Children of average ability

[shylyn]

Hi all

Indeed an interesting read…i guess every child has talents and skills …guess we as parents have to be patient to uncover our kiddos’ interest and talent. I also vomit blood on several occasions teaching my 33 mth old boy. Like what Chief Kiasu mentioned with regard to the definition of a “Bright Child”, kids being kids, they need to be motivated to learn and we can do it easier if we uncover their interest & tweak the learning to incorporate their interest.

Taramind
I’m really surprised that West Grove ‘kick out’ kids from their sch! I didn’t realize that such things happen in our education system! Quite sad…I can feel for the mummy…imagine your kid being ‘forced out’ frm the sch…indeed very detrimental to the kid’s self esteem!
I know West Grove is one of the better sch in Jurong other than Rulang…any idea abt Xingnan?

[cluelessmom]

tamarind:

That boy was neglected in class for a few months, because he could not follow up with the rest of the class. The teacher advised his mommy to put him back in kindergarten. His mommy had no choice but to pull him out of school........ The boy actually attended a PCF kindergarten for 2 years before entering P1, his teachers never told his mommy that he had any problems academically. That's why she was so shocked.

Honestly, I dun think goin back to kindy is the solution as apparently the boy can cope wif kindergarden but not primary one's syllabus. In some schools, the weaker students are identified and given special attention by goin for remedial lessons.... they will work wif the parents.... and in my dd previous school, they meet the parents 2-3 times a yr to update parents on the child's progress... guess it is important for parents to go for the various school orientation programme before P1 enrollment to understand more abt the school and how they will work wif ur child before their P1 selection.... Frankly if I m the parent I might jus tear down the principle office hahaha :shock:

[tamarind]

cluelessmom,

I guess if the child only know A,B,C and did not know how to read or write any words, then it is going to be very difficult for him to catch with the rest of the class. He may need more than one year to improve. I also thought that the teacher and principal back then was very unsympathetic. The mommy wrote in to MOE to complain, and she had the option of moving him to another school to continue P1, but the boy preferred to return to kindergarten.

Well, the moral of the story is, make sure that our kids are well prepared for P1 !

shylyn,
The truth is that children are not born equal. Some children are born with the gift of superb memory and are able to understand difficult concepts effortlessly. The majority of the children are not born with this gift, but if these average children put in enough hardwork, they can also do very well. If a child cannot remember something the first time, then let him repeat the same thing until he can remember. This is how I teach my younger boy to read. I try to do it in a fun way lah.

As parents we have to identify our kids’ abilities as early as possible, so that we can find the right methods to teach him. An average child needs to be drilled, and he needs a longer time to learn things, so we need to start earlier. A very bright child should not be made to do the same things over and over again because that will make him lose his love for learning.

West Grove has a new principal now, so there may be some changes. My hubby insisted on sending the kids to West Grove. There are only 2 schools within 1 km, and West Grove is the better choice. We have been doing PV for the school. So long as our kids are well prepared for P1, then they should be fine.

I am not too sure about Xingnan. There is really not much choice in our area. The only other way is move to within 1 km of a good school lor. I know of parents how moved away to stay close to a school of their choice.

[tayselina]

Try to be patient to you child.

[shylyn]

tamarind:

cluelessmom,

I guess if the child only know A,B,C and did not know how to read or write any words, then it is going to be very difficult for him to catch with the rest of the class. He may need more than one year to improve. I also thought that the teacher and principal back then was very unsympathetic. The mommy wrote in to MOE to complain, and she had the option of moving him to another school to continue P1, but the boy preferred to return to kindergarten. .

I guess if its the kid's wish to return to Kindergarten then its not tt harsh..but again, I still feel that the sch should try to help the kid rather than pushing him away.

tamarind:

If a child cannot remember something the first time, then let him repeat the same thing until he can remember. This is how I teach my younger boy to read. I try to do it in a fun way lah..

Care to share how you teach ur boy repeatedly & in a fun manner? Heheheh..I can be rather impatient at times & esp if i feel that my boy is not paying attention or giving his best.

tamarind:

West Grove has a new principal now, so there may be some changes. My hubby insisted on sending the kids to West Grove. There are only 2 schools within 1 km, and West Grove is the better choice. We have been doing PV for the school. So long as our kids are well prepared for P1, then they should be fine.

I am not too sure about Xingnan. There is really not much choice in our area. The only other way is move to within 1 km of a good school lor. I know of parents how moved away to stay close to a school of their choice.

I'm also thinking of West Grove but then again, heard it is rather diff to get in..thus thinking of Xingnan as it is near my parents' place. U r right..not many choices available around our estate..thus my hub actually dont mind sending my boy to a nearby neigh sch as he believed that he also graduated from a neigh sch & doing fine now, so no point trying to get into gd schs..but then again, not sure whether this should b e case for my boy..cos knowing him, he might lose his attention if he finds the topics uninteresting. Then again, we don't really wish to go thru e hassle of moving house..hehehe...ironic hor?

[tamarind]

shylyn:

tamarind:

If a child cannot remember something the first time, then let him repeat the same thing until he can remember. This is how I teach my younger boy to read. I try to do it in a fun way lah..

Care to share how you teach ur boy repeatedly & in a fun manner? Heheheh..I can be rather impatient at times & esp if i feel that my boy is not paying attention or giving his best.

For example, when teaching him to read the word \"smash\", I put a biscuit in a plastic bag. Then I asked my boy to use his hand to \"smash\" the biscuit. He had great fun doing it, and even asked to \"smash\" more biscuits. After that he can remember the word \"smash\" very well. Actually I was teaching him how to read words that start with \"sm\". When teaching him phonics, I always try to explain to him the meaning of the words by showing him the real object or demonstrating the action to him. So he always have fun learning.

For many weeks he could not tell the difference between the words \"want\" and \"what\". I wrote the words \"want\" and \"what\" on separate pieces of paper. I held up \"want\", my girl held up \"what\". I sat at one corner of the room, my girl sat at the other corner, and each of us had a small bowl of my boy's favourite sweets. I called out the words one at a time, then told my boy to go to the correct person. Each time he got it wrong, me or my girl ate a sweet. When he got it right, he could eat one sweet. We were all laughing when we were doing this :lol:, it was especially funny when I called out the words quickly and my boy had to move very fast. He laughed really hard. We repeated until my boy always read these 2 words correctly.

[buds]

[Moderator's note: Topic selected for Portal publication.]


Heyya all!

I read all the posts here with much to share..
But, i'll summarize them for now.

When reading some of the posts,
( I started reading from the 1st one
by Tamarind, mind you.. From there
to here is reali a lot.. hehehee.. )
there were occasions when i realised
when we pen the thoughts down a lot
of it has to do with much emotion...

When helping children, stay positive as
much as possible and focus \"more on the
strengths\" than the weaknesses...

Tho' no two children are alike, there is still
this saying that nothing is impossible. Have
faith, that thru' all your patience will come
the fruit of your labour. All we need is more
knowledge to assist our children to the best
of THEIR abilities.

1st I'd like to touch on the Phonics issue...
The best bet is to not introduce phonics before
the child knows the letter of the alphabets and
its shapes. From my experiences with children,
those who are introduced to Phonics first tend
to display delay in writing effectively. They do
read a lil' faster and better than their peers of
similar age range but not in writing. All the
excitement from being able to read will slow
his motivation to write... I'll emphasize another
time on this, yea..

As for teaching the letter of the alphabets,
always start with small caps first.

Reason being, curves are harder to learn to
write compared to more of the straight lines of the
capital letters. So when learning to read and write
focus on lower caps first. Its best to teach children
to learn the shapes of the alphabets from concrete
to abstract. Example, if you have sandpaper letters,
embossed flash cards, normal letter cards its good
to start from there. Enforce tracing practise if you can
as tactile explorations works more than you realise.
(Tactile = Sense of touch)

In one of Maria Montessori's
famous quotes, she says...

\"What goes thru' the hands, goes to the mind...\"

I fully agree with it. Why is it project based and
hands-on thematic work very well with children?
Cause when children can touch, feel, smell, etc
other than just see they learn better... More
interesting lah. Buuuuttt, still depends on
the child's teacher, whether she ON type or not.
Being ON (pro-active and interesting) carries a
lot of weight in her teaching strategies and
dealing with children.

Apply this rule to tracing, writing or reading.
Always go from left to right, top to bottom.
Easy peasy, right..

Next, suppose everyone knows about the genius
who came up with the popular slogan pre-school
centres so loooove to use? Its that they practise,
implement, promise its included in their curriculum...
The Howard Gardner's famous - Multiple Intelligence.

Whats Multiple Intelligence anyway?

Since no two children are alike, they all learn in
different ways which is most interesting to them.
Hence, coming to my point that as for teaching
children its also vice-versa.

Observe the child that you so love and wish to help,
but in strengths. What is your child best at? Not just
good, but BEST...? Mummy knows best right... Errrm,
ok that didn't come out right. Lemme rephrase...
Parents know best. What does your child love to do?
What gets him/her interested that he/she can do it
for hours? What usually gets their attention? Not senang
diri position, but really at attention?

Ok... Enuf hints liao.

Think already?

Ok, now use those strengths to teach your child starting
NOW!

Hehee.. But how to right?

Lets jot a couple, ok..
1. If your child loves drawing, go paint together!
Paint those letters away! Great kiddie shops
sell stencils, alphabet sponges for dipping the
nice, colourful, \"messy\" and gooey paint... Low
on the $$$ side, cut the sponges yourself. No
sponges? Carve out from potatoes, carrots, turnips
also caaann.. Most importantly, dun give excuse not
to learn thru play with your child, ya.

2. If your child loves nature, go for a short excursion to
your nearby park. Yippee they'll say.. Pack a cute
basket for picking up dried twigs, leaves or small pebbles.
(Not those nice ones from the foot reflex path, ok! Please!)
Or lazy to go out? Use some of those red beans you use for
soup.. Never eat soupy sweet beans soup like most Chinese
also never mind, the Malays and Indians can use dhal too...
Use these inexpensive ingredients to stick to letter templates.
What letter templates, you asking? Haiyah... Just make nice
thick ones using your Word Art and print, no need to buy activity
books even..

Mirror image? Settle already...
Play sticking those small stuff , (so children concentrate better)
using their cute fingers in the fashion mentioned. Left to right and
top to bottom. Since many has the \"bee-dees\" problem... Lets,
go thru more clearly. Stick from the top of the head of the letter
with your ingredient of choice, going downwards in a straight line
down. So every head must have a body right? So when you reach
the body/waist, you stop.

Next, this man has big belly... Make the belly shape from
top of the curve and all the way to the right and back to the body.
Belly must stick to body so must connect ok. ( Teaching no-gaps
when writing letters ) Now people, thats the letter b.

Wanna extend to Phonics, that letter we just did makes the sound,
/b/. Now dd lets go outside the house and play bubbles! Yeai!!
Big big bubbles /b/, /b/, /b/... 3X
/b/ is the sound we hear..

That my frenz, you have just successfully taught your child fun
learning thru play and no worries, he'll remember that challenging
letter b, without the screams or (almost screamed).. In what way?
By exploring nature ( collecting twigs, leaves, beans, etc ), by using
the artistic side as well ( painting, drawing, crafting, etc ) and by
music cause we sang
TOGETHER. :celebrate:

Have fun!
Stay happy.
Thats the only way to stay sane!

And enjoy our children!

Cheerios.

[buds]

Heyya tamarind,


You earn my respect for your patience and
perserverance.. Keep up your energy and
fun loving. Your child is very fortunate to
have a mummy who cares a helluva lot!

Your creativity comes thru your desire to
sincerely help your child. Kudos woman!
I salute you.

Cheers.
:celebrate:

[tamarind]

buds,

Thank you for your very helpful comments

My boy is actually very motivated to write. Every day he will ask me how to spell this word and that word. When I am not around, he will try to write on his own, with lots of mistakes of course. I heard that we should not correct the child, because that will discourage him. So I don't correct him. But I cannot help but think that if I don't correct him, when is he going to learn the correct spelling ? I don't think he will know how to self correct by the time he enters primary school in 2 years time.

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Tamarind. At least he writes to you. That’s a start. What you can do is to write him a short note. Make it fun, place it where he will see it. Reply to his message & use some of the words that he spell wrongly. If he reads it, he might realize that some of his words are spelt wrongly & will learn from it.