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.