Skip levels?
-
Same situation as me when my DS1 at K2. I must said that the procedure of getting a nod from MOE is very tiring affair. Anyway to cut short his boredom, I just homeschool him on certain days. That means not going to school. :evil: He gets to do what he really likes which is building robots using gear ans electronics parts.
Give it a shot at MOE and do feedback when you are successful so that I can learn from your experiences. -
To initiate talk with moe on level skipping, you need to furnish them your ds IQ report. They will also assess his maturity level.
Meantime you can supplement his learning at his pace to keep him suitably challenged.
Honestly, I send my kids to kindy to hone their social skills only. Low expectation on learning. I didn’t even bother to look at kindy’s curriculum. -
There can be difficulties when a child is not as mature as his classmates. Can you find things for him to do (with the teachers’ agreement) while waiting for classmates to catch up? Most teachers are OK with a child reading something else or drawing etc if he’s finished his work. If the work is too easy, teach him that part of school life (and life in general) is doing stuff just because you have to, and then he can have time to do other stuff. You can accelerate him at home. My kids always found preschool work easier than they could manage as they would have picked up those skills at home, so I usually arranged with the teacher for them to do something else when they were done. At home, I avoided giving them advanced schoolwork as I didn’t want them to be even more bored in later years, but would give them puzzles, get them to write and draw, do experiments, read widely etc. They learned a lot without seeing any textbooks or school-style workbooks. At school, they could focus on makng friends and having fun.
-
Thanks all for the ideas. We are toying with providing material to the school to the school so that he can work on it, but it’s like we may need to perpetually do it all the way through early education.
His maturity and EQ is really the astonishing part, more than his academics even. Supremely confident at K1, he walks into our house parties and engages adult strangers like peers. He runs rings around my DS2, who is 3 years older, so I’m not too concerned about him getting along with people. I’ll get in touch with MOE and see if anything can be done, or if they have other thoughts.
Thanks again! -
Hi 3Boys.
According to The Straits Times page A29 today (first column, 3/4 from top), since year 2000 only 7 children were allowed to skip a level.
Hope yours will be the 8th. All the best! :rahrah: -
ngl2010:
Haha! That was 2ppaamm being profiled I think. She's quite the star!Hi 3Boys.
According to The Straits Times page A29 today (first column, 3/4 from top), since year 2000 only 7 children were allowed to skip a level.
Hope yours will be the 8th. All the best! :rahrah: -
For the exceptionally gifted (according to MOE, there are 3 out of 100,000 children), it is possible to start P1 earlier but the child must be at least 5 years old.
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/programmes/gifted-education-programme/faq/exceptionally-gifted/ -
the practice of skipping in sg is really not too common. can consider overseas route where jumping is more common. can shave a few years off for the kid
-
graciousbear:
the practice of skipping in sg is really not too common. can consider overseas route where jumping is more common. can shave a few years off for the kid
I would advise caution if considering skipping levels. The child may find schoolwork easy, but parents should consider whether the child is also an early developer in physical, emotional and social maturity. If not, when the child is 12, say, and classmates are maturing physically and in other ways but he lags behind, the child may be the odd one out. And unless he is socially and emotionally mature for his age, he may always be the 'baby' one in his class. And when the class gets to learning more abstract concepts like higher maths in the mid/late teens, if his brain has not matured sufficiently, he will struggle. I think saving a year or 2 is not worth that risk unless the child is clearly an early developer in all areas, not just academic.