Screening test

I don't think I had taken a test for kindergarten, at least I don't remember there was one. If I really had one, I must have turned in a blank paper, or muted during the whole interview. All I could retrieve from my lossy memory are those foreign shape of alphabets which I couldn't memorize and I hated the same snack they provided every single day in that crappy kindergarten in Hong Kong. I rarely talk, since I just moved to Hong Kong. Don't speak a single word of Cantonese and I felt so alienated.

One generation down, it's for sure a different world. Will and I attended the information night at our home school. I promptly registered April and picked the time slot for her screening test. Thinking it would just be a casual and friendly chat with the kid, like a get to know your kids conversation, so they could balance each class "somehow" in a better and harmonized way, turned out to be sort of an exam.

I sat quietly at the far table observing the test. It's a series of questions, asking April to write her own name, to recognize shape and colors, to draw the shapes, to draw something she never see before, to talk about her days in school, to count and add, to perform some big motor skills to lastly draw a self portrait! I couldn't imagine drawing myself at the age of 5. She actually finished it in a minute, and have all the parts of face and body in the right place and later took her time to color the clothes in rainbow colors. Thanks to her pre-K teachers, I felt like they can predict the screening test.

The funny thing is at the end she asked the teacher if she can take HER self portrait home because she think it's a pretty drawing. The teacher told her that she need to share it with other teachers, thinking that will stop April from asking more. April countered back asking if she can have it back after all the teachers see it. "Maybe next year, if I still remember." said the teacher. April tends to carry herself quite far away when she's in the mood of talking, especially when the teacher is instructing a class. She will compete with teacher stealing air time. And sometime she will completely ignore teacher's question, by saying something which has a remote relationship to the topic. Here's a good example:

Teacher: Who's your favorite friends in school?
April: (slience for a bit) You know what's my favorite color?
April: It's pink.

Afterward, I asked her why she didn't answer the question. She told me she couldn't decide on who her favorite friend is. She has lots of good friends but can't decide who is her best friend. Well, you could still tell the teacher, you haven't decided, instead of being silence and derailed to something else. I was being praised and warned by the teacher, that I know and indeed have been working on it at home. Talking about pressure from school even before the school start!

I am grateful where April's at today, both mentally and psychologically, even though there are buckets of things need to be worked on. Starting kindergarten will open a new chapter in her life, she's merrily looking forward to that day. I hope she will learn to adapt as much as she can while stay being a giggly happy gal, since I know it will be piles after piles of work and pressure. At the end of the day, I felt relieved that we didn't win the lottery to a local charter school, which is being considered by lots of parents as a highly prestigious elementary which obviously has a high mark for each of its student's academic and all other performance.