pre-school drop out

After a two week trial, Jude dropped out of preschool.

There were a variety of factors involved. The elephant prayer time wasn't really involved in the decision, though we're not sorry to wait a little longer to wade through those waters.

Our primary reason: we didn't feel Jude was quite prepared to meet the academic standards of the school.

We've heard from a number of people that asians are very serious about education. Jude's little friends come over to play and talk about exams and pages of homework. Our language teacher told us her daughter was ranked 2nd in her class. She was pushing for #1. Um. Her daughter is in 2nd grade. Who ranks second graders?

We were assured that this was more of Montessori type program, a pressure free environment. But as time wore on and we observed more and more classroom time, we realized that the preschool curriculum was a bit...too academic. Jude's 1.5. We're not really concerned with his progression in learning the the ABCs or the identification of an octagon. Apparently, asian parents are.

So, as much as a few hours a morning would have helped with language study, little Jude's going to have to find his social interaction elsewhere for a while longer. I guess for now, we'll be "homeschooling." :)