Day 30: PLMC Covenent Kindergarten

Had an appointment with PLMC Covenant Kindergarten's Mrs Soh at 2.30pm. AN had to miss her nap because she woke up late and would not have felt sleepy by noon to wake up on time to leave for the appointment.

I like our Convenant Kindergarten. I've been to our church of course, and am very familiar with the compounds. I just need to find out more about the nursery classes. If AN DOES get in, she will be schoolmates with Elijah, or very possible even classmates. I like the environment, peaceful and shady. There is space, LOTS of space for the kids to play during playtime, and even classrooms are spacious and air-conditioned (it's important coz AN perspires a lot, just like her daddy).

Unlike that of Cambridge in which school is a whole day affair (children are given more time for everything because they have the whole day there, or at least 6 hours), Convenant Kindergarten's time table is solely made up of lessons and kids need only to be in school for 3 hours at most. Snack time is shorter by 10mins (AN is a slow eater...I don't know how much she will be able to take in 20 mins). But then again, because she will be coming home to me in the next couple of hours, I do not really need to worry about her going hungry.

Can't really decide on which to put her, if we happen to hear good news from both sides.

I like it that AN gets to learn to be independent in Cambridge because she will not have me by her side for the whole day, and she gets to interact with kids. I like how Mrs Cheah described Cambridge's teaching style, and a half-yearly report of how individual child is learning and socialising. There are only 10 - 12 children at a time in each level as compared to 20-25 in church (effectively, it's 1: 4 at Cambridge vs 1:10 at Covenant given that there are at least 2 teachers in class at a time, not including a chinese teacher when it's chinese lesson time).

And because she will be in school for most parts of the day, chances of her ending up aimless and getting hooked to TV and laptop will be way minimised.

But I really like our church environment, and of course the 20mins of devotion time when they get to learn about creation and our Lord Jesus. AN knows Jesus died on the cross for us. She sees crosses (either made up of X or +), she will naturally go: "Jesus died on the cross." That day, she went into details and told me while pointing at the 2 intersecting lines: "This is where Jesus' head is and there is his legs at the bottom. They pin his hands onto the cross, and it's very very painful you know?"

I was amazed by her description because it's been a long time since we talked about Him. The bible stories I told her did not have details like that. She probably saw these on youtube and remembered it till now (the last time we watched anything related to Jesus' crucifixion was some time near Christmas last year).

Back to Cambridge vs Covenant, also due to the fact that she will not be away from me the whole day long, I can personally be responsible for her upbringing, to correct her at the first sight of something she does or says that is not right. Good teachers try, but they do not bring up children the way parents want them to grow up to become. Is this not my duty for staying at home? But will I do a good job with an infant, and a preschooler? It's 1:2 at home (me vs the 2 kiddos) as compared to the very ideal 1:4 at Cambridge.

We really need to pray about this.

AN is excited about going to school. She's been asking when she will get to go to school and tells everyone she's familiar with that she's going to "secondary school" whenever we meet (it's "nursery" but she's stuck to using "secondary").

And since we came back, she's learnt some Chinese!!! Yesterday, she asked if I could speak Chinese and I told her I can. She then replied me that she only knows her "Jiao(3)". I went "huh?" and she pointed to her legs. So cute! I then asked her where her "Shou(3), Tou(2)Fa(3), Yan(3)Jing(1), Bi(2)Zi(3), Zui(3)Ba(1), Er(3)Duo(1)" are and she got them all right, except her ears (Er Duo) where she looked blankly at me. And when I asked her about her "Tou(2)", she pointed to her toes (hehe) thinking I was asking about toes. She knew "Tou(2)" refers to her head and remembered it the next time when my mum and Mr Liow tested her. I know it's a little late for her to learn these, but better late then never. hehe.

And then she started chanting 1-5 in chinese to my dad's amazement for the first time, then me in the room soon after. It's my fault I've never taught her even numbers in Chinese, so we (Mr Liow and I) started chanting 1-20 in chinese with her trying to catch up with us (like a game, as if I was competing with Mr Liow).

It's scary coz Mrs Cheah at Cambridge said that the principal at her daughter's school, during the 1st parent-teacher meeting for Primary One, informed the parents that they will not be teaching students number words from 1-20 and the students are expected to recognise these words by the time school year starts. And her daughter was at a neighbourhood school. I have no idea how slow AN is but she definitely needs more catching up, at least in her chinese, to be somewhere near kids who grow up in Singapore!

Welcome us back to Singapore where it's paper-chasing right from a tender age of 4. hehe....