Networking with Other Parents

Its very important to form a network with other parents in your kid's class. You never know, you may need to contact them when your kid is sick and need to catch up with homework or has forgotten what homework he needs to do etc.

I think most parents realise this importance so it was really funny during the orientation. We went like "Hi. How are you? Is your kid in this class too? Can we exchange telephone numbers?" Hahaha. And everyone shared anxieties and exchanged contact numbers and cards freely. In normal social situations, you don't normally exchange telephone numbers as fast as this, would you? lol.

It may be amusing but I think its very useful. You better do it during orientation too as that is the time when you meet the most parents. After that, during the first few days of school, everyone is too anxious looking after their children to exchange numbers and after the first few days, you might not see any more parents as they settle into a routine of having their children to be sent to and from school by bus or relatives etc.

I exchanged numbers as well and made quite a lot of new acquaintances. Unfortunately I did not have time to key the numbers in my phone right away. I wrote it in my husband's little note book and I can't find it now. Haiyh!

There is one particular mother that I meet frequently though. Her kid is also like mine. She doesn't speak much Mandarin unlike some of the other kids who are more prepared. Her girl cried throughout the first week but she looks happier this week. In fact, yesterday when my girl cried, this girl went up to her and said "I will be your friend." and this cheered my girl up tremendously. I believe that this girl went up to my girl because her mother had been trying to encourage her to become friends with my girl. I had been trying to encourage that too to get them to support each other a little bit. Ah... such interferring meddling mothers we are. :P

Like most people have said. Don't worry.Throw them over the deep end and they will survive it. In 3 months time they will be talking like a pro. Blah. Blah. Blah. However, I believe that lots of support and a little intervention when necessary is important. Why let them be miserable for 3 months or even 3 weeks? Starting school should be an exciting process, something to really look forward to with new experiences to learn and new things to explore. It should not be something to be dreaded and feared don't you agree?

My girl is a bit more reserved and timid. However she can overcome it if given the support and encouragement like how she managed to become emcee at her kindy concert in front of 300 parents. The others in her class all look fine to me, a happy bunch, so don't let my story worry you if you have children going to school next year. ;)