The Real Reason Why We Send Our Children to Tuition

[Dr.033430Daniel]

Wow ! I love to see all this emphasis on reading. I’ve been preaching this for years to parents and students. Reading comprehension is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for a lot of the students in science. I encourage them to read the textbook after they have had a lesson, so they can better understand what they are reading. And I give them short articles to read in class that hopefully are fun and interesting. I had them reading the Singapore Science Center Magazine piece by piece this year, a little bit at a time, and most enjoyed it. It was great because so many of the articles related to what they were doing in school.


Also, students will never be able to write well if they never read. Many times the source of the problem when students bomb out on their structured papers is lack of reading comprehension and very little practice writing - or the biggest mistake of all - trying to memorize written answers to questions.

If a student can graduate Secondary school and have good solid reading comprehension and writing skills, this is a huge advantage for them.

[magiccastle]

For math , I used to struggle teach my eldest son . Using the models instead of algerba to solve was tough . So I sent my boy for math Tuition. I sat with him to learn to solve. The tutor explained n I listened . She want to make sure I understood so that I can help him with the homework . The tutor is a retiree with only sec 4 qualification. She started off with teaching her own children . Her children excelled in math and their classmates started to request her to teach.She has the passion for math and worked out with her own method to teach models. For weaker students , she will drill n drill by asking the students to come 3 times a week until they pick up n improve.

I learned her strategy and used it to apply in my teaching to my younger kids. I learned to use model to solve the problem sums. For questions that I couldn’t solve , I will discuss with my colleagues to solve them. For primary schools, I believe we can still learn to pick up the technique to teach the subjects from various sources . Eg see what the tuition centre is doing n we learn from them. But one important thing is the child must build up the foundation at the lower primary.

[janet88]

Beautyful Minds:

janet_lee88:

I can't speak for the others.

For us, the reason to outsource is the incapability to teach own kids. Times have changed...education system is no longer like before. Math is different ball game...models used in schools are not our cup of tea. Those problem sums seem like Greek. Tutors have their way of teaching.
Hubby refused to admit earlier he cannot teach any longer...also bcos of financial reasons...finally he agreed that times have changed...after son flunked Math at CA1 and SA1 in P5. We tightened our belts and outsourced. Though late, but better than never. Son passed PSLE.
We decided not to repeat same mistake. Outsourced daughter's English as well...foundation is really important.

What we have learnt over the years is that; PSLE Maths and Science depend heavily on understanding the question. Without strong basis English, students don't do well in all 3 subjects.

:goodpost:

[AdonciaTang]

janet_lee88:

Beautyful Minds:

[quote=\"janet_lee88\"]I can't speak for the others.

For us, the reason to outsource is the incapability to teach own kids. Times have changed...education system is no longer like before. Math is different ball game...models used in schools are not our cup of tea. Those problem sums seem like Greek. Tutors have their way of teaching.
Hubby refused to admit earlier he cannot teach any longer...also bcos of financial reasons...finally he agreed that times have changed...after son flunked Math at CA1 and SA1 in P5. We tightened our belts and outsourced. Though late, but better than never. Son passed PSLE.
We decided not to repeat same mistake. Outsourced daughter's English as well...foundation is really important.

What we have learnt over the years is that; PSLE Maths and Science depend heavily on understanding the question. Without strong basis English, students don't do well in all 3 subjects.

:goodpost:[/quote]Agree!!!

[jedamum]

Sometimes I see my son spends so much time self study certain subjects that I think to myself- will he learn more efficiently and better if I outsource?

[Harlequin]

jedamum:

Sometimes I see my son spends so much time self study certain subjects that I think to myself- will he learn more efficiently and better if I outsource?

I was in the same situation too, at P3, we decided to outsource the English and Chinese; and her grade improved by a big margin. It's now become a permenant part of our household's expenses :sad:

[janet88]

Sometimes we just can’t teach our own kids…for primary school subjects…which are no longer easy. However, my hubby seemed to be able to coach son in his sec 1 Math and Science instead.


Before, hubby had to read several times and literally stumped trying to understand what the question was testing on. Explaining to son was another task. The Math tutor managed to reach out to son. No choice, we had to bring in the professional after son flunked Math twice.

[Moonsun55]

Can understand, nowsadays questions not so straight forward anymore. so I outsource, just do easy part - make sure they do homework.

janet_lee88:

Sometimes we just can't teach our own kids...for primary school subjects...which are no longer easy. However, my hubby seemed to be able to coach son in his sec 1 Math and Science instead.

Before, hubby had to read several times and literally stumped trying to understand what the question was testing on. Explaining to son was another task. The Math tutor managed to reach out to son. No choice, we had to bring in the professional after son flunked Math twice.

[Just relax]

The education system has increased the breadth and depth of knowledge to such an extent that parents cannot really cope with the subjects even if they are SAH parents.


There will be children who can self-study and many who can’t. The system in Singapore seems to operate on the assumption that the standard has to continuously be raised every few years and new methods of teaching or emphasis of new or different areas introduced. This I sometimes think happens just too fast. The primary syllabus of today contains many topics in Maths and Science previously only taught in Sec school. That is already a quantum leap.

[mummy so kiasu]

janet_lee88:

Education is the BIGGEST killer...the other factors we can still be in charge...but with the system being so difficult, even my hubby has given up. From English to Chinese, Science & Math...not one subject is easy. Hubby & I die die refused to believe in tuition for son, believing we can coach ourselves...the main reason is lack of MONEY. Thus, son never had a foundation for English, Math & Science from P1.

The real reason why we send our children to tuition is because not all schools can do a good job to teach them sufficiently to pass exams.

Don't have to start tuition from P1, as long as the parents get some assessment books for the kids to do. My boy started tuition from P4 or he will end up reading story books instead of studying. However, I still think motivation comes before tuition.