tyeogh:

Hi DesertWind,

I told my wife about you and your son. She told me to talk to you more. Alamak! :slapshead: She was inspired by your sharing.
... I have had so many favourable reports from people who worked with him so I just put him back at his age appropriate level, and let our boss figure the rest. The same teacher who downgraded him recommended the upgrade. Its her principal that objected mainly because she has no slots. We received a call recently from his current K2 form teacher saying that he is doing fine in class. Told us not to worry.

OIC, that's really amazing, bro. Even I find it so hard to understand but its really good news! :imcool:
Please thank your wife for me and may you both have a very Happy Valentine's Day!
:celebrate:

phtthp:

Desert wind,

it is good to hear that your son has eased into Term 1, well.
Term 1 is \"honeymoon\" period, to let kids settle down. Whether can ditch this $ 2k per month Shadow Tr or not - the Form Tr will feedback to you at end of Term 2 (after half a year evaluation).

Hi phtthp,
Told the school we are prepared to commit for 6 months only and each day only 3 hours. :moneyflies: :moneyflies: :moneyflies: lah! Its like paying money to gather more information on how boy is doing and iron out any kinks early in the school year. Long-term wise it is not viable to have a full-time shadow teacher. Meanwhile, I am taking the shadow teacher's feedback and working on it. For eg. a visual schedule time-table to run through with boy each day etc. One thing the shadow teacher shared which struck me is the class is very, very noisy. She also got a headache and she pitied the teachers. When the teacher shout to get the kids to quieten down, apparently my boy got a shock and will cover his ears and whine. Seems like a war-zone each day....jia lat! :faint:

Double E:

Desertwind,

Good to hear that your son is gradually settling down in mainstream. Hope you can 'ditch' the shadow teacher by next term.
Just curious, if you boy can sort of settle down in mainstream, what is Pathlight's reason for not accepting your boy?

Hi Double E!

My boy went for the Pathlight assessment (2 hours) and he cried and yelled \"don't want\" for 45 mins. In the classroom he did not want to sit still and cooperate at all. When he started getting fussy, one assistant offered him a squeezy ball and blu-tag which he refused to take. They could not get him to do anything and the assessor wrote down \"no pen to paper work attempted\".

In the first place, my boy did not go through the ARC-EIPIC route and he has never been to Pathlight before. That was the first time but it was deemed as no excuse as well.

I also submitted a whole bag of his sped/kindergarten workbooks which he wrote very nicely for their consideration. The verdict is that this does not mean anything to them, it only showed that he needed one-to-one attention. :scared: :yikes: :mad:

So I took back the bag and went my way.

What I want to say is that IF you choose to believe everything that everybody else says about your boy and let them get you down, then the game is over...for your boy! You must look at all the good points of your boy and then cling tenaciously to the belief that he can do it! If we don't believe in our own kid, nobody else will.

Having said that, it really is \"no joke\" starting mainstream P1. The boy must really be able to be independent to go around on his own. Since my boy's school shorts got stuck, I had scrambled to change all his school-shorts buttons into hooks and rubberized both sides so that it is more flexible and easier for him to handle. Thank God he did not fuss at having to wear the school uniform (shirt) and we did not have to deal with any sensory issues be it sight or sound. He also has no problem with eating so we need not visit during recess at all.

I have more to share but will leave it to the next time, gotta go!

Nebbermind:

Great news!

:celebrate:

Thanks, Nebbermind!

tyeogh:

Mai di di wink at me lah. I tell my wife ah.....LoL

You go sister!

Hi bro tyeogh,

Tell lor...you and your wifey are so romantic I gathered from your sharing that she must be quite a sweet and pretty little thing! (wink..wink..wink) :evil:

Yes, and I also proclaim \"Restoration!\"

Happy to hear that your boy has improved so much as well, tyeogh!
But is it because he is your youngest boy that's why you do not want to delay his P1 at all?

Hi all,


How are you? Wow, \"Tye Kor\" is back so I am motivated to share! wink:

Firstly, I have finally settled my boy's transition to P1 mainstream school after one month!

It has been such a blood, sweat and tears (plentiful of heartache already, no need to watch Korean dramas for emo-release :razz: ) during the past few years (plus repeat K2 year) that words could not express our happiness when we finally see him starting mainstream school nicely! :please:

We took the effort to send him to school every day, send him into the assembly hall, find his classroom and then go back after school to make sure he boarded the correct school bus home safely. Initially, my boy was blur like sotong in a big school but I am really pleased he finally found his way around and do assembly without much problems. During his repeat-K2 year in a church kindergarten, he was sitting at the back of the assembly hall in a pew bench and refused to join the other children for assembly. He has come a long way since!

The year of deferment is really worth it as time gave my boy the stability he needs in order to be independent in a large mainstream school. Now, even his PD and those who has worked with him before in the past commented about his stability. (Yes, the nightly prayers are crucial too, Tyeogh!)

His form teacher did share with us a couple of hiccups during the first 2 weeks like there was once he suddenly cried in class and she needed to call in an LBS teacher to handle and calm him down. Another time was his school shorts got stuck and he needed his classmates to help him.

My boy looks forward to go to school so far and he has settled into the routine. However, his teacher has suggested that we send in a shadow-teacher to help him in the classroom and although we were initially dismayed (more tears), we decided to engage one for him since we do want him to be able to get use to a large classroom environment and also the shadow teacher can feedback to us what is actually happening.

Quite a few parents here shared about money. Yes, the cost is exorbitant, state school fees is zero but shadow service almost SGD2K per month! But since my boy has already yelled down Pathlight, we got to give mainstream school our best shot.

Initially I was thinking perhaps I will only share in this forum when my boy has done some great achievement (like last time Mashy shared his boy got the \"most improved\" award in school; or like Simkhoo already gone through 18 years with her girl, now in Pre-U, wow!); or perhaps when my boy cleared all the assessments; or when my boy successfully completed many years in the mainstream primary school etc...

But the journey is a long one and we will be walking on it step-by-step, so I will share now and celebrate whatever little achievements we have made. Hopefully it can also help some parents for whatever they can gather from this sharing too.

Press on!
:celebrate:

tyeogh:

What are your thoughts? Will you want your sped child excused from offering a 2nd language? (I say offer because he still learns but he will not offer it as an exam subject)

Hi tyeogh,

Yes, I will want my sped kid excused from CL2. He will still learn and sit in class and I have also engaged a private tutor for him at home. The tutor has feedback that his strength is in writing the chinese character but not in reading. Am afraid he won't be able to meet the demands of CL2 as an examination subject. In this case, it is through \"no choice\" but to exempt him. For us surely will not be viewed as \"keng\" by the school!

julybabe:

Hi, the Childcare also facing difficulties with handling my gal + manpower consideration. So i have no choice but to pull her out.

Due to principal's feedback that my boy has no interest in the year-end concert plus they could not spare the manpower to look after him off-stage during Term 4 practices etc. I have pulled my boy out of Term 4 for kindergarten. He has repeated K2 at this kindy and all things considered, decided not to fight this battle. He will prep for P1 in the last term this year and looking forward to next year!

fluttershy:

hi mummies,


have any of you heard about EIC kindergarten? a friend suggested for me to check it out there. It's around balestier area. The teacher student ratio is 2:5. Any input or info is greatly appreciated! they have one-on-one session too for the older kids.

Hi fluttershy,

Yes, I sent my boy to EIC there from 2.5 yo to almost 4 yo when he was younger. He attended EIC daily in place of childcare then as the teacher said he was not really responding well to them. They were fantastic and treated my boy very well and with small class size and dedicated teachers. Taught him OT stuff as well as phonics etc. They also had art and music lessons. My boy spoke his first words there at about 3.5 yo. He benefited a lot from there and it remained the best thing that I have done for him. Very grateful to them and certainly no regrets!

Double E:

After reading all your posts, I can totally feel you as me too, deep down in my heart, I am also harbouring the hopes that my son will be normal one day or at least he is so good that his traits are not so apparent to others. This is an expectation that I believe all of us are struggling to overcome. Like Tyegoh, I would have also try to upgrade him if he is doing well in the current class, to me, i won't know if he can make it or not if I don't even try. If he can't make it, I guess, then I will be more resigned to accept that he should stay back a year to catch up.

Hi Double E, Tyeogh,

Yes, totally can understand. For me, I prefer to think our boys need more time and cannot rush the growing up. From my experience, it is more painful for me to see my boy not keeping up with his peers at K2 last year compared to the thought that \"next time\" he will question why he not the same year as his peers?

See it like this, even at the university level all guys are two years behind right? Also funny for us that when we reach that level, the guys are all older than the girls. But how come nobody question why? Just take it as such.

So I am not too hung up over the 1 year of deferment. To me it really does not matter that extra year if it help my boy to blend in well with his cohorts a year later. And he much better prepared and can handle.

I think it is not wrong to try to upgrade him now because if really necessary, there is another chance to defer his P1 later on if you so decide otherwise.