All About Preparing For Primary One

[corneyAmber]

[Editor's note: Topic selected for http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/preparing-child-primary-one-non-academic.]

jkcy:

All the talk about the academic preparation is getting me very nervous cos I still allow my boy to play all day but back to another concern - can those of you experienced parents please advise the non-academic aspects to look out for too? Also, anyone knows where to find seminars about getting our child ready for p1?

Can share some experiences with you on non-academic aspects:

1. How to count money
2. How to buy food
3. How to be mindful of own properties (even with sticker labels, the items may never come back). Especially when they start to play, they will forget water bottle, wallet, lunchboxes and sometimes even part of their uniforms if they have a few pieces removable, eg pinafore.
4. For all payment made to school, always hand cheques to them instead of cash if they need to hand in to teacher, at least for Term 1.
5. Teach them how to pack their own bag
6. Cultivate habit to inform you automatically of all messages from school
7. How to look out for bullies
8. How to manage the bullies
9. Know where the General Office is is important
10. Don't buy shoes too big that they cannot run properly during PE
11. Don't buy the std plastic covers to wrap textbooks, it will fall off or cut them and it certainly does not keep the books in mint condition so it defeats its purpose. :lol:
12. Remind that they should try to go everywhere in 2s especially toilets
(a) toilets may not be their size cos it caters from P1-P6 so some of
the taps not easy to push, a friend around can help, otherwise
some get out without washing. Yucks!
(b) there may be adults cleaners inside there and nowadays, cleaners
can be male or female. Going in 2s is safer in case of pedophiles.
13. Caution them that the bookshop is only for buying essentials as I see
many kids shopping in the bookshop during recess and skip meals to
buy favourite toys or stationeries.
14. Get an elastic attachment to the wallet to hang on the uniform. At this age, they can lose virtually anything.
15. Lastly, very important to note, remind them not to run but walk in the school compound....too many accidents have happened at the lower primary level and sometimes they lose their milk teeth in this way. :roll:

If I remember more, will add on.

[IJJ]

It will be great if your child can collect some phone numbers of classmates to countercheck for stuffs they miss out/unsure.

[schellen]

IJJ:

It will be great if your child can collect some phone numbers of classmates to countercheck for stuffs they miss out/unsure.

I second this. Sometimes, children forget to write down (or don't even bother to do so) in their handbook, especially if the teacher does not emphasise this from Term 1. It also helps when your child is absent from school.

[ChiefKiasu]

schellen:

I second this. Sometimes, children forget to write down (or don't even bother to do so) in their handbook, especially if the teacher does not emphasise this from Term 1. It also helps when your child is absent from school.

That's why we set up the Parents' Networking Groups mah... so that you can find your kakis right here at KiasuParents.com.

[Full.010894Cream]

for my 2 kids, think the parents initiated the exchange of emails via the form teacher. from there, parents can choose to also exchange tel no.


these days P1 & 2 very relak one. also, it's not as if they will have to repeat the yr if they fail a couple of spelling or tests. we shd learn not to stress ourselves up....it's just the beginning of a LONG LONG journey!!

[concern]

//Moderator's note: Topics merged.


Hi,

I would like to send my kid for P1 preparatory class.. Any good learning centres and courses to recommend?

Thanks.

[MMM]

I did this for my P1 last year :


1) 6 weeks HYPY class at Molin (I think they have already started this week or so)

2) British council P1 preparatory course during school hols.

3) Accelerated advanced phonics lesson to ensure he completes it before P1.

But if you feel that your child is already well prepared for P1, you don’t actually have to do that. I did that as I felt a gap in my son’s learning.

For a start, it might be good to evaluate your own child first to see if there are any gaps that you want to fill. Then just focus on those areas.

[concern]

I heard from my colleagues in term of syllabus, there is a gap between kindergarten and P1, so I thought it might be good to go for P1 preparatory class. So is your kid doing well in school?

[schellen]

Hi concern, I didn’t notice any gap between K2 and P1. My DD is in P1 now. She used to attend K1 and K2 at childcare centres. Her first few months of P1 were smooth since they were covering stuff she had already learned in K1 and K2. The only problem we had was her Chinese, which is our fault since we hardly use it at home. So now, I coach her in Chinese twice a week in the evenings after I get home after work.


Whether there is a gap or not depends on the kindergarten or childcare centre your child is enrolled in. The best way is to find out what is being taught at the kindergarten or childcare centre first, then compare it to MOE’s P1 syllabus. (Note: MOE’s P1 syllabus is just a guideline since the better schools will probably want to teach beyond the minimum required.)

[MMM]

Compared to K2, I think he did well this year. He is in top 3 chinese class in a SAP school (which I can never imagine as his character recognition was poor in K2. He is the blur type) and his scores for SA1 is actually higher than my P2 girl over the same level. But his class postion ranking wasn’t as good as I gathered that there are cleverer kids in his class. But he is motivated to try to hit top 5 in class for SA2 as he "thinks highly" of himself now. We shall see. If he can move up in position, I think I will be happy.


It was a big challenge for us in K2, we nearly vomit blood when giving him spelling. He would remember and then forget within 2 mins. He was a major problem IMO. At that point, my eldest was just in P1 and she was coping well without these classes. I told my sils that my son will definitely be a major challenge for me. He will probably come in last in class type and need to be invited for tuition. So far, he hasn’t been invited and is coping well. His teachers are also quite happy with his performance and behavior. But one thing that i did this year, was to enforce a nightly study time from 8 - 10pm. I try to be home by that time and they are suppose to do school/ enrichment classes homework, learn their spelling, prepare for SA, etc… I wanted to drive that discipline in them. I also tried to get him to read more books which he wasn’t doing previously. So now he loves his young scientist mags which helps to increase his general knowledge. My mum who was his main caregiver told me recently that she was so worried about my son’s academic aspect but didn’t dare to tell me.

If your child is currently attending a pre-school with good academic focus, she is probably prepared for P1 already. Frankly, I don’t think a 1 week intensive preparatory course can do magic. If you are concerned about gap, maybe it is enrichment lessons that you need to think about.