Advanced?

I finally managed to go to my kids' kindergarten and talk to the teachers. First, I went to fetch Jay and had a short conversation with his teacher. I was told that he was quite mature for his age, and understand many things. She suggested that we consider moving him to pre-kindy, which is for 4 year old kids. I was a little stunned. I mean, I knew that my little boy learnt alot, tagging along with his sister, and he showed that he could understand easily and connect things and events fairly well.

 But skip a year and go to pre kindy? I'll have to really think about it. Will he be able to cope? Pre kindy is more study orientated compared to play school - will the process scare him off study? The teacher mentions that play school is more focused in teaching discipline and following the school rules. And she thinks that Jay is ready for the writing curriculum in pre kindy.

My boy will only be 3 years old next month, but he looks and even talks like a four year old. Hmmmm...Here is a list of his achievements that I could think of now. I will update this list, as I remembers them. I think I have to start testing and recording what he does know.

At the age 35 months.

Academics:

1. Recognizes numbers up to 10
2. Count up to 10. - able to do counting worksheets for 1 - 6 without mistakes consistently. (circle and draw a line)
3. He recognizes alphabets that we taught him (I have not exposed him to all the alphabets)
4. Knows colours, shapes and a whole lists of nouns in both English and Chinese.
5. Understands simple questions in English (Is this our house?, Where are we going?, What is your name? etc...
6. Manages to answer English questions (either in English or in Chinese)
7. Recognizes and spells him English name orally.
8. Getting better in tracing lines
9. Understand early science concepts such as long/short, many/little, big/small, hot/cold, heavy
10. Retell or create stories from looking at pictures. (mostly retell)
11. Able to answer simple comprehension questions when listening to read aloud books. (comment from teacher too)

* as I type this, I am remembering that these are in Joy's curriculum last year - when she was in pre kindy.

General skills
1. Drinks from either a straw or a cup. Able to get his own drinks from the Tupperware container (with the touch and let go function)
2. Feeds himself during meals. (really insists of doing this himself)
3. Cycles a bicycle meant for 4-6 years old. (he is tall enough)
4. Getting better in treading boards. Satisfying in threading beads.
5. Potty trained both during the day and at night. Not confident when wanting to pee. He is afraid of wetting his pants.
6. Loves painting with brush, can paint rather well but has no long term patience and concentration in colouring with crayons and especially pencil colours.
10. Climbs up and down the staircase with no problem, even when holding things in both his hands.
11. Takes off pants by self. Able to pull up pants.
12. Sings quite a lot of songs well - either in Chinese or English or BM
13. Knows simple board puzzles, but not confident enough. He always have to ask before he puts a piece in, even if it is actually correct.
14. Getting better in cutting with scissors. And pasting - though he would do it VERY slowly.

Speech.
1. Always surprises us with his questions and answers. I didn't even know where he learn some of the words he used.
2. Relatives has been commenting that the way he talks is pretty mature for his age. He even sounds mature - calm.

Of course, there are some things that shows that he is actually only 3 years old.

1. Not quite interested in printed words yet. He listens to stories or reading flashcards by looking at the pictures.
2. Does not have the patience and concentration to finish writing a page in exercise book in one sitting. But he will come back to finish it, after he had a short 'recess'.
3. Still drinking his milk from milk bottle. (hi hi.... not even sure if this is important)
4. Has the characteristics of the Terrible Twos that I've been reading about in parenting magazines and newspapers.
5. Though able to hold a pencil the correct way, he is still unable to move his wrist, in order to write/trace upwards and downwards smoothly. (he moves his whole body backwards, pulling the pencil in his hands with him)
* I really need to think and do some evaluation seriously. Am going to update this.