2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[fightingmom]

janet_lee88:

School is compulsory. School work in the meantime is necessary. But what about doing past year papers In aug ? Will that help ? Those are PAST year papers.

I don't want him to do that continuously...it's not quality but quantity then.

Hi Janet,

You can try letting your DS practise the past years paper separately, for example, today do Science Section A (MCQ). 30 questions = 30-40 mins time frame inclusive of checking. Tomorrow Science Section B - balance 1 hour (out of the 1h 40 mins for Science paper) inclusive of checking. I did that for my DD and we manage to complete some papers so far. I only select papers from certain schools for her to practise.

Hope that helps.

[Chenonceau]

slmkhoo:

My daughter only started Singapore school in the last week of the June holidays and hadn't done any schoolwork since May. She didn't face any lack of time for revision.

Did you homeschool her wholly or partially? If you did, then you wouldn't be as strapped for time as Janet's kid who has to be in school 6 hours every day. Learning in school is inefficient for the time spent. Classes are big and there is not much customisation.

My DS this year insists on going to school and lately, he insists on doing ALL his homework, even those so easy that I consider them not worth the time to do. To make up for the lost time, I can only manage to give him 1 week break in June... and this is in view of having done major teaching&learning last year in P5 - where he was partially homeschooled, so my kid is somewhat ahead of Janet's probably.

DS has developed his own practice schedule. I have approved enough PSLE prep work every afternoon to last till about 5pm. I give a blanket offer to write any and every excuse for not doing school homework that is inappropriate in any way - so that he can play. Because he wants to finish all his homework, he works through to 8 or 9pm.

At this stage, he is doing 1 top school paper every afternoon (e.g., Math Paper 2 or an entire Science Paper or Chinese Paper 1). He knows his stuff... it's now a matter of refining exam smart strategies and for that he needs to do the whole paper to get a feel of timing... practise attention focus through that period... manage panic... manage emotions from not knowing how to do within a tight timeframe.

[janet88]

I can take it easy for this SA1...in fact, I am.

He will not fail. If I take it easy, his sanity will still remain :xedfingers: But if I take it easy now, when do I start pushing him ? From June ? This is a do-or-die thing. If I remind him which school he wants to go, will it motivate him to be on his toes or drive him crazy ?

Can I allow him to go school but not do the homework given ?

[Chenonceau]

janet_lee88:

Can I allow him to go school but not do the homework given ?

Hey Mommy Janet... :snuggles: All of last year, I forbade him from doing inappropriate homework. This year, because he seems more prepared and we have settled into a comfortable jog along paths that we got familiar with last year... I am backing off from forbidding the inappropriate homework.

If you need time to help him, ya gotta squeeze out the time from somewhere eh? I basically told my son that I couldn't be bothered if he didn't score in his school ting xie... (but he had to do daily ting xie of 16 phrases from our home list) or if he completed Math workbook exercises ('cos workbook is as useless as textbook for PSLE). He learnt more from our daily ting xie than from the once a week ting xie.

When push comes to shove and resources are scarce, Mommy gotta choose. I prioritise my homeschooling work first, play 2nd... and inappropriate school homework last.

[janet88]

Chenonceau:

janet_lee88:

Can I allow him to go school but not do the homework given ?

Hey Mommy Janet... :snuggles: All of last year, I forbade him from doing inappropriate homework. This year, because he seems more prepared and we have settled into a comfortable jog along paths that we got familiar with last year... I am backing off from forbidding the inappropriate homework.

If you need time to help him, ya gotta squeeze out the time from somewhere eh? I basically told my son that I couldn't be bothered if he didn't score in his school ting xie... (but he had to do daily ting xie of 16 phrases from our home list) or if he completed Math workbook exercises ('cos workbook is as useless as textbook for PSLE). He learnt more from our daily ting xie than from the once a week ting xie.

When push comes to shove and resources are scarce, Mommy gotta choose. I prioritise my homeschooling work first, play 2nd... and inappropriate school homework last.

Learning the tingxie is a waste of time !!! This Fri, he will be tested for last week's (no time last week) and this week's. I believe he should get quality work done. Can you advise how I can get him out of learning/doing inappropriate school work ? Thanks.

[Chenonceau]

janet_lee88:

Learning the tingxie is a waste of time !!! This Fri, he will be tested for last week's (no time last week) and this week's. I believe he should get quality work done. Can you advise how I can get him out of learning/doing inappropriate school work ? Thanks.

Ehhhhh... learning tingxie is not a waste of time lah... it's just that the school (like for compo... and for compre... and for Math practice... and for Science practice) cannot give enough volume to make learning worthwhile. At home, DS has to tingxie 16 expressions everyday for 3 days in a week, and then another 16 expressions for the next 3 days. This way, he cycles through 32 expressions in one week.

We do 4 weeks of this = 128 expressions. Then we go back to the beginning and redo the same 128 for another 4 weeks. After that, we do a new 128 expressions twice. This makes 256 expressions to use by PSLE... repeatedly learnt and therefore well mastered.

School gives what... 10 a week? Never to be repeated for reinforcement.

Inappropriate Homework
(1) Sit down with DS and decide what homework is a waste of time.
(2) Email or write an excuse. Teachers are understanding generally. They are helpless within a system that doesn't really facilitate their teaching but expects them to be good and to do everything from write notes and teach large classes. Explain to Teacher that your DS is stressed out... sleeps late... etc...
(3) Teachers will complain. Meanwhile, you work hard at helping your son.
(4) Once your son improves, Teachers generally back off. After all, your DS has improved... and it saves them the time from marking more work.

[janet88]

Hi Chenonceau,

Thanks for your advice.

The compo, compre, science and math given as home work doesn’t have much volume. So I rather he does what tutor gives. After all, that is customized to his weakness.

[Chenonceau]

janet_lee88:

Hi Chenonceau,

Thanks for your advice.

The compo, compre, science and math given as home work doesn't have much volume. So I rather he does what tutor gives. After all, that is customized to his weakness.

This was exactly my problem last year. I took the tough decisions early in P5 and so DS is relatively stress free now.

[underthesea]

Does your child’s school still giving homework for Music, Social Studies, Art & HealthEd? Mine does and I have been doing it for DD since the beginning of this year. I don’t understand why the school is so ‘ON’ on these subjects this year!!

[janet88]

Chenonceau:

janet_lee88:

Learning the tingxie is a waste of time !!! This Fri, he will be tested for last week's (no time last week) and this week's. I believe he should get quality work done. Can you advise how I can get him out of learning/doing inappropriate school work ? Thanks.

Ehhhhh... learning tingxie is not a waste of time lah... it's just that the school (like for compo... and for compre... and for Math practice... and for Science practice) cannot give enough volume to make learning worthwhile. At home, DS has to tingxie 16 expressions everyday for 3 days in a week, and then another 16 expressions for the next 3 days. This way, he cycles through 32 expressions in one week.

Inappropriate Homework
(1) Sit down with DS and decide what homework is a waste of time.
(2) Email or write an excuse. Teachers are understanding generally. They are helpless within a system that doesn't really facilitate their teaching but expects them to be good and to do everything from write notes and teach large classes. Explain to Teacher that your DS is stressed out... sleeps late... etc...
(3) Teachers will complain. Meanwhile, you work hard at helping your son.
(4) Once your son improves, Teachers generally back off. After all, your DS has improved... and it saves them the time from marking more work.

He has difficulty learning English phrases bcos of having to fulfil school obligations.