Nov 26 2009
What My Kid is Learning in Kindy
When I see what my kid is learning in kindy these days, I find that time has really changed. In my time, I remember learning 123 and ABC at kindy. Of course, I also learned the different colors and did coloring as well.
Now, my son is in his second year at kindy. Today, he brought home his number writing book and I saw that he is already being taught the numbers 21 to 30. Whether he can actually count something up to 30 without losing concentration, I’m not too sure. But it is certainly hard, isn’t it, for a 4-year-old to count until 30?
I don’t know. Maybe I’m comparing it to my time which is 3 decades ago. For his class presentation to parents recently, the theme was Getting to Know China. So, he and his classmates were made to recite a sentence to introduce China. Of course, they were also taught some simple things about China as part of a project. When I was 4, what do I know about China? I didn’t know China even existed then!
Anyway, I also see my son learning how to copy words for his activity book. These are not only simple words like car and boy. Some of these words include astronaut, princess, pirate and yellow. I mean I would expect a 3-letter or at most 4-letter words to be copied or written by kindy pupils. But words like astronaut and princess seem a little too advanced for kindy to me.
Which brings me to this question. What are your kids learning at kindy? Is it the norm now to learn such ”advanced” stuff at kindy or is this only confined to this competitive city called Hong Kong??
