Positive Guidance

I read this article in thestar. Written by RuthLiew. Let me share the last bit.

In our schools, children are not allowed to choose how they should learn. They have to implement what adults instruct them to do. Not much time is spent on investigating, thinking and exploring their interests. They stay indoors more than outdoors. The focus is on their minds, not their bodies.

Parents must push for their children to get a better deal in their education. To do so, they must start with themselves and not rush into school complaining that teachers are not doing enough. The child’s education starts at home.

You don’t need to get a teaching qualification to provide your child with a holistic education. Whether we realise it or not, we are teaching our children everyday.

Our attitudes and our values make a difference in our child’s education. Even our actions are learning examples for our children. Our children take classes on moral education in school but they cannot understand the lessons. Everyday we still find children in school uniform littering and showing no respect for public amenities.

If teachers are not listening to what our children are saying, we should be the ones doing the listening. Throughout history, parents who took charge of their children’s education managed to raise successful individuals with high morals.

It is up to parents to empower children to learn and be successful in their chosen interests. It is not about teaching children how to cope with school work but to understand what school success really means to them.

Things in school can be really tough for children who are struggling to make the grade. Children need to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel with their parents’ encouragement and positive guidance.

As parents especially mommies what we can do is to prepare our children before their 1st day in primary school.

Personally, i'll make sure my children can read BM & English & Jawi by the time they reach 6yo. Do something if you think he/she is a bit slow when he/she reach 5. To wait till the end of 6yo is not fair to the child and too much stress for the parents. Start early so the child has ample time to learn. By starting early, they will have time to master one by one. I was worried since I had started jawi&ngaji quite late for Afiq. When he was 6yo. Alhamdulillah he has no problem in both. Hopefully he can khatam next year. Sarah starts earlier and now reading Iqra 6. Hannah ( and Amir too) has started Iqra 1 this year. They are both 4yo.

Here come the next part when your child starts formal schooling. Try to browse thru what's in the syllabus. Some simple verbal test will do. Sometimes we need to do some explanation. For BM, quite a number of vocab to introduce to your child. I usually asked Afiq to do some exercises and pick up some clues on his weaknesses. Since Afiq 'banyak main' when test/exam time i'll stressed on his weaknesses. Do more practice and emphasized some important points.

On the relevance of certain things they cover in the syllabus. I did lots of discussions with AuntyHuda on lots of things. From education sampai la emotions. Maybe it can't be seen in schools in an urban area but as skusj20 has students from the neighbouring kgpuch0ng. I think the simple syllabus is for these children. Huda has children from the kg area and she also has experince giving tuition to primary school children from the area.

Afiq tak suka when I said he made silly mistakes so kena tukar ke careless mistakes. I always joke with him. 2345x0= 2345, kan abang?

To me friends are important in school. Friends will make going to school fun. If your child is the shy type or goes to a school where he/she does not have any friends from their old kindy, help them to make friends. Try to get to know some of their friends moms and lagi bagus their class teacher. Senang nak check on homework dan perkara-perkara yang sewaktu dengannya. Sundays will see Afiq's hp beeping Kawan tanya apa homework(the ayah punya old battered hp. Cost sebulan rm10).

Try your best not to compare. Because each child is different. Some are just late bloomers. As the child grows parts of our parenting style should also change. There are times when decisions need to be made by discussions and not a simple pull stops.

My 2 cents
-bf