Every weekend for the past 6 months now, Summer has been going to this supplementary class on Saturdays at I Can Read (yes that is really the centre name).
I was initially hesitant to send her for the class because I hold quite a firm view that kids should have the freedom to choose what they want to learn and explore and should not be subjected to any undue stress and unhappiness at such a young age. Well I was forced to go for piano lessons for a good number of years as a kid with zero interest, and I still remember how much I detested lessons, practising and doing the theory work (all very much unwillingly), and so am quite adamant that my kids do not go through the same path.
Eventually Mama Toh convinced me somehow to just allow Summer to go for a trial lesson to see if she likes it or not. And if she didn’t, we wouldn’t force her to continue. So as usual, I relented, convinced that we will stop after 1 lesson. Afterall, which normal kid likes extra classes on Saturday mornings?
Rare MRT trip on the way home from I Can Read
Well, apparently my kid does. To everyone’s surprise.
She asked to be enrolled for the class, and overtime began to wake up in the morning asking if there was I Can Read today. If the answer was yes, she would respond with a resounding ‘Yay!’. Weird kid.
It got to a point whereby if she was throwing a tantrum, I could threaten her with NOT sending her to class if she doesn’t stop. And she stops. I know… what in the world right…
Anyway, the class curriculum seems to be all fun and games, but I have realized that she got pretty good with basic phonics, to the point where she can correctly identify what alphabet a particular word starts with based on its pronunciation. I tested her on remotely weird words like Naruto, Madagascar and Zootopia and surprisingly she got it right. Not entirely sure if credit should go to her childcare or to I Can Read (probably a mixture of both), but to make myself feel better about paying the fees for I Can Read I tend to be more inclined to the latter.
On the way to watch Zootopia, by the way.
Solo date for Zootopia
So the crux of this long post is finally here – in the last I Can Read lesson, the teacher told us that he will be promoting Summer to the next advanced class because she has satisfied the requirements for the current class and has grasped the required skills so far. 1 of 2 kids out of about 10 in the class to get promoted.
To be honest, most parents would be elated, floating in exhilaration on their kids being geniuses who can move ahead of her peers. And admittedly, I felt the same way too… for a good 10 seconds.
And then the potential consequences struck me.
– Will Summer be able to catch-up in her new class where all her classmates are about 2 years older than her?
– Will she be able to clique with the older kids?
– Will there be an increase in fees? Just kidding, there isn’t.
But all in all, I realized I was more concerned than happy about her progress, which to be honest I am not sure if I should be feeling this way as a parent.
I had a selfish thought and wished she didn’t have to progress so that she could stay happy in a comfortable environment, but almost immediately I slapped myself for such an idea.
Oh well, we’ll see how the new class progresses and update again.
On a side note, both kids have recovered and are up and running again!
Select photos from our weekend:
My wave is faster than your shutter speed
Bubbles are a great way to entertain kids... and an extremely cheap way
Thanks Summer... For chopping me away