Any parents of gifted children here ?
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Hi wwcookie
Thanks for giving a snap shot of how the class is being conducted. Sounds interesting. However, I will have my son decides if he is interested and is able to withstand the yucky portion. My son close his nose throughout the zoo trip, gag when goes to the market. I might want to give the magazine a try if he likes.
To all parents who read this forum.
I happen to talk to two parents who have their child placed in Singapore gifted program. My question to them was, is the child being sent to any special programs or enrichment class or special regime while growing up before being identified as gifted. One of the parents inform me, that there is no enrichment classes. Just good family bonding, show interest & support in what the child does & instill good faith in God. The other parent is a security guard. The child is self motivated & has not attended any enrichment classes either.
So, I am in agreement with ChiefKiasu. The talent will emerge & no amount of money can buy what that has been in borne. -
I would like to share about my hubby’s childhood. His parents completely neglected him. He was raised by servants, who only made sure he was clean and well fed. They never play or read to him. No enrichment classes at all, except for Chinese tuition. He learn phonics by watching "Sesame Street". Fortunately his father allowed him to buy any books he wanted. He had the complete series of Encyclopedia Britannica when he was in P3. He read lots of books and he turned out to be the top student in ACS. He even taught himself computer programming when he was in secondary school, simply by reading books on computer programming.
My hubby was not supportive of any enrichment classes. I only managed to send my girl to phonics class for 1 year. Now my kids are only attending Berries Chinese class once a week. However my hubby was determined to be different from his parents. While I concentrated on teaching my kids to read, he taught them a wide range of knowledge from astronomy to dinosaurs to how the human body works. He conducts science experiments with them at home. He kept telling me that his parents did none of this with him. But the fact is that he knew how to read and learn on his own when he was a child, and he turned out well anyway.
Personally I think it is not the number of enrichment class that matters. What matters most is that the child must have the ability to read and the desire to learn on his own, and of course parent’s attention is also very important to the child. -
Actually my son loves going for his enrichment classes. To me these classes serve a very impt purpose besides exposing him to different stuffs - his social needs - he gets to play and interact with the other children in the classes. That's why I try to avoid enrichment classes that are too academic and that requires the children to sit down like in a classroom environment. I go for those that encourages lots of interaction with the other children and have a fun approach. This way, he gets to interact with as many groups of children as possible :lol:
Tamarind, I dont think there are any enrichment classes at all during our time and most of our parents, being not as educated as we are now, only made sure that we are clean and well-fed. I myself really envied my son for having the opportunity to be exposed to all the fun stuffs such as science experiments or going 'crazy' in drama class or solving puzzles and games in maths class. I remember my learning process was so boring and dry when I was a child. I know I would love to have the oppotunity to attend the enrichment classes he's attending now if I can go back to being a child
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Just to clarify, my hubby's family is quite well off. They used to live in a bungalow, have a car, and servants. His father studied in Raffles Institution. There are also piano, ballet classes etc at that time. But his mother was too lazy (she told me) to bring him and his sisters to classes.
I totally respect your decision to send your child to enrichment classes. Many other parents are doing the same thing. My point is that enrichment classes are not the most important factor in developing a child's potential. Personally I think that 2 things are most important :
- ability to learn on his own
- parents' attention.
I do agree with you that social interaction is very important. My girl has enough social interaction during her 4 hours of K1 class daily. She gets to mix with 17 other children, and she understands very well that different children have different levels of ability. Her teacher asks my girl to be a \"little teacher\", my girl teaches other children to read.
On weekends, I would rather spend more time with her, teaching her myself, instead of packing her off to different enrichment classes. My kids only attends 2 hours of Chinese enrichment during weekends, and I already miss them
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Hi Tamarind
Your children is fortunate to have your husband as guidance & your love and concern.
For gifted kids, the need to drive for performance & to gain knowledged is mainly for intrinsic value. I read in some articles that the reason giftedness is only tested at a later age eg 9 years old is to ensure that children are not hot house & children from less able background are given the chance to receive formal education.
However, having said this, I am not against parents giving enrichment classes for their kids. Not all parents are equipped with time and knowledged to guide their kids whom they know are different.
I am thinking of signing up my son for science enrichment. Reasons are mainly because of his interest, there is no Science Club in his school & I cannot cope in providing the answers to all his questions. Latest question that I have not answered nor provide guidance or resource is "Why is comet haley made of ice" & "why are the shooting stars as they approaches the earth, it breaks into smaller pieces". Just like his interest in chess, he bugs me last year, I ignore it & he found relief in school. -
Another reason why I send him for enrichment classes is his need to 'do' something constantly. When he was younger, he'll keep bugging us for activities when we are home doing nothing in particular till both my husband and I are at our wits' ends!! EN, you are right, we don't have the resources or energy to keep up with his boundless energy hence gotta find enrichment classes to keep him occupied :oops: That's how we got into the 'enrichment class bandwagon' in the first place and has been 'hooked' since
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Hi,
I’m new here and happened to see this website. It seems to me that everyone here is very interested in the topic ‘gifted’. Having a child that is special as compare to the kids of the same age do make some parents stress out.
My girl had gone through her GEP screening last year and fortunately she was being selected to the GEP programe. Currently, she is in the GEP programe which I think is taxing. -
Hello Gifted
Welcome to the hot thread. Care to share the joy, the heart stopping moment, the anxiety and stress that you have experince with your daughter?
What is gifted program in Singapore school all about? Does the program relief your stress in bringing up your daughter or is it an added burden now that she is in GEP program.
Feel free to share as we are truly curious. -
EN,
In the GEP programe, the children are being taught in a very broad base manner. As they are all fast learner, they are learning things 3 to 4 years in advanced of their age. They dun work on activities books, but worksheets and projects. They are expected to think out of the box and handed stress. They are arm with skill that will help them in the future.
My girl likes the programe but hates the workloads as she cannot find time to play. They dun ready have any text books to teach on and all the P4 text book that were bought are for parents references only. 'Charlotte Web' is the only book for English. As for me, I dun have any past year paper to refer to.
When my girl was in the mainstream, we sailed through with ease and both of us were very happy. She only did her assessment books during exam time and she usually scored well even she dun ready study. I am quite stress out and sometime regret on the decision that we have made. I always tell my friends that she is gifted and I'm not.
One thing for sure is that everyone in the family must have a very positive mind set and have to learn to accept that she is no longer among the top. I have to constantly reminder her that is alright to fail in any test and she can make it if she tried harder next time.
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Hi gifted,
Do you mind sharing which school is your girl in now? Was she from a ‘non-GEP’ school previously? I wonder if all GEP schools have the same kind of program?
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