A whole new world - St. Catherine's International Kindergarten 國 … · A whole new world Bringing your first-born child to early education is like exploring a whole new journey

e-Newsletter Sep 2020

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A whole new world

Bringing your first-born

child to early education is like

exploring a whole new journey

with him/ her. Deep down in the

bottom of your heart, you know

the journey will definitely be fun

and memorable to both of you

and your child will do good in

paving their future, yet it is

inevitable to feel lost on how

should it roll out. We, just like

other ordinary parents, asked

ourselves if it is too early for our

son to start schooling at the age

of two and if our son had

physically or psychologically

prepared for school over and over

again before school started this

year. Now, however, we can firmly

tell you that we are glad to have

St. Catherine’s help in nurturing

our son because we found our

son has outgrown the daily

routine that we could offer at

home and he was in need of a

bigger world and society for him

to explore and interact. While

early education trains up your

child to take care of themselves

spontaneously, and prepares your

children in developing the crucial

social skills and learning skills, it is

of uncomparable importance for a

first-born child as he/she does not



have siblings at home to learn

from and interact with.

As we recall, on the first day

of school, every child was very

excited, and particularly busy in

greeting teachers and getting to

know each other it was like they

were getting into an amusement

park for the first time, feeling

curious and overwhelmed with joy

and excitement. However, after

the first two weeks of school, my

little boy started to understand

school is not an amusement park

for occasional visits only. He

realised that it became a routine

that required him to wake up early,

get changed and commute to

school at a scheduled time every

day. He changed his mind and

started to resist school with

difficultly. From our first-hand

experience, we believe that

devotion by both the school and

the parents are very important for

successfully navigating through

this situation. We hope that by

sharing the following it could be

found useful by other parents in

such transitional period and ease

the “pain” involved.

First and foremost, we need

to have faith in the school and the

teachers. If your child is crying

really badly when stepping into

school or when you pass him/her

to the teachers, you just let

him/her cry even though we all



know it will be heart-breaking.

You will find how quickly this little

child will calm down when he/she

realises he/she cannot change

anything with tears or lacks

audience.

Besides, we as parents need

to connect with the teachers as

well as other parents to make to

whole learning environment more

enjoyable. In particular,

participating in playdates with

classmates after school would

help your child take a big leap in

bonding with their classmates.

Once they become friends and

find playing with each other fun,

they will be relying less on the

parents.

Last but maybe the most

important, we suggest

communicating with the children

from time to time, getting to

understand how the children’s

school is every day, whom and

what he has played with and

whether there is any knowledge

he / she finds really interesting

and would like to share with us.

But remember, what we have to

do is having an interesting

dialogue with the children as

friends (if you manage to have a

mindset of their age, it could even

be better), rather than

questioning or even interrogating

as parents. Sometimes, it could

just be as simple as singing and



dancing with your child in the way

they learn from school and your

child could already feel your care

towards them. In addition, your

child maybe more willing to

participate and perform in the

class from receiving such

encouragement.

As parents of our family’s

first-born child, we always

consider ourselves as “newbies”

in parenthood. It is really like we

are crossing a river, by feeling our

way over the stones and we feel

the need to reach out for

whatever help and assistance we

can take. We believe that we

should stay relaxed and enjoy

each and every step of our

child’s growth. Let us all help

each other in this fruitful and

loving journey in raising up our

children, despite the fact that we

may feel nervous sometimes and

lost about what will come next.

Writer: Chun Ka Yan

Ip Pak Lun (P Penguin (2019-2020))

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A whole new world - St. Catherine's International Kindergarten 國 … · A whole new world Bringing your first-born child to early education is like exploring a whole new journey