Deciding what's best

My eldest daughter is entering primary one next year - that's just about a month to go.

As young parents, my Wife and I were sometimes worry whether what we were doing or what we decided would be good or for the best interest of our kids. There is no standard Parental Guide to help you in this area.

So most of the times, while we try to give the best education to our kids, want them to go to the best kindergaten/school, want them to do this and that etc, we always try to understand whether our kids are happy with what they are doing or with what we want them to do.

My first daughter has an interesting character. She is beautiful, petite and has a nice smile but rather quiet compared to her younger sister. She is bright in the school and always eager to go to school. While she never delay in finishing her homeworks on other subjects, she seemed to dislike doing her Abacus homeworks.

I decided to enroll Syakirah to an Abacus class after being informed during a briefing at her school that Abacus would be one of the compulsory subjects for primary Year One beginning next year. Since the classes were to be conducted at the school, I thought it was a good opportunity for my daugther to familiarise herself with the school environment where she would be spending her primary years and at the same time, learned Abacus before the actual school session started.

[However, surprisingly, when I asked my brother and her wife (both are teachers) whether Abacus would be a compulsory subject for Year One next year, the answer given to me was NO].

Lately, I found that she was becoming more and more reluctant to do/finish the homeworks given to her. She refused to do them with her mother and insisted that she would only do the homeworks with me. Most of the time, the works could not be completed before her weekly class.

So last Saturday, I sat quietly with my daugther and asked her whether she still wanted to continue with her Abacus class. As expected, she said no and I agreed. I didn't want to force her to do what she didnot want to do in the first place. She has been doing well during her pre-school since she was four. I guess I do not have to worry too much. I believe that learning for kids must be fun.