Our daughter started going to school as kindergarten 1 last September. She will be 4 next month. Contrary to the daycare center she was in Japan, the school here is like a real school where big boys and girls go. In her class right now, they learn the alphabet, phonics and the basics of reading.

They have homework on Thursdays that needs to be done by Sunday when they are back to school. We give her a break on Thursday nights, as we too want to be worry free after a hectic week at work. Thursday nights are just basically free time, snuggle time, play time.

On Friday night, we start to present her with the homework and sit down with her. This week, she is supposed to write the letter S, practice the sound of it and color some objects starting with that letter. There are a few examples to follow through, write through the dotted lines over and over and make lots of S’s. She was fine.

The moment she needs to write on her own, however, she gives up. So easily. She want us to hold her hand while writing then she cries when we say she should do that herself!

My husband and I tried to gather all the patience we have and teach her that she needs to learn to do things on her own, to believe in herself and try, try, try. All she did was cry. She did try but with the crying she makes, she could not seem to get anything done right. The letter would go out of the paper line, unbalanced or worse, written in opposite direction.

We are facing a huge problem with this kind of attitude and we talked until the wee hours in the night what to do. What kind of teaching method to use. Let me make it clear that we do not aim for perfection, we just want our little girl to know that she need to at least try a couple of times before giving up because life outside is all about striving, no matter how difficult, you must at least try. 

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I am thankful that I am able to control anger and impatience with regards to teaching my child. Patience is always a work in progress for me as I easily snap if someone don’t understand what I am trying to say. It would be unfair for a child if I get angry right away. I count to a hundred, bite my tongue or close my eyes and breathe and stop when I feel I couldn’t handle it. This is very easy to say but hard for me to do and I am thankful that I have the patience to practice it.