of tackling your grown-up kids...

I was at my higher level of stress yesterday.

Our eldest has been telling us since the past few days that he didnt want to go to his current tadika (Ad Din) merely because he was boring. He wanted to go to Smart Reader (SR) since a good friend of him (i.e. Ariff Aiman) is going there too this year. Well he and aiman have been friends at Ad Din since they were 3 y-o. After a series of discussion & slow talks with him (and pruzz of course), we later decided that we're going to send him to SR, for the sake of giving him a change. Probably that's what he wants, a CHANGE of environment and whatnots, since he doesn't mind mingling with new group of friends, teachers, etc. We thought he might be boring with the same routine that he has been facing all this while at Ad din. In fact, a phone call made to his principal last 2 days made us sort of worries on his condition since his teacher said he lose focus inside classes, doesn't bother to do what the teachers asked them to do (especially bab writing), etc. That sorts of convincing us that he is INDEED boring with ad din. I know that he didn't have problems with the teachers and friends, and he tells us that he loves them.

So yesterday, we went to SR Sg. Chua and registered him for the weekdays classes. We left him for a while to withdraw money at TH to pay for the 'handsome' fees, and got back to SR to check on him. He was doing ok, and i notice he was happy. However looking at their syllabus and books, i was actually worried about it, i'm afraid he couldnt cope with the syllabus they're offering..it was quite tough i'm telling you, far tougher than what we learnt during our good OLD days. The class ended around 11am, and we later went to Ad din to meet the principal, to break out the news that we're no longer sending idlan to ad din (this was the challenging part of the day). We told her in a nice way, and not hiding the facts that idlan is boring with the environment in ad din (sbb dia dah lama dekat situ), and that we wanted to transit idlan at ad din during evening time. This is important since we do not want him to be left out in terms of learning mengaji and solat (ad din is very good at this part, and this is one major reason why we sent him to ad din). In fact we're happy with idlan’s current progress as he’s going to upgrade to Al Quran soon insya Allah. Tambah2 mak pruzz cakap, let us concentrate on building up the foundation in agama and kerohanian first for the boys, as ilmu duniawi tu can be learned later as he grows up.

....cont later ok, i'm going off to shower to get ready for work.

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sambung balik....

We concur with her, hence we think ad din would be the best choice for idlan. But guess what, the principal told us she can’t accept idlan for transit since the quota is already full, and that the teachers had sound their concern that they can’t cope with too much transit students (on top of the existing full day students). Puas dipujuk rayu, but the principal was firm with her decision (but again she threw it in a nice way and she apologized to us many times for that). Pruzz kata dada dia berdebar2 sgt bila cikgu ad din cakap macam tuh. As for myself I kept on thinking about the SR’s fees that we had paid just now, and what is our alternative for the transit. At last we decided to pujuk idlan to stay at ad din, and told him that he can still go to SR, but only on Saturday (2 hrs English tutorial class). Proses pujuk-memujuk tu lama woooo…depan cikgu ad din tu sendiri. We ourselves pon in fact prefer ad din as compared to SR, not to say SR is not good, but the emphasis places by each school is different. Idlan cakap ok he will stay, but he wanted to keep the SR kits (consists of 2 sets of uniforms, 3 pair of socks, a schoolbag & a cd). He said he wanted to put on the SR uniform to Ad din, and many other conditions, last sekali dia kata jgn lupa pegi tgk wayang cerita avatar and chipmunks kejap lagi. Sabor je kan???

So after confirming with the principal at Ad din, we headed back to SR with one sole intention, to get back our registration fees, and to register idlan for the weekend’s tutorial class instead. Inside car our minds are spinning on what sorts of reason or explanation to be given to the SR’s principal, how to tell her that we wish to cancel idlan’s enrollment to her center, etc etc. Pening dan malu woooo. Tapi last skali, we just told her the truth, that we couldn’t transit idlan at ad din after the SR class, and stressed our concern that we still want idlan to be at Ad din to learn all the solat, mengaji, doa and all. The principal seems ok with our sudden change of decision, she refunded our fees, but she apologized and informed us that we couldn’t retain the SR kits due to their principle and business rules established earlier with the supplier (SR kits are ordered based on the number of students enrolled for the class). But she allowed us to keep one set of the uniform, that’s it. So again another drama created here bila idlan insists to bring back the SR kits. Sesi pujuk rayu berlaku lagi, we promised to get him a new schoolbag, pilihla gambar ape saje, beli pencil box baru, etc. Towards the very end when we were to walk out of the room, aku terpaksa sorok bag, socks dan uniform tu and handover senyap2 to the SR principal.

Panjang dah kan tulisanku kali ni, this is more like luahan hati seorang ibu huhu.

Now we come to the turning point of the story.

Night time, I teach idlan and asked him to do some revision, using his last yr’s book. Honestly before this, we never force him to finish up his homework, what more to do revision on a daily basis. We thought we did not want to put on burden to him since he is still small and young, biarla dia main puas2 and enjoy his kiddies time. But after having some chit chat with the neighbours, and now upon finding the facts that the syllabus in primary school today are quite challenging, I was thinking maybe I need to start guiding and teaching him a bit at home. I don’t want him to be shock and stress out when entering his primary. Last two nights we were doing maths, and he looks ok to me, at least he got the basic knowledge of simple ‘addition & subtraction’. Tu pon he sulks and pull his face when he did mistakes and I tried to correct him (mind you I did not raise my voice ok, takdela garang pon) Last night we were doing English spelling, baru tulis 2 words, dia dah nak stop…sakit kaki katanya (ade relevant ke dgn tangan?). Ku pujuk dia utk tulis sikit lagi….but I notice he easily lose his focus, and cepat boring. My oh my, this part really makes me tense and test my patience. Now I know it’s not easy to be a teacher, 10 kids with 10 different attitudes and behavior…and myself yg baru handle sorang pon dah pening! Lagi tense bila firas pon sibuk mengacau sama, nak pencil abang, nak buku abang….geram mak :(

Now mothers out there, do you face the same problem like mine? What sort of approach that is best to tackle this kind of situation? Allow them to play and play like what they usually did, or to start teaching and do revision with them on a consistent basis, or to be more lenient and only teach them when they show the interest to do so. As far as I can remember, i tak blajar masa kecik2 dulu..main jer. Mak pak pon tak pernah suruh2 belajar ni. But again the environment has changed a lot, so does our education system. Kata orang lagi susah dan mencabar.

And you know what last night, when he failed to spell, he finally said…taknak lah pegi smart reader. Geram tak?

Ni baru sorang….tunggu la amir firas besar esok macam mana pulak ragamnyer :p