Fast Forward

I was reading my friend Jessie's blog that day about her daughter's 'graduation' from Kindergarten and it just dawned on me that it's the end of the school year already in Singapore. Most students would have started their school holidays by now. When school starts again, it will be the beginning of a new school year.

For children born in 2002, it will be a new milestone for them, as they all start Primary One next year. I couldn't help but think about my KK. If he is still in Singapore, I would have attended his Kindergarten's graduation concert and be admiring the photograph of him wearing the mortar board. I bet I will be very excited for him, helping him get ready his new school uniform and school bag.

Regrettably, he missed all that when he moved to Australia. Interestingly, he seemed to have followed in his Mummy's footsteps. I too missed wearing the 'graduation' gown and mortar board when I switched to a private kindergarten towards the end of K2.

KK did a 'Fast Forward' when he came here as he joined a Primary School. In Victoria, children his age attend what they call 'Prep', which is the year before they start Grade 1. From 4 hours in K2, his school day became 6 hours. He also has to take his lunch in school, which makes it very difficult for me to ensure he eats well.

Being part of a Primary School does have some advantages though. He gets to use many of the facilities of a full-fledge school, such as a Library, Art Room, Gym, which a kindergarten would not be able to provide. The socialisation with a variety of teachers that take them for different subjects and the exposure to a larger group of students of different ages also helps to expose him. He now knows how to buy lollies from the canteen, attends assembly every Monday morning, plays some ball games during Sports and has a Library book to borrow every Thursday. He's also gone on swimming lessons and a farm excursion organised by the school, in addition to many other themed events such as "Olympics Day", "Italian Day", "Dress in your favourite book character" day.

From a baby to a toddler to now, a boy, KK seemed to have grown up a lot in the last year. His mannerism and communication is not so "kiddish" but more "boyish", (if this makes sense?) though he still wails like a baby when scolded by his father. His reasoning and logical thinking skills are developing, from the way he rebuts us sometimes. And his reading skills has definitely improved by leaps and bounds. I remembered he was still struggling with basic words like "am", "are", "at" just before we moved. But now, he is able to read almost 90% of the words in the books that he takes back from school everyday. His school has a reader system where the child brings home a different book in his "reader bag" everyday to read. The next day, they will take turns reading it again to a parent volunteer. In fact, Hubby is one of the parent doing reading with the kids in his class every Friday.

Shall end here. For all parents sending their child to Primary One next year, all the best for the transition!