Yes, they must. It is when they love going to school, they will love learning. There is this saying “Do what you LOVE and you will never work a day in your life.” It is good that we have been away. Being away made me care less about the paper chase, the pressure cooker education system. You see, when you stay overseas you miss school sometimes because of heavy snow days, typhoon and a whole lot of other reasons. The kids didn’t learn less and they were not in any way more stupid. In fact, school or no school, everyday is a learning day.
This is their second week of school and I was initially worried that Kai and Ann will not enjoy school in Singapore. Well, little Ann seems to know what I am thinking. Daughter and mama have telepathic power. She came out from school and said, “mama, I love going to school.” “I love Singapore school, I just miss my SSIS friends.” So happy indeed to hear that. I told her, we will arrange to meet her Shanghai friends.
Over dinner, I asked Kai. “Can you use one word to describe your secondary school life?”.
Son : Interesting
Me : Even more interesting than SSIS?
Son : Yes, there are more interesting things to do.
Kai is definitely an advance learner. He enjoys hands on subjects. Design and Technology is fast becoming his favourite subject. Science experiments are more exciting now. Because of his reading habits, he enjoys Literature, Geography, History. The three years in Shanghai has helped him improve his Mother Tongue. It is no longer a chore, he can breeze through it now.
Last weekend, we went to school for the Tea with Principal session. Met the principal for the very first time and I love her. She is a no nonsense lady. Very disciplined and regards values as an important aspect of life. You can see what kind of principal the school has by looking at the kind of students they produced. Very well mannered, very disciplined. Kai thoroughly enjoys his time in school. In life, when a door is shut, it may not be a bad thing. It could mean a window of opportunities.
It is definitely the right choice to be home.
