P1 Preparation for parents of mutliples

[schellen]

joyti:

hi,i am new in singapore.my daughter is going to k2.I am wondering what sort of prepration you all are taking.What should she know at this stage.

hi joyti! Maybe this link will help? http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=117

[Lucky]

Winth


I salute you la ! even can sacrifice your dinner to coach your son ! kudos to you !

[Twins]

mmpiglet:

Hi Vividlaurel,


I have twin sons who will be in P1 next year. I am also having a hard time preparing them for P1. So far they have maths, chinese and reading enrichment classes.

Both of them are different when it comes to studies. My elder boy hates doing homework whilst the younger one is ok with it. They were born in December, thus they are quite slow compared to their peers. I am not able to make them study at the same time, so I will do work with them one at a time but only a very short period of time as they have short attention spans.

hi mmpiglet and vividlaurel

I'm a mum with twins boys in K2 this year too! Hello hello , so nice to hear there are so many pairs of twins of the same age!!

I too, have to separate the boys when i coach them...my elder one is the one who picks up very fast and enjoys \"helping\" the Di Di by giving him the answer - - so frustrating for me, and di di!!

I believe as a mum to your own kids, you will know best on what motivates them, keeps their attention span up etc. Perhaps a little reward at the end of the session may work. Or start a reward chart where u give a star sticker (or something meaningful) if they complete your given task. 10 stars will mean a certain reward...trip to the zoo, an ice cream treat etc. With twins, the reward chart can create a little healthy competition between the 2.

Just my 2 cents worth...

May I know what school you have in mind for your twins?

[nonKiasu]

winth:

We usually start our work at 7pm, so I had to skip dinner (with some snacks beforehand)..

Hi, Winth. Wow, so organised. I am impressed too! Is this your daily schedule?

Altho I spend 1.5 hrs w each of my son each night, a lot of the time is spent on art-and-craft esp my elder one who likes drawing and colouring. All 3 like to cut. So when they are bore with my teaching or writing, they will get to do art-and-craft and back again. Own time own target, no time limit on any activities. Also, I will let them choose what they want to learn or write.
Once I uses the red and blue marker pen to emphaise the words, they wanted to use the marker to write too. I let them be and surprisely, they are so happily writing away - much longer duration than using pencil. Hopefully, there is no side-effect using marker to learn writing.

[winth]

Hi nonkiasu,


Oh ya, I let my boy use magic pens too, think it made a big difference to his attention span as he can use different colours for all exercises. Now he's a proud owner of a new box of 48 coloured magic pens I just replenished for him. He has lots of chops and stickers too for that matter. He has never used pencils since young. Actually magic pens are alot smoother to write and grasp as compared to pencils.
[quote]Hopefully, there is no side-effect using marker to learn writing.[/quote]But now, bec K2 starts to have H/W, he will use pencil just for his school work. Don't think there is any side effect lar... Think his handwriting (from magic pens) is very neat too, using lead (pencils) usually very untidy as his hands will touch and leave marks around the paper, not to mention, got to erase the mistakes, so got all the rubber shavings all over plus need sharpen the pencils somemore.
[quote]Is this your daily schedule? [/quote]By and large, that's almost it. Of course, different nights, I will do different topics just for the variety. So at hand, I have easily 20 books to choose from. Sometimes, I will print out self-made 'mock tests' to make him do those so that he's used to the syllabus for pri school. Questions are from the pass year test papers from those popular schools.

This KiasuParents website is very good for the parents here are so generous to share all the good sites and useful info. Just that you got to follow their threads to 'dig' those gold (good sites) out.

[vividlaurel]

mmpiglet:

Hi Vividlaurel,


I have twin sons who will be in P1 next year. I am also having a hard time preparing them for P1. So far they have maths, chinese and reading enrichment classes.

Both of them are different when it comes to studies. My elder boy hates doing homework whilst the younger one is ok with it. They were born in December, thus they are quite slow compared to their peers. I am not able to make them study at the same time, so I will do work with them one at a time but only a very short period of time as they have short attention spans.

Hi mmpiglet,

Yes for me too, both are different. My son, although he picks up things very fast and has a good memory, just hates to write. He will make all sorts of excuses to avoid writing and if forced to write, will write shabbily. My daughter on the other hand needs more time to get things in her head. Also since she is a lefty, her sense of perception is a bit distorted and she often writes things from right to left instead of the usual left to write, so I need to sit with her.

Since I am working full time, I am not able to spend as much time with them as I would like to. Do you have any hints that you can share? We can share ideas since both of us are essentially in the same place.

[vividlaurel]

Hi Nonkiasu and Twins,


It’s lovely to see that there are quite a few of here, with twins of the same age.

Twins, I also have the same problem as you - my son who picks up things fast, will try and coach his sister, who needs time to do her work, it’s very frustrating I know!

Since we live in Bukit Panjang, I am planning on Beacon Primary for my two.

Vividlaurel

[Imp75]

Hi all Multiple Mummies


How do you "teach" your multiples when they were much younger, say 2 yrs old? Do you have issues on their concentration span or motor skills?

[vividlaurel]

Imp75:

Hi all Multiple Mummies


How do you \"teach\" your multiples when they were much younger, say 2 yrs old? Do you have issues on their concentration span or motor skills?

Hi Imp75,

At around the age of 2, my kids had an attention span of just few minutes (max would be 10 mins). So I would try to teach them all the time. Like if we are going somewhere, show them say a bus and say bus starts with the letter B. Or say if car is parked in carpark C, then ask for something else that starts with the letter.

Do you have twins/triplets?

Vividlaurel

[Imp75]

twins of 2.5 yrs old + 1 singleton of 4.5yrs old.