What's up with kindy these days?

I have been busy - busy with what - I am also not sure. But I have been tired. Physically, mentally tired.

I do get to come home much earlier compared to when I was in my previous school, but I would lounge my body on the couch and stare at the box that would never reject me.

I have to admit that I am not as enthusiastic in coaching Baby compared to Coco when she was young, but then again, Coco didn't have 听写or spelling when she was in K1.

I think deep down inside, I am still repulsed by the idea of making 4- and 5-year-olds write so hard and so much. My idea of a pre-school education is one without writing, but lots of story-telling, listening, playing, drawing and basically doing what the kid really likes, which Coco was given ample space and time to.

But Baby has homework that involves writing of multiple-stroke characters like 青草,树木 which come together as one set of worksheets. Not just Chinese. English too. Asking them to write words like 'stump' for penmanship? Hello?

They are just babies really.

They can't even hold a pencil properly and you're making them write characters more complex than what I was writing at primary one and words I only know when I was in secondary school.

I know police wore shorts last time, but how different can the development of motor and cognitive skills of children from different eras be?

I am no child psychologist but instincts tell me that what we are doing now is forcing the young plants to grow by pulling them up to make them look like they have grown a few inches every day. It was still acceptable at Nursery level, but I find it quite overwhelming and disillusioning at K1. I feel like screaming,"My baby is only 4 years old! Stop forcing her to write, write and write!"

When I heard that a PCF kindergarten was getting the kids to learn '葡萄' for Chinese spelling, I already found it ridiculous, incomprehensible,"What are these people thinking?!!" I thought it would never happen to my own baby. But it seems she is on the way to write such words for penmanship.

I don't know what the rush is. I hate to sound like a broken record, but we learnt 人，口，手 at Primary One and we turn out fine - more than fine in fact. And I don't remember so many children hating Chinese. I might hate Chinese too if I were a child today.

I think I am getting disillusioned with pre-school education and that's why the angst. I had enrolled Baby into a church kindergarten so that she could enjoy what her sister enjoyed - learning to sing gospel songs and love God with a simple heart while studying in a not-so-academically-driven kindergarten that focuses more on reading and story-telling.

I get very upset when I realise it is not as what I had imagined.

While I may appear to focus a lot on the academics at primary school level since this is the time to build discipline and expectations, I don't believe that children at 4 and 5 years old should be sitting down for an hour, or even half an hour to do penmanship. That's like a corporal punishment for them. Children that young are made to play, and play they should!

Of course, I understand that this is the trickling-down effect of the primary school education system. Since Primary One demands a rather high level of reading and writing ability, we trickle it down to kindergarten, so that they start to write compositions at K2 (I am not kidding!). Since at K2, they start writing compositions, they have to start writing enough vocabulary at K1.

I know that the effect is irreversible. I just wish something can be done about it.