Friday 12 November 2010

5Y10M 4Y1M 卒園式 Graduation

ナニア幼稚園で卒園式。英語クラス22人のうち5人が卒園。

アラタは去年、大きい子供達が卒園していくのを見て以来、自分もナニアを卒園をしたいと言っていた。私自身が幼稚園の卒園式に出られなかった(入院していた!)心残りの経験がある。そんな感傷も、アラタの希望も考慮した上で、小学校(SCIPS)入学を延期していた。

ナニアに入園して以来、英国の教育制度にあわせた場合を考えて、何度か転校のタイミングがあった。SCIPSに通う同学年の子供はとっくに英語の読み書きを習っているし、この9月には一年生が始まってしまった。私達も悩まなかったわけではない。

でも、今日の卒園式に出て、私も充実感。アラタが貴重なこの2年間を、子供らしく楽しく過ごせたということを実感し、また、彼が次のステップへポジティブに進む準備ができているという印象を強く受けたからだ。

ナニア幼稚園の自由でクリエイティブな環境で、アラタは自分に自信がついた。そして、マレーシア人の友達がたくさんできた。今日の卒園児のパフォーマンスは、さすがにどの子も、年長児の貫禄があり、落ち着いてみていられた。

マレーシアの制度によると来週一杯で今年度が終了、長期休暇に入るため、この時期に卒園式をしてしまうが、ナニア幼稚園には12月まで通う。

Arata's graduation at Taska Nania. There are 5 graduating children out of 22.

Since Arata witnessed last year's graduation, he's wanted to graduate from Nania. I wanted to fulfil Arata's desire because I myself had a very sad experience, I couldn't attend the kindergarten graduation when I was a child, as I was hospitalised... So we decided to let him miss the term 1 of year 1 at SCIPS to graduate from Nania.

We’ve been always in dilemma when to transfer him to St Christopher’s. The children of his age there started to learn writing and reading long ago. There have been a couple of timings we may have transferred Arata to SCIPS, particularly this September, when the Year 1 started.

However after attending the graduation today, we felt our decision wasn't bad. I can see for sure that Arata has spent very good time at Nania. He has been getting more responsible and mature as one of the big children in his class, he has become more confident in Nania's creative and stress-free environment. And he is now so ready to go to the next step of his life, we can all see it. Of course, we have to mention this, he's made lots of Malaysian friends.

When the graduating children did a couple of small performances today, we could watch them comfortably because they were all very confident.

According to the Malaysian school calender, they are ending this school year in a week time, and they start the longest school holiday before the new school year starts in January. That's why they schedule graduation around this time, but Arata can still go to Nania till the end of December.

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