All About Working With Children Who Are Weak Academically
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All these traits fit in exactly as the one i have at home, my dd.
She is now at jc2. During psle 2006, she was slag in her studies, i had no choice but to dsa her to a girls’ school. She chiong only 3 wks from psle and surprised me and my wife with her T-score.
From yr 1-yr 5, totally not interested in her studies, only talk about music, arts, photography, sports, computer and guys. Her teachers took her to task for open disobedience. She always says that girls cannot be too clever otherwise its difficult to get good guys. Now in her final yr, she has no choice but chiong for a place in uni. Fortunately for her, she woke up her bloody idea since end july. All these while, i hve shown patience and give alot of motivation and guidance but little nagging. She has appreciated it.
So folks, no worries! -
for some children, seems like u need to allow them to ‘fall hard’ and then get back on their feet themselves. sometimes adults encourage too much and cushion their fall too much, kids are often well-protected. sometimes it is ok to let kids fail their papers once or twice. if the child is sensible enough, he/she will know what to do to prevent the next failure.
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Original Title: what do u do when ur child doesnt not perform academically?
what do u do when ur child doesnt excel in his or her studies? my definition is getting less than 80 marks. -
First, I would analyse to see what the reason is - laziness, lack of focus/interest, lack of understanding, just plain low ability? Then address the issues as far as possible, and when that has been done, accept what can’t be changed.
I have a daughter who does well in some subjects but finds Math and Science a challenge. She isn’t lazy, but isn’t interested in those subjects and basically just has low ability in those areas. We take time to explain, nag and scold when we find that she is showing bad attitude, but when she has shown that she has put in a decent effort, we accept the results. She is in sec school now, and is still passing, but sometimes barely. However, we won’t make her work all hours of the day as we believe that she needs time for her own interests as well, and there’s no point spending so much time on her weakest areas. She’s just waiting for the day when she can drop Maths and Science! -
aiyo, my girl is same too. just cant do math n sci a bit better but not as easily as languages
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24hr-mum:
aiyo, my girl is same too. just cant do math n sci a bit better but not as easily as languages
We decided to take a long-term view. We reckon that my daughter will definitely not work in any Math/Science-related field, and working backwards, will probably not do any (or just a minimum) in university (if she gets that far), so only needs H1 Maths/Science (the minimum) at 'A' level. Reasoning backwards from that, we decided that she needs not take A Maths in sec school. So we are just working on her doing as well as she can in E Maths (hopefully a B) for now, and will take things a step at a time. If we set A as a target, she will probably need to work more hours a day, be more stressed, have more meltdowns, pass the stress to the rest of the family, and maybe still not get the grade! And she will have less time to work on the things she could potentially be good at. We have set out for her our reasoning and have got her agreement to put in a good effort for now, with the promise that she can drop Science after sec 4 and Maths after 'A' levels if she wants. -
ya i agree. i was happy to drop math n sci durg my Jc and uni days
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24hr-mum:
what do u do when ur child doesnt excel in his or her studies? my definition is getting less than 80 marks.
How is it that getting less than 80 marks an indication of not excelling in studies? I am assuming it's primary level. Is it a one-off result or consistently below 80? What is your expected high and your lowest?
Know your child's strengths and weaknesses then set realistic target. Know their interests, talents and potentials and work on them to achieve their goals.
That way, all are happy. -
24hr-mum:
ya i agree. i was happy to drop math n sci durg my Jc and uni days
I hung on to Maths during JC though I didn't like it. It was just that I disliked the alternative (History) even more! So I totally sympathise with my daughter. -
Hi 24hrmum,
Without using 80 as a benchmark, how is she performing as compared to cohort? 80 is sometimes not a good indication. Eg. if 50% of the cohort fail maths and highest in class is only 80, if the child gets 70, it's actually good.
I have a different problem. My P5 dd is strong in maths and science. But her language is the opposite.... Her CL is still do-able (can manage above 80) but the EL is her biggest challenge now as she is around 60 range. So that pulls down her average... While we are :xedfingers: that she will maintain her strength in those that she is good at... we need to build her EL to hopefully at least 70+ range. She is sitting for PSLE next year.
Maybe those good in language tend to be weaker in maths and science and vice versa????