Recently, my friends had been commenting about how pre-school & childcare nowadays are more focused on academic-learning rather than play-learning, & how they are irritated by that system. For me, I think kids need a good balance of both, & not just focus on either or.
I grew up in a family that allows me to play hard. My parents allow me to play at my playground everyday with my friends. They never told me "homework 1st, play after". But they said, "as long as you never forgot your homework". So it's play time after school, & i'll only do my homework at night before my bedtime.
On the other hand, they didn't forget to cultivate my learning & reading skills either by investing in lots of storybooks & even encyclopedia for me. With books surrounding me, & sometimes nothing better to do, I'll just pick up a book to read. Slowly, I started to cultivate the good habit of reading. Hence, since the age of 5, whenever I'm free, I would simply pick up a storybook to read. By the age of 7, I started exploring my encyclopedia & can name the continents of the world. When I was 9 years old, my family started to subscribe to daily newspaper & that got me reading Straits Times everyday. So when I grew older & my peers told me they prefer to read "Newpaper" because of the easier-to-read content, I was very appreciative of what my parents had done. In fact, by age 10, I started on Reader's Digest!Those foundations in life had helped me a great deal in my academics. Since young, I had no problems with my academics for I simply love reading! When I have finished all my hundred over storybooks & my siblings were not able to bring me to the library, guess what? I'll be so desperate to even bring out my textbooks to read! I'm not kidding! That's how I'm always one of the tops in school (primary & secondary). Because I read so widely, I would represent my Secondary & JC schools in those essays competitions, & my teachers would always used my essays for reference in class. Every year, you would find my essays published in the school's collection too. My dream at one point was even to become a novelist! But of course, my spoken English was not as well because I read alot of English books, but I don't speak English alot because I went to a Chinese Secondary School (Even my school song is sung in Chinese! Classic!). Maybe I should train Charis to read out loud...
In case you think I'm some kind of nerd... well, you're wrong! As I have said, I played very hard too. When I was in my teens, I was in the National Youth Badminton team & I would train for 4 days/week. I started hanging out with my friends at Orchard Road every Saturdays since Sec 1. By Sec 2, I started putting on makeup. I even started working when I was in Sec 2 to earn extra pocket money. So how can I be a nerd?
The last few months, James had been asking me, "what if Charis has other interests outside of academics, like music, drama, etc?" I am still in that old generation that thinks, "how to survive in Singapore if you don't do well academically?" Its still not as bad to think that her future childcare is unbalanced (only focused on either academic-learning or play-learning), than to know she prefer arts over academics... James asked me, "what if she's an exception & is really gifted?" My classic reply, "how many Vanessa Mae can there be?"
I know I need to change my thinking because mine belongs to the old & selfish traditional thinking. Of course, its hard especially when exceling in academic had always come so easily for me. Somehow, I believed that as long as I nurture her to pick up the good reading habits like me, she would certainly do well in school. But of course, if she still prefers other stuffs outside of academic, I know it would only be fair to her if I support her all the way just like my family had supported me in picking up badminton, & later on, excelling in it.
I need to change my thinking!
