Today is the first day of the second school term for school kids after a week-long school holidays. Alycia woke up early and reached school early today. Today is also the first day of Alycia’s computer enrichment class. School hours are also extended by 15 minutes because of the computer class.
As expected, Alycia came home with a bag full of books and homework. The homework is more than usual as it includes the exercises that she had missed out during the 1 week that she missed school when she fell ill. She will definitely be unable to complete all the homework in a day. The Math is as usual really tough for 5-year old kids (in Aly’s case, 4 year-old). Today her Math homework include the following :
1. ascending and descending order within 30,
2. fill in the missing numbers in the ascending order (within 30)
3. rearrange these numbers in descending order (within 30). In this exercise, numbers from 1 – 30 are all jumbled up and the kids are to rearrange the numbers in descending order.
4. fill in the missing numbers in descending order (within 30)
My mum and I are of the opinion that this exercise is really too tough for 5-year olds. Alycia was completely lost as she had missed the lessons when her teacher taught the kids this exercise 2 weeks ago. Now, my mum and I have to take over the teacher’s job to teach her. When my mum taught her, Alycia’s mind was wandering somewhere else. She also complained of being sleepy and there wasn’t any interest shown in her in the exercise. I am really worried Alycia will not be able to catch up as she has missed out too many lessons.
When I bumped into Alycia’s teacher last Saturday, she was also of the opinion that the syllabus taught to pre-schoolers in Alycia’s school is a tad too tough. However, some parents are complaining that the syllabus is not up to standard and that homework is not enough! I really think we should not put too much pressure on our kids. Some young kids in Singapore are already seeking psychiatric treatments for mental problems, as reported in today’s newspapers!
Frankly, do you think that the Math syllabus taught in Alycia’s pre-school too tough or is this the norm in all pre-schools for 5 year olds?
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