It’s been over two weeks since A Jr started his Jr KG in his ‘big school’ (as he calls it). Technically it’s been ten days, what with the makers of our future corporate gurus already adapting the teaching-and-studying-only-weekdays policy. Calling these days eventful would be a gross understatement. They’ve ranged from being hellish to tolerable with some good amount of bawling and pushing in between.

A Jr’s session in his playschool had ended way back in March, which is when his summer vacations began. Almost 4 months! 🙂 🙂 During this time the boy got to watch his favourite cartoons all day, uninterrupted. He loved it when his mother didn’t bother to prod too much when he didn’t want to write alphabets or numbers. His visits to his grandparents were filled with chocolates and more and more masti and he was spoilt, completely! 😀

Now imagine having to give up all these jaan se pyaari things when the new school began! New place, new people and a lot bigger school, his enthusiasm to join was palpable at first. Added to it the excitement of wearing new uniform and new shoes, carrying a new Doraemon bag which had a compass box with cute pencils, eraser and sharpener, he was unstoppable! Sadly though, not too long after he joined, his sundar sapna bit gaya when he realised that he’s expected to even study there. 😛

Writing was something I could never get him to do without fussing. 🙁 He had his own rules. He’ll choose the alphabet he wants to write. He’ll write wherever he wants, even if that place is the newspaper or the walls. Size just doesn’t matter; his alphabets could be the size of a whole page. He took an eternity to decide which colour crayon he wanted to use. Only he could decide whether what he wrote was right. There’s a lot more, but getting my point? *rolling eyes*

No teacher in her right mind would put up with these rules, would she? His teacher complained to me within a week on how he doesn’t listen to her and wants her to hold his hand while writing. I’ll never forgive myself for getting offended by her remarks and taking it all out on A Jr. *slaps self remorsefully* Egging is one thing, forcing is another. In a not-too-subtle way I made him obey, which backfired on me, as expected. 🙁 🙁

Even before he could jerk the sleep off his eyes every morning A Jr would go, ‘ I don’t want to go to school’. This song would religiously continue till the time he had to leave. My eyes would well up and I’d feel uneasiness in the pit of my stomach. Discipline is one thing, but was this fair to him? Was I being too harsh with my baby? Did I have to do this? Some quick consultation with my mother about this, and I continued being the vamp, but this time I changed my attitude. This time, as she’d convinced me, I succeeded.

I started giving him incentives for doing homework. He could play Angry Birds on my phone or get a jelly on every page he completed. I’d put on his favourite CD if he listened to me. May be this isn’t the best way to encourage him, but it did manage to shirk off his dislike for writing. He got his first Good on his workbook! My pride cannot be put in words. 🙂 🙂

I understand now why parents demand a change in our education system so fervently. Teaching is one thing, but expecting toddlers like A Jr to be attentive in class and dutifully complete their homework is a bit too much to ask! Their minds are very receptive and they retain everything, even negativity. Shouldn’t learning be a fun thing rather than being a job that needs to be completed within a time frame?

This topic is too vast and cannot be covered here. Will write on this some other time. Till then, my energies are concentrated on A Jr.