It's back to school.. after a month's off.
Zara to Standard One in a Chinese school and Zaria back to her kindergarten alone.
♥Zara♥
We went to school for orientation last Friday, to pay for her fees, collect her text books (from government) as well as to buy her work books.
The headmaster then had a communication session with the parents, while the kids got familiarised with the teachers.
The school is not too huge in size, there are 320 children in Standard One, out of which 80 are Malays (and our goverment is still in denial, not building enough Chinese schools).
She's in a class with 38 others.
The amount of books she has is A LOT, so we had to get her a huge trolley bag (those of you with Trunkie, you can consider using that too. :P).
After orientation, I asked her, "So how? Are you ready for Standard 1?"
Zara replied, "I don't think I'm ready yet."
I asked her again, "Then how?"
She replied, "Well, I don't think I can go back to kindergarten, so I'll just have to handle."
Big girl in deed.
(And no, her school doesn't have the horrendous toilet mentioned here, they have squatting toilets which are pretty clean)
She doesn't know anyone in her class, although some close friends of hers are in other classes (Standard 1 and 2); but this girl is sociable and she makes friends easily. I'm more worried about her Chinese than her ability to mix around.
1st day of school, she's fine, even started swapping snacks with a friend she just got to know during recess. :)
♥Zaria♥
Seing how much there is to Standard 1 (the big bag, the books, the coaching that Daddy is giving Zara on her BM), she said, "I don't want to go to Standard 1, I want to be four years old forever!" o.O"
Asked if she wanted to go back to school, she said, "Go to school go to school, how many times more do I have to go to school? I like holidays more!" o.O"
But no fuss for her when she went to school, happy to meet her BFFs.
♥Daddy♥
Worried.
He only realised on the day of the orientation that there is no more English maths nor science, and Zara will be doing both subjects in Chinese.
How is Zara going to know the English terminologies? When all Chinese in China are trying to learn English, here we are sending our kids to learn Chinese.
These are his comments.
Do we have any alternatives? Malay school? Private school? But still these subjects are taught in Malay.
International school? Can we afford it?
♥Me♥
Tired and Worried.
I have 1 attending school in morning, and another in the afternoon.
And a lot of people think working from home means you have all the time in the world to do all these chauffering, or homework coaching etc etc. As if.
Anyway, I'm doing some car pooling with neighbours.
I'm not trying to be kiasu, but the pressure is there; and because Chinese is not a language she's comfortable with, am worried if she's going to be held back due to the language.
Anyway, we shall see.
Zara to Standard One in a Chinese school and Zaria back to her kindergarten alone.
♥Zara♥
We went to school for orientation last Friday, to pay for her fees, collect her text books (from government) as well as to buy her work books.
The headmaster then had a communication session with the parents, while the kids got familiarised with the teachers.
The school is not too huge in size, there are 320 children in Standard One, out of which 80 are Malays (and our goverment is still in denial, not building enough Chinese schools).
She's in a class with 38 others.
The amount of books she has is A LOT, so we had to get her a huge trolley bag (those of you with Trunkie, you can consider using that too. :P).
After orientation, I asked her, "So how? Are you ready for Standard 1?"
Zara replied, "I don't think I'm ready yet."
I asked her again, "Then how?"
She replied, "Well, I don't think I can go back to kindergarten, so I'll just have to handle."
Big girl in deed.
(And no, her school doesn't have the horrendous toilet mentioned here, they have squatting toilets which are pretty clean)
She doesn't know anyone in her class, although some close friends of hers are in other classes (Standard 1 and 2); but this girl is sociable and she makes friends easily. I'm more worried about her Chinese than her ability to mix around.
1st day of school, she's fine, even started swapping snacks with a friend she just got to know during recess. :)
♥Zaria♥
Seing how much there is to Standard 1 (the big bag, the books, the coaching that Daddy is giving Zara on her BM), she said, "I don't want to go to Standard 1, I want to be four years old forever!" o.O"
Asked if she wanted to go back to school, she said, "Go to school go to school, how many times more do I have to go to school? I like holidays more!" o.O"
But no fuss for her when she went to school, happy to meet her BFFs.
♥Daddy♥
Worried.
He only realised on the day of the orientation that there is no more English maths nor science, and Zara will be doing both subjects in Chinese.
How is Zara going to know the English terminologies? When all Chinese in China are trying to learn English, here we are sending our kids to learn Chinese.
These are his comments.
Do we have any alternatives? Malay school? Private school? But still these subjects are taught in Malay.
International school? Can we afford it?
♥Me♥
Tired and Worried.
I have 1 attending school in morning, and another in the afternoon.
And a lot of people think working from home means you have all the time in the world to do all these chauffering, or homework coaching etc etc. As if.
Anyway, I'm doing some car pooling with neighbours.
I'm not trying to be kiasu, but the pressure is there; and because Chinese is not a language she's comfortable with, am worried if she's going to be held back due to the language.
Anyway, we shall see.
oh dear, i feel for you....science and maths in chinese? does that apply in chinese secondary sch too?? then what happen when they sit for SPM? it'll be in BM rite??
ReplyDeletei think i had mentioned it before, do check out Sri KL's Cambridge Primary Programme...i believe it should be "affordable" for you and daddy...but then again, zara might be able to handle chinese science and maths in due time :)
Don't worry. Children were like sponge. They will pick up new language in no time.
ReplyDeleteMy younger bro went to Chinese medium kindy last time. Then my mom saw me suffering so much attending Chinese medium primary, she decided to switch him to English primary school. After that only she realised her son doesn't even speak a single word of English. :P According to my mom, my bro pick up very very fast.
But it is true, why are we learning all those things that we won't even use once when working?
I hope you, Zara, the daddy, Zaria will be coping well...
ReplyDeleteWe cant fuss about it. Just have to go through it!!!
i can foresee ur girls is those clever and fast learner, shouldnt b problem !!
ReplyDeletehope the girl doing and adjust it well ...:P
i m in the middle of choosing sch for Jeremy, age 5 hv to start register right !!!??? time really flies .....................
The books....OMG, quite a LOT! My Jo should feel blessed (or i should feel worried) as he has less than 5 books here.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your gals will do fine. I don't like the fact that the books are super heavy but then, I realise that Brendan has learned a lot in his first year in chinese school. Few months down the road, we didn't need to coach him anymore as he does his homework on his own, with some help from the daycare teachers.
ReplyDeleteI think Zara will grow up to be likeable by all and famous :-)
Eyes rolling wide at the piles of books in Zara's bag!!! I 'd reckon Chinese medium is important now, foreseeing all the countries on earth trying to have good connection with china due to its economic spurt! Both you and your hubby can coach her in English, shouldn't have any problem for her then!;D
ReplyDeletehappy Schooling to Zara!
understand about your worries. Anywhere, let see how she cope with it. You will have better view then.
ReplyDeleteyeah I have the same thots as your hubby with regards to our school system, when Chinese in China are sending the kids to learn more English. We are going backwards.....
ReplyDeletecheck out the books, aiyo... kecian kids nowadays, nasib for the the trolley bags... worried man, woooooooooorried!
ReplyDeletedont worry much. 船到桥头自然直.
ReplyDeletebtw, what a good idea to full use the trunki!! LOL
Do you know T1's books are DOUBLE that of your pic??? We had to carry an extra bag cuz it wouldn't fit into her already very large trolley bag!!! RIDICULOUS!!! Even I couldn't carry it!!!
ReplyDeleteFYI, our school is teaching Maths and Science in English, not Malay. The kids will not be doing UPSR in Standard 6 but taking the Singapore Exams. Fees are plus minus 15k per annum, but budget for 20k. The standard of English and Math is very high though and the kids do struggle.
Agnes, there's another choice- Homeschooling from Grace Resource Centre or Cempaka (USJ), both are organised by church. They are so much cheaper than private/international school and they're using American syllabus, but the drawback is they don't have a teacher to teach in the class, hence the students must be very independent and self-motivated! You can google it to find out more!
ReplyDelete*sigh* you know how I feel about all this already....
ReplyDeleteThat's a lot of books for Std 1. My daughter who is going to Year 7 has about the same amount of books. Hope she doesn't need to carry all the books everyday.
ReplyDeleteZara is such a mature and smart girl - she'll surely adapt well.
ReplyDelete80 Malays? That's 1/4 of the total Std 1 students! So many!