Monday, February 06, 2012

February Portions!

Waiting for my friends
Schooling today is really a daunting affair for parents. Yeah, parents, not the children. I had a detailed Parent-Teacher's meeting for my 3.5 year old and was given a list of 'portions' for February (read list below). Other parents had 'doubts'. One wanted to know if there was any 'recommended reading'... hello, they are ALL in Pre-KG (or Nursery for the Bombay-ites).

Portions:

  1. Cutting - Using scissors, cut strips of paper on the line drawn. 
  2. Transport - Classify as Road, Water, Rail and Air way. Be able to talk about features of each (number of wheels, color, shape, size etc.)
  3. Coloring - Be able to color using 4 colors (Hey, Button is barely able to color within the lines using 1 crayon. Now 4?) 
  4. Helpers - All transport helpers - Pilot, Conductor, Driver, Captain etc. Also, equivalent names (used globally). 
  5. Traffic signals - Colors, purpose, Inspector, Road rules (Now I know why Chennai doesn't follow road rules. People forget. They learn TOO early!) 
  6. Stories - 2 specific stories
  7. Rhymes - 8 different English rhymes + 1 Hindi + 1 Tamil 
  8. Fruit Salad making (Finally, a fun activity!) 
  9. Sports portions (WHAT?) - Skipping, Crawling thro' hoops, Balancing walk, Ball throw. 
Whilst the school expects these things, Button is OBSESSED with Lightening McQueen (of the Cars franchise). Imagines he lives in California and that I am Sally etc. So hopefully, he'd enjoy the classes this month. 

Parenting a child is hard enough, but with Tiger moms all around me, its getting a bit scary! What do you think? Pressure at young ages is good or not? If yes, in what quantity? Finding that line is a tough task indeed. 

3 comments:

  1. M, look at it as just guidelines within which you can plan activities for Button. I know the pressure of the tiger moms is not to be scoffed at, but the school just wants to reinforce at home what they already do at school.

    Today's parents plonk their kids infront of TV if they're not given homework. Sad but there it is.

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  2. Gosh! This is scary - but is this just Chennai (specifically PSBB) or is it a trend all over? I experienced PSBB through classes XI-XII - I know how they can be.
    S starts pre-school in April - will exchange notes then.

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