VietNamNet Bridge – The question of teaching children at home before they go to school remains a headache for parents.

Because of her decision, Mai’s son always lagged behind his classmates, who all could already read and write. Her son struggled with letters and numbers and received low grades in writing. After three months in school, her son still could not write and Huong had to take him to extra writing classes.

Learning from this experience, Huong taught her daughter to read and write while in kindergarten. Later, in the first grade, the little girl was lazy and did not want to do homework, saying she knew all these things already.

Another mother, Linh, revealed that she has no idea which solution is best and does not know how to advise her brother, who has a son in the first grade next fall.

Linh’s brother decided to bring the son to classes before going to school. “The class is crowded, which means that all parents believe that it is necessary to teach kids in advance,” Linh’s brother remarked.

He added that some parents do not want their children to study with others in the narrow classrooms, so they hire tutors.

According to Dang Mai Dong, an educator working with Hanoi University of Education, teaching other subjects in advance is unnecessary, but it is advisable to teach kids to write. Dong thinks that children need to have a “transitional period” when they finish kindergarten and begin going to school.

Under current regulations of the Hanoi Education and Training Department, children who finish kindergarten only need to familiarize themselves with the 24 letters and know numbers from 1 to 10. The department also prohibits extra lessons for 5-year old kids.

Trinh Duc Minh, a senior official of the Hanoi Education and Training Department, stressed that it is not necessary to teach first grade lessons to children beforehand. Minh complained that many parents force their kids to do more than they can do, teaching them lessons designed for older students.

“Pre-school pupils just need to get familiarized with letters and numbers and this does not mean learning to write and calculate,” Minh added.

(Source: Gia dinh & xa hoi)