New Kid On The Blog

1-OCT-2009:

Here are some photos of Dominic in his school uniform, taken about a month ago but didn't have time to upload. He's attending the 4-year-old class and it is Montessori based, therefore at the moment nothing academic, no homework, etc. The first week he went to school, he behaved really well and seemed to enjoy it, except that when asked what he did in school he always said "nothing". One day, he came back and he said that he did colouring and the teacher scolded the children. I asked him why and he said "teacher said penguins must be black, can't use yellow". I was thinking, welcome to Malaysia my son where apples must be round and houses must have one door and two windows.

On the Monday of the 2nd week, he refused to go into his classrooom and cried a bit. Fortunately, he didn't scream and brawl like some kids - just silent tears and an extremely pitiful face. Tuesday was the first time he got his new uniform and he refused to put it on in the morning. With some crying, we managed to get to school but he refused to go in again. We sat outside his classroom and we talked. He said he didn't like the uniform and I gave him examples of everyone who wears uniforms, such as policemen, firemen, train drivers (his favourite), doctors, nurses, etc. He went in at last and told me to come back very soon. "Don't take too long", he said. After that, he occassionally asked if daddy wears uniform to work, if spiders wear uniforms, etc. After school that day, I took him to the toy shop and got him some new train tracks. I said that if he continues to be good, he can have more toys. Problem was solved from that day onwards. He was even fine after the 1 week Hari Raya holidays.

I'm not sure he learned a lot from school. Perhaps it is still too early to tell but he definitely enjoyed it more in London, no doubt about that. There is a class timetable and the schedule includes English, BM, Maths, Art, Music, Computer and PE (among some other things). I'm not sure what they do exactly in English, BM and Maths but I suspect they did some writing because recently it has been much easier to get him to practise writing at home, i.e. he does it much quickly although still ugly.

Now, travelling in a car all the time, Dominic can recognize places and roads that we've been instantly, even at night. He would go "Oh ... we came here before", or "We went up there to buy satay!" or "Hey, daddy comes here to work" or "Ooh ... I think my toy shop is over there". And if we drive into some road for the 1st time, he would say "I think we didn't come here before". And by the way, he finally knows left and right now! I guess when you're always travelling on the train you don't really care whether you're going left or right!

In terms of meals, he has started to appreciate some local delicacies such as satay! My MIL made him drink soup every evening and he's now getting used to it. However, he still refuses things like barley drink, "leong sui" and once we had jackfruits (nangka) and he said "Please put it far far away and don't let me smell it!".

# posted by Skye @ 10:31 pm