Maybe homeschooling is easier for Renzo

No I have absolutely no idea how homeschooling works, I was just thinking out loud because this morning, Renzo was making noise again on his way to school.

He said: "If I go to school later, I am not going to do anything! If I stay at home, I will do anything!!!"

I seriously have no clue what's the logic behind his thought, but one thing he's very right about, is that up to now, at 3 years 8 months of age, he still doesn't seem to enjoy going to school, and in fact he's not behaving well there. He's not able to express his needs such as requesting permission to go to washroom, or asking for second helping during meal time. He is the only one in his class who is not fully toilet trained till now. Taking off the socks and shoes and put them on the shoe rack is the simplest task every kid does in the morning, he's still struggling with it (mentally not physically though). The feedback from his English speech & drama teacher clearly indicated that his participation in class is poor though he has no problem with his pronunciation and performance, at all..

But at home, everyone knows how talkative he is. Not just that, he's quite willing to study, I meant the real kind of study that basically lasts for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour per session. He knows which particular book he wants to read, even for those books that he has read or touched for no more than 3 times, he remembers the title, as well as the size, and the color of the book so it's very easy for him to describe what he wants, and for us to dig out from his bookshelf. He likes to write, especially numbers, He can write letters and words independently also but when he's not in the mood, tracing is an easier alternative as he knows writing on his own seems tougher. He loves doing math, although at this moment he's not strong with subtraction, his concept of addition is pretty good and he even tried 2 digits addition with daddy 2 weeks ago.

Teaching him, at home, seems pretty easy for us so far, no scolding, no shouting, no disciplining and he just follows. I do feel bad when I hear about school teachers' concerns over Renzo, because there's simply nothing much I can do, as he doesn't seem to have those issues at home.

Here's a video of Renzo reading a book that Daddy has read to him for no more than 3 times a few months back. He grabbed it last night and started reading. I was in a shock that only till he flipped to page 2, I managed to take out my camera. I stopped videoing after he's done with page 2 but he continued till he finished page 4.

In any case, homeschooling is never possible since we both need to work, and of course we do trust our well-developed education system a lot more. We are just hoping that we could do more to help Renzo love going to school soon!

bye for now, yamaha music school..

Renzo has been attending "Music Wonderland" class at Yamaha Music School since last September. We started him with that course in hoping that he could appreciate music through listening and slowly progress on to Yamaha Junior Course in this coming October.

He was doing relatively well when he first started the course. We've met another Aug 2009 boy with his mother we got to know through internet, and that made Renzo more interested in the lessons as he felt like he already has a friend there. Unfortunately, due to work commitment, we could not continue him with the Tuesday 7pm class any more, and we finally made a tough decision, to switch him to the only other available slot at 6pm on Saturday. I don't know how good the course is but I know he could memorize most of the songs he learned during class, and he seemed to be in good mood all the time during that period. He even insisted to take a cab and attend his last Tuesday night lesson despite a super heavy downpour.

I have to admit, changing him to Saturday class is truly a bad move. First of all, Saturday schedule does work better for us as both Daddy Chan and I work 5 days a week, that means we can take turns to accompany him for lessons. But 6pm is not a good timing for Renzo. He is either having his nap, or being extremely tired and distracted at that time. Secondly, Renzo being a very "single-minded" boy, is not adapting well to the new environment and somehow, he keeps mentioning about his Tuesday class teacher and expressing his willingness to follow only that teacher.

After observing Renzo and discussing with Daddy Chan for a few weeks, we finally made a even tougher decision, to withdraw Renzo from the Music Wonderland course for now, and wait till October, before we decide if to enroll him again (since the schedule might not work for us still), or wait for another year and start him on private tuition (either with Yamaha teacher or outside tutor).

I find it a tough decision because being a persistent and determined mummy, I never like to give up easily this way, especially when comes to education. But then, we know for sure that the purpose of sending Renzo for piano lesson, is not for him to pass different grades and become a pianist, or to hope that he could grow up to be a more dignified and noble person. We just want him to enjoy his time while learning something new and fun! And seeing his response to his new Saturday lessons, I am more afraid that he will soon lose his interest in music (though I am not even sure how interested he is now, LOL)...

A close friend of mine, who is very talented and good at playing piano, suggested me to start Renzo at the age of 5 - 7, and meanwhile, bringing him to concerts to cultivate interest, might be a good idea. The decision we made to withdraw him from the lesson for now, really buys me a little more time to decide on what brand/model of piano/electone to get for him (I've been in a dilemma on what to buy for a year), and let's hope his new teacher will be able to advise me by then. And for now, we just want to let him focus on what he really enjoys first, such as working on math activity book!

learning to write his own name

Renzo learned to recognize his name "Renzo" at about 16 months, to spell his name at about 2.5 years, and finally to write his name at about 3.5 years.

Besides writing his favorite "Bad Piggies" once a while, the word he's been writing most often on drawing board, or paper is his name "Renzo".

Last night, when we reached home after work, he didn't welcome us with his usual "dinosaur hit" before opening the wooden door for us, instead we found him busying sketching something on the living room floor using an old school communication book, and after we got changed and returned to the living room, we saw this:

He spelled "Chan" as "Can" with a missing "H", and because he always pronounces his name as "Renzo Chan Yu Chan", so "Renzo Chan Yu Chung" became "Renzo CAN Yu CAN"...

We can't stop laughing although we know he's tried his best to get his name spelled correctly. When I told him that he wrote CAN instead of CHAN, he requested me to add "drink (from) the" in between his first name and "last name", and made that a sentence - "Renzo drink (from) the CAN" That made us laugh even harder and louder!!

He then rewrote his name properly with a little help from me on the spelling of "Chung", with a little more guidance from us, I am sure Renzo will start writing more words and even sentences very soon!