Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary

[Jennifer]

php:

Personally, i don't think transfering school is a good solution unless the kid is totally cannot manage the school work himself. No matter where you go, ultimately the kid will still be taking the same examination. Rather than wasting time putting the kid in an unknown environment (actually no school will guarantee you that your kid will get a good and committed teacher, it still depends on your luck), it might be better to find ways to help the kid in those areas that he is weak in.


Let assume that you have a 1000cc car. You know that it can't match the power of Ferrari. If you try very hard to match the speed of that red car, your engine will catch fire one day. However, if you are the mechanic, you work on your car, upgrade the components day-by-day, work on your kid's weakness day-by-day, even your kid can't match the power of the red car in the competition, but i believe your upgraded 1000cc car will be able to match the power of a BMW 7series....Teacher is there to impart knowledge but the kid's attitude toward learning and parents involvement are equally important. Correct me if i am wrong.

I know my boy is capable of getting better grades. It's a matter of whether we want to get into the rat race competitively or not at the expense of a childhood with less play. He's unlike my elder boy who though is also not competitive knows what he wants to attain.

You will be surprised to know that the two teachers my boy is having this year do not impart knowledge, either not doing it the right way or not bothered to find out which is the right way for the pupils in this very varied ability class. I am not generalising. My boy's classmate's mum feels the most impact on her son and told me these. All along I thought the teachers were doing their jobs and my boy was too easily distracted in class to pay attention.

Now I am doing damage control by sending my boy for 2 days of Chinese tuition, coaching him on EL grammar rules n compos, giving him more challenging MA prob sums and revising Sci with him.

PH is a sch with longer hours, he comes back home ard 2.20pm and I send him to sleep by 9.30pm. The whole day could be consumed by work.

Maybe becos of my elder boy's experience with the sch system- having more teachers who know how to teach, I needed only to revise Sci & MT with him. He was left so much time to play, read his fav story books, etc.

I also know it is no guarantee we will get better teachers elsewhere. But the time saved on travelling is a big bonus in our case. I could keep to the current work schedule n he gets to play with this pocket of time saved.

[BraisedPorkBelly]

Hmm.. hope hers will last longer considering she shouldnt or probably wont be interested in soccer


Ya we bought the sneakers shampoo on standby already too. Lol

[BraisedPorkBelly]

BTW can anyone share a bit more details on the school bus schedule, price, pros & cons?


We are thinking of going for school bus but worried if its too young to start her on it at P1. Thanks!

[Jennifer]

BraisedPorkBelly:

Hmm.. hope hers will last longer considering she shouldnt or probably wont be interested in soccer


Ya we bought the sneakers shampoo on standby already too. Lol

I hv also the sneakers shampoo in the past. It leaves a soapy feeling on the cushion parts. To me, very hard to rid of unless I scrub with water. Then got to sun the shoes. Heng if it is a sunny day.

I strongly recommend the magic sponge. Now my elder boy who is boarding in sch uses it to clean his sch shoes too. Wld be getting my P3 boy to clean his sch shoes this way too. A way to impart responsibility

[Jennifer]

BraisedPorkBelly:

BTW can anyone share a bit more details on the school bus schedule, price, pros & cons?


We are thinking of going for school bus but worried if its too young to start her on it at P1. Thanks!

We got the list of sch bus operators on the orientation day. Just go to the sch bus booth to register your child. Someone will call you to confirm the pickup pt and time.

I believe there will be a bus fare hike next year.

So far, the bus servicing our route is a middle-sized one with no aunt to supervise the children.

When are you staying? Maybe some other parents who stay in the same area as you would be able to give more info.

[kohhweelin.010441gmail.010441com]

Trapwithin:

This year P1 will also start to write comp instead of just structure writing.
PhPPS standard moving upwards every year.

Hi Trapwithin, I think it's still the same as last year. Write a 10-sentence one paragraph story based on a picture, not really a full composition yet.

Php, thanks for your sharing. Your dd has blended into the PH's culture well. Good for her! As for the way her creative writing teacher had taught her to write, it will work wonders in P2 compositions. I don't think she will be penalized unnecessarily if she writes in proper tenses and sentence structures, using all the helping words for the P1 SA2 p1, regardless of how she wants to begin the story. Can easily get 10/10.

[janet88]

BraisedPorkBelly:

Husband & I decided we probably wont push dd too hard for a start. Prefer to see how well she settle down & hopefully she will enjoy school. So long as she puts in decent effort, we have mentally prepared ourselves that even if she ends up in last class, we are fine with it. Just have to keep praying for good teachers & friends.


Yesterday we went to West mall sportslink to check out the white adidas shoes which someone mentioned earlier in the forum. For whoever is interested, it costs like 35 or 38 I forgotten.. but we found a much lighter shoe selling for 25 at Bata (the brand is Power). We decided to buy this instead after considering the weight & price difference

Also bought a school bag for her. So now only left with the booklist items & we are all set for P1 :celebrate:

Thanks for the recommendation of school shoes. I've bought the school bag for her...now left with booklist items, uniforms and school shoes before she goes to P1.

[markfch]

janet_lee88:

BraisedPorkBelly:

Yesterday we went to West mall sportslink to check out the white adidas shoes which someone mentioned earlier in the forum. For whoever is interested, it costs like 35 or 38 I forgotten.. but we found a much lighter shoe selling for 25 at Bata (the brand is Power). We decided to buy this instead after considering the weight & price difference

Also bought a school bag for her. So now only left with the booklist items & we are all set for P1 :celebrate:

Thanks for the recommendation of school shoes. I've bought the school bag for her...now left with booklist items, uniforms and school shoes before she goes to P1.

Thanks for the recommendation. Was wondering where to buy adidas shoes with white stripes. Just ordered those p1 books last night & paid $7.80 for home delivery. Will wait till end Dec to get the uniforms & shoes to ensure the best fit next yr for ds. See, even buy uniform also must strategize

[php]

Jennifer:

That's very unusual. It is encouraged to SHOW, not TELL in my elder boy's case since P5. IN P6, there is a 3rd party coming in to teach creative writing (I know why P6? Shld start earlier) that emphasize this as well. Can tell us who is the teacher? Or maybe that particular phrase did not reflect the scene appropriately?

My boy learnt this in P2 \"the sun inched its way up to the clear blue sky\", till now he still uses it in every compo he writes. I hv banned him as it is getting boring :lol: and he is not making an effort to learn other ones.

maybe dd misinterpreted her teacher's advice. believe more towards application and contents rather than the style of writing. i sent an email to her teacher in the early morning asking for her assistance in giving a little encouragement to dd before her paper this afternoon and to assure her that she is moving in the right direction. and well, i got her reply just couple of minutes ago stating that she would. so problem solved..luckily, she has a good teacher..communication between teacher and parent is important...

Jennifer, TAS just released a book recently...it is definitely useful for P4-P6 creative writing...get hold of a copy for your boy, i believe it will helpful to him and you will not be bored with his writing but instead looking forward to read his story....but you have to get it directly from them. it is not available outside.

[kohhweelin.010441gmail.010441com]

php:

As they read, when they come

across good phrases that they can use for their compositions, they
can put a coloured tag on that page and continue reading.
When they have finished reading the whole book, they can go back
to where the tags are and copy down the good phrases from the
storybook into their exercise book. They would also need to
categorize these phrases. For example, if there is
a phrase that described a drowning scene, they can write it down
and put in under the heading 'Drowning'. They would need to
leave a few pages for that category (so that when they come
across more drowning phrases in the future, they can then add
them in).

You can then get them to use these phrases in their writing but they
must apply them to their writing and not copy the phrase word for
word as sometimes the phrases might not totally suit what they
are writing.

Your sleeplessness has provided fabulous ideas to help with jazzing up composition writing...

That's what I did too. I will put coloured tags, with labels on my dd's compo guidebooks for easy reference. I compiled those good ones too. I will print out before and after scenarios with and without good phrases so that she could \"feel\" the difference the good phrases made to the story. She reads her model composition guidebooks before bedtime, alternating EL and CL, before reading her story books. Many kids in CH brought compo models to read in school too when there is \"free time\" between lessons. Btw, they are reading upper primary compo guidebooks. Your dd will meet her match if she landed herself in CH next year.