When is the right time to start tuition?

[LeeTaiTai]

DesertWind:

My boy now 4.5 yo, with speech-delay and needs one-to-one attention according to his kindy teachers. Therefore I have put him for once a week \"tuition/therapy\" now in K1. Mainly so that he gets one-to-one attention and learn something since in kindy he won't get the attention and am afraid he may lack behind in his learning.


However, amazingly, I bought one Kumon workbook to try on my boy to get him to do writing at the beginning of this year and he took one look, second look, tried doing a couple of pages and now he is hooked! He has since completed 4 Kumon workbooks and now working on 3 others concurrently. What brings such joy to my heart is the fact that every morning now at about 10 am, he will pick up the workbooks automatically and sit down at his square Ikea table to do his writing. BTW, I am full time working which means my maid-cum-nanny is the one doing the supervision! And he can actually sit down about one hour occasionally even one and a half hours just doing the writing. I think he is really interested and am glad the Kumon works!

Due to the lack of time, seriously there is no way I could have sent him for tuition/enrichments more than once a week. So the next best thing is to do the teaching myself! Now evening time when I come back I will spend the time teaching him from wall-charts numbers 1-100 and words etc. Now the kindy teacher is telling me to teach him Jolly phonics! Gee...whiz...I feel pressurized already!

It gives me great joy to teach my kid except that he was usually quite uncooperative with me, much to my chagrin! Half the time trying to get his attention, the other half the time trying to teach him and hoping some of it will get into his head. Not easy man!

wow , what time do you come bck from work and how much time do you spend wiht him each day ?

[Laurenwkids]

I try to avoid sending for tuition except for chinese because I could not help until P2. P3 there is a slight jump in the level so I send for math and then around p4 may start for science and English. But it depends on your kids and also how much time you have to spend with your kids. If you have more time to spend teaching them, then don’t need to send for tuition so early.

[janet88]

My son is in P6. He started with group Chinese tuition when he was in K2.

I didn’t know how and what to expect since we do not speak mandarin and he will be in pei hwa (higher Chinese). A friend got to know about it. When she realized it was 1) group thing and 2) just once a week, she coached my son.
She recommended a tutor as she was busy. My son’s foundation improved. When he was under group, I thought as long as he passes exams, that was sufficient. What I did not know was he needed that 1-to-1.

[DesertWind]

LeeTaiTai:

wow , what time do you come bck from work and how much time do you spend wiht him each day ?

Hi LeeTaiTai,

I usually reached home around 7 plus pm each day and will try to finish cleaning and eating by 8 pm then spend time with my boy until 9 pm! The timing varies because in the evening my boy is also tired and he just wants to spend time with me \"playing\" or at least do relaxing work ie. not those serious writings on worksheets!

It is a struggle in the evening and I could not do as much as I would have liked with my boy. But at least in the morning from about 10 am to 11 am he is doing his homework and workbook under the supervision of my maid when I am at work.

Cheers!