How to teach a Pri 5 kid?

[Mum Lim]

She doesn’t take naps. Her latest sleeping time is 10pm.

[sydney]

Mum Lim:

She watches tv when she's free. I'm a ftwm. Basically I do not have control over what she does in the afternoon. As she is taken care by her grandparents, and they watch tv basically the whole day.


The only time I have is when I reach home. Thats where all assessment books will come in. Both dh or me will sit with her to do corrections for those questions that are wrong. She is able to do most of it when we are around as we are guiding her.

She is slow in learning things, thats 1 of the major factor. As for reading, she need us to read with her too.

Any suggestions on how to teach a slow learner?

I suppose you are refering to Math. Although I have a Master degree, My math knowledge was barely able to manage P4. These days the primary school Math is so different. Thus after I outsourced the teaching when my DS is in P5, I took the opportunity to learn from his learning centre trainer.

My DS is now in P6. He have the similar problem as your DD. But one thing I learn is that for Math, providing too much guide to the child is actually not good. To do well in Math, the child need to go through a thought process, figure out the steps, try to understand the solution etc without assistance. As a mother sitting beside him, its very frastrating and very tempting to just give him the solution and moved on to the next question. But I constantly tell myself to hold back.

Next time when you coach her, try this - instead of guiding her how to solve the Q, guide her to look for the solution. E.g. ask her questions that lead her to the next step rather than tell her what the next step is.

[Mum Lim]

not only mathematics bascially all her subjects. what we did is to keep on giving her to practise. but i feel her heart is not with us when we are going through with her. it gets depressing and irritating to see her daydreaming.

[BlueBells]

Have you considered enroling her in a student care if possible? Student cares are more structure - they have nap time, study time and play time with little or no television.


Might be worth considering given that the structure in place will help a long way since she will be P6 next year?

[divzerotrainer]

[quote]not only mathematics bascially all her subjects. what we did is to keep on giving her to practise. but i feel her heart is not with us when we are going through with her. it gets depressing and irritating to see her daydreaming.[/quote]
Hi Mum Lim,

As a trainer myself handling kids from P3 to P6, it seems to be that your daughter may not be a slow learner. From your description, it seems that everytime your daughter see you, she sees assessment books and that may be the problem. It is quite obvious that she has no interest in these subjects at the moment.

Why not try a different approach?

Have you tried introducing her to some fun or surprises when you reach home?

Instead of asking about her academics situation, start asking her about her day and what was the most interesting thing that happened. If her answer is nothing, it is likely that she is feeling emotionally lost, depressed, and unloved.

Here's some suggestions to make a turning point:

1. Bring her out to her favourite place for dinner.

2. Bring her for shopping to dress her up.

3. Bring her out for a day during weekend.

It is important that you do not talk about academics when you are out with her. Instead, spend more time chatting with her and build the relationship. Understand her better, in terms of her interests, hobbies, food, what does she really like, her ambitions, and remember everything she said.

With these information, you may then work out a way how to gain her interest in her academics when you can start relating her interest with her studies.

[LLK]

I strongly agree. Kids dislike parents always ask about their homework and test/exam results. They like us to love, care, praise and encourage them. Set achievable targets, and remember that not all kids are fast learner and not all can acheive 270 T-score for PSLE. We have to be realistic. A happy and healthy kid can learn better:)