She will not be a social pariah

My girl attending kindy has opened up a whole new world and more new things for us to chat about.

MG: So, did you make any new friends in class today? Who was sitting beside you?

My Girl: It was a Mei Mei. She had tears in her eyes so I hug hug her and she smiled at me.

As we spoke she showed me the action of putting her arms around someone's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.

Hahaha. This shy little girl of mine was actually comforting someone else in class on the second day of kindy. I am proud of her. She will be alright. And I had been worried. Worried because she was a painfully shy girl and everyone, EVERYONE I met told me that I was doing the wrong thing by keeping her at home with me. Before her little brother came along, most days, she only had me for company. She was so shy that she used to run and hide under the table and refuse to come out when my sister came to visit. She does not have many cousins her age to play with as her cousins are much older than her.

"She will be a social pariah."
"You should allow her to mix around and socialize more."
"She's at home alone with you only ah... no wonder she's so shy."

Blah blah blah.

I had been teaching her diligently (or rather quite diligently) at home in languages, maths, science etc so I was not at all worried about her being left behind in lessons but I must admit that I was worried about her social skills because EVERYONE kept on stressing about it.

To all those people who said so, this I have to say to you. NYEK! NYEK! Boy, it sure feels good to proof everyone wrong! Hahaha. Especially if you're one fighting against the tide of so called "good advice" from other parents and grandparents. I thought that grandparents would think that its not necessary to send a child to kindy so early but no, many grandparents I have met also have the view that one should send a child to kindy these days at around age 4. They must be the new age grandparents.

Well, I still think that at age 4, a child can learn a lot from being at home, just playing, running about or helping out in the household chores.

I do not think that there is anything wrong or bad with sending a child to kindy at age 3-4. Sometimes there may be no choice if both parents are working and there is no one else to help accept a maid. But at the same time there is also nothing really wrong or bad for choosing to send a child to kindy later around age 5-6 as a lot of people seem to suggest or think. My sending at age 6 seem almost unheard of these days. I don't think that sending early is bad but I do think that sending early is unnecessary especially if there is someone to look after the kids at home.

And here's her verdict for the third day..

MG: How's school today?

My Girl: A little bit nicer but real lessons have not started yet. (She's looking forward to real lessons but at the moment its just coloring and pasting etc. And she was skipping about when she got home. A sign that she's happy. She skips when she's happy.)