Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) [*IP]

[frecklemama]

Hi abitworry,

My daughter is also in sec 1 RGS. My daughter, on the contrary, seems to have little work and has lots of spare time in her hands. For your daughter’s case, I’m guessing it may be one of these possibilities:
1. She is unable to manage both her work and her time.
2. She is aiming for stellar results. Hence, putting in many extra hours to be ahead of the pack.
3. She is pretending to be working. In between, she may be actively on facebook or watching music videos, or Korean dramas. . . . .the usual teenagers’ pastime.

I guess it is best to get to the root of the problem so that you can follow up with the appropriate steps to help her.

Regards.

[Choco05]

abitworry:

Hello, I'm seeking help from parents that has a child studying in RGS right now. My daughter has just started her secondary school in RGS this year and she is in secondary one IP stream now. I recently found that my daughter's homework started to get overloaded this semester. She told me she has lots of project works to do and she can't finish her homework on time. In the past few months, she has been always doing her homework until 2am everyday and sometimes she even did until 5am. She has to wake up at 5 in the morning and I'll drive her to school. So she has less or no sleep at all. I always see her typing and staring at her macbook which I don't really know what she is doing. Sorry I'm an IT idiot. She told me she is doing homework with her macbook all the time. But I don't really understand the ideology of using a macbook to study nowadays. Can someone tell me what's the usual amount of homework should be expected at this level? Like what time usually your daughter should finish her homework? I'm really concerned about my daughter's health. She is sleeping in her classes and then back home to struggle with her homework until late night.

Maybe if she really needs help with her work, you can ask her which are the areas she needs help in? It is likely that she is wasting her time on the macbook. Usually year 1s get about 1-2 PTs at one go only, so maybe give her a gentle reminder that everything doubles and triples as she goes up the levels, so if she is wasting precious sleeping time on social networking it will not work out in the end

Even i do not sleep at 2am on weekdays! I'm usually in bed by 12.40am, and in year 3 i had to juggle 5 or 6 PTs some point in July-Aug.

On the bright side, EYAs are coming so there will be no more projects for her. Maybe now is the time you will be able to tell if she really is wasting her time on the so-called 'projects' she has.

[alng]

Hi abitworry,


Do monitor for this weekend. My daughter has just told me that her homework load is very low this weekend and she is going to study for EYA. But my girl will be using her macbook to do her revision cos a lot of their materials is kept in her macbook and not printed out at all.

[sharonkhoo]

frecklemama:

Hi abitworry,

My daughter is also in sec 1 RGS. My daughter, on the contrary, seems to have little work and has lots of spare time in her hands. For your daughter's case, I'm guessing it may be one of these possibilities:
1. She is unable to manage both her work and her time.
2. She is aiming for stellar results. Hence, putting in many extra hours to be ahead of the pack.
3. She is pretending to be working. In between, she may be actively on facebook or watching music videos, or Korean dramas. . . . .the usual teenagers' pastime.

I guess it is best to get to the root of the problem so that you can follow up with the appropriate steps to help her.

Regards.

Yes, do check what is happening. The possibilities above sound like the most likely. Or does your daughter have heavy CCA and tuition classes or 3rd language? All those can eat up the hours. My daughter is in Yr2, and she mostly finishes her work by soon after dinner, and usually gets an hour or so of free time before bedtime at 9.30-10pm. She has 2 afternoons of CCA but no tuition (she just asks us if she needs to). A lot of time is spent on the Macbook as a lot of assignments seem to be things like podcasts, or require access to various learning websites. There are the occasional days when she works right up to bedtime, but they are rare. She doesn't do much during the weekends either. And this is with catch-up work on top of the regular as she missed the first semester. So I do think that your daughter's case is unusual.

[Fattybombom]

Hi there, can anyone with dd in RGS year 1 upload a copy of this year’s 2012 booklist for me as a reference. My dd got a placed in RGS and we’ll be away for at least 2 months after PSLE, right up to end Dec. Thought of getting some books early for her to read up while we are away and not rush into buying them when we are back.


Many thanks

[seaglass]

slmkhoo:

Thanks! OK, will concentrate on getting the essentials. She doesn't even have enough clothes as we only got back to Singapore in June with a trimmed-down wardrobe. My daughter is thrilled to be able to go to OBS this time as she didn't get a chance in Pr school. We just don't like the thought of shopping for so many items as neither of us enjoys shopping! I've told her we will reserve a couple of days to tackle it in Dec.

Hi slmkhoo! My child is not in RGS but went for the OBS trip. You can get most of the stuff on the packing list in the bigger NTUC stores, eg. Nex & AMK. Just drop by their Outdoor / Camping / BBQ sections the next time you do groceries, and take a look. No need to go to those specialised camping-gear shops.

For sunglasses, you might want to check out those that can be worn over the normal glasses - the kind that specs wearers use when driving. Costs about $25 onwards, depending on quality. Can be found at Cold Storage / most optician shops. However i'd say it's not very necessary unless your child has sensitive eyes and would like to wear them during hiking.. I think it's more important to get those spectacles retainers / savers to prevent losing their glasses during activities such as kayaking. Also good to bring an old pair of glasses as spare, if available.

[sharonkhoo]

seaglass:

slmkhoo:

Thanks! OK, will concentrate on getting the essentials. She doesn't even have enough clothes as we only got back to Singapore in June with a trimmed-down wardrobe. My daughter is thrilled to be able to go to OBS this time as she didn't get a chance in Pr school. We just don't like the thought of shopping for so many items as neither of us enjoys shopping! I've told her we will reserve a couple of days to tackle it in Dec.

Hi slmkhoo! My child is not in RGS but went for the OBS trip. You can get most of the stuff on the packing list in the bigger NTUC stores, eg. Nex & AMK. Just drop by their Outdoor / Camping / BBQ sections the next time you do groceries, and take a look. No need to go to those specialised camping-gear shops.

For sunglasses, you might want to check out those that can be worn over the normal glasses - the kind that specs wearers use when driving. Costs about $25 onwards, depending on quality. Can be found at Cold Storage / most optician shops. However i'd say it's not very necessary unless your child has sensitive eyes and would like to wear them during hiking.. I think it's more important to get those spectacles retainers / savers to prevent losing their glasses during activities such as kayaking. Also good to bring an old pair of glasses as spare, if available.

Thanks for the tips!

[abitworry]

slmkhoo:

frecklemama:

Hi abitworry,

My daughter is also in sec 1 RGS. My daughter, on the contrary, seems to have little work and has lots of spare time in her hands. For your daughter's case, I'm guessing it may be one of these possibilities:
1. She is unable to manage both her work and her time.
2. She is aiming for stellar results. Hence, putting in many extra hours to be ahead of the pack.
3. She is pretending to be working. In between, she may be actively on facebook or watching music videos, or Korean dramas. . . . .the usual teenagers' pastime.

I guess it is best to get to the root of the problem so that you can follow up with the appropriate steps to help her.

Regards.

Yes, do check what is happening. The possibilities above sound like the most likely. Or does your daughter have heavy CCA and tuition classes or 3rd language? All those can eat up the hours. My daughter is in Yr2, and she mostly finishes her work by soon after dinner, and usually gets an hour or so of free time before bedtime at 9.30-10pm. She has 2 afternoons of CCA but no tuition (she just asks us if she needs to). A lot of time is spent on the Macbook as a lot of assignments seem to be things like podcasts, or require access to various learning websites. There are the occasional days when she works right up to bedtime, but they are rare. She doesn't do much during the weekends either. And this is with catch-up work on top of the regular as she missed the first semester. So I do think that your daughter's case is unusual.

Many thanks for the replies! My daughter does have heavy CCA (sports) twice per week, personal training and piano lesson on weekends and 3rd language program in weekdays. She is only free on Sunday. I'm wondering if that is too much for her? My daughter has really bad studying habits. I found out she always have two windows on her Macbook when she's studying. One would be like Youtube, Facebook or even online gaming. The other would be the learning portal or reading materials. She always play while studying, like watch one video on Youtube then read the things on learning portal, then watch another video or surf Facebook etc. She has been switching windows all the time whenever I go in her room. But she used to be like this in primary. The problem wasn't so serious last time probably she has very little or no homework in primary. I'm really busy with my work and I can't really monitor my daughter doing homework all the time. How should I make my daughter become more self-discipline at home?

[sharonkhoo]

abitworry:

Many thanks for the replies! My daughter does have heavy CCA (sports) twice per week, personal training and piano lesson on weekends and 3rd language program in weekdays. She is only free on Sunday. I'm wondering if that is too much for her?

Yes, that does sound heavy. It depends on the child's interests and ability whether that's too much or not. It would definitely be too much for my daughter. Why not talk to your daughter and ask her how tired she feels, whether she would like to reduce some of the activities etc?

My daughter has really bad studying habits. I found out she always have two windows on her Macbook when she's studying. One would be like Youtube, Facebook or even online gaming. The other would be the learning portal or reading materials. She always play while studying, like watch one video on Youtube then read the things on learning portal, then watch another video or surf Facebook etc. She has been switching windows all the time whenever I go in her room. But she used to be like this in primary. The problem wasn't so serious last time probably she has very little or no homework in primary. I'm really busy with my work and I can't really monitor my daughter doing homework all the time. How should I make my daughter become more self-discipline at home?
Your daughter is so old now that you have to convince her that she needs to change these habits. If necessary, you may have to make her unsubscribe and delete all links to these websites, and even block them, but I don't know how feasible this is and it should be a last resort. If she really lacks self-discipline or is unwilling to change, you may want to insist that she works where you can see her and not in her room, and make frequent passes behind her to see what she is doing. In building self-discipline, a child needs the backup of an authority figure in the initial stages; few are able to learn it totally by themselves. We have always stressed to our daughters that they should have no email or other non-work-related windows open while they are working on their computers, and we monitored them strictly at first until it is ingrained. Over time, they have also realised that toggling back and forth wastes time, and we do let them have time to play and watch stuff once their work is done so they know that their playtime will come. Hope this helps.

[jtoh]

abitworry:

Many thanks for the replies! My daughter does have heavy CCA (sports) twice per week, personal training and piano lesson on weekends and 3rd language program in weekdays. She is only free on Sunday. I'm wondering if that is too much for her? My daughter has really bad studying habits. I found out she always have two windows on her Macbook when she's studying. One would be like Youtube, Facebook or even online gaming. The other would be the learning portal or reading materials. She always play while studying, like watch one video on Youtube then read the things on learning portal, then watch another video or surf Facebook etc. She has been switching windows all the time whenever I go in her room. But she used to be like this in primary. The problem wasn't so serious last time probably she has very little or no homework in primary. I'm really busy with my work and I can't really monitor my daughter doing homework all the time. How should I make my daughter become more self-discipline at home?

abitworry, your daughter's schedule is not uncommon among RGS girls. Many students are in busy CCAs, with third lang and extra music or dance or sports activities outside of school. My daughter and her classmates had all these activities plus more when she was in Year 1 and they still managed to complete all their homework and assignments and be in bed by 10pm at the latest, including relaxation time after homework.

Your daughter has to work on her time management skills and study habits. You might want to consider asking her to do her homework in a common area like the living room, so you can keep an eye on her while she studies. Enforce the rule that no superfluous windows like Facebook or Youtube be open while she is studying.

The workload is only going to get heavier as she goes up in level. If she is unable to cope with Year 1, she will have a very difficult time managing Year 2 and the upper secondary years.