Learning from kids

Ying Hui, my Std 1 daycare student. The 吃软不吃硬 type (threats will make her even more rebellious). Her weakness--her vanity. XD

#1 Say what you mean & mean what you say. And with that I mean every single word! Don't count on them losing out on the details/forgetting because, honestly their memory are wayyyy better than elephants.

Jian Yang, Std 1 afternoon daycare student. Same type as Ying Hui. Scolding him is not worth the try =)

#2 Shouting or scolding them out of frustration will only bring devastating consequences. Nowadays kids are pretty much capable of independent thinking. Autonomy doesn't work around here anymore! The more you tell them not to, the more they are tempted to do so. Rebellion is in their blood.

 Mr Ho Li Xian, 4 yr old kindy student. Extremely inquisitive and occasionally naughty. Bright but sometimes agonized but we're totally in love with each other =)

#3 Praising them is the way to go! For my 4 yr olds, to get them to drink water, all I have to do is praise those who have finished drinking from their water bottles. I'll be like 哇， 你的脸好滑哦! (wahh, your face is sooo smooth!!!) Then everyone else will grab their bottles and guzzle down as much as they can. One girl even kept checking the smoothness of her face while she was still drinking =)

Yan Zhen, 4 yr old kindy student. Sweet gal, unlike her clone Tiffany Foo ^^ but honestly I'm not that dark!! She's just way too fair and there MUST be something wrong with the lighting *in denial*

#4 Don't treat them like kids. Literally. Their problems with friends, schoolwork etc may seem trivial to us adults, but it means EVERYTHING to them (this applies more to those kids in Std 1& above). Eg there may be a dispute between two kids and we adults will simply shake it off, like "it's nothing la. Why are you guys fighting over such a small matter?" The more you ignore their problems, the more they keep it inside of them. Some of them just end up being emo the whole morning and won't be willing to do their work, which is bad for them in the long run, too.

Anyhow, in these 6 months they've definitely taught me much! about how adults are not much different than kids. We're just bigger, that's all (in my case, not much of a size difference T.T)