lab – yeah, i’m surprised also they don’t use phonetics… they must have adapted glen doman’s strategy. i thought i’m the most relaxed mom already, ok? lol.
lagi noems, 3 years old pa lang intawon sya.
ruth – thanks a lot for this reminders. i really needed this one. we actually decided on this already, not to pressure his learning. but when i saw what other kids could do, i panicked already. but you’re right, i shouldn’t care what other kids can do. thanks a lot, ruth. appreciate your feedback.
Hi Janet,
My response to this would be so long that it would be a post by itself.
I didn’t put my little one through pre-school. She went to pre-K though and I have heard of kids being taught how read at a very early age. I felt the need to do so too but you know what happened? My little one rebelled! She didn’t want to be pressured. She was very interested in space, dinosaurs and exhibited interest in learning that’s why I tried but she has a mind of her own.
I can understand that you are being pressured to do so because of the peers but I don’t believe that kids should be forced to learn if they aren’t ready. Or else they would think that learning is traumatic.
My daughter is now 6 and in Kindergarten and she has been doing well. She now has her own initiative to learn how to read and we don’t pressure her. She declared that she wants to be a straight A student.
I hope you will find the best for your child. Each child has a different level of learning.
as long as your little boy is enjoying it, encourage him. i have been reading almost the same books to my little girls since they were a baby, so they got to memorize them, too. pero to push them to sit still and learn at the age of 3, parang hindi yata tama. they also need to learn to play and socialize and be kids.
that’s just too young, kids here just play at school at 3yo. they learn to socialize and interact with other kids..
dont be pressured by your peers, your child is a unique individual with his own curve of development.. comparing him with other kids won’t do you any good, neither to him.
goodluck!
Ay, I have a lot to say about school like that but I am going to make it short: learning is NOT memorization or should I say that memorization is NOT learning at all. Sure, memorization is a skill but decoding or reading is not one of where memorization should be done.
Reading is lot more than just memorization. I have some posts about that in my blog under the learning disabilities I think or you can search the posts by using the search box and clicking on my blog’s name.
here is a sample:
http://teacherjulie.com/2006/10/26/reading-fluency/
Hope you would be able to do something about this.Or look for another school, hehe…
tina – thanks for that. i really appreciate your thoughts on this. thanks for sharing about your daughter. yes, i should find out what’s the best for him.
raq – yeah, he’s enjoying it so far. i read to him the same books that he likes since he’s a baby and he fills out the words that i purposely leave out already. that’s the fun of it.
analyse – it’s good to know about the education system in france. i’m the one that’s pressured with the system here and not him. i shouldn’t be, yeah?
julie – will definitely check out your post about reading fluency. thanks for sharing.
try to teach your boy the alphabets and phonics sis rather than memorizing..it’s the best way to learn on how to read …