jan started kindergarten today. like all our other feats since arriving here, we consider this day another milestone. heaven knows i’ve agonized and worried about this day so much, fidgeting about making the right choice of preschool for jan. coming from a kindergarten where no formal lessons were held and children “just play” until they enter first grade, the school system here in singapore approaches the other extreme to what jan had in germany. whereas the moms of some of his mates back in germany were amazed that he can “already” write his own name (all three letters of them, haha) and can identify several other letters of the alphabet, over here, i observed that most of his mates not only can read at this age, they already have such an advanced pen control such that they can also write whole sentences… in english and mandarin. so yes, i was insecure. am insecure. drats, jan is lagging way behind.

i’ve tossed and turned this issue, looked at it at different angles, and still i am unsure whether we’re taking the right approach, surrendering him to the local school system. while i have no doubts that jan will catch up academically in time for primary school (i have no doubt in his intellectual abilities and he does already seem to be prepared to absorb subject matter-heavy curricula), i’m worrying that he’s getting shortchanged on time that should rather be spent on free play, developing social skills and EQ. he is such a playful, frolicking, fun-loving child and i’m worried that he’d lose these qualities too early, forced to take things more seriously much earlier. i know he’ll lose them anyway, and he’d have to grow up and in a year or so, when he would really then have to take school seriously, but why hurry things up?

i’m probably over-thinking things again, as usual. jan had a lot of fun today, even if they spent two hours in the morning on mandarin lessons and he didn’t understand much of what was going on in the class. but i could tell from the way he’s so excited at the prospect of saying longer tomorrow that today was a good experience. he was well-received by the other kids, and already found two naughty boys he could make a lot of playful nonsense with. the teacher struck me as kind and responsible, patient and yet firm, just the kind jan needs. the classes seems to be well organized, if a bit content-heavy (when did YOU learn about photosynthesis?) and just might satisfy jan’s increasing curiosity and interest in understanding how stuff work.

perhaps it just might be alright after all. i hope.

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