Hi. I am looking for preloved uniform. My son is joining Sec 1. Any one has smaller size uniform to let go?

2 April is World Autism Awareness Day but it came and went without any mention by our local media. Parents, you can still spread the message through your own efforts through this beautiful and touching song -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hiQYurSJCQ

Just to share my thoughts after reading all these. My friend’s autistic boy has just joined a PCF and settled in nicely. In his class, a normal kid is still acting up, disrupting the class and thus taking away the teachers’ time from other children. Sounds familiar to sophie80’s concerns? Except this is the reverse situation. My questions:

1) Should the other parents, including my friend, pressurize the principal to have this disruptive but normal kid remove?
2) If the answer is no, why are only children with special needs always under undue scrutiny and pressure such that every little undesirable behaviour puts them at risk to be asked to leave? Why is the focus only on special needs children? Why are normal children’s disruptive behaviour tolerated but not the one with special needs? We should start to ask ourselves what is our true concern - the behaviour or the label?

It also brings me to wonder what would have happened to my daughter who is normal but was crying for months when she first joined a playgroup. Her excessive crying was to the point of my deep embarrassment and apology (my heartache aside) but I was grateful that no one minded enough to make us leave the school. Instead, the parents were very understanding and supportive, assuring me that she would settle in soon (which she never really did till 6 months later).

Now reading the comments from parents like sophie80 and the like, I wonder if we would still have received the same understanding if she had been autistic or had some special needs. If the answer is no, it will be really disturbing and perhaps time for us to search our conscience.

You may also want to ask yourselves what kind of environment you want to expose your children to while they are young and impressionable. For me, a principal who is willing to take in a child with special needs despite the challenges (including undue pressure from some disapproving parents) speaks volume about the kind of values she upholds. Should we support what she’s doing or make her life difficult?

At the end of the day, we as parents have the ability to tell what’s right from wrong and the control to teach our children appropriately. The issue is not so much about the special needs child anymore, but what kind of upbringing we want to expose our own children to.

Hi JJmum and buds. Thanks for your inputs. My son is going to P1 next year. I'm a believer in allowing children a carefree childhood so have not sent him for any academic-based enrichment since young. Instead, we do a lot of reading together and I'm happy that he now has a huge appetite for books.


Like buds, I also mastered reading without knowing what phonics was as a kid. In fact i can't remember how it happened. However, I'm revisiting whether to place more emphasis on phonics recently because I realised that it could also be a useful tool in spelling, though I am aware there are words where phonics rules do not apply. I was told that it would be boring to start him over in phonics if he already can read but I'm not too happy when he does not switch on his thinking cap in phonics when we ask him to try to read the words that he claims he does not know by simply using the basic letter sounds which I know he knows. I wonder if this stems from the fact that he has never been formally drilled in phonics and hence he quickly dismisses even very easy words (especially names eg Nana) as long as these are not under the high frequency words. If he does not try to apply even the simple phonics skills he has, he will have to memorize each word as it is when it comes to spelling - sounds tedious to me.

Thanks everyone for all these sharing. Chief KS, I really appreciate how you made the topics of discussion so organised.


One thing I’m very concerned about is the fact that my boy will have a lot less time at home to play & interact with his siblings. I’m already beginning to miss having him around…

Just wondering aloud how important phonics is in a child’s journey in learning to read. My boy has apparently skipped the stage of using sounds to help him in reading (even though this was covered briefly in sch) and seems to be reading primarily by remembering sight words. I read somewhere that the goal is to read, it does not matter how a child reaches that goal as long as he is finally able to read.


Still, I would like to equip him with the skill of blending sounds but do not know of any bridging courses as most reading programmes incorporate this at the early stage when the child can’t really read yet. He already can read and I can’t seem to find a programme which addresses only building up his skill in the sound part. Any advice or thoughts to share?

All the talk about the academic preparation is getting me very nervous cos I still allow my boy to play all day but back to another concern - can those of you experienced parents please advise the non-academic aspects to look out for too? Also, anyone knows where to find seminars about getting our child ready for p1?

Hi. Just like to share my personal views on some ways which you can try to help make Chinese more appealing to your child - http://www.ilovechildren.org.sg/blog.php?blogid=25

Whenever people hear that my boy is entering P1 soon, they ask if I have been sending him for prep classes or giving him worksheets etc. Actually I have not done any of these cos I strongly believe in learn through play and also this boy learns better with peers.


Now brainstorming how I can team up with two or three other parents living in Sengkang to share the coaching, maybe by subject. I don’t intend to make it like a tuition, but more about introducing new stuff through play activities. Please PM me if anyone is keen to explore the idea.

Hi. Do check us out at http://beyondplaydates.wordpress.com/.