S’pore scores low in preschool education

Reply to S’pore scores low in preschool education on Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:48:04 GMT

gremlin_loh — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 05:48:04 GMT

Send my 1st boy to PCF since Little Steps (playgroup), realised that he is behind in comparisan to kids his age who go to pte schools or childcare centres.

He is in K1 now but still has problems writing fluidly from 0-9, or even write his own name. My wife and I try our best in setting aside time with him daily to do 1-2 worksheets but it seems that it is still not enough. We are now enrolling him into enrichment programmes to try to give him that extra boost.

As parents we take responsibility of our children’s education and agree that it is not just the responsibility of the school, but I can’t help feeling disappointed with PCF pre-school standard.

The only plus point for us is that the school fees can be paid through CDA which makes it affordable for us, a single income family. Stressful man…

Reply to S’pore scores low in preschool education on Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:51:00 GMT

Jennifer — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 07:51:00 GMT

Just relax:
Don't get so stressed out. I think you should start with the basic building blocks for your child which is to encourage reading as much as possible. The only 2 things a child should do when so young is to read a lot and play. The reading will allow the child to enrich her language and train her to read the books u want her to read to improve her English and Chinese. Let her watch Chinese cartoons on TV on the weekend mornings. Let her play with toys that need her to understand and build things such as Lego etc. Do not worry, it will be fine. Just keep track and if you feel she lacks in something then start slowly and in small doses!!

I agree.

When my elder boy was in childcare, I noticed two girls who were already reading thin story books and were chosen at narrators at the graduation performance. My boy then could not sit still to read at all.

When he started P1, he was still not reading independently. I introduced the Usborne series phonetics books to him and brought him to the community library every weekends.

He is sec 4 now, doing advanced literature in NJC.

Reply to S’pore scores low in preschool education on Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:43:40 GMT

Just relax — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:43:40 GMT

Don’t get so stressed out. I think you should start with the basic building blocks for your child which is to encourage reading as much as possible. The only 2 things a child should do when so young is to read a lot and play. The reading will allow the child to enrich her language and train her to read the books u want her to read to improve her English and Chinese. Let her watch Chinese cartoons on TV on the weekend mornings. Let her play with toys that need her to understand and build things such as Lego etc. Do not worry, it will be fine. Just keep track and if you feel she lacks in something then start slowly and in small doses!!

Reply to S’pore scores low in preschool education on Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:16:06 GMT

JJJFamily — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:16:06 GMT

It’s about time the government look into PCF standards and P1.

My girl just went P1. Only second week, I got a rude shock from teacher.

Say my girl is active and many blank pages for her assessments.
Teacher say can see that she is from childcare setting. Felt insulted.
But when I see the assessment, I also shocked that the level of difficulty is too far apart from PCF teaching materials. A short passage to read and answer???
Omg!

More coaching to go

Stressed mum big time now

Reply to S’pore scores low in preschool education on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:28:44 GMT

chubby08 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:28:44 GMT

usa-sing-1:
To my knowledge, there is no standard curriculum nationwide for pre-school? My daughter attends Town4Kids in West Coast -- K1 and now K2...they seem to focus on basic preparation for P1 in terms of English, Mandarin, some Mathematics. She is even learning basic science in the context of global climate change, basic plants and animals, etc. They do group activities, individual creative activities, etc. I have been using a P1 supplementary book for English to help teach her/test her...and will also get one for Mandarin and Maths. She seems to be able to handle the material quite well...although I have no idea where she would actually rank in terms of her cohort.

She is well prepare for her P1..you can relax when she goes to P1. This is good for her.. I would say her centre is better than PCF. I think gov school should do re look into their teaching material for Pre school.

Reply to S’pore scores low in preschool education on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:11:49 GMT

usa-sing-1 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:11:49 GMT

To my knowledge, there is no standard curriculum nationwide for pre-school? My daughter attends Town4Kids in West Coast – K1 and now K2…they seem to focus on basic preparation for P1 in terms of English, Mandarin, some Mathematics. She is even learning basic science in the context of global climate change, basic plants and animals, etc. They do group activities, individual creative activities, etc. I have been using a P1 supplementary book for English to help teach her/test her…and will also get one for Mandarin and Maths. She seems to be able to handle the material quite well…although I have no idea where she would actually rank in terms of her cohort.