Today was Harvynna's Parent teacher meeting at Beaconhouse. Its done twice a year before the end of the term. I went as early as possible so I could be the first......and I was. Talk about being kiasu. But there were more kiasu parents than me. They were practically running to the office to get a better number. How I wished they fell down the stairs or something.
The meeting with the teacher was good and she received a very good report. I am actually very happy with the school as within one month, Harvynna was able to write words in both CAPITAL letters and small letter, write 1-100, do simple math and picked up some proper B. Malaysia words. The teachers commented that she picks up things very fast and is more advance than some of her classmates that came in in January. I guess it helped that I taught her at home. She was able to write her alphabets only in Capital letters, as she did not want to listen to me teaching her the small letters.
She also got quite good reviews on her Mandarin and was said to have good interest in learning new languages. She is also very independant and sociable,and always asks questions and contributes well. Am so proud of her.
She does not tell me on a daily basis what she learns at school and only gives me selective information. I also saw some pictures of their activities and saw her making monkey faces or showing the peace sign while everyone else was posing nicely.
I was a little apprehensive about Beaconhouse as they do a lot of learning through play - which is not a bad thing, and is in fact encouraged in the west. But looking at the KBSR syllabus, it is no surprise that many students find it difficult to cope especially with Bahasa Malaysia if they do not speak the languague at home.
I did mention this to the teacher and apparently many parents have commented on this, hence they have more worksheets and workbooks used now. I mentioned the skills tested during entrance exams to private schools and they are aware that they need to cater their syllabus for this as well. Ha, it pays to work with a private school so I get all the insights of the Malaysian education system.
I look at the students in my school and they are really exceptional. You just pick any one of them and talk to them and they are all so confident. Just yesterday, we had an event, and 2 students were selected to emcee the function. They were given 3 hours notice amidst attending classes. They came to my room in the morning, I ran through the script with them and they did an excellent job, putting many adults to shame. I guess all the Structured Performing Arts and interactive learning model really paid off.
I am glad to have put Harvynna in Beaconhouse. She really, really enjoys school too and in fact a big punishment to her will be not to send her to school. I use that to threaten her if she misbehaves which is all the time.
Now, I only feel for poor Rowena. She never really did get all the teaching and preparation for school as whenever I try to do anything with her, Harvynna will just push her aside and take over. So there was no proper introduction to alphabets etc. All she gets is 'secondary' information when I do things with Harvynna. But then again, looking at how fast Harvynna picks up things in school, I am sure Rowena will catch up as well once she goes to school.
