My girl has grown

I remember 4 years ago when I saw my little 2-yr-old En en crying on stage, I comforted myself by saying that her mummy is also not the type who can go on stage and perform. It's her genes.

Yesterday, when Roy and I saw the confident-looking En en dancing happily on the stage, we were so happy! We know that she has taken yet another BIG step since last year.

Could be number of reasons that made her change slowly over the 4 years, possible ones are :

- she is slowly growing out of her shyness

- she has slowly gained more confidence in performing ( I remember she used to shy away in her own class such that the teachers did not even dare to look AT her when she was dancing)

- maybe she gained a bit more experience through her Speech and Drama or Music lessons

Whatever the reasons are, we are glad.

As for the boy, I hope he is slowly changing his learning attitude. He has been showing some undesirable attitude in school lately. Like not paying attention, not showing interest in lesson (when repeated things are done), not colouring nicely, not following teacher's instructions...

I was quite upset when I heard about this. As a teacher, I could not help but place high expectations on my own children. En en is doing well in all areas I can say. She is a typical hardworking and conscientious pupil who loves drawing and can read and write quite well (at her level).

But the boy is very different. I know we cannot compare boys and girls. I know boys develop maturity later. I know boys are more active. From young, Ryan has shown to be more daring and creative than his elder sister. However, he was bored easily. He needed new stuff to keep his focus every now and then. I even suspected him of ADHD.

At first, I was upset and panicked about his progress. Roy said not to worry, as long as we could slowly change his learning attitude, everything will fall into place. I certainly hope so and am trying to find ways of 'counselling' the boy.

Once, during a conversation with a colleague who has 2 grown children and over 50 years of experience in life. She said that though we have our expectations, we may have taught our children, they may not necessarily take it as the same spirit as us. It also depends on our own definition of success in life - survival skills, academic results, social skills, moral values ?

True.

At the end of the day, I sat back and told myself, he is still a three-yr-old boy (going to 4 next Jan). Am I over-worrying ? Yes, a bit ! :P

Instead of fretting about this, which may somehow translate into lower tolerance rate, lesser patience with children. I should just try to find what interesting ways are good and effective to keep Ryan's attention span longer, sustained his learning interest and praised him more often.