My little worry wart

He has spelling test tomorrow. Monday, 2nd February 2009.

There are only six words :

farm, keep, fire, big, my, little and her.

On Wednesday, 4th February, he has Bahasa Malaysia spelling test.

This time, there are only four words :

zirafah, ayah, lebah and rumah.

But Mr. Worry Wart has worked on the spelling tests since he got home last Friday, i.e. before Chinese New Year.

On and off, he will bring his book, a piece of paper, ruler and pencil and ask me to give him spelling test.

With his stubby fingers, he diligently draw lines on the white A4 paper using the ruler.

Then, he will pull in a deep breath and say, “Ok, start”.

We will go through the same routine. I will read the word, he writes. Whichever word he is not very sure, he will tediously repeat them three times.

Mr. Worry Wart has fallen asleep now. But not before he mumbled, “Mommy…I don’t know I can get five stars for my test or not.”

No matter how many times hubby and I assured him that it is not important to get five stars, he will go through the same worries. Eventhough, we keep on telling him how smart he is, he will still worry about his spelling test.

Sigh….kindie is certainly different now. I never have to go through these sort of school tensions with my other kids. My little boy is going to a sekolah kebangsaan next year and there are only 12 of them in his K2 kindie class. There are three times the number of children in the other K2 class for children going to vernacular schools. So, his class is considered very relaxing with very nice teachers and very little to learn.

I cannot imagine what kind of worry wart he will turned into if I have sent him to Chinese school. Good lordie, he asked me to teach him Mandarin because he has one Mandarin lesson each week. He was asked to write ‘mi’ and ‘fan’. I saw a plate of thing in the book and told him it is ‘mee fern’. (bee hoon) Poor kid looked so lost. He said, “No mah…teacher does not say like that. Different one…..” Much later in the day, he finally remembered how to pronounce the hanyu pinyin. It is ‘mi’ = uncooked rice and ‘fan’ = nasi aka cooked rice. Doh… School is evil, I tell you. They robbed the fun out of little kids and give them unnecessary worries.

School is bad. For me, at least.

8 thoughts on “My little worry wart

  1. Lillian,
    I’m not a psychologist or what and I don’t mean to recall bad memories of yours. My son was born after my first failed pregnancy so I’m keeping an eye on this. He’s only 2.5 tho.
    It is said that a child after a previous miscarried child or that whom died early tend to become overachievers as to compensate previous parents loss. Mothers whom carried these type of children tend to transfer their high hopes for the baby and subconsciously lead them to become overachievers. Make sense?? Just my two cent as I never leave comment on your blog.

  2. yeah man lilian…

    were just chatting the very same topic over dinner with my bunch of friends last night and found out that apparently, my 3 yr old godson who just started play school have 12 text books! instead of the cute little backpack the mother has bought for him, he have to use his daddy’s backpack instead. 3 years old!!!! I dun even know what school is at 3 yrs old….lols.

  3. I attended Chinese primary school. They were very strict.. they actually punish students for not achieving a certain (usually high) results in a test. Maybe that’s why your kid has become a worry wart..

    boon kheng´s last blog post..Bad and agonising day

  4. To say firstborn or whoever born after a miscarriage is whatsoever superstitious of sorts and should remain as fiction. The problem perhaps lies in the current education system which robbed of the fun part of the learning process.

    All I can say is your child’s gonna be fine with you and your husband as parents, since there’s no extraparental pressure for over-worried kids. I escaped Chinese school when I was young, but I do not regret it, because life was much more fun in Sekolah Kebangsaan. Anyway, my mum did taught me Chinese when I was in primary during school holidays too, and your encounter with hanyu pinyin was quite similar with mine.This ended up me being a “Pro” in Chinese dictionary seeker.

    Well, all’s not lost now. I may not be an expert in Chinese but I’m still able to recognise common words, read some Taiwan lyrics and comics. Imay have gave up on a language, but I gained my life. 😛

  5. Yay, YM says it best!!

    “I may have gave up on a language, but I gained my life”

    I feel exactly the same.All my 3 children are from Sekolah Kebangsaan. They have more fun and I believe a better childhood.No pupil gets punished for ‘poor’ results in their schools.

    Their mummy (me lah!and mummies like you, Lilian) also more relaks.Save money also! Tonight can ‘pai thnee kong’ and ponteng sekolah tomorrow.Aiyoh, why so stressed? School only mah?

    Remember, a kid have to spend about 20 years in the education system before he graduates.Kesian sama they all!!

    Yes, people call my children ‘banana’. Whatever!! They at least know 2 languages well and have excellent command of English and they have friends from other races too.

  6. >.<
    agreed and thank god i have also escaped the chinese schooll
    the only one thing i regret is me not being able to read chinese but then it is never to late to learn ^^

    kwoonzz´s last blog post..Plastic card

  7. My son is the same age with Matthew. But he is so different from Matt. Wrong, he will just pull his long face and write the correct answer by the side and tell me, correct answer. Niamah, in school can do that meh? That is what I tell myself. He is not worry when test is because to him wrong already, he still can write the correct one by the side. Kindy are very different from my time also. Everyday, he come back with at least 1 page of homework and I also need to sit down with him to touch up on some of the thing that he had learn in his class. Maths, spelling, moral and etc etc. Problem is now he had to learn BM which I think he got confuse. Haiyo………. being mummy is very ‘boh eng’.

    Erina´s last blog post..I Am Out Of My Shelf

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