Recommendation of changes to reduce Stress for PSLE

[janet88]

mommylow:

janet_lee88:

I admit I wasn't very ON when I took my PSLE :oops:

My mum didn't really push but then stakes weren't so high. Now, it's 'payback' time...short of walking into exam hall to sit for them.

Have you thought of 'upgrading' yourself and go back to the primary and secondary syllables, read up and revise so you can teach your children. By doing that, you are actually learning with your children and they feel your enthusiasm and emotional support. Naturally they will be spurred to want to do better. For a start, you can write well, think
sharp and are reflective, impart this skill to your DCs. Forget about hiring tutors and more tutors to help solve their learning problems. You only do that as a last resort. The key to good learning is for students to listen very attentively in class and approach the teachers often to clear up doubts. 靠人不如靠自己. I am a perfect example. I personally coach all my kids all four su jects and I know the primary syllables by the back of my hand. I self studied them. My Chinese sucks but I took I to my own hands to teach my DCs Chinese and HCL. I bought 字辨books secondary books on chinese compo books up to 'O' levels and read thru all of them and coavh my children to write well. No tutors, because we believe in helping ourselves. My children especially my son improve by leaps and bounds and he even got the highest score for Chinese in his level for SA 1 and 2nd place for his prelims. The top in Chinese boy from China is shocked and is full of admiration for my boy's effort. 一分耕耘，一分收获. My two DDs are still grappling with their Chinese and other subjects as they are slower learners. I do not compare. To each his own.

:salute: :salute: :salute:
I am totally amazed and impressed with your dedication.

Discussed the issue of secondary school with hubby last night...think my brain is on the road to recovery :rotflmao:

I did plan to upgrade/refresh myself for secondary school.
Thank you for your honest and valuable input.

[Lilac66]

DKWhy:

.


But kids who have mastered enough self learning skills in their early years will not suffer so much in sec schools coz chances are they will have the ‘inbuilt mechanism’ akin to ‘survival instinct’ to auto learn to adjust, adapt and survive within manageable stress. This ability comes from those chances that were given to them by not-so-KC and not-so-KS parents when they were allowed to learn to swim on own. This natural innate ability either can be built slowly or can also be taken away slowly by their very own parents during their early years.

I like what you brought up.
But sorry just asking coz when we discuss about self-learning skills for kids of such age, what type of skills are specifically looking at or inculcating?

For discussion sake, we'll use MAths since this is one area where parents have most grouses about- say a child is not able to grasp the model concept for in class, what does he do? Ask the teacher in class or get help from parents. What if the child is not able to clear his doubts either because the teacher is has got too much on her plate to attend to him personally or the parents are not sufficiently equipped to help him? What should he or we parents do if we want to inculcate self-learning attitude? Let's presume the child does not have tuition.

[mommylow]

Kudos to you too, Janet, for being such a caring and dedicated mom. :udawoman:

[Lilac66]

Nebbermind:

Lilac66:

During my sec days, I remember I had only 7 subjects leh

Really. I remember sec1 I had English, Lit (result combined with Eng but still a subject), Chinese, Math, Sce, Geog, Hist, Art & Tech.

I remember I had Lit only in Sec 3.

[janet88]

In a ‘faceless’ forum like this, it’s really wonderful to have helpful info to guide parents along the way…regardless of primary level.

This is why I am totally addicted, even though I was blasted earlier and felt disillusioned for a while. But told myself those who had done so are empty vessels. Forget about those ungracious vessels.

Chen, mummylow, ksp, mummy so kiasu, peony and many other wonderful parents…thank you. You really brightened my day when I felt down.

[Nebbermind]

Lilac66:

DKWhy:

.


But kids who have mastered enough self learning skills in their early years will not suffer so much in sec schools coz chances are they will have the ‘inbuilt mechanism’ akin to ‘survival instinct’ to auto learn to adjust, adapt and survive within manageable stress. This ability comes from those chances that were given to them by not-so-KC and not-so-KS parents when they were allowed to learn to swim on own. This natural innate ability either can be built slowly or can also be taken away slowly by their very own parents during their early years.

I like what you brought up.
But sorry just asking coz when we discuss about self-learning skills for kids of such age, what type of skills are specifically looking at or inculcating?

For discussion sake, we'll use MAths since this is one area where parents have most grouses about- say a child is not able to grasp the model concept for in class, what does he do? Ask the teacher in class or get help from parents. What if the child is not able to clear his doubts either because the teacher is has got too much on her plate to attend to him personally or the parents are not sufficiently equipped to help him? What should he or we parents do if we want to inculcate self-learning attitude? Let's presume the child does not have tuition.

Donch expect the teacher to be able to attend to each and every question by the students.

!st, we need to find out from the teacher what is the expected min score for that paper. The teacher must have some benchmark for each class. If my kid falls below this benchmark (or in GEP they call it baseline), then I would ask the cher if she is planning anything to help my kid, can be just 1~2 sessions of remedial just to get the concepts right. Donch need excessive remedial coz no point staying back just to do assessment papers when cannot understand the concepts.

[Nebbermind]

Lilac66:

Nebbermind:

[quote=\"Lilac66\"]

During my sec days, I remember I had only 7 subjects leh

Really. I remember sec1 I had English, Lit (result combined with Eng but still a subject), Chinese, Math, Sce, Geog, Hist, Art & Tech.

I remember I had Lit only in Sec 3.[/quote]Hmmm...cannot be leh. It's a subject by itself but the score with be part of the Eng subject. It should be the same in all schools. Anyway, other than the languages, there are only Math, Sce, Geog and Hist...the other 2 donch really have to do anything.

[Lilac66]

Nebbermind:

Lilac66:

I like what you brought up.
But sorry just asking coz when we discuss about self-learning skills for kids of such age, what type of skills are specifically looking at or inculcating?

For discussion sake, we'll use MAths since this is one area where parents have most grouses about- say a child is not able to grasp the model concept for in class, what does he do? Ask the teacher in class or get help from parents. What if the child is not able to clear his doubts either because the teacher is has got too much on her plate to attend to him personally or the parents are not sufficiently equipped to help him? What should he or we parents do if we want to inculcate self-learning attitude? Let's presume the child does not have tuition.

Donch expect the teacher to be able to attend to each and every question by the students.

!st, we need to find out from the teacher what is the expected min score for that paper. The teacher must have some benchmark for each class. If my kid falls below this benchmark (or in GEP they call it baseline), then I would ask the cher if she is planning anything to help my kid, can be just 1~2 sessions of remedial just to get the concepts right. Donch need excessive remedial coz no point staying back just to do assessment papers when cannot understand the concepts.

does the teacher conduct remedial lessons regularly when there's a need or only when it's near to exams? If not, then we can see why there's such a need for external coaching.

I don't know coz my DS goes for only Chinese remedial and it's usually when exam's round the corner , it's optional also.

[Lilac66]

Nebbermind:

Hmmm...cannot be leh. It's a subject by itself but the score with be part of the Eng subject. It should be the same in all schools. Anyway, other than the languages, there are only Math, Sce, Geog and Hist...the other 2 donch really have to do anything.

Alamak you make me feel like I have amnesia. Must dig out my report book to check .

[Nebbermind]

Lilac66:

does the teacher conduct remedial lessons regularly when there's a need or only when it's near to exams? If not, then we can see why there's such a need for external coaching.

I don't know coz my DS goes for only Chinese remedial and it's usually when exam's round the corner , it's optional also.

Not sure. Normally, I'll just drop a email asking if the result is below benchmark and how is the rest of the class performing (to assess if it's a difficult ppr or not). Then ask if they will arrange remedial for the weaker students or not. Most of the time they will try to do something, eg, give extra worksheet and run thru with kids 15 min before assembly.