There and Back Again

Thanks to my son, I nearly had a brain haemorrhage today. His library card - he gets a stamp for every four books It all started a couple of weeks ago when he went to the library during Chinese period. He borrowed four books and brought all of them home. I looked at the books and discovered that he had borrowed mostly Chinese manga. They were mostly too difficult for him - one of them was actually a comic version of the Analects. I actually attempted reading the book to him, but even I got confused by all the Confucian terms mentioned in the text. I mean I did study Confucian philosophy for 'O' levels. But I did it in English and it was a very unique version - you know, teachings that suited the government were included and those that did not... you get the idea. So, the books were mostly left at home except for one which ended up at my in-law's place and one that went to my parent's place. When it was time to return the books, Old Master Q went missing. M...

This year was the first time my son celebrated Chinese New Year in primary school. A primary school had more resources than his kindergarten, and so the celebration was more impressive. He thoroughly enjoyed the performances and songs. I wonder why the school did not get the both primary and secondary schools to celebrate together. I suspect the scale is just too big. Anyway, here are some videos of the celebration, thanks to a parent who stayed behind. You can vaguely see him if you know what he was wearing. His colouring competition piece At the same time, we went for our normal visiting. He is always so distracted. He dashed to the playground when he reached my 6th aunt's place. Then at my uncle's place, he spent most of his time playing games with his cousins. It is just the usual Chinese New Year visits. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Ask him to go visiting and he ends up climbing rope ladders Spinning battle tops Pla...

Boys Adrift by Dr. Leonard Sax. I listened to the book during my drives You must be wondering why a blog on my son and his educational journey is featuring a book review. It is very simple - I read the book because of my son. Boys Adrift is about the rise of the slacker culture in America. According to the author, Dr Leonard Sax, there is a growing number of boys who end up not doing well in school. Many of them end up as video games addicts that stay with their mothers, cannot get girlfriends and do not contribute at home. I must admit, I was a bit worried about my son. He was after all, an avid gamer. Even though we always set limits on his tablet time, at the back of my head, I was always worried if the limits set were not enough. Before giving a review of the book and how it relates to my son, let me give you a gist of the book. of how the author believes the boys drift away from being functional members of society. The book describes five factors that contribute to this ...

Storm in a teacup A couple of weeks ago, a commotion appeared in the What'sApp chat created for the parents of my son's class. Apparently, one of the mothers accidentally made her son wear the wrong attire. The form teacher of the class then proceeded to call the boy 'blind' for paying scant attention to the notices sent out. The word 'blind' made the mother very upset. Some parents immediately jumped on the bandwagon and said that they will complain about the teacher. A few of us did try to ask our sons if any of them heard the form teacher call him 'blind'. Only one boy actually said that he heard it while the rest said that they did not. Despite the lack of overwhelming evidence, one parent even said that the principal must be notified! I was quite disturbed by this exchange. I even switched off my phone for a while. One of the lessons I have learnt as a teacher is never to believe totally what your child says. It is not because your child is ...

When parents start on the topic of enrichment classes, I always think about the enrichment classes I had when I was young. I had swimming classes - that was something I did well in and maintained my interest in throughout all my life. Not that I swim a lot nowadays. But given the choice of doing a sport, I would probably choose swimming. I also played the organ. It was not something that kept my interest, but my mother made me learn it all the way till I was in secondary school. One benefit knowing the organ was that it helped me in my ECA (now called CCA), the symphonic band. I did a short stint of art classes, and I remembered that I was quite good at sketching at one point. Unfortunately, the lack of practise meant that I returned everything back to the teacher. Now, it is my turn to be a parent and decide on my son's enrichment. I am doing it slightly different from my mother. I mean there are some things that were good - I cannot complain my mother did not try to expose m...