Return Of The School

The world didn't end in 2012, obviously. And life goes on for everybody in this new year. That includes workers, housewives and students (and more). While I'm happy that I no longer need to sit in a classroom full of kids who were more or less like me, somebody else in the family now has to go through the same ordeal. Yes, his name is Jakjak. He doesn't hate school. He just doesn't love it. Still, I am pretty sure that it had been good to him at different points in his educated life.

(Jakjak took this picture ... of his feet!)

K2 prepared him for what to expect in primary school. It also established the fact that he is not too keen to learn math and native language (aka mother tongue). Still, it was a good year.

Jakjak advanced further in reading and writing. He earned all four reading badges in their reading program where he read 100 books. That is on top of the books that he regularly reads at home and his bring along books for mother tongue class. He also reads books by himself now only asking us for bedtime stories once in a while. His vocabulary has increased by four fold and his spelling mistakes have lessened.

He learned more math than he wanted to learn. He can count to a hundred now and add and subtract big numbers as well. He started learning about money, which he now understands (some of it anyway). Math concepts of more and less have been taught as well.

He won trophies at school for sports and music. He engaged in school activities with his mum and other parent volunteers. He went on educational journeys to the zoo and a water recycling station. He learned things he didn't know would interest him during those times, and he was happy to have learned them.

(Jakjak and some of his classmates)

More importantly, he made friends. Real posses who would stick by him (and he returns his loyalty to them as well). He also happened to have gained some fans to which he once told us: "mum, dad, do you know who the cutest boy in school is? me!". And we bow our hat to his incomparable self confidence (he is cute, no doubt about it).

While it wasn't all fun and games, the positive experiences he made in school far outweighed the negative ones. And while we give him as much freedom as we can, we still can't escape the boxed out world of school (as compared to the open world of homeschooling).