It seems like only yesterday when I enrolled Rain in school. And now the school year is over. And she's moving up from Kinder 1 to Kinder 2. It was a crazy roller coaster ride for me. I thought it was going to be easy. You know, just bring your child to school, pick her up, ask her how her day went. As a first time parent, I thought it was that easy. Boy was I wrong!
I believe Rain was the youngest in her class. I enrolled her when she was 3 years old. I thought she would be in Nursery or something but since her birthday month is October (meaning middle of the school year), the school advised that she needs to be enrolled in Kinder 1 already.
Rain is a smart kid, as all kids nowadays are. But her level of maturity when it came to studying wasn't quite there yet. She was still in the "play only" phase. During the first few weeks of school she would just act as a supervisor, walking around class while the teacher is teaching, bothering her classmates, and even picking on one of her boy classmates.
Doing homeworks was also not a walk-in-the-park. Their homeworks were only given during weekends. And every time we would start, she would say "I'm tired mama"... But when I let her rest, she would magically recharge and play. Haaaaay.
I was having a hard time because I was beating myself up, thinking I've lacked in teaching her how to listen, behave, and stuff. But it was her teachers that were telling me that it's normal. And that she will eventually reach that maturity when it comes to really doing school stuff. In fairness to Rain, she does do some school work. And towards the middle of the school year, she started improving more, learned how to stay still and listen more. She would surprise me with saying and using new words she knows.
I'm sharing this because I want other parents out there who are worried about their kids to know that you're not alone. It's perfectly normal. I guess first time parents like me really tend to over-react. I know it's hard not to compare your kid with other kids who are doing better in school. But as we all should know, comparing is bad. Especially when you compare out loud in front of your kid. Not good for his/her self-esteem.
Anyway, come March 2016, it was her moving up day!