Bright kids not selected into GEP - please give ideas on how to engage them outside of school syllabus
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cutepandabear\" post_id=\"1945201\" time=\"1573111329\" user_id=\"150031:
In P4 and P5, there are many extra programs outside normal MOE curriculum. Your child can start writing stories and his own book. Yes, there will be maths olympiads, e2k maths and e2k science too. There will be debate competition and some speech competition by NUSH, (cannot remember). No stopping from reading books from the GEP book list too. In P4, there will be a reading program on a specific book by GEB etc, there are plenty. In P5, I read there is a creative writing program by GEB too. School will give kids a wide range of exposure. You can find our more about your school's prgram for p4 and p5.
Hi parents, so some background. My P3 wasn't selected into GEP this year and was disappointed.
I didn't send kid for any IQ test or whatever, but I do know, the child is bright, in HA class, and school work doesn't pose a challenge, doesn't have to revise much to score well for exams and does well in all 4 subjects. And if not for CCA and friends, school is rather boring. Like other parents, was hoping to get into GEP so the child can be stretched and enjoy school more. But, didn't work out that way. Oh well.
So, am hoping to get ideas and a good discussion going on what else parents can do to stretch our children's potential. And I'm thinking more of outside school syllabus. I could pass him P6 materials and say, nah, go get ready for PSLE two years ahead of time. But how depressing is that?
If you have a very active (physically and mentally) child, who needs to be meaningfully engaged, who has a thirst to know things, you might understand where I'm coming from. This isn't about being kiasu.
I was thinking of essay writing competitions, maths olympiads, doing coding?
Any one can chip in with ideas? Or share your experiences? -
Aim for the CWP at the end of P5. The best entry get to be publish in GEB annual essay compilation. Open to all schools.
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Cutepandabear,
6thisnthat9 has stated a few very good ways and programmes. But for schools that do not have these programmes, these are what you can do:-
English
. Toast masters. Check with your nearest community centre for the age group available.
Math
. Olympiad for those interested. There are plenty of competition open to children
. Suduko
Science
. Nush science olympiad. Assuming that your kid is top few in science (in non gep sch), you have a shot at this competition which allow schools to send only limited participants
. Science centre badge system. This is a great way to learn science outside of curriculum
. Busker Festival. Another great science project that expose kids to public speaking too
Art
. Origami. Diy toys. Sketching. Watercolour
. Turn them into Teacher's day gifts or birthday gifts for grandma. You have a whole year to work on them.
Music
. Instruments. Dance. Composing. Singing
Coding
. There are a couple of coding competition, but mainly dominated by schools who have the resources to train, parents who have the skills to coach or enrichment centres students.
. You can just pick up leisurely via online if you can get someone to guide you (i have no luck on this!)
Leadership
. If he is a prefect, he can volunteer around the school for stuff and run for exco in end p5.
. Not a prefect? Volunteer to be subject rep, reading ambassador etc
. Charity work
Leisure
. Swimsafer
. Taekwondo/wushu/sports
. Rubiks/speed cubing
. Youtube channel (my nephew made his own unboxing video with my bro)+ video editing skills
. Cooking
Go according to his interests.
Can decide if he prefers to be a jack of trades (try out everything) or focus on one (olympiad training is very time consuming to be the really good ones).
Nothing to share on mother tongue... :faint: -
I remember there are few MT prog/competitions at Upper Pri, open to all. Kids should be informed by teachers…dd just register to participate, on her own.
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Cutepandabear…I do know where you’re coming from…am in the same position myself. Active and brimming with thoughts/ideas but no one to share them with. Talks my ear off. All his classmates not free cos schedule all full up with tuition daily.
Mine is not remotely interested in academic stuff (English, Maths, MT) or studying them at more advanced level. He is generally interested in all things Science.
We’ve tried coding, Rubik’s cube, not much interest. Musical instruments, yes interested & ongoing. Hobbies-wise, since he likes to draw, I have just started letting him try various software on tablet (with stylus) to draw and add colour to his comics & designs. He enjoys the freedom to explore without anyone telling him what to do or how to do it.
I am also looking out for homeschooling curriculum. So that he can learn more advanced stuff in whatever science topics he wishes. Eg Secondary/high school level Science. Not sure which are good, so still checking around.
Please share if u come across any good ones.
Would also be open to hosting a weekly meetup in the afternoons, for like-minded kids. If that’s what would help their brains from stagnating with all the dull schoolwork… -
Jedamum’s long list is really great. Just pick a couple of things and try them out, and move on if your sons don’t show much interest. I totally agree that doing schoolwork at a higher level is not a good option - it’s not very exciting, and they will be so bored later on!
My younger girl was in a similar position because she was in a small school overseas with limited resources. She would finish her regular schoolwork so fast that we knew we had to find more things for her to do. So we did the following over the years - got her to read a lot, some drawing and writing (moderate interest), learning piano (no interest) and, later, guitar (very interested, and still plays), gave her Math puzzles and science "kitchen-table" experiments to try (moderate interest). She wrote a script for play at one point but it was never completed although it got pretty long, and also wrote skits with her school friends. She learned to knit, sew and cross-stitch over the years (moderate skill), and we did baking and simple cooking. She learned to do regular stuff on the computer (like all kids do) and learned a bit of programming in her teens (no interest). We encouraged her to get involved in some visits to orphanages organised by a group of older kids when she was 12 onwards, and they would plan the programmes, craftwork, games etc. We had limited access to sports, but she learned to play frisbee and some simple games with school friends, and went running with her father. She learned to swim during one of our visits back to Singapore (no pool where we were). I’m sure we did more, but can’t remember now. As they get older, they will learn to look out for interesting things for themselves, and learn stuff online or from books in their spare time, and that kind of "learning how to self-learn" is a really important skill. When she returned to Singapore at 14yo, she got very involved in her school CCA (script-writing helped) and church stuff (social skills and guitar-playing was useful), and she was fortunate that her Singapore school had a lot of stuff going on.
Just take it one thing at a time, and don’t worry if they don’t find it very interesting. After trying it for a while, they can switch to something else, and even limited experience may well come in useful later on. Some people are specialists by nature, but for others, their strength is in the multiplicity of experience and their ability to turn their hand to many different things as needed. Looking at the list of stuff my daughter has dabbled in, we see that her strength is in breadth. Not that she has no depth, but she is less interested in that, and too social to be the research scientist type! -
Just to add - although I don’t think doing schoolwork at a higher level is a good idea, some kids do genuinely love a particular subject, and there is nothing inherently bad about encouraging them to learn more. But there is no need to use textbooks (especially not the ones that will be used in their school) or to do past-year papers. Let them approach the subject from other angles, with other books, websites, hands-on activities, etc.
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If your DS is a language person … before u can get him to read some GEP ERP english storybook ? Join outside spelling bees Competition? Join MOE CWP, get him to do book review ?
If your DS is a Maths and science person : get him coding courses, maths Olympiad classes. Advanced maths ??? Olympiad science?
Arts person ; go Nafa course building up his arts portfolio , … a lot of things can be done !! No need depend on GEP Programme!!! -
I can understand the disappointment. It took me almost one year to get over it. Come P5/P6 as upper primary stuff gets harder and harder, I saw so many bright MS kids overtake my DD1, then I realize why DD1 was not chosen.
In the old days, during DH’s era, when there was no such thing as GEP, what to do when bright kids needed to feed their hungry brains? My hubby would go to the library on his own after school. He reads everything under the sun and was the only boy to make it to RI from his now defunct neighborhood school. Library is good, got aircon and best of all, it is free! Hubby has another favorite childhood pastime, that is play mahjong with neighbors, not sure if that’s the reason why he’s strong in analytical thinking and maths. LOL.
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