New Kid On The Blog

My nephew in KL started kindergarten when he was 3 years old. The school taught him English, BM, Chinese and Maths as soon as he started. I took a look at his school books and they were mostly writing - writing ABCs, writing 123s, writing Chinese strokes. This year, he is 4+ (1 year older than Dominic) and he can already write very well. He comes home from school with homework everyday - most of the time writing or counting the objects and writing down the number. I took a look at his books again and there was add and substract as well. He seldom comes home with artwork but I guess he does some of that too. He brings an apron in his school bag because sometimes there is "cooking class". By the way, his school books are printed by Fungates - perhaps some of you have heard of it. I guess this is the type of education that an average kid in Malaysia gets when he is 3-4 years old.

At 3 years old, Dominic doesn't learn any writing at the nursery, except occassionally *if* he wants to do it then he'll scribble an 'O' or a 'snake'. He definitely does not have school books and absolutely no homework at all. He learns things like why do people eat and what food is good/bad for you, or why do birds build nests or what lives under the ground. He learns numeracy skills and ABCs too but not in a structured way using books or writing. It will be more like a game of "I spy something that begins with A" or "who can collect the most balls".

When I came back from KL (and after witnessing what my nephew learns), I asked Dom's nursery if they can allocate 10-15 mins each day for Dom to practice writing, and they said they can encourage him to do so but forcing a child to sit and write/study is not their way of teaching. I was curious and I wanted to find out if Dom is now too old for the nursery or perhaps there are other types of schools which are more *formal*. I searched but there was none - we only have nurseries (which Dom is attending) and nursery schools (which are the same as nurseries but operate only school hours, i.e. 9am - 3pm and during term time only). Dominic will start primary school in the September after his 4th birthday and only then will he begin formal education.

So for those of you who have kids around the same age, what do your kids learn in school?

# posted by Skye @ 4:51 am