Derick: Term 2 in P1 is Ending

Derick is coming to 7 years old. I feel so contented to have such a darling in my life. Derick is a smart boy, the teachers commended. But he is shy and slow in action. That may be his characteristic. His term 2 exam was ended few weeks ago.

He scored as follow for each subject:
Math: 73/100
English: 33/50
Mother Tongue (Chinese): 61/65

I am satisfied with his result. He didn’t really bother to study. I passed him 2 past exam papers from top school for each subject and he did them with a lot of careless mistakes.

Derick is very strong in Chinese now as he speaks Chinese everyday in Mainland accent inherited from his father. I plan to send him for Math and English enrichment class in the 2nd half year. I don’t want to teach him due to my childhood experience being coached by my mother. When I was 5 years old (K2 in Indonesia), my mother was so anxious with my exam. My mother was a housewife. Hence, every afternoon, she used her style to coach me to read Indonesian (something likes learn phonics in English). Her teaching style was really boring and out-dated. Everytime, I see the clock reach 4 pm, I simply hate it. I knew it was the time that my mother will teach me to read. I hide the books so my mother can’t teach me. When she asked me where the book is. I responded, “Don’t know”. This is a secret. Not anybody in my family knows about it.

I can’t blame my mother for using her outdated style to teach me though. I know that she wants me to be the best in class. She also really want to send me for enrichment class likes other kids. But she knew that my father was thrifty. Therefore, she tried to save every penny for more urgent things. Thankfully, when I was in P1, my mother know that she can’t teach herself anymore. I was glad that she gave up. She found me a tutor which love me because I was such a smart and diligent girl. My childhood friends even jealous because the teacher treated me differently.

After such a long memorable story, to-date, everytime I look at Derick carrying the bag, I found my childhood reflection in him. I don’t want Derick to hide his book and hate the school lesson. I want him to go to school without any pressure and simply likes the teacher and lessons. Since both of us are working, we can afford for the enrichment classes. Hence, I decided to sent him to enrichment classes and brush up his Emotional Intelligence (EQ) instead. I want him to be a kid who has a healthy EQ, confident and able to learn from mistakes.