School (Term 4)

When I first became pregnant with bub, one thing constantly on my mind was: where will he attend school? I'm sure many of you parents had put your child's name on the childcare waiting list even before they were born. In my case, as we are so "multi-cultural", it's hard to decide on the country, let alone a school. Politically speaking, I'm a Singapore citizen, my husband a Korean citizen, and our son an Australian citizen. Hence, I was often thinking which country is better, not which school is better. Each country has its' own merits. For example, in Singapore, one would have access to an abundant availability of tuition centres and private tutors. Tuition is so common in Singapore that it's more like a culture unique to Singaporeans. In Australia, tuition is a luxury which many either a)Can't afford, or b)Never heard of. In fact, no one I know attends tuition in Australia. Nobody knows where the tuition centres are located. Maybe if you are lucky, you'll be able to locate a decent and honest tutor on Gumtree or the local Chinese newspaper. That's about all you get here.

As a Singaporean, I would use Singapore's educational system to set the standards for bub. I often worry that bub would lack behind in terms of Singaporean standards. I wanted to maintain a second language for bub, like we do in Singapore (mother tongue). However, the schools in Perth usually teach one LOTE (Languages Other Than English), and that is commonly Japanese, Italian or French. No Mandarin or Korean at the schools near where I live. As neither of us is able to speak Japanese, Italian or French, we decided to send bub to a Japanese pre-kindy to get a head start. I actually wanted to send bub to a French or Korean kindy, but it's too far away. And the Chinese kindy only accepted children from 3 years of age (bub's only 2 this year). One thing I love about Australia is its' multi-racial aspect, and it's a land full of opportunities for adults and kids alike. You can send your kids to any classes/schools you want, and it's cheap/free too! In Singapore, it's so expensive to send your kid to a Japanese school, and then at least one parent must be Japanese for you to qualify or you can't be a Singapore citizen. I reckon there are too many rules governing and restricting people in Singapore, and I feel that the government really controls what people really wanted to pursue. You even need the Ministry of Education (MOE)'s approval to send your child to an international school. I love the freedom in Australia, and the ability to appreciate and immense myself in what this country has to offer.

Let's see what my little bub's schedule is like for the whole of Term 4. Term 4 of school started this week. Apart from his usual Jap kindy, he attends extra "CCAs" too like Kindy Gym, Toddler Bop, and Story Time. Although I'm unable to send bub to a Singaporean kindy, I can bring the "Singaporean kindy" style to him. We may not have the opportunity to give bub tuition here, but I hope the extra "CCAs" would be just as good in keeping bub physically fit, and his mind active in learning and achieving new knowledge.

Monday: Kindy, Music & Movement
Tuesday: Kindy, Toddler Bop
Wednesday: Kindy
Thursday: Kindy, Story Time
Friday: Kindy, Kindy Gym
Saturday: Kindy

Bub is affectionately known as Tokuro-kun in his Jap kindy. "Tokuro" is derived from the characters of his Korean/Chinese name. Bub is a fast learner. Just on his first day of school, he was able to comprehend basic Japanese commands already! Such as, "put your hat here", "sit here", "keep the toys", etc. When we first started, he was very agitated and he kept crying for almost one hour (I was hiding in my car observing). He was either experiencing separation anxiety, or just wondering what on earth was everyone talking about because Japanese was new to him. Hence, Natsuko, the teacher, advised me to stay with him for the first 3-4 classes, which I did. Bub enjoyed the class so much now. He was even singing along to Japanese songs, dancing, listening to the Japanese stories, playing toys,and having so much fun! Although how much Japanese he really understood, I don't know =)

Here's a video I sneakily captured of him playing toys with his friends and teacher Natsuko. Bub is on the far left, wearing the blue stripey shirt.

Watch the video on Youtube: http://youtu.be/kY9NXb2BaxE

I will post more of what my little Tokuro did in kindy in the next few weeks. Check back soon!