Chapter 68 - Ye Jingjing’s tutorial classes

Now that Ye Tianbao had signed up to the after-school program, Shu Yan also need to make progress on Ye Jingjing’s side. She had only been to 6 months of kindergarten back at her old place and hadn’t learned anything. The teacher had only gone over basic mathematics and pinyin and Ye Jingjing’s progress was behind all the other kids’ in City Nan. Luckily, she was only in first grade and could easily catch back up.

“Your little brother has an after-school English tutorial section on the weekends. Jingjing, mom is thinking about signing you up to an English tutorial section as well. And maybe a Chinese and mathematics too, at least for a while. Once you catch up with the other kids, school won’t be as difficult.” Having three classes outside of school would be tiring, but it’s better to do it sooner rather than later. It’d get more and more difficult to catch up.

“Mom is going to sign me up to an English tutorial section?” Ye Jingjing looked at Shu Yan happily. “Tongtong also has mathematics and English tutorial sections. She asked me this afternoon if I want to go with her. Can I go to the same one as her?”

“Of course. When I see Wang Yitong’s mother tomorrow, I will ask her which tutorial section she attends and I will take you to register for that one. That aside, is there anything else you wanted to learn? Something like singing or dancing? Is Classmate Wang Yitong taking any of those?” Shu Yan felt that it’d be good for the kids to take some talent classes, like singing. One would get a lot of brownie points when they network.

Talent classes? Ye Jingjing’s eyes lit up again. So many girls in their classes were attending talent classes, especially the art committee member. Not only was the art committee member pretty, she could sign, dance, play the piano and even draw. Other girls also have signed up to classes, including Wang Yitong. Ye Jingjing was very envious every time they chatted about it.

“Tongtong is taking dance lessons,“ said Ye Jingjing as she shook her head. “Let me start with the tutorial sections first; the talent lessons can wait.”

“Baby steps, of course. We will sign you up for talent lessons after you are caught up with at least one of the three subjects. You seemed happy talking about it earlier. Why did you change your mind?”

“Mom has to raise both little brother and I. I don’t want things to be too difficult for you.”

Shu Yan hadn’t expected that to be her reason for declining. She felt a little astringent in her heart and said, “Don’t worry. Mom can afford both you and your little brother. You let me know what you want to learn, okay? But mom has to make one thing clear. Once you made a decision on what to learn, you must follow it through and not give up halfway, alright?”

“I shall keep it up for sure!” said Ye Jingjing as her little mouth cracked open. “I want to take dance lessons too.”

“Okay, we will sign you up as soon you catch up with your school work.” Shu Yan remembered that she had taken a few days of dance lessons when she was a kid. It was very painful and she whined about quitting after just a few days. She wondered how long Ye Jingjing could carry on for.

The two kids had, by now, gotten used to their mother eating a different meal than them. Ye Tianbao was thoroughly enjoying his food and would take a look at Shu Yan from time to time, “Mom, this meat is so good. Would you like some?”

Shu Yan gritted her teeth. Oh, so this is the time when you decided to think about me huh? But she still needed to put up a smile and said, “Thank you, Tianbo, but mom won’t have any. You can have them yourself.”