Enriching my son

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 me to different interests. However, I decided to let my son take the lead in certain non-crucial areas.

One example is music. I asked him many times if he was interested in music, but he had always shown lukewarm interest. In fact, one time, he told me, 'I don't want to be the music guy. I want to be the science guy!' Nevertheless, he did consistently mention that he was interested in violin and the trumpet. And my mother was also asking me to send him for music classes (actually, he did have music enrichment lessons in kindergarten, but it was not focused on one instrument). So at the grand old age of nearly seven (a late starter, compared to other children), he is learning the violin. It is only at the trial lesson stage (he has to go to four lessons before we need to confirm). It seems like it is a very popular instrument to learn - many of his friends had learnt violin (but gave it up). Even his primary school is offering group violin lessons. We have decided to review his interest after his trials. Hopefully, he will continue. But we intend to have an agreement with him that once he starts, he must continue for a certain amount of time (probably at least to the end of the year).

A photo of him swimming - but not in APS.

Another enrichment he has is swimming. Now, does that sound very similar to my path? LOL! He attends APS (Aquatic Performance Swimming, not Ang Peng Siong) swim school every Sunday. This is after almost two years of individual swim training, which turned out to be a bit disappointing. Now that he is in a group, he seems to have progressed faster. I think the peer pressure has gotten to him. I am now quite confident that he will survive if he is pushed into the water. And no, I am not going to test my theory.

While he has improved, he has a long way to go before he can achieve anything. I wonder if he will ever even match me in swimming. Not that I have achieved a lot of swimming glory, but at least I was in the school team and had participated in the national inter-schools swimming competitions. I do not expect him to be on the school team, I just want him to enjoy swimming. It was a disappointment that his school had announced that will not be a swimming carnival this year. I hope there will be one next year.

So there is it, his two enrichment classes. Both of my wife and I do not believe in sending him to every enrichment lesson there is. I know many people who seem to send their children mindlessly to every single enrichment class these is, as long as it can fit into their schedule. We prefer to let him try out these trial classes and then tell us if he is interested.

Of course, we do enforce certain classes if we think is necessary. He was in gym classes and a general sports programme before. He eventually drop out of these programmes, due to many different reasons. But we did ensure that every time we signed him up, he completes at least one full term.

One thing I do know was that the enrichment classes I took did play a major part in eventually deciding my ECAs. I wonder if this is true for him.