School Progress report

We met with both the teachers teaching my son and daughter last Saturday. The chat with Jay's teacher was simple and brief. She commented that Jay is doing well in school, obedient, and mature. Though naughty at times, he is considered very independent. I am glad we taught him early on how to react to the comments about the birthmark on his face. The teacher noticed that he is very optimistic when the little children asked him about the birthmark. His answer will be : "Jesus gave me this to show how much He love me and He is always taking care of me".

Once again the teacher suggested that Jay be put into Kindergarten 1 (for 5 years old) since he is very enthusiastic in learning, but is bored when the teacher had to do repeated revisions on previous lessons. The teacher could clearly see how he is feeling about the lesson : start talking to others, looking here and there, listening to others conversations, and generally the body would slouch. But when the teacher is teaching new materials : he would sit up straight and looked on without being distracted by others. 

He is still a perfectionist. He takes a long time to do his work in school, because he would keep asking the teacher if he did it correctly. At home, he would erase the same word again and again until he thinks the handwriting is perfect.

As for Joy, we talked for almost an hour. The teacher describes to me how she handles her in class and how she reacts to the teacher and the teacher assistant. The gists of the discussion : Joy is now aware of what others are doing and she would expect to do the same activities - or else - she would start doing something out of the ordinary to attract the teachers' attentions. (eg, smear glue all over her head - when she didn't get to do a cut and paste activity) Oh dear! And since she could sit together among the other students, the teacher would sometimes forget that she needs to pay more attention to her. The result? Little Joy would do something to get the teacher to call her. (In the first few weeks, her name was called every few minutes.)

The teacher is now able to call her or ask her to do something without the teacher needing to be in front of her and repeatedly tell her what to do. She could now just call out to her from the other side of the room for her to do something. Yup, I didn't realize this before, but this applies at home. So this is a progress, right?

By the way, little Joy did go to the toilet on her own and returned to her class - all by herself. Once. This is something. I told the teacher to give her more opportunities like this, to get used to the "going and coming back." Another progress is that little Joy is more willing to wait together with the others when it's time to go home. She no longer cries when the bell rings and when she sees others going home. Now they sit in a row outside the class, and she would stand up only when she sees her grandfather or her brother. I am very relieved to hear this.

Anyway, we have the same concerns for her. She refused to talk, and still not writing. The teacher agreed when I express my plan to teach Joy myself in the afternoon instead of sending her to the afternoon class. The afternoon sessions are mostly group activities and all the students need the teacher's attention. I'll have to  think deeper on this, as I do not want to waste time and energy sending only the brother to the afternoon class- leaving me with less than 1 hour to teach her at home before rushing off to fetch the brother - everyday. Just thinking about this makes me feel tired already. sigh... The teacher insists on the brother to join the afternoon class and suggested that he attend the full day (eat, bathe and sleep in school at noon before attending the afternoon sessions). But I am reluctant since my son has expressed his choice of going home with sister. I don't want him to think that we love sister more when we bring her home but leave him in school for the whole day till evening. sigh....  any ideas, anyone?