When my son turned 14, I told him I expected him to work during school holidays, as such, I would not be giving him pocket money and I expected him to give me 10% of his earnings. Oh, and he was also expected to find a job on his own and not ask his track coach (who would definitely employ him coz he’s a kind man even if he didn’t have work for my son to do). (I motivated him by saying if he didn’t work his time would be mine to run errands with / for me) Why? Because I teach at uni and find that while a decade or more ago, most students did some part time work, most now do not. Because their parents say things like encourage them to just focus on their studies. But do you think university life 10 or 20 years ago was less work? My belief is that in trying to help them, we are actually contributing to our kids being part of the strawberry generation. I also see that students who work are more confident and more able to handle problems that might arise. Coz there’s a whole different skillset one learns in working - how to do something that isn’t always “fun”; how hard work is well, hard; how to solve problems and get along with people; how it adds to one’s self worth to know you can earn money; about responsibility and appreciation. And about giving me money? If he doesn’t when he actually works (or even now) its true that there’s nothing I can do about it, and I’m hardly going to throw a hissy fit. I am simply expressing my expectation and hope. My take is that its alot easier to give 10% of $100 than it is to give 10% of $5000, and while I don’t need to money now, there may be a day when I would certainly appreciate it. I’ve also learned that it makes him feel happy to be contributing some money to me and the household.
Oh, and as for not knowing the value of money if it comes too easily, I guess its partly a matter of knowing his personality, but wouldn’t a teen value money even less if he doesn’t have to work for it at all (i.e. gets it as pocket money)? From the time he was little (I think he started at 3 or 4), I would get him to do little projects during the holidays to earn some money. Most of this money would go to charity, but he would get to keep some of it. And I remember him spending more than an hour at ToysR Us debating with himself on whether it was more “worth it” to buy 10 small toys or 1 big one.
I guess it helps that he’s a boy and relatively reliable. But I’m a big advocate of students working.
Latest posts made by fable
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RE: My teenage wants to work during this holiday
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RE: St. Joseph's Institution
I know this is a very late reply, but my son (Sec 3 this year) says go with a laptop rather than a tablet. We made him save up to buy his own, and he says in terms of processing it is just enough. All his classmates are now using laptops, including those that started with tablets. Hope that help!
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RE: All About Competitive Swimming
Our attitude is that competitive sport (not necessarily swimming) is an opportunity for a kid to develop grit - to fail at something, and discover in themselves (hopefully) the determination to continue to fight to improve. With our school system being highly intolerant of failure, this is a safe place to focus on growth rather than on winning. So while our son is not really supremely talented in anything, and even though his parents are not tall, we have encouraged him to pursue his interests - in music, academic subjects and various sports. It is unlikely that he is going to be world class (or even best in Singapore) at anything, but just striving to be better is, we think, a worthwhile cause. And will hopefully have a spillover effect on his academic endeavours and his life.
Just my 2 cents -
RE: St. Joseph's Institution
LeeLee2018:
The school will share promotion criteria, including requirements to be considered for IP. Apart from marks (which are same as IP promotion criteria so quite achievable), the boys will also have to have completed a number of projects. All students will have an equal opportunity to sign up for these in the course of the school year. All the best! Enjoy the extra week off!calm:
Son just got psle result and eligible for SJI o level programme. Can anyone advice if it is possible to switch to SJI IP programme after sec 1 or sec 2? If so, what types of grades must he achieved ? Thanks
I know it happens in Sec 3, not too sure if sec 3 can or not. We transferred school due to CCA and new housing reasons. -
RE: COP 2018
shuangbaoma:
I am sure her Friend not put nanyang as choice before the school final in.phtthp:
[quote=\"vectorbiz\"]My girl 250 not able to secure River Valley , her friend 264 not able to get Nanyang Girl, anyone know the COP for these 2 schools ? Thanks
Are u sure your friend 264 cannot get into Nanyang Girls High ?
Cut-off point this year is 258 (include Higher Chinese), for Nanyang Girls High
Some put the most close cop school as first choice, then put the one kids really want to as second. Even the first one has lower cop[/quote]But why? Until the point system kicks in, there is no risk in putting the dream school as first choice, so long as you have choices whose COPs are also well within the T score. Let's say the child has a T-score of 259, and she put a school with eventual COP of 250 as first choice, and NYGH as 2nd choice. She will be posted to her first choice. The only situation where she would get posted to NYGH would be first first choice school COP goes up to say 260, higher than NYGH, which could only possibly happen if the alternate school is RGS or MGS(IP). I don't think any other school comes close, yah?
So for the next 2(I think) years, there is no benefit to putting a school with a lower COP in ahead of a school with higher COP, unless of course it reflects your actual preference -
RE: 2018 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (Born in 2006)
floppy:
Your graphs are lovely, floppy
Err... the curve is based on the data (and have to thank Bill for excel as wellpengpeng:
Thanks 'thisis2012', the Blog data is interesting, and 'floppy's math correlation curve looks incredible.).
Two other curves to share:https://i.postimg.cc/zfZJ7NQX/Screenshot-2018-11-29-at-1-07-19-PM.png\">
https://i.postimg.cc/PJxhJ5CK/Screenshot-2018-11-29-at-1-07-29-PM.png\">
By regression, with ESIS at 260, RGS and NYGH COP is estimated to be 260 (no change) and 262 or 263 (slight drop) respectively.But what about the change last year in DSA policy - fewer DSA places allowed translating into more places available in the top top schools? Would that not be a confounding variable (that would explain why COP dropped in RI, RGS and HCI?) And before someone mentions NYGH and MGS, MGS takes in very few (2-3 classes I think) into their IP programme, and NYGH's affiliation programme also reduces the number of places available via S1.
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RE: 2018 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (Born in 2006)
pirate:
I've always wondered - mean T-score per subject is 50, right? But what is mean T-score for all 4 subjects? Unlikely to be 200 right?
No lah. Mean T-score per subject is 50. 60 is by definition one standard deviation away. One standard deviation puts 60 at top 15.9%. 4 x 60 = 240. By that reckoning, top 30% cut-off should be significantly below 236. In other words, not within top 30% highly unlikely to be able to get into SAP school anyway. Unless got some SAP school with very generous affiliation cut-off...phtthp:
Amongst all the SAP secondary schools so far in Sg, which is the SAP school, that has the lowest Cut-off-point ? It is ... Maris Stella (MS)
And what is Maris Stella Cut-off-point ?
Around 235 or 236 ?
This means that, if students can enter MS (SAP) at 236, one can interpret that the Top 30 percent Cut-off, is somewhere around here (236 T-score) -
RE: 2018 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (Born in 2006)
pirate:
Can I blame it on dyslexia? :slapshead: :slapshead: OK changing numbers in original post...
Small problem. ST says 39,672 sat for the PSLE.fable:
So 37,672 students sat for the PSLE this year(number taken from ST). If 260 represents the top 3%, that means 1,130 students (rounded down the decimal for convenience) scored at least 260. Just for convenience, lets make some assumptions:
1) the same number of boys and girls in the top 3%, i.e. 565 from each gender.
2) RI intake is 500 students a year (based on an old post somewhere in ksp), and 20% of the places are allocated via DSA
3) About 30% of the students who are in the top 3% already have a place in a school of their choice via DSA - that works out to 395 boys looking for schools via S1 posting.
Based on these assumptions (and please keep in mind that they are just back of envelope), even if all of them apply to RI, the COP should be lower than the ESIS number simply because there are more places than students left in the top 3% now that the number of DSA offers from top schools seem to have been reduced. -
RE: 2018 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (Born in 2006)
So 39,672 students sat for the PSLE this year(number taken from ST). If 260 represents the top 3%, that means 1,190 students (rounded down all decimals for convenience) scored at least 260. Just for convenience, lets make some assumptions:
1) the same number of boys and girls in the top 3%, i.e. 595 from each gender.
2) RI intake is 500 students a year (based on an old post somewhere in ksp), and 20% of the places are allocated via DSA
3) About 30% of the students who are in the top 3% already have a place in a school of their choice via DSA - that works out to a little over 400 boys looking for schools via S1 posting.
Based on these assumptions (and please keep in mind that they are just back of envelope), if all of them apply to RI, the COP will be 260 as number of places match number of boys. But since it is unlikely that they will all apply to one school the COP is likely to be lower than ESIS score.
(thanks, pirate, for the correction in number of PSLE candidates :oops: ) -
RE: 2018 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (Born in 2006)
floppy:
My guess is that they'll make the first exam super hard or mark very strictly so there'll be very few 4 pointers. All it takes is to be very strict with compo marking... then cut off for RI will end up as 6.
I think 5-pointer should still be safe for RI cos that's high 250-ish to 260-ish.lee_yl:
Assume Boy Boy’s Chinese is his weakest subject,
Under current PSLE tscore:
3A* + Chinese A, still can go RI/HCI
Under AL Banding:
3AL1 + Chinese AL 2 = 5 pointers
Either kena cut-off by 4 pointers or have to go balloting.
But if the 5-pointer go put RI as 2nd or 3rd choice, then