Preparing kids for P5 in 2011

[comfy]

Peony:

Herbie:

actually this tuition thingy may not go away even when the kids enter sec sch. Which is why even the sec tuition service is booming.


If you visit crown plaza u will be shocked to see there are so many tuition centre for sec/jc students.

What I imply by saying this will affect how I choose secondary schools is that - am gonna select by my own list of criteria and at the top of the list is... the teaching culture.

Yes, lots of sussing out to do. And lots of other parents of current batch of students to talk to. How are the teachers? Do you depend more on tutors? Do they help?

My nephew is doing well in an above-average neighbourhood secondary school and my sis does not have a single tutor for him. That's the kind of school I want for my DD.

Have also spoken to an ex-student of a top secondary school (need to talk to more). She clearly stated that her teachers did not teach much. The school is off my personal \"schools to aspire for list\". Instead it's in my \"banned\" list. :siam:

Hi Peony, I totally agreed with what you have said regarding the 'teaching culture'. I also don't want to send my dd for tuition/enrichment when she entered sec sch. Will really appreciate if you have come out a list of schools that you like and share with me. Can't stand how of these teachers' style of teaching and mindset. Really hope to send to a school where the teacher cares for the students and can teach.

[janet88]

Peony:

Can't wait for the year to be over coz am feeling so burnt out... :imdrowning:

I'm feeling stressed and going to be burnt out. Have been going thru past year papers for 2009 Eng past year papers...printing out sections like synthesis, vocab cloze, compre cloze, vocab to help him improve. It's scary to be burnt out :nailbite:

I hope my son doesn't require tuition when he goes to Sec 1...I dare not even calculate the amount of money he is racking up every month for his tuition...ESP next year.

[Peony]

Wow Janet, your DS is so fortunate!! Am sure your efforts will go a long way!


Hi ksme, Thank you for the well wishes!!

Hi comfy, it’s not that I’m unwilling to share, it’s just that I may be unfair to some schools as my list/ranking is based on personal sharing. To be honest, I am very inclined for my DD to be in SOTA - coz, the kids there seem so happy!

[comfy]

Peony:

Wow Janet, your DS is so fortunate!! Am sure your efforts will go a long way!


Hi ksme, Thank you for the well wishes!!

Hi comfy, it's not that I'm unwilling to share, it's just that I may be unfair to some schools as my list/ranking is based on personal sharing. To be honest, I am very inclined for my DD to be in SOTA - coz, the kids there seem so happy!

Thanks Peony, if you find it too open to share here, can you please pm me instead. At the moment, I hope to learn from your finding and use this to enlighten myself and don't be so stress up. Anyway, thks for replying.

[Herbie]

It is impossible to find a ‘perfect’ sch with good teachers throughout the kids learning journey in sec/jc.


It would be better to inculcate the child to have the right learning attitude and be hungry for knowledge and the passion in learning…

[janet88]

Hi mummies,

Last year this time, I was still very relaxed - daughter was still in K2. Fast forward to end Sep 2011, both the kids are having SA2, except my daughter's school calls it summative test :faint:
Just revised the time-table for this week...decided to KIV everything else and just prepare for orals. Can't go green bcos I've been crushing lots of paper of late :oops:

All the best mummies, and hope this craziness will be over soon. But Nov/Dec will not be easy. For working mummies, do start popping vitamin C to prep up.

[Chenonceau]

We started on CL oral on the day after the CA2 last test. Grandma recorded the text from 2 books I found at Popular. Both books were too easy, I thought… so Grandma inserted some phrases in the text to up the level of difficulty. My son listened to Grandma’s recording, then he recorded his own performance. I made him listen to himself… and then we discussed areas of improvement. We did the same picture again and again. The next day, we did another picture.


Then my son got impatient and said "I now can read Chinese Mom, I’ll just read… dun need Grandma’s recording." So we worked straight from the script thereafter. He recorded directly after reading the script few times. We focused on this for 6 days before he said he was confident.

We’re now 2 weeks before SA2, so we’re cutting back to half load everyday, and upping the playtime. By next week, we’ll be down to quarter load… and during exams, it’ll be all play at home. This way, he is rested enough that once exams end and we have the gap analysis, we can plunge deep back into work again.

DS likes this very much. He likes exams because exams mean all day play after school. It’s quite funny because DS gives his friends the impression that he doesn’t study. This impression is salient because during exams when all his friends are frenziedly doing assessments, he is reading books on Pirates and the Lost Incas. Once, his friend asked him how come he doesn’t have to study. My son was lost for words before he said "Ummmm… I dun feel like." He was too embarrassed to say "My Mom won’t studying during exams."

So I told my son that he is a duck. He LOOKS so calm and relaxed on the surface but is really paddling hard under water.

[Peony]

Chenonceau,


I LOVE your strategy. I was aiming for that... but I was kinda delusional!

I read DD's most recent compo and :stupid: :slapshead:

Sighz, she's not applying anything I taught her.

Lost my cool :rant:

Sighz... me :imdrowning:

[Chenonceau]

Peony:

Chenonceau,


I LOVE your strategy. I was aiming for that... but I was kinda delusional!

I read DD's most recent compo and :stupid: :slapshead:

Sighz, she's not applying anything I taught her.

Lost my cool :rant:

Sighz... me :imdrowning:

Oh dear!! Hang in there!! :snuggles:

[ASLMUM]

Everyone ready for SA2? So much to revise for Science, not sure how to tackle it. Any ideas?