Mummy kaijun: Just joined
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hi schellen, tks for sharing yr experience with me. I guess in my kids' case, they may hv more difficulty, esp in e initial yr or so to follow up with the local education system as they didnt attend local kindergartens, which i understand that most of e kindergartens will start preparing e kids for P1 by e time they are in K2. My kids' english are definitely below average as compared to most of the kids of the same age, even though they hv been attending english enrichment classes. Not to mention mandarin - ZERO!!!! tt's why i am so hesitate to send them to local schools even though i have been told that kids will eventually pick up e \"skills\". I agree with what u hv written in e 3rd paragraph...i am going to print it out and show it to DH cos he is not convinced by my concern
hi titank...tks for e warm welcome!!!
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kaijun, actually, based on what you mentioned about your children’s language abilities, that should be enough to convince your DH to not send them to local schs until these are up to par. My DD is already having problems with Chinese (our fault since we didn’t start speaking it with her at home until it’s too late); even her Chinese teacher says she still has lots of difficulty with recognition and intonation, not to mention the limited vocabulary.
English-wise, we’re glad she is above par (but we still have to work hard so that she doesn’t get stuck in Singlish and poor grammar). If the child has difficulty with English, everything else suffers as the medium of teaching is English. Even if they excel in Maths and Science, they will not be able to do their work or understand their teachers if they are hampered by the language.
It’s best that they beef up on both languages or life in local schs will not be pleasurable for them. I’m not sure if they can be exempted from Chinese if their Mother Tongue isn’t Chinese. Even if exemption is possible, they may have to replace it with their actual Mother Tongue which will most probably not be offered in the local schs (unless it happens to be Malay or Tamil). Then, they may have to travel elsewhere after sch hours a few times a week to attend Mother Tongue lessons.
Personally, I don’t think young children should be made to spend so much time on studies or at sch. They should be given adequate playtime and rest time. -
schellen, i can foresee that language subjects are e biggest hurdle that they hv to overcome n its definitely tough, sigh! fm my understanding, they r allowed to be exempted fm chinese (if approved by MOE and school) if we choose to take up another mother tongue but as you mentioned, e kids will hv to attend e lessons outside school and prove it to e school. Being kiasu, i hv been reading up on articles related to PSLE…gosh, it seems so "incredibly stressful"…really kudos to all mummies n daddies who had or will be going thru e process!!!
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:welcome: :welcome:
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kaijun, I’m just glad my DD survived P1. I’ll worry about PSLE when it comes (nearer) since MOE is always changing the syllabus and exam formats.
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