Preparing kids for P5 in 2011

[PiggyLalala]

linden2000:

pixiedust:

phankao - we have ipad but it is just a platform so depends on which Chinese apps we download. I tried asking around but so far only downloaded the Chinese dictionary. I also enabled the stylus/hand-writing input - the small bonus I see is that ds is keen to use the ipad to lookup the dictionary and hence \"forced\" to write the hanzi - how much benefit this equates to in the long run remains to be seen.

Hi Pixiedust. Not sure what you are looking for but we downloaded Chinese comics audiobooks 漫画西游 (ie 西游记）and 漫画三国 (ie 三国演义). DS is not interested in reading Chinese books so I find that the illustrations help to keep him interested. There are also sufficient words to practice word recognition and reading with no hanyu pinyin. I find that when there is hanyu pinyin, he will rely on that and is not truly 'reading'. 漫画三国 may be a little 'heavier' in content since it has got many more characters and state names but so far DS has been interested to read on surprisingly. From within the app, you can also choose to download others like 成语故事 which has 100成语 with their respective stories and model sentence as illustration. 3 parts, ie 300 of them. So far we've only downloaded the first 100. Hope the above helps.

We do not have ipad but we have iphone. Can these Chinese comics audiobooks 漫画西游 (ie 西游记）and 漫画三国 (ie 三国演义) be downloaded onto a iphone? Anyone know whether iphone has free app like 成语故事 or anything to do with chinese that we can download? TIA.

[PiggyLalala]

Unlike some of the parents here, I feel uneasy over ‘the pontangs of regular school’, how do you explain to your son the white lies that you may need to write in the excuse letter to the school. I fully agree and impressed with most of your strategies and would like to learn from you on how you communicate with your child over the ‘pontangs of school’. TIA.

[Brenda10]

Chenonceau:

Skills can only be mastered with practice and individualized feedback. This can't be done in big groups of 40 students.

According to dd, the recent Math problem solving workshop organised by the school during June holiday was about 20 person to a class. Therefore some of her classmate joined another class.

[Brenda10]

Hi pixiedust


You can also borrow the whole set of 三国演义漫画 (20 books) from the library. Also, there are some interesting CL comics on 成语故事 and 三十六计.

[janet88]

PiggyLalala:

Unlike some of the parents here, I feel uneasy over 'the pontangs of regular school', how do you explain to your son the white lies that you may need to write in the excuse letter to the school.

I allowed my son to pontang once or twice before SA2. Time was very tight even though we started revision 1 month plus before. Since it was SA2 and teachers would have somewhat completed syllabus, I explained the reason to him and we had an agreement that the 'pontang' was necessary. He cooperated...think we may have to do so again this year...with such a whole lot to cover.

[HappyFaye]

Chenonceau, thanks for the interesting strategy. I let DS read your postings with regards to your DS schedule during June and the planned play day late last night.


His reactions -
“1 compo per day? Siao ah.”
“He only gets to play 1 day on Sun & half the Sat?”
“Finish 1 Maths Assessment book in seven days? Wow!”

Then we went on to discuss the limited time he spent on revision (max 1 hour per day during weekday, but have not implemented since the start of school).

He then complained,” Mummy, but you didn’t give me play days”
My reply - ”Dear, be fair. Once you finish your work, you can play non-stop. You don’t feel you have play times because I always nag at you to stop playing computer. Didn’t I ask you go out and play all the time, once you finish what you are required to do?”
DS – “just kidding lar.”
Me – “ With your current effort, I am confident you can get 230. But if YOU want to score higher than that, you need to corporate with me.”
DS – “still got 14 months mah.”
I gave a big stare at him
DS – “I know, I know. Languages need time to improve. Ok, let’s start tomorrow. Can I sleep now?”

I really like the way you communicate with your DS

Chenonceau:

\"I want you to be lazy. Get the best results in the least time. So, you don't be goondu goondu, complete everything in the book. Do enough that you understand, and then move on. And skip all the easy questions because those waste time.”

DS has been on this mode since P1 with 2 questions a day. But what I am irritated is that he will only wait for me to tell him what to do, which page, which question. If I do not give instruction, he would not do. The bad thing is because he has been on this mode, asking him to do a bit more on compo is an uphill task. How should I put that across to him :scratchhead:

This discussion here is excellent for my DS. Thanks a lot!

[Chenonceau]

PiggyLalala:

Unlike some of the parents here, I feel uneasy over 'the pontangs of regular school', how do you explain to your son the white lies that you may need to write in the excuse letter to the school. I fully agree and impressed with most of your strategies and would like to learn from you on how you communicate with your child over the 'pontangs of school'. TIA.

I tell him that I sin. It's wrong but I am doing it because I have to protect him. Piggy... I have ever imagined that in a case where we are caught in an alley and someone is trying to rape my daughter. Would I commit murder?

The answer is \"yes\".

I dunno how to justify what I do as RIGHT, and that is worse because of my religion. But right or not, in my mind, if push comes to shove, I will do the WRONG thing, knowing that it is wrong.

[HappyFaye]

janet_lee88:

I allowed my son to pontang once or twice before SA2. Time was very tight even though we started revision 1 month plus before. Since it was SA2 and teachers would have somewhat completed syllabus, I explained the reason to him and we had an agreement that the 'pontang' was necessary. He cooperated...think we may have to do so again this year...with such a whole lot to cover.

I asked my kids to pontang but they dont't want.

Care to share the normal schedule for your kids? Intend to let my DS do a comparison, if you don't mind...

My DS schedule - without CCA.

2pm - reach home
2-3pm - lunch, shower, TV
3pm - start school work. If have time - do Mummy's work
5pm - outdoor play
7pm - dinner and TV time
8pm - continue school work if any. else, free and easy
9.30pm - sleep

Sat - 11am-12pm revision with Mummy. He plans his school work on his own.

Sun - if didn't do much of revision, will schedule 1 hour

[janet88]

HappyFaye:

janet_lee88:

I allowed my son to pontang once or twice before SA2. Time was very tight even though we started revision 1 month plus before. Since it was SA2 and teachers would have somewhat completed syllabus, I explained the reason to him and we had an agreement that the 'pontang' was necessary.

My DS schedule - without CCA.

2pm - reach home
2-3pm - lunch, shower, TV
3pm - start school work. If have time - do Mummy's work
5pm - outdoor play
7pm - dinner and TV time
8pm - continue school work if any. else, free and easy
9.30pm - sleep

Sat - 11am-12pm revision with Mummy. He plans his school work on his own.

Sun - if didn't do much of revision, will schedule 1 hour

145pm - Bathe
2pm - Lunch
245-430pm - School HW
4-530pm - Sleep (but he refuses to wake up till 6)
7pm - Dinner/Shower
830pm - Assessment book
1030pm - Play with sister.
11pm - Sleep

He does assessment book on Wed/Fri/Sun as he has suppl classes on Tue/Thur.

[Chenonceau]

The schedule changes depending on what I wanna focus on. This June, we focused on compo (both languages), Math and Science. He works best when he gets to focus on one subject over a few days. Hence, I don'r switch from subject subject in one week.


Week 1
Monday to Friday
- 8 sub-units of Onsponge (2 questions per unit)
- 1 Chinese compo
Saturday: nothing

Week 2
Monday to Friday
- 1 chapter of Math Heuristics (only do the worked examples)
- 1 Chinese compo
Saturday: Corrections

Weeks 3 & 4
Monday to Friday
- 1 Science paper
- 1 English compo
- 1 Chinese compo
Saturday: 1 English compo

We took time off to play during the first 2 weeks so he was behind on Onsponge by 2 days, and ate into Week 3.


Schedule for school term
Every week,
- 1 Math Paper 2
- 1 Science paper
- 1 Chinese Compo
To be done whenever possible depending on the amount of homework required. EXCEPT Saturday afternoons and Sundays.

Play Time on Weekdays
He plays whenever he finishes his work on weekdays. Play time is not just weekends. If he finishes at 4pm, he plays till bedtime. I dun care what he does as long as he does a good job of his work. If he doesn't, he has to redo. If he does a good job, he plays. In essence, I keep him to office hours unless he does a poor job... but he never does. A couple of times, he did choose to work till 10 on extra practice he thought he needed.

DS has been trained from P1 to P4 to WANT to succeed, and he is also trained to focus for long hours. The kind of hours adults put in at the office. I wish I did not have to do that but well... this is what the system wants from our kids. I do my best to make sure it does not overflow to after office hours.

Management on Output, not Time
I manage him on output. I evaluate the amount of work he can complete in a given amount of time, and I assign that. If he completes early, the bonus time is his. If he cannot complete and I note that he has been diligent, I reduce the load. If I assess that he could not complete because he was distracted (some days, he was distracted by dog, sister or Dad), I leave him to work till 9pm and give him a good scolding for not focusing, and thus wasting Precious Play Time.

I don't tell him when to do what. He has freedom to plan his schedule. Just deliver the work on to my desk every night. I will mark whilst he sleeps and he gets them back the next morning.

Leave Out Content
I suppose it is clear that I don't attempt to work on everything in June. We haven't attempted Chinese nor English exams, nor looked at Chinese Oral. I figure that we'll get around to that later. After all, still got 14 months.