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hi

my 31/2 yr. son ( April 2003 born) son has started school ( prestigious indian school) in april'06 in SHARJAH, UAE.

He had summer vacation for last 2 months and his school restarted in the first week of september.

from beginning ( before starting his school ) he is very good in saying rhymes , alphabets, weeks,colours, months etc., but he doesn't show much interest in writing. but he loves colouring. How can i encourage him to write the alphabets / numbers( he recognises the alphabets but doesnt like to write them ). i am getting comments from his teacher since last 2 to 3 days that he is very slow in writing.

One more thing is usually we speak our mother tongue ( tamil ) at home, so he is not much used to speak english, but he tries to understand it, since i am working i will keep him with maid ( who speaks only tamil ) so i cannot speak to him in english continously, how could i teach him speaking english. His class teacher is even complaining for not speaking english.

Some times i feel how could teachers expect such a small kids to speak different languages because whenever i go to meet her she will complain that he is very slow , not speaking english etc., etc.,.
At that time i will feel very bad that since i am going for work i could not able to spend much time with him. thats why he could not speak english. even i decided to resign my job and spent time with him. but my collegues stopped me from doing that.

i discussed this matter with some of my collegues but everyone telling that nothing to worry children will learn everything slowly, but i didn't understand why the teacher is complaining like that.

After reaching home i will spent atleast 1hr with him for completing his homework, etc., and he will tell me everything what he did in the school. but i am not understanding why he is slow at school.

Kindly share with me the behaviour of your kids also. and advice me what should i do to develop interest to him in writing. Tom Paes replied. Quite interesting!!! I am wondering on to how could you expect your kid to speak a foreign language like English without frequent practice? You either need to spend more time with your kid or the only alternative is that he needs to interact and socialize with kids (neighbours) who do not speak Tamil. After all, we are always there to encourage them to express their thoughts in right frame on sentence structure. More than your kid speaking right, its more important to take innitiative. A child care taker for a couple of hours could be another alternative. Simran replied. well.. there are many things i think you can do. first talk to him very openly.. ask him qns.. ask him about his friends.. its possible he is being bullied by other boys but he is afraid to tell anyone.. tell him that u love him and that he is the most important thing in your life.. you need to be very expresssive with children otherwise they get insecure.. Talk to him in english but try not to assert him too much with these things.. children tend to get bored easily..you are tamil..its possible in a couple of years.. his teacher might start complaining.. your son does not do well in hindi.. make studies interstng.. get him books that are colourful and pictoiral..that will generate interst in him.. buy storybooks.. read to him when he goes to bed.. buy coloured pencils and ask him to write nos and alphabets in diffrent colours.. this way he will learn both colours and numbers/alphabets.If the teacher complains too much.. start ignoring her.. just be happy with your child and make sure he is learning and he enjoys it.