Alycia is really testing my patience to the limit. Since early last year up until now, she has been falling sick every other month. That’s when she first started attending pre-school. Alycia was a very healthy baby for the first 1 year of her life and never once fell sick during that year. Her immune system started to go downhill ever since she attended pre-school in January last year, when she just turned 3 years old.
Alycia had missed more than 7 months of classes last year and had missed out on most things that her teachers had taught the pupils, which are the basics / foundation. When she resumed classes again in September last year, she was way lacking behind her peers in class but has since improved tremendously at the beginning of this year. She can now write her name and recognize all the letters of the alphabet. She can also recognize numbers from 1 – 30+. She can also recite numbers 1 – 50 (with a few numbers missing here and there)
I have had and still am having a tough time coaching her in her homework, especially in Math, Abacus calculation, mental calculation and Mandarin. To begin with, her attention span is very short. Each time I teach her, her mind will be wandering far away. After repeating myself infinite number of times, she still does not appear to understand what I am trying to say. However, sometimes she will give me pleasant surprises when she suddenly appears to grasp everything that I had taught her and she would give me correct answers all the way. Many times, she will give me excuses to avoid doing her homework.
Today she brought home Math homework. One of the exercises is recognition of numbers – circle the number(s) that is bigger than a given number and circle the number(s) that is smaller than a given number (from 1 – 50). Another exercise is ‘what number comes before this number’ and ‘what number comes after this number’. What I did was to write out the numbers from 1 – 50 on a piece of paper and explain the exercise to her. After explaining to her umpteen times, I asked her if she understood the concept and she said no and shrugged her shoulders! I got so mad with her that I was raising my voice throughout my session with her. This happened over the past 3 days and sometimes, my mil would help me coach her. Even my mil who is very patient with the gals lost her patience with Alycia. I am just so worried for Alycia. I may sound like a ‘kiasu‘ mum here but Alycia’s attitude and comprehension towards Maths and Mandarin are really making me freaking worried….. and hubby has registered her in a Chinese primary school.
Am I putting too much pressure on Alycia? Do you have a tough time coaching your 4.5- year old toddler in Math / Mandarin? Do you have a fun way of teaching your toddler? I’ll be glad to hear from experienced parents who have successfully made doing homework (especially Math) a fun thing with their kids.
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