Dumbstruck

All of a sudden one evening before supper she declares ‘ You are not like my friends appa”.

Puzzled we ask why do you say that ? She replies ” My friends appa are all wearing glasses and looks stylish”.

So shocked, i could not understand from where she learnt all these.

Am not sure what made her believe so and to make such a statement,but am feeling good that am not the one who drops/picks her up from school.

 

Over with

LKG admission.Not a very challenging stuff as it is in India today, still i was a bit worried.

Personally i would want her to go to Montessori or any other non conventional educational system only.Given the limited option,this school seems to be promising,many of colleagues kids are into that school and they promise the very personal care teacher offers and the Olympiads they organise to replace threatening written tests.So i wish this school would e non threatening for her to learn and grow with.

And coming to the interview stuff,she had fever when we went to school,she felt sleepy and started her afternoon nap while waiting for interview,and i enjoyed the warli art on the sides of their staircase..By the time they called her she was half asleep,we went in with her for interview and was asked to leave.But madam did not answer anything to their queries,they i went up to her and asked her to answer,she did not answer until the staff member uttered the magical word,guess what ‘Chocolate’,after hearing that she opened her mouth voluntarily to say ‘My name is ……’ ,answer for the question which they have asking for the past 10 mins.

One who knows from egg to Butterfly cycle,refused to answer what it is when showed a butterfly,it takes a chocolate to bring out the answer.They gave coloring page to assess fine motor skill,definitely i would have loved to have something else instead of that.Well,it could be a general choice.And that’s it we are over,few general questions to assess language skills and few pictures for cognitive assessment and a coloring stuff for fine motor skills,she scored 45/55.And we paid the said amount,khalas. Admission saga is over.

And am deeply concerned about this one behavior of her observing others than to mind one’s own business(literally ‘parakku paarthal’),this deviates her attention and lacks completion in her own task,and in between everything she drifts into her own world,i must do something about it,but not sure what should be done.

 

School,school am scared

Regural readers by now would know that am having trouble getting her to school everyday.I am extremely upset today because of her behaviour,she cried and cried long enough to throw up and rest in home.One morning she prayed,” Ummachi,enakku schoolu.kku poga vendam,aathuleye naan samatha padikkannum” ( I should not go to school,i should learn from home itself).Home schooling is there a option for me here ? If yes i would happily go for that,if she can learn to be social outside home.

Her school as i know has wonderful staff and kids too are close to her,she was normal and going to school happily,suddenly she refuses,i accepted it on the day when i was off,but today if she is happy to stay in home than to go to school,is something wrong in school ? I did asked her teachers if she is crying or fighting or any issues in class,they said ‘No’,so where my diagnosis leading me to ?

And in evening she is says her current school is the best one as i tell her in April she could be going to BIG school.Or is she simply trying to avoid going to school,i am tired.

With the given situation, she will be moving to big school in april,an Indian one at that.Last year when i joined her in the current school,i was planning to continue preparatory classes there,it is british syllabus and best suited for kids moving to British school for further education.It is not very ideal for her to have prep classes here if she moves into Indian school for first standard as she will never know a bit of Hindi. 

I wanted to avoid British school mainly because,

1. Those schools are pricey, we may be able to afford,provided she remains single kid and we both earn.Check here and here.

2.She could feel left out amidst affluent,non desi kids.Certainly we cannot drop her in Audi or Porsche or Lamborghini.

3.What when we go back to India,where will she fit ?

Am not a strong believer in conventional CBSE or Indian system,but here i have only two options either to go to British or India.Certain schools claim to be American but i learned from an expert that most of them are not accredited and their diplomas are not accepted,only one proves to be genuine,but am sure we may not be able to make it.There is one more choueifat,but am not sure on this system.No montessori or other options.British schools moved out of choice,but i yearned to consider them as soon as i learnt that Indian schools ask UKG kids to write one to fifteen in Hindi in words.So considering the limited choices, we chose Indian,as most of the kids known to her are joining Indian school.Out of all available Indian school we chose that one which has no competitive/formal exams until 5th standard(atleast) and a activity based education,they do maths activity of taking up a theory and researching it, so far it sounds good,the only thing i would hate is introducing computers as early as first standard,am quiet not happy about it.I strongly believe set of crayons,poster colors are far better than MS paint to trigger imagination and creativity in Kids.

Now,there comes the tough part,for admission in april,they issued admission forms today,DD wanted to go in Morning and collect it,but because of throwing up drama we both were late to office and by the time he went interview date ran out and we got Interview date on Jan 12th.Now she has transformed into a very shy kid and will not even talk to interview board i believe,quiet scary if i miss admission here,because there is another school which would want to stand in line the previous night itself to secure a admission form.I pray and wish that she gets into this school. I took a calendar explained that we are now in january,whizzed past pages of Feruary and march and landed in April and told her she will going to XYZ school in April.And afterwhile she says ‘Amma i want to go to school’ and i ask which school,she replies ‘April school’.