2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[underthesea]

My dd also don’t have time to revise for next week CA. I just let it be. She has CCA twice a week and her school is participating in SYF this April. I will forsee more training in March.


DD only have tuition for CL & EL, and yet she is so busy. Some of her friends have tuition for 4 subjects plus CL & EL compo (total 6), I wonder how they manage. Don’t know should admire or pity them. One of my friend sends her dd for 2 science tuitions, she said her dd "enjoy" the lessons very much! Whether the child really enjoy, I don’t know.

[pench]

underthesea:

My dd also don't have time to revise for next week CA. I just let it be. She has CCA twice a week and her school is participating in SYF this April. I will forsee more training in March.


DD only have tuition for CL & EL, and yet she is so busy. Some of her friends have tuition for 4 subjects plus CL & EL compo (total 6), I wonder how they manage. Don't know should admire or pity them. One of my friend sends her dd for 2 science tuitions, she said her dd \"enjoy\" the lessons very much! Whether the child really enjoy, I don't know.

i also quite pity of my dd, she has few tasks to complete these few months..
1. music sch piano competition in Mar
2. piano practical exam in Mar
3. SYF in Apr
4. APMOPS in May

dh suggested that should stop her piano lesson and she can save 1 hour practising piano everyday and use it to do revision...

[Mayl]

Hi Everyone,


Thanks for the sharing and advised from Snow Crystal & Funx3.

I agreed w Funx3 Sec Kids, I help nothing except nagging at him whenever I see him slacking. Last week attend the school parent "O Level" preparation talk, very impression planning the school offered to all their "O Level" students and hope my DS can auto enrol and join them all.

For P6 DS maybe due to staying school too many days (he joined two CCA) thus making him too exhausted. Ever think of drop one of the CCA but thinking back still few months to go as he joined since P3 and it will be quite wasteful. I do let him rest 1~2 hours when he reached home and now persuding him used rest time to take a short nap instead of watching TV or computer / phonw stuff which is a wiser choice. I kana pity him do schoolwork till fall a sleep… really meaningless.

He has 1 tuition only per subject as one of the home tutors tutoring him 3 subjects - EL, Sci and Math. So he will be out home for tuition only Monday (CL), Wednesday and Satursday, Friday (Swimming lesson as a form of exercise and relax)… Actually my planned schedule isn’t reasonable or am I too much?

[niza6666.028774hotmail.028774com]

My ds has started to bring home, practice papers and lots of homeworks. I can't squeeze in to coach him either. By the time he completes his homeworks he is exhausted. I wonder how these kids will be coping in Term 3. :imdrowning:

[Zekezachzoom]

I can’t hope much for my DS ca1 as he has been busy training for his track competition (dont understand why the compeition is being held in the week of ca). It is too hard for me to squeeze in time for real revision. I got him to do a math past paper and he got only 53/100… Due to carelessness & tiredness and couldn’t really concentrate to do the paper properly. ;(


Just keep my fingers crossed!

[Mayl]

[quote=\"Zekezachzoom\"] Due to carelessness & tiredness and couldn't really concentrate to do the paper properly. ;(


True and understand what you meant.. my DS if got enough sleep especially Sunday, you can feel the big difference in him Good mood, better attitude, minimum carelessness..etc I really wish everyday is Sunday At times, I even feel like keep him at home don't let him go school. :siao:

[beanbear]

I sense many of us are really struggling with prioritising the time for our children in this critical year. I’d like to share what I’ve tried to do with DS this year.


I asked myself: What’s really my priority for my child? I used to procrastinate making decisions about the use of my son’s time until the cost was too high. I just allowed the school to determine how my son’s time is used. My son was staying back in school 4 times a week for supplementary & CCA for 3years from Pri 3-5. On top of that, he had enrichment classes for Maths, Science & English Compo. Plus he had flute lessons. What was the result last year at P5 SA2? He failed Maths miserably, was borderline for English & Chinese. Science was in 70s range. His confidence was shaken and I felt terrible about not monitoring him close enough and observing the warning signs earlier.

Last year before school reopened, I spoke with DS about the plan for this year and we worked out a schedule for this year based on his time commitment for school and a timetable for homework, revision, playtime.

My TOP priority was building DS confidence in his own ability. Where there were gaps in terms of knowledge or skills, I personally observe how he does his work and analyze where is he struggling with. If he already has the knowledge & skills, then it’s critical to PRACTISE to ensure what he has learnt is committed into long-term memory. I now monitor every piece of homework my DS brings home, makes sure he does every piece of work with quality. This has made a huge difference because every piece of work has been marked so far DS makes very few mistakes and he has won praises from his teacher for good work and he now feels more confident. I feel really happy that these 1.5 months of effort has paid off. My belief is my child must experience SUCCESS in order to feel confident. Tasting SUCCESS in the short term will motivate him to study. We need to build momentum towards the PSLE. Each piece of homework is treated as opportunities to build strengths and plug gaps.

2nd TOP Priority - Time to Relax, Play and Minimum 8 hours of sleep every night. DS gets to play 45mins of computer once a week, 45mins of iphone or ipad once per week. He gets 30mins TV about 4 times a week. Exercise/playground time - 45mins at least 4 times a week. Brain research has shown children who exercise & sleep adequately think and learn better so I’m totally committed to this. I also believe Play is rewarding for my child and I want him to feel happy doing what he enjoys.

How did we manage to do all this in a regular week? Firstly, I made a FIRM decision - DS only stays back ONCE a week this year. This one day is his CCA & supplementary class day. He’s supposed to stay back on 2 other days but I’ve told the teachers he will not attend. Freeing up this time has made it possible for DS to achieve all this. It’s worked for 1.5 months so far. He looks happy, tired on a couple of days but most days, he is able to focus and pay attention and we manage to squeeze in revision on 2 days of the week. I don’t aim to do alot - sometimes it’s just 2 problem sums from a past exam paper, sometimes it’s 3 pages from a Science exam paper, sometimes, it’s 2 pages of cloze passage, etc. It’s bite-size revision. I aim for 30mins or 45mins and I give him dedicated teaching and focused skills. I spend alot of time just observing him doing the work because I pick up alot of information about where he is struggling and what help he really needs.

[pixiedust]

beanbear,


Thanks very much for sharing. How do you handle the worksheets/information the teacher disseminated to the class during the supplementary lessons he skipped ?

[beanbear]

Hi Pixiedust, I’ve told the teachers to give to DS the supplementary worksheets just like any other homework - the following day or whenever the teacher sees fit. If he can finish within the time-table I’ve set out for him, fine. So far, he’s never encountered any worksheets that he’s not able to do because he missed supplementary.


Interestingly, I found out from DS today that he’s performing better for the worksheets than other pupils in class and teachers are pleased with his performance and he’s missing more lessons than other people. Also he told me more children are falling asleep in class these days because their parents are overloading tuition on their children in addition to supplementary classes. So this is really something to think carefully.

I’m now planning even to skip certain school days because I want DS to do intensive revision at home and have lots of break time and do revision at a relaxing pace. He’s already told me these days teacher is revising P5 work for CA1. So all the more, no need to attend class.

[Snow Crystal]

beanbear:

I'm now planning even to skip certain school days because I want DS to do intensive revision at home and have lots of break time and do revision at a relaxing pace. He's already told me these days teacher is revising P5 work for CA1. So all the more, no need to attend class.

I agree that not all suppl classes are effective. Wah, you intend to part time home school :evil: you are the classic example of parents being the key to your kid's improvement, not school and not enrichment centre.