Improving Focus And Concentration

[jazng]

blesseddad:

I guess you have found the answer that school is boring to him as he is intelligent and could understand and grasp the stuff faster than his peers.


Maybe you can try to expose him to higher-level content. And if he can also learn them quickly, then take him out of schools and homeschool him. He is better off not in singapore's education system.

hi blesseddad
tks..i am really not sure if he is more intelligent than others by nw..actually was waiting for teachers feedback n prob knowing thru the tests..so far, his kindergarten teachers gave pretty gd feedback abt him..

unforuntely, i dun ve the luxury to do home based teaching to him as I am full time working mum.

[jedamum]

jazng:

anyway, tks for ur advise..cant pack story book cos in class...he cant be reading story books n rest of his peers are still doing their home work..

:? so the teacher prefers him to daydream than read a book while he waits for others to finish?? what are the teacher's expectations?
my ds1's class allowed the kids to go to the class library to grab a book for reading if others in the class are still working on their work. i had also subscribed to some mathmag of which my boy will complete during his 'free' time in class. he also likes to doodle stuff/create quiz/puzzles for his friends during such times when he is free in class.
the teacher did right to engage your boy in other stuff like coaching of weaker kids. give it sometime for your boy to settle into routine stuff...:) i'm sure in no time the teachers will find him very helpful to have around in class.

[jazng]

jedamum:

jazng:

anyway, tks for ur advise..cant pack story book cos in class...he cant be reading story books n rest of his peers are still doing their home work..

:? so the teacher prefers him to daydream than read a book while he waits for others to finish?? what are the teacher's expectations?
my ds1's class allowed the kids to go to the class library to grab a book for reading if others in the class are still working on their work. i had also subscribed to some mathmag of which my boy will complete during his 'free' time in class. he also likes to doodle stuff/create quiz/puzzles for his friends during such times when he is free in class.
the teacher did right to engage your boy in other stuff like coaching of weaker kids. give it sometime for your boy to settle into routine stuff...:) i'm sure in no time the teachers will find him very helpful to have around in class.

hi jedamum
oh really..i am not sure if he can read a book while waiting for others..i assume he cant as all are in the class. the teachers expect him to focus n be attentive during lessons. in fact, i was hoping the other teachers can propose solutions to us rather than telling us this. the way the teacher spoke to me is as if like he is really creating something \"big\" in class n kind of distrubing others..they cant seem to accept such behavior which i am not too please..but on the other hand, if he cont not concentraing n easily distracted in class, it may not be a good thing when he is in P3 or P4..for now, his chinese teacher is getting him engaged on other stuff once he finish his work..guess she shld share with the rest of subject teachers on her methods too.

I also tried talking to my son and ley him noe of his behavious n he needs to be attentive n listen to wat the teachers says..

hopefully, there will be some improvement..will see how he progress or he truly has a problem on tis.

[tankee]

P1 students are more varied in their abilities to understand and comprehen what is being taught. Thus, the teachers had to repeat & repeat to cater to the relatively slower children; the relatively faster children may feel bored like your DS.


This problem would be less of an issue in the later years as the slower children strengthen their foundations and more so, after the children are group into different classes according to their abilities.

[sleepy]

jazng:

oh really..i am not sure if he can read a book while waiting for others..i assume he cant as all are in the class. the teachers expect him to focus n be attentive during lessons. in fact, i was hoping the other teachers can propose solutions to us rather than telling us this. the way the teacher spoke to me is as if like he is really creating something \"big\" in class n kind of distrubing others..they cant seem to accept such behavior which i am not too please..but on the other hand, if he cont not concentraing n easily distracted in class, it may not be a good thing when he is in P3 or P4..for now, his chinese teacher is getting him engaged on other stuff once he finish his work..guess she shld share with the rest of subject teachers on her methods too.

The practice in my dd's school:
When teachers are conducting lessons, students can't do their own stuff, must pay attention or at least pretend to pay attention even for those easy topics.
During worksheets time, they can read story books or magazines after they completed their worksheets. Just grab any book & start reading, need not ask for permission. Most teachers would prefer silent reading over chit chatting with another classmate

[jedamum]

sleepy:

The practice in my dd's school:
When teachers are conducting lessons, students can't do their own stuff, must pay attention or at least pretend to pay attention even for those easy topics.
During worksheets time, they can read story books or magazines after they completed their worksheets. Just grab any book & start reading, need not ask for permission. Most teachers would prefer silent reading over chit chatting with another classmate

yes, i think my ds1's class practice is similar - lesson still have to 'listen', but once they finish their worksheet/book, they can do silent reading, or even doodle.

[mrswongtuition]

My nephew is very similar to your child. & he is in a neighbourhood school, nothing fancy so the pace is very slow and the teachers are not willing to give him more challenging questions or give him other work to do.


I called the teacher and we came up with a solution. My nephew will take out his own work (assessments or worksheets assigned by me) to do during lessons if he finished his school work in class. The teacher was agreeable cos I assured her that she does not hv to monitor the extra work I gave. She also does not need to prepare additional materials for him. My nephew is now in P3 and there’s no such pronlem anymore. They hv changed classes & grouped the kids by ability. He’s much happier in class now cos he says it’s more stimulating than in P1-2. He also reads loads of science books/mags which his current teacher leaves in class for them to read.

Try talking to the Eng & Maths teacher to arrange something like what the Chinese teacher did. Give him some responsibilities or extra work to occupy his time.

[jesschan]

I think the boy’s behavior is quite common in the less popular neighbourhood schools. These schools usually have local children who did not have a proper preschool education or foreign students whose English foundation is very poor.


My older boy used to behave like that too when he was in P1. The work was too simple for him and going from a childcare centre enrolment of less than 20 to a classroom size of 30 was a major change for him. In his childcare centre, the teachers taught them in small groups with creative teaching and children were encouraged to ask questions. But the P1 teachers were too busy trying to help the weaker students and couldn’t do activities to engage the better ones. That’s why the better students, especially boys, ended up being punished for disrupting the class.

Luckily, the teachers allowed him to read his own books after he finished his work and he managed to stay out of trouble except for those days when he forgot to pack in a story book. He could finish reading 4-5 Geronimo Stilton’s books in school in a week - imagine how bored he was…

Like what tankee said, the problem will go slowly go away when the weaker students strengthen their foundation. And nowadays, these weaker students are identified by the end of January for Learning Support Programmes to speed up their learning.

[cafelatte]

Agree with the rest. Furthermore, these days most school do enbloc promotion from P1-P2 so they will be in mixed ability class for at least 2 years.


In my son’s P1/P2 class there were many weak students (about 6 in LSP and 1 ADHD certified<who>). The more experienced FT will group the pupils accordingly and give additional work/responsiblities to the "better" pupils…to keep them occupied and out-of-trouble. The less experienced or more old-school FT will scold and scold and punish the ‘trouble makers’ or those that walk around the class without permission.

I loaded my son with many good books, always ensure he has blank papers and good supply of stationaries. Watch out for the post-exam period, typically end of terms 2 and 4. Formal lessons will wind down and if the class is not given interesting activities, all the more they will tend to talk and get into trouble.

To me, it is better to invest in good books and let the child spend the time as best as possible than to develop the bad habit of not paying attention in class and getting into trouble with the teacher. Then again, I have heard of 1 case where the FT does not allow pupils to read story books in class even after the assigned work were completed. I guess in that case a discussion with the FT is necessary.

[tankee]

My DS P1 class has a little library (ok ok shelf) of books and activity corners for those who finished their assigned work to do some reading or play some games to reinforce what was taught.