2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[beanbear]

We really need to monitor our children’s health and how many hours they are putting in to work. They are also picking up habits that will take them to secondary school and beyond. I’ve always advocated a balance of play, work and rest.


I’m fortunate that my work is flexible and my kids see me work from home. When I’m tired, kids see me take afternoon naps. There are days I feel so torn about whether to go for my exercise workout or to do revision with DS. I decided to just go and exercise and take care of myself. I try to model what I preach to my kids. So DS has breaks in between his revision. By 8.30pm or 9pm, it’s strictly no more work. Right now, DS has 3 days a week where he has no tuition and he does revision with me or self-revision. On these days, he goes to the playground, sweat it, plays his flute, watches TV in the evenings. He does work only in the afternoon up to 5pm and then maybe 1 hr in the evenings after his dinner. He sleeps by 9.30pm every night. On a rare occasion, when there’s plenty of homework, he sleeps latest 10pm.

To boost his immunity, my kids take Sambucus, Multi-vits and DHA. Fortunately, DS takes lots of fruits, lots of water and has sound sleep at night.

My intention for this final lap is to give DS lots of emotional support and monitor his physical health. I surprise him with little treats eg he got Famous Amos cookies the other day and we ate them in the car together and just have a casual chat. We go for special lunches too. These are memories I want to have with DS in his final year of Primary school. I still plan to take him swimming once in a while just to have fun. I believe all these things will sustain his motivation and break the monotony of revision.

At night before DS sleeps, I hug and kiss him and just have a nice cuddle. I want to able to do this while he still wants to. I’m not looking forward to the day, he finds it embarrassing for his mummy to kiss and hug him. We hold hands while walking to the car and I think these are precious moments. Next year, he turns 13, officially a teenager. In the midst of all this exam studies, I remind myself to pause and notice little moments I treasure with DS.

[tclhub]

Hi bean bear, thanks for the advices. I like your comment about surprising your DS with little treats, think it helps a lot, will implement this to keep DD motivated. My worry is burnout. As I always believe, PSLE is part of the learning journey, it is not a destination. Thanks for all the tips here to keep us sane!

[mummy so kiasu]

My son is having fever again. I think he has burn out due to insufficient of sleep. He has lot of homework to clear everyday & he likes to read before he does his homework. He sleeps at 11.30pm at night & gets up at 6.30am in the morning.

[janet88]

tclhub:

Hi bean bear, thanks for the advices. I like your comment about surprising your DS with little treats, think it helps a lot, will implement this to keep DD motivated. My worry is burnout.

Those little treats do help...as well as anything he wants to eat. He just said he wanted to eat egg tarts. Whatever he wants to eat, we will try to fulfill...it has been very very tough of late. My worry is also burnt out. Brought him to eat buffet one day.

Rest is crucial...like today, he slept for 3 hours this afternoon. Didn't have the heart to wake him as he slept at 1230 yest. Even for us adults, if we are tired, we will be reading same paragraph for the next 30 min.
Weather is cold of late, wear warmer clothes to avoid getting the chill.

[fightingmom]

mummy so kiasu:

My son is having fever again. I think he has burn out due to insufficient of sleep. He has lot of homework to clear everyday & he likes to read before he does his homework. He sleeps at 11.30pm at night & gets up at 6.30am in the morning.

Hope your ds has a speedy recovery ! :grphug:

[janet88]

mummy so kiasu:

My son is having fever again. I think he has burn out due to insufficient of sleep. He has lot of homework to clear everyday & he likes to read before he does his homework. He sleeps at 11.30pm at night & gets up at 6.30am in the morning.

Reading may be his way to destress...but with so much homework to clear, it's hard to stop half way. Maybe you can ask him to get hw done first and if he has time after that, he can read a few pages.
Hope he recovers soon. Take care of yourself too.

[CDE]

janet_lee88:

mummy so kiasu:

My son is having fever again. I think he has burn out due to insufficient of sleep. He has lot of homework to clear everyday & he likes to read before he does his homework. He sleeps at 11.30pm at night & gets up at 6.30am in the morning.

Reading may be his way to destress...but with so much homework to clear, it's hard to stop half way. Maybe you can ask him to get hw done first and if he has time after that, he can read a few pages.
Hope he recovers soon. Take care of yourself too.

Agree with janet_lee88, reading half way hard to stop...specially those books that have series and the ending is hanging to be continued to next book, it's addictive. Dd just can't stop imagining what will come next in the continuing book. I advised her to curb her reading for a while till psle is over. Maybe good not to start reading any series book for now.

Mummy so kiasu, hope your DS get well soon. Take care :snuggles:

[BeContented]

Prelim 1 over today.


Now gotta get ready for prelim 2 in 3-4 weeks time.

[sandunes]

It’s very important for the kids to have 8-9 hours of sleep daily. The mind can work well only when it has enough rest.

[mummy so kiasu]

slmkhoo:

I think it may be good to enforce some rest for kids even if they want to work non-stop 7 days a week. Even adults can't cope with that sort of pace, and there's over 2 mths more until the PSLE. If school homework is too much, maybe it would be good to ask the teachers to cut back some? My daughter took PSLE last year, and her school must be quite unique? She's a fast worker, but even so, her homework rarely took her more than 1-2 hrs a day, and she only had 1 supplementary class a week (for Science). Since we coached her ourselves, she had no tuition, and we didn't give her much additional work once we felt that she had done enough. No point working so hard and falling sick on the exam days.

Wow... Your girl's school does not seem to push or put much pressure on the P6 kids, which is quite rare. My son has supplementary classes for every subjects, add up to 6 hours per week. The weaker kids need to attend remedial classes & focus learning group till 4.30pm everyday.