When I was in Primary 1, all we did was simple stuff such as learning ABCs and mastering counting. I also remembered learning simple words such as cat, dog, bird etc.
Times have changed. Actually, all our lives have changed since Kyle entered P1.
It seems that nowadays, P1 kids do much much more than in my time. There are tons of homework, corrections to do and spelling quizes to learn each night!
He has Eng spelling on Wed and Malay spelling on Thurs. Mind you, the words he has to learn are not so simple. For example, for his first spelling test, he has to know words such as screamed, paddled, rolled...quite the kind you learn in Pri3, right. And for Malay, he has to know words such as pakaian seragam sekolah, kelas darjah, tempat meletak kereta! Wow really big and long words. Me and hubby were baffled.
On top of these, he also has reading logs to do, show and tells, Maths mental sums, and he is also involved in a CCA, called Passion in Action. The theme changes each term. This term's theme is music, and after the 1st session, he came back asking me why I enrolled him in singing classes. Hee :)
Each night, hubby would go through with Kyle his homework, and I will do the same with Kyra. After assessing the high standards the school has for Kyle, I am getting worried for my girl, so better for her to start early. Thank goodness we started early for Kyle, or else I think he would be quite stressed with all his work.
So far, I would say my boy is doing not bad at all. He has already aced a couple of spelling tests, and most of his work is at least at 80% and above. He is naturally bright and is a quick learner.
Hubby has very high expectations of him and I worry as I do not wish to stress my boy out. And hubby is so confident that his son will do well and will enter the best class each year. I advised him not to set standards so high, as it might fire back. If Kyle does not do well, will hubby be super disappointed? Just that day, Kyle scored 8/10 for spelling, and hubby was like, huh, how come? Why not full marks? I told him that was the wrong way to react and he should be encouraging further and not show disappointment.
Anyway, at the moment, despite the loads of homework and learning to do, my son is adapting to school very well. He has so many friends, judging from all the goodbyes he gets when we sometimes fetch him from school. He talks about his friends candidly and enjoys the toys he can buy at the school bookshop. Oh yes, he has discovered the joys of money :)
His Atok spoils him a lot. We give him $2.50 a day, and Atok will smuggle in an extra $1-$2 in his wallet. Our friend is of course delighted and comes back each day with a new toy or eraser. Because of this, Kyra is now looking forward to P1 hehe.
