When we arrived at the school, the first immediate reaction from Blake was to cry and struggle. I guess he didn't quite like the idea of going to school on weekends. Haha. So Sean stayed within the school's playground with Blake, while I went in to wait our turn. Sean had tried to bring Blake in a couple of times, but the boy wouldn't have it. He struggled and kept saying, "Bye! See you!" to all his teachers. In the end, Sean had no choice but to bring him out of the school compound, and to playgrounds in the surrounding neighbourhood.
While waiting for my turn to meet with Blake's teachers, the school principal, Ms Elle, handed me a marker a big white plastic ball. It was the wishing sphere for Marina Bay's 2013 New Year wishes.
Here's what I wrote (and yes, I realized that there's no plural in positivity... there should be though!):
My first meeting was with Blake's English teacher, Mrs Teo. She told me that while Blake is improving well, his overall learning development in school is slower than the rest of his classmates. He is able to recite random letters from the alphabets, but is not able to recognize them. As for numbers, he doesn't seem to be very interested in them. He hasn't started to speak in sentences yet - that's one of her concerns, but she's sure Blake will start very soon. He also likes puzzle games and ball games a lot, but his attention span is relatively short. And as compared to when he first arrived and would run around the whole school like it's his giant playground, he has started to sit still during lesson time. She also noticed that how Blake responds in class depends very largely on his mood that day. If he's in a good mood, he will be the model student. But when he's in a bad mood, all hell break loose. This boy of mine...
After meeting with Mrs Teo, I met with Teacher Meng - Blake's Chinese teacher. Her ultimate concern for Blake was speech and temper. My boy has a bad, bad temper, but it's not always that he will throw tantrums. It's just that when he does, it scares the people around. She did, however, mention that it is clear that Blake is really intelligent and very expressive. He will never allow himself to get hurt in the process of throwing tantrums. According to her, it can sometimes be a hilarious sight, cos while most children will just go into tantrum fits, Blake will take a while to get himself into position (laying on the floor) before starting. He is able to express himself very well with gestures, body language, single words, and sound effects - something apparently not many of his classmates are able to do. Blake is also more active in her class, always finding the chance to run, a total opposite compared to English lessons.
My general take-back from this Parent-Teacher Meeting is that I need to teach Blake how to control his temper, motivate him to learn the alphabets and numbers, and to encourage him to start speaking in sentences (Teacher Meng say, chances are, he will be a very talkative boy the moment he speaks in sentences. Oh my....).
Once I've met with both his teachers, I left to look for Sean and Blake to head to our next destination. While I went to run some errands, Sean took Blake to even more playgrounds to play at, and we met up again to have lunch before heading home. We took a stroll through the park connector to get home, after getting off the bus. Blake couldn't be happier, but he was also very tired by then. Haha. After all, he had been playing non-stop from the moment we left home!
Ending off this post with a few photos taken at the park connector.
It's been a while since we last took a family photo! J
Blake's posing in this photo. Haha.
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