Raffles Girls' School (Secondary) [*IP]

[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.

[jtoh]

Remember to catch the exciting Finals of the National Science Challenge 2013 tomorrow night on Channel 5 at 7pm. The finalists are Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls’ School and NUS High.

[iFirefly]

jtoh:

Remember to catch the exciting Finals of the National Science Challenge 2013 tomorrow night on Channel 5 at 7pm. The finalists are Raffles Institution, Raffles Girls' School and NUS High.

Jtoh.. Is it a LIVE telecast, or you already know who the winner is (no need to divulge here, though) ?

[jtoh]

firefly, it's not 'live'. Whoever the winner might be, it'll still be an exciting Finals because all three schools are very good.


Maybe next year we'll see your ds in it.

[iFirefly]

jtoh:

firefly, it's not 'live'. Whoever the winner might be, it'll still be an exciting Finals because all three schools are very good.


Maybe next year we'll see your ds in it.

Not sure if my 'old' heart can take the excitement..

Oh.. DS says the RI team members are his seniors from the Science Club..

[jtoh]

firefly38:

jtoh:

firefly, it's not 'live'. Whoever the winner might be, it'll still be an exciting Finals because all three schools are very good.


Maybe next year we'll see your ds in it.

Not sure if my 'old' heart can take the excitement..

Oh.. DS says the RI team members are his seniors from the Science Club..

All the more he must watch it tomorrow night. Or did he watch it 'live' already? Next year, we'll keep a watch out for your son, vlim's son and MummySTay's dd. All of them are in Year 2 this year right? Oh, I wonder if vk2010's son is in the RI team this year.

[Sun_2010]

jtoh:

firefly, it's not 'live'. Whoever the winner might be, it'll still be an exciting Finals because all three schools are very good.


Maybe next year we'll see your ds in it.

I will be watching it too.
Let me spice it up - the winner truly deserved it. So get your pop corn ready :rahrah:

[iFirefly]

Sun_2010:

jtoh:

firefly, it's not 'live'. Whoever the winner might be, it'll still be an exciting Finals because all three schools are very good.


Maybe next year we'll see your ds in it.

I will be watching it too.
Let me spice it up - the winner truly deserved it. So get your pop corn ready :rahrah:

Sun seems to know who the winner was..

Ahhh.. Curiosity is killing the 'firefly'..