PCF/PAP Kindergartens
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ChiefKiasu,
You from PCF kindergarten ?
In kindergarten, I only remember first day they let us draw an apple on our little blackboard -
simplyjo:
Did she have Chinese written test in K1 ? Those chinese words are not easy for any 6 year old kids :shock:Guess PCF also feel the pressure to produce \"top student\" too...
My girls go to Nativity Church Kindergarten opposite Punggol Park (in Hougang actually) and I had once seen a letter posted on the school noticeboard, which was written by one of the Primary School principal to the Kindergarten principal, to praise the Kindergarten for giving good foundation to their top PSLE student when she was in pre-school!!! I heard of sec sch prin writing to pri sch prin when they have top O'Level student, but pre-school???!!! What's next, are we going to rank Pre-school too??? :shock:
When I first saw my K2 girl's 听写list, I was so shocked to see words like 紧张, 担心 etc... I only learn these words in higher primary!!! Kids these days have to learn so much more than us during our times and I can't help feeling worried for my girls... Is there really a need to expose them to so much at such tender age???
Sometimes when my girls talk to me, I do not know if I should be impressed or worried!! I become more \"紧张\" and \"担心\" as P1 gets nearer... :roll:
I think parents have to start worrying about how to prepare kids well for K1. -
Hi Tamarind,
No, there is no written tests for my girls in K1 or K2 (at least not yet!).
My girl’s form teacher & chinese teacher are very nice and the school motivate the children to learn through play.
Even during the Teacher-Parent Meeting Day, they are not anxious when they show me work which my girl had done wrongly, just told me to encourage & motivate them! They will also highligh to me things which my girl is good at, and not just emphasize on things she don’t know… Where to find such teachers these days!!! Love them… -
simplyjo,
She has 听写 right ? Meaning she has to write those chinese characters like 紧张 from memory ?
My girl K1 first half of the year already got many 听写 (or what I mean by Chinese written test)
Quite stressful to make her practice the words evey day, and the words are not simple :shock: -
After this discussion here, my overall conclusion is that the standards in al kindergartens PCF or Montessori is not uniform. Shouldn’t the MOE step-in to make some kind of uniformity in their curriculum or syllabus. The parents like us don’t have keep on guessing where is good to send our kid too.
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Yes, standards in all schools (even with the same brand/franchise) are different. Which is why it's very dangerous to go for 'brand-names'. What is still most important is the human-interaction. There are some who boasts of very good curriculum, but if you cant' feel the warmth, I feel it's no point. Then we would be raising high IQ but low EQ kids
(sorry, a bit exaggerated, haha)...
I'm also not sure how MOE (or MCYS) can standardise the standards... -
tamarind:
Oh... Yes, my girl has weekly 听写 from K2 Term 1. My girls do not bring their school work home untill the end of each Term, so I gather they learn these words during lessons. So far, my eldest girl pick up these 听写 pretty fast, in abt a day. The 听写 started with 2 words/week to 3 in last term and it get longer every week, i.e. 八辆巴士 etc... Cannot imagine what to expect when school term starts for Term 3... :?simplyjo,
She has 听写 right ? Meaning she has to write those chinese characters like 紧张 from memory ?
My girl K1 first half of the year already got many 听写 (or what I mean by Chinese written test) Quite stressful to make her practice the words evey day, and the words are not simple :shock:
I do not penalised her if she writes the strokes in wrong sequence, cos I dun want to make her lose interest in Chinese. But her teacher told me it's time to guide her to write the words in proper sequence and count the strokes too... They even shown me worksheets with chinese wordings that require the student to count the strokes, just like P1/P2!!! :shock:
What I find it helpful is I set weekly schedule for her, so she knows she cannot play PC/NDS on Sun-Tue, cos Sun & Mon are for learning 听写 and Tue is for Spelling. So far it works well cos she can learn the words pretty fast. It has becomes a routine with her & she will remind me to write down the words for her in exercise books so she can practice on these days. As long as when I test her, she knows the words, I'm satisfied. If she makes mistakes during actual spellings in school, she is more upset than me, cos my mum will scold her... :lol:
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I think it is very important to establish a routine with the child. Now I teach each of my kids about 20 mins everyday, so they can study consistently.
My girl still does not understand \"marks\" or \"grades\" yet. Although she consistently get full marks for her Chinese and English spelling in her K1 class. At her Berries K1 Chinese class, she was recently given a 50 question Chinese test :shock: She doesn't know how to answer 1 question, got 49/50. She does not mind at all, because to her marks are not important. I warned everyone at home, including my mother, not to speak a single word about the \"loss of one mark\". I praised my girl highly for the test, and she was happy. Who knows my MIL came visiting, and commented \"Why never give star ? Because not full marks is it ?\" I am so angry with her insensitive words :x Fortunately my girl was not listening.
I think it is the parents who place too much importance on \"marks\" and \"grades\" and put the child under stress. -
I used to be a tutor for P1-P4 children and had taught this 2 siblings in P1 & P2. The siblings had more than 30 assessment books on top of their school books and their mother expected me to complete these assessment with them!!! As they have so much work, the elder sibling resorted to peek at the answers just so he can finish the work & play/rest! Do we really need so many assessment for the kids? It may just backfire instead of helping them to learn more…
I have another friend whose son is in P4 in one of the top pri school. As they are half local, my friend will bring the children back to the father’s home country in Jun & Dec holiday to visit their grandparents. But since the boy was in P3, the school teachers insisted my friend to stay in Singapore cos the school have revision classes during Jun school holiday and they think "it’s a good time for the children to attend enrichment classes" during the holiday!
My friend simply bochap and wrote to the school to opt out and even challenged the teachers why her boy need revision when all his subjects are already in the 90+ range??? I applause her for this and encourage more parents to do likewise for their kids too as not all children needs revision classes. Play is an important learning process too… -
Yes the schools are also responsible for adding pressure to the student. I think they are killing the child’s passion for learning, not nurturing it.
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