How much Assessment/Tuition Work?

[cowgraz]

Dear Parents - I’m wondering what’s appropriate amount of practices a kid of average academic ability has to do in order to survive P4 and above.


I’m asking as my DD is in P4 this year and with her schedule of CCA, Supplementary classes + school homework, she’s almost flat out by the end of the sch day. And I’ve been letting her rest in the evenings … but given all the hype over tuition and all, I’m also concerned of being too relaxed and in the end she’d hv to suffer. So, am struggling with the balance!

Would appreciate if parents can share any successes/smooth-way to balance school work, sanity and maintaining grades with your child pls? Thanks so much!

Lyn

[sundaymorning]

Hi cowgraz,


I feel that it depends if your child can cope with her studies, perhaps you could have a close follow up of her school work and ensure she keep up with it. If she doesnt, den you might need a tuition teacher on a weekend so it will be more efficient.
I agree with you having a balanced lifestyle is impt so make sure her schedule is not too hectic.
Hope it helps .

[cowgraz]

thanks for your suggestion Sundaymorning!

Learning fr last year was that despite trying hard to juggle a full time job and ensuring her Homework is completed … I still struggled with exam-time stress where you start to realise that her grasp of concepts/understanding is not as good as it should … and that’s where the plethora of anxiety, guilt, stress. helplessness all rolls in and hit you. But, I’m resisting hving her undergo external tuition, assessment books and soon you’d realise that you’ve grown a skeptical, cold kid.

That’s where my struggle is right now … finding the balance and hence I thought to get some views and sounding board fr other parents who’ve been there done that on this issue.

[cowgraz]

This is good advice - food for thought for me! Thanks for sharing slmkhoo!

[mel2sg]

Just my 2 cents of adv - maybe you should drill (over a period of time) more into your girl's homework to find out why she takes so much time to complete.


When my girl was P4 she also struggled with tons of homework. Other than the quantity of homeworks given (quantitative which is unavoidable), we noted the following qualitative issues which we highlighted to her:
- her hand-writing speed is big, hence tend to be slower
- as she is a perfectionist, she tends to re-copy passages or compo, to make it looks neater before submission. Not necessary, as in the real exam the examiner does not gives mark for nice writing.
- she used to use thick head ball-roll pen for writing, which has more friction as opposed to a thinner head ball-roll pen (where friction is lesser one can write faster)
- She used to only start doing her homework when she is back home. Bad idea, as we noted that those good students will start doing their homework at school whenever they have free time - like lesson where teacher never turn up or some even during recess time, so that they will free up at home for revision. This is called time management training.

Btw welcome to the culture of upper primary - where the school & teacher are the slave-driver. Therefore, you have to help your girl to speed up her homeworks as when she reaches P6, that is when the tsunami homeworks will come.....that is what my girl is experiencing now :siao:

I

[Skyed]

Have tuition on weekends instead?

[cowgraz]

Thanks Mel! Wah, poor kids. Doing homework whenever they can catch time at sch even.

[janet88]

Skyed:

Have tuition on weekends instead?

That's a good idea...bcos weekdays can be kept strictly for school homework and CCA. Try to schedule tuition on weekends and get all the homework done before the weekend is over. That's what I am doing with my daughter. Next year when she goes to P4, I dread to think of CCA and having to complete more homework.

I am training my daughter to write faster too...she writes too slow and also using correction tape too often.

[sundaymorning]

cowgraz:

thanks for your suggestion Sundaymorning!

Learning fr last year was that despite trying hard to juggle a full time job and ensuring her Homework is completed ... I still struggled with exam-time stress where you start to realise that her grasp of concepts/understanding is not as good as it should ... and that's where the plethora of anxiety, guilt, stress. helplessness all rolls in and hit you. But, I'm resisting hving her undergo external tuition, assessment books and soon you'd realise that you've grown a skeptical, cold kid.

That's where my struggle is right now ... finding the balance and hence I thought to get some views and sounding board fr other parents who've been there done that on this issue.

You are welcome dear
To manage it well, you can try also to do up a time table for her.
Let her do some revision and finish up hw during weekend and bring her out to have fun and build bonding together after she has completed her assignments. At least she has something to look forward to .

Most importantly uds what is her weakness of the subjects and work with her together hand in hand.
You could try to coach her that is the best plan, however if plan doesnt work out , you can try engaging a tutor .

[yeomaylin]

slmkhoo:

I have 2 daughters, now in sec school, who are very different in achievement. For the weaker one, we set moderate targets and did more drilling, and were happy when she met the targets. We felt there was no point piling on the work as she would get stressed and grumpy and perform even worse. The other girl has always found school work easy, so once she has satisfied us that she understands and can do whatever is required for her age, we let her do other stuff.

Simkhoo, when you said \"did more drilling\", what & how exactly do you do? Asking your daughter to mind map the concept for you or ask her qn pertaining to the topic or .......?

I always sit beside my girl (P5) during revision. In Sci, I'll read her guide books, explain to her the concepts and post her qn by 'twisting and turning' the qn to show her same qn can be asked in different ways. After that, she has to do Sci assessment by herself. In Chi & Eng compo, I gave her list of gd phrases and vocab. Go thru a few model compo (w different scenerio) to show her the sequence flow, content & phrases used. Afterwhcih, she has to write compo on her own.

My friend commented that what I've done is not the correct way of coaching, I'm actually spoon feeding my daughter. :yikes: i did find that my girl does rely on me too much on revision. If I leave her to revise by herself, most of the time she can't ans qn when I asked her based on the topic or subject.

Simkhoo, thru your experience, can you advise me the correct way of coaching kids in their studies? I have another DS in P1. To date, I have yet to coach him coz I dare not. I'm so afraid I will make him to become too dependent like my DD. DD asked me once \"mom, how do we revise/study effectively?\". Sad to admit, I'm not very sure too. My style of revising (背死书）will not work in today's modern world.

Pls help. :?: