Of PTMs and Kindy Updates

As the school holidays draw to a close and the kids get ready to go back to school, I took myself back to how they ended the term in a bid to get my head straight for the term ahead.

I always look forward to the Term 2 parent-teacher meeting as it gives me a chance to get some real feedback from their teachers to find out how they are faring, as well as how they behave when I’m not around. It’s also a chance for my husband to speak to the teachers and look at the kids’ work since he doesn’t go to their school as often as I do. 

The school usually puts up an art exhibition featuring the students’ artwork, and this year, they evolved this into an interactive display that you can get into, with plenty of photo opportunities! I thought it was creative and the kids had quite a bit of fun messing around before and after the actually meeting with the teachers.

Family photo! “A Fish Out of Water” is the book Naomi’s class based their learning activities on in Term 2. Terms 2 is about Literature and the Arts at their kindy.

Feeding the fish.

Here’s the fish at the start…

 

… and see how he’s grown! (She really knows how to ham it up for the camera!)

My little monkey in 猴子捞月.

鼠 — the first of the 十儿生肖.

Crayons from “The Day The Crayons Quit”. You could wear these crayon boxes but my kids didn’t oblige me.

Being the Little Boy in “Lost and Found”.

Aren’t those glove chickens the cutest?

We took a while speaking to each of Noey and Meips’ teachers — it took twice as long this year with two kids! As the teachers showed me their work and talked to me about their classroom behaviour, I once again felt grateful that the kids had dedicated teachers who clearly cared about them and knew them well. We weren’t told too many things we didn’t expect.

For Noey, the report from his English teacher was that he was doing well. He has no issues academically, is great at reading and spelling, and doing well in Math. She noted that he takes a while to warm up to things but it has been helped by him arriving at school a little earlier to help him settle down before classes begin. What we need to work on are his handwriting and his focus. He is easily distracted (just like Mummy, oops) and a bit slow. I was glad to hear that he’d matured a bit this year — he’s less teary when things don’t go his way and able to explain his actions and take consequences. He’s got more growing up to do in this regard.

Noey’s spelling list for Term 2. I was ready to cry foul the first time I saw it, until I was told he had picked the words himself. #SelfSabo. The school gives the kids individualised spelling lists and Noey really enjoys picking his own words. Definitely a good motivation to learn the words!

Maybe the only thing that surprised us was that his Chinese teacher felt he was doing well with Chinese too. (We repeatedly asked if she was referring to our child, who refuses to speak a word of Chinese at home.) He’s far from being the best at Chinese obviously, but he can read quite a lot of words, can write, and can string sentences together for show and tell. I guess we were relieved to hear that but came away more determined to get him to speak more Chinese at home.

His Chinese story! This term all the kids were supposed to do a piece of fingerprint artwork about one member of the Chinese zodiac. Noey picked the snake. He then had to tell a story involving the snake and this is what he came up with! I wouldn’t have believed it, except that the Mum who helped transcribe his story was there and told me that except for the last sentence which 老师 probably helped him with, the rest was what he said. We were honestly quite startled — and impressed.

For Meips, we were glad to hear that she had settled down well in school and is very independent. We were told that she tends to rush through her work though, so that she can get to the play corners, with the home corner (play kitchen) and construction corner (Duplo – hur hur) being her favourite. Her teachers have addressed this by making her wait for her friends before she’s allowed to leave the table. Other than that she’s learning well and picking up the sight words they are learning in class. We did chuckle silently when told that she likes to direct play and tell other children what to do. We know she can be a bit of a bossy one, our Meips! “She has leadership qualities — it’s a good thing!” said her sweet teacher.

As for Chinese, we know she doesn’t speak a word of it, but it doesn’t stop her from trying. It helps that she absolutely adores her Chinese teacher. It’s very funny to hear her “reading Chinese books” at home as she will earnestly read through the book making Chinese sounding sounds, but which aren’t Chinese at all. It’s hilariously cute. Well, the speak-more-Chinese campaign at home extends to her too.

We’ve packed all the bags and I guess we’re all set! I’ve also taken a look at this term’s spelling and 听写 list and it looks like I might have to breathe down Noey’s neck again this term! 

We’ll just take it as it comes.