I'm a young working mom with a three-year-old daughter. Recently, due to peer pressure, I am trying to learn more about our current schooling and syllabus to prepare my daughter for school. I dropped by a local bookstore and had a quick glance at the Standard 1 textbooks.

I was just too shocked to see the content were so difficult! Children are expected to know 'pemahaman' (comprehension) and to construct sentences. They are expected to know science as well. When I went to school in the 80s, my teacher just started with ABCs in Standard 1.

This leaves me with no choice but to send my daughter to kindergarten next January. She will not be able to catch up otherwise. I feel really sad for her. She is going to miss out so much of her childhood because of this. The kindergarten teacher I met last week told me that parents are sending their kids as early as two years old.

And just to remind you, most kindergarten also give out homework! And to cope with the home work, parents are sending them to tuition classes! All this for a four year old? Imagine the poor Chinese school kids who have to learn in both languages.

I really don't see why we have to make it so difficult for our children. Many of us are successful now even by learning ABCs at seven years old. So what is the rush? Why can't we let them to have some fun?