Back To School

My son’s school has finally reopened after several days of dusshera holidays. He’s in nursery. It was a period of merriment for him and we as parents did whatever possible to keep him happy and occupied. That was the tough part. But the days just flew by and now it’s time to go back to school once again. Thankfully, he was not grumpy and moody on his first day of school and that made things easier for me.


It’s time to start the process all over again of teaching him to write, read him stories, help him colour and the list goes on. The activities are numerous and endless. The pressure is big time high on kids these days. Don’t you all agree? Being a hyperactive kid, I initially found it difficult to make him write for fifteen minutes at a stretch. His thoughts would wander and he would just not focus.  Pressuring him to write only made it worse.  He would often burst into tears.
My patience too would run out. I gradually learnt to be gentle and patient with him and things started working out in our favour. I never pressurized him but at the same time I coaxed, encouraged and praised him whenever he did write. He gradually started writing more and now he sits continuous for half an hour. Encouraging him worked well.

I allotted a special time for him to do his homework and discouraged him from other activities at that particular time. Making learning and other activities more fun helped me in bringing him back on track. There is always joy in learning and doing fun things together and I think that worked well with him.
Each child is unique and different and the same method cannot always be used to teach a child. Some kids may require a little more patience and empathy. When we were in school, I recollect writing alphabets and numbers only, in nursery. But now there are numerous activities like picture reading, matching the numbers, matching alphabets to pictures and public speaking.
The burden is not only high on kids but also on Parents who have got the herculean responsibility of teaching the child. The greatest challenge I’ve found is to get the attention of the child, and it’s more difficult if he or she is hyperactive. Another challenge we all parents face is we do not want the child to be left behind in the rat race however at the same time we don’t want to pressurize them too much as well.

My son received his report card a couple of days back. By god’s grace he has performed fairly well. He received a mix of A and A + grades in most of the subjects. He also stood first in the spell bee contest, which was a bonus. I’m aware of the fact that I don’t need to get all worked up regarding the grades, at this stage but it’s undeniably a good feeling to see the good grades on his report card.  Good results not only build up the child’s confidence but it’s a great gift to the Parent who makes an effort to teach the child. At the end of day we both were happy that our joint efforts paid off.
 I’m Diana Pinto mother of a three-year-old son. I’m a housewife and a blogger. My interests include listening to music, dancing and now of course writing. I’ve developed an interest in writing recently and hope to inspire people and bring a change through it. I blog at Diana’s musings.