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DSA applications are ongoing, till June 2!

Still wondering whether the DSA is the right path for your child? This is the time to think it through.

Some useful questions:
Does my child show qualities or skills that could help them do well in this area?
Compared to other children their age, are they progressing more quickly?
Are they being selected for competitions, either by their schools or enrichment coaches?

In our recent KiasuParents Huddle webinar on the DSA, parents also asked: What if my child doesn’t have a clear interest? Watch our panellists answer this question.

If you missed the live session, you can still watch the full recording. For DSA season, we’re offering it at 50% off till June 2.

Use the discount code DSA2026 here: https://payhip.com/b/vFVbz

thebottomsupblog

📅 21 May 2026 (Thursday)

🕗 8PM to 9.30PM

Is this happening in your home?

Your high-ability child is not scoring well in tests and exams
Your primary school child is scoring AL3 and below, but you think they can do better
Your secondary school teen is scoring B3 and below, when you had set higher targets
Your child is in danger of failing

This webinar is for you!

Join us for this 90-minute session to learn how to:

Speak to your child in ways that reduce shame, defensiveness, and shutdown
Understand what your child may be feeling
Guide reflection and responsibility, without scolding or blaming
Communicate with high achievers, “average” performers, and those who struggle academically
Support motivation and growth without creating fear‑based pressure

Register Now

Speaker

Eric Tan is a transformational parenting coach, author, and founder of the Conscious Mindful Parenting workshop.

A former Chief Consulting Officer with 17 years of corporate experience, he now blends neuro‑linguistic programming (NLP) and neuroscience‑based tools to help parents build emotionally connected families.

thebottomsupblog

Announcement: KiasuParents is introducing a new webinar series, to help our community learn and grow as parents!

thebottomsupblog

@rinsider said:

So what kind of mixed signal is he sending to his son? “Daddy is outraged as the teacher could have expressed it better, therefore daddy had to redeem himself against this remark… I’m not just a Grab driver…”

Under any circumstances, for someone to make a remark like “they’re just an XYZ,” it doesn’t reflect well on them.

And if we’re on the receiving end of that statement, I guess defensiveness is one of the natural responses.

Eg stay-home/wfh/freelancer moms may be triggered if someone says they’re “just staying home,” or implies that they’re not productive, or even just “bumming around.” (Tbh, even friends/very decent people have made those kinds of statements to me before, and I could be just as guilty of saying something that reveals my own bias.)

The response might then be to try and qualify one’s value.

So… in that sense, I don’t really blame the dad for sending those mixed signals. One could also say, “Yes, this is what I do, and I like it/am proud of my work.” But I suspect we’re all a little more complicated than that!

thebottomsupblog

@rinsider said:

Besides tuition, how do parents nowadays try to incorporate Chinese into their kids’ lives actively? Especially if you were weak in the language yourself?

My son (now Sec 3) has a millennial tutor, but he’s more of a friend/mentor, so these sessions are enjoyable. In the past, we had asked our tutor to take my son and his friends on outings, like to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.

Apart from that, I had hired my friend’s daughter (early 20s) for a small fee, to have conversations and play games with my son.

But ultimately I think if we don’t speak the language in our daily life, it’s quite hard to improve!

thebottomsupblog

DSA Talent Areas for this year: https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/dsa-talent-areas-2026

Hope to hear from more parents in the community, sharing your DSA questions, concerns, and stories!

thebottomsupblog

@rinsider We had a discussion about this last night, with some friends (also parents)!

Among our group, we have one neighbourhood sec school teacher and one allied educator.

Some points:

Girls bully as well, so what’s the punitive measures for them, and are these effective? Or we are sticking with less-effective measures for girls, due to their perceived physical vulnerability?
What teachers see on the ground: the victim may not be adequately supported, especially if they are bullied in their graduating year and leave the school after that. Gentler measures such as corrective work don’t have much effect. Getting teens to help out in school (e.g. cleaning toilets) requires plenty of time and effort from already overstretched teachers.
It’s unrealistic/unfair to expect teachers to do double-duty as therapists, coaches. Teachers are not experts in behavioural change. Perhaps every school needs a dedicated team to handle these non-academic challenges, not just a handful of counsellors?
Will school caning, the way it is currently carried out, really serve as a bullying deterrent, or is it performative?
We talked about the whistleblowing aspect as well. We know of teachers who are alerted to fights and they personally intervene. But not everyone has that relationship with their students, and that’s not a real solution.
We also talked about victims, especially male victims, who may not talk to anyone about what they’re facing.

thebottomsupblog

@rinsider Oh if it’s Grab/Gojek, and I’m the one that’s feeling lazy/tired and wants to take a ride, I’ll usually cover the cost if there’s someone else with me, and choose a drop-off point that’s good for both. I treat it as my own ride.

The conversation I was referring to in my previous post involved people who drive, who’ve been dropping their friends and fam off out of goodwill. It’s quite tricky to suddenly make a request for cost-sharing, I feel! But personally, I think it’s a fair request to make, and no one should expect to be ferried around for free.

thebottomsupblog

Missed our webinar on post-secondary pathways? Here are some conversation highlights.

I attended the session; the panellists were all very well-spoken, and they were very honest and generous in their sharing:

https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/a-conversation-on-jc-poly-and-ite-pathways

thebottomsupblog

@nickl I’m from the KiasuParents team. Some replies from my parent network:

If he can push his child to go HMT, the teacher is much much better and slightly more demanding…
the chinese standard yes- not good
my boy was HMT previously but dropped already haha
the teacher is very good bcos she will contact me to update me …we work very closely
however sec 1 first half i think they doing some chinese project work

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