Nadya's P1 Books

Last night, I went through the big bag of school textbooks and materials and stationery that we got for her from the school 2 weeks ago. I wanted to get acquainted and be familiar with the books so I know how to pack/check her bag next time. Also wanted to see how I could fit her books into the bookshelves we have.

I was quite surprised at the stuff in the bag....Gosh...

• Music lesson got textbook one meh??! - that was my first reaction. I flipped through and rolled my eyes a little. At P1 they want the kids to learn about "forte" and "pianissimo"? Erm...zun bo??!! I only knew of these terms when I did "Appreciation of Classical Music" in my uni Year 2!

• PE lesson got textbook one meh??! - that was my 2nd reaction. I didn't flip through the book though. Not sure what's inside. 

• Self-journal - I was curious and was impressed when I flipped through this book. It was colourful and engaging and it teaches kids on what words they could use to describe their emotions (using colours and other adjectives). It also touches on emotions, expressing oneself and self-management...I think this is pretty good! Laoniang like!

• Mathematics - I was wondering why the hell were there 2 textbooks but 4 workbooks! But it turned out that it was because there were many pictures and drawings in the math workbooks. So I guess they needed more pages for the workbooks. Not bad, the books were all very colourful and engaging! So cute...I don't remember having so many colourful "ang gong kia" in my books last time.

• English - there were no English textbooks or activity books in the bag. I distinctly remember having English textbooks and workbooks when I was in primary school....have things changed? English class don't need any books now?? Hmm....

• Chinese - OMG. Higher Chinese has 2 textbooks, 2 writing workbooks, 2 small reading books, and 2 other activity books. Overkill right?? 8 books for just ONE subject? On top of these...there's also 1 textbook and 1 activity book for Moral Education or 好公民. Ok, this moral education things is the same as when I was a kid I think. But then that makes it like 10 books all in Chinese. Oh yes...there's also a box filled to the brim with hanyu pinyin flash cards....

• Art - there's an A3 sized art folder, an A3-sized clear plastic file, a drawing block, an A4 sketch book (which I love by the way, was eyeing it for myself haha), a set of colour pencils, a set of crayons, and a set of 2B/4B/6B pencils (which I was eyeing too!!!). Sibei impressed. they need so much materials to teach a P1 kid art?? why need 2B/4B and 6B pencils? Don't tell me a P1 kid needs to learn sketching and shading and gradients??

• Miscellanous - There's a whiteboard marker and duster set. No idea what it will be used for. Hmm. There's also a pencil and rubber set, which I presume is just for the kid to do writing. And then there's a whole set of single-line exercise books, A4 sized jotter books (lined and non-lined), and squared exercise books for Chinese I think...and another peculiar exercise book which had small squares in its pages and bigger grids of 4 squares interspersed between the small squares. No idea what this exercise book could be used for. Hmm....

I took a brief look at the books and my first impression was that Nadya would have no issues with the Math and Chinese. Need to take a closer look though. 

Next steps:

- Take a closer look at the textbooks and workbooks

- Need to wrap all the books in their plastic jackets (Nadya promised to help)