Uniform Envy

The school year ended on Thursday and our daughter moves up from preschool to K1 after the winter break.  The last day of school was celebrated with a gift exchange as well as an encore performance of the “Hi Ho” song.  We missed the big stage event while in California for Thanksgiving but it essentially entailed having the kids dressed as construction workers with little shovels.  The dug, they sang.

In one of the more bizarre moments of the year, Citrus was not allowed to participate in the two rehearsals once they learned she would miss the big performance.  She sat in the audience with a few other children.  I was the most upset and questioned the teacher — after all, these are four year olds and individual roles were not assigned — but they would not budge.  “Cannot.”  Along with “Can!” one of the most common Singapore words.

When classes begin she will have two new teachers, the same arrangement as in preschool where one speaks English and the other speaks Chinese exclusively.  She is making a lot of progress understanding Mandarin and learning to write characters.

She also brought home her new uniform, a transition from blue and white shorts and shirt to a one-piece shirt/skirt.  My only gripe is that it is 100 percent cotton and has pleats so that means a lot of ironing. 

I am the only one in the family without a uniform — if you do not count shorts and sandals — so I was pleased to find out that parents can get a matching outfit so that daughters can match mommies, sons can match dads.  We bought two sets.

Just kidding.

Tagged as: learning Mandarin, preschool, school uniform, Singapore