Hi,


How is CCA selection done? Understand there are auditions / trials for some CCAs? Does the school take into account your preference or you have to accept what is offered to you (following your performance at the auditions/trials)? Kindly enlighten. Thank you.

Hi,


Trying to encourage my child to sign up for Third Lang. Is the student allowed to withdraw mid-way in Year 1 if he/she is unable to cope because of heavy school workload?

Thank you.

eureka,


my dd is in Chiltern House East Coast. What specifically would you like to know?

Hi,


DD will have a Chinese listening test next week, as part of her alternative assessment for P1. Does anyone know what this listening test entails? Eg teacher reads aloud passage and children look out for the answers an answer sheet?

Clueless here.

Edener,


Regarding your query as to whether Chiltern House prepares your child for P1.

My daughter is in P1 this year. She graduated from Chiltern House K2 in 2011. I only have high praises for Chiltern House. Yes, I believe that they do prepare the kids for P1. I believe that it is in K2 that they learn the most and this really helps them in P1, so I will share what they did for K2:

Here are my observations:

1.\tWeekly Show and Tell for both English and Mandarin from N1 helps your child to develop confidence in public speaking. From N1 – K1, your child brings a toy or object related to the theme or letter of the week for Show and Tell. In K2, Show and Tell is replaced by what is known as “news sharing”. Ie, your child brings a newspaper article or book or magazine or anything that is related to the theme that they are discussing in class and shares it with the class. I had fun doing news sharing with my child. Eg we did up a chart showing the various animals of the rainforest and the different layers of the rainforest and she shared it with her class. She also shared with her class the food pyramid (one of the topics in K2 term 1 is health and body). All these “public speaking” experiences help your child to be not afraid of talking. In P1, kids have Show and Tell as alternative assessment. Your child will already have plenty of “show and tell” experiences in kindergarten so when they come to Primary school, they will not have jitters in speaking up in class.

2.\tMath – the children are introduced to the concept of number bonds (which are very important in P1). They learn using manipulatives during math. When the learn “money” they have role play eg pretend to be shopper and buy things at the pretend supermarket. I understand that from this year onwards, they will be incorporating a field trip to the supermarket – so that will be fun for the kids. Having said that, still gave my child bite-sized math worksheets at home to do to supplement what they learnt at school.

3.\tMandarin – they start han yu pin yin and ting xie in K2. I can tell you that their K2 ting xie is even more difficult than what they are learning in P1 . They also do Picture Talk (ie talk about what is happening in the Picture). And in Term 3 they work towards a certification (present a toy and talk about it). Having said that, I still sent my child for Mandarin enrichment at Berries (because I cannot teach her Mandarin).

4.\tEnglish. The kids are grouped according toward their ability. Eg higher level kids get more difficult worksheets for the Oxford Reading Tree-based activities. Kids start writing paragraphs (preparation for composition in P1). They also learn about punctuation, and simple grammar.

5.\tBook borrowing. The book borrowing every day (English books daily and Mandarin once or twice a week) is really good towards cultivating your child’s love for reading. Of course, you should not just rely on the Chiltern House book borrowing, but also read to your child on your own. My child (now in P1) can read chapter books. She just finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

These are just some of the things I like about Chiltern House. What I like about Chiltern House is that the kids turn out to be very outspoken and confident individuals, which is very important when they go to Primary school. It should not just be about academic. So, I have no regrets sending my child to Chiltern House (although the fees are very high).

Dear parents, glad to see that "we are not alone". The time table that I gave my DD at the beginning of the year has been “thrown out the window”. Nowadays, I just write down what she needs to do during the day (her school has no homework, so I give her a few pages of assessment to do every day, she is supposed to go over any spelling or ting xie if there is any for the next day, practice piano, then play time at the playground, wash up, watch TV and night times are for reading). But … because I am not around during the day, sometimes, she plays first and does the work later (ie just after her dinner – rushing to finish before I come home from work to check). Practising the piano also not consistent. I don’t “coach” her in anything, as I think she is fairly bright. Her reading is probably P3 level. If she doesn’t understand from the assessment books I will go over with her during the weekend. But still feels scary when I compare notes with other SAHM moms (DD’s friends’ moms from her previous kindergarten) as they have the time to coach their kids (eg help them on methods to solve maths problem sums (eg heuristics)). They are so bent on going all out to help their kids in school work or getting them way ahead in their class. But that’s because they also have the time to do so. So I wonder whether my relatively "hands off" approach (for now) is appropriate.

Dear parents,


I want to get a notebook for my P1 kid - to last at least until P3.

Any recommendations? Should it be Windows-based? (or Mac?)

Also, what software to install? - MS Word / Excel / Powerpoint? Any others?

This will be used for surfing the net, educational games, school’s e-learning, research. Time on the notebook will be supervised.

Thank you.

Funz,

I have iPhone4 and iPad2. But my iPad is wifi only. Will Facetime still work on iPad if wifi only?

buds, musings

Already split the time with hubby. I find I spend at least half an hour with # 1 going through her work (if any), getting her to pack school bag etc. The other 2 are entertained by hubby. Then I make #1 read her story book by herself while I read to #2 (teaching her how to read right now). I entertain #3 after #1 and #2 go to sleep.

Yeah, don’t need to cook or clear up after dinner or do housework.
After school , maid picks her up and walks home. But she refuses to nap.
In the afternoon / evening (before I am home), she must do her worksheets and practice piano. In between she can play, read, do art and craft, draw or colour etc. Evening time, she can go to the playground then after that watch TV / dinner.

So my problem is by the time I come home, even if I want to teach #1, she is very tired and sleepy already and cannot absorb because she doesn’t take afternoon nap. So we can’t even make it to teaching her for ½ hour each day - 10 mins out of that is already spent getting her to pack her school bag. And she reads a few chapters of her story book before she goes to bed.

The maid tried getting her to take afternoon nap – she will toss and turn from 3 – 4pm. Then finally only fall asleep at 4pm for more than an hour. Then because she is too refreshed after her nap, she has trouble falling asleep at night. So sleep later. But still have to wake up early at same time in the morning, so not enough sleep. Then become tired before school. Sigh! So therefore, skipped the nap in the afternoon.

Hello parents,


My daughter just entered P1 this year. The school hasn’t given any homework yet. But I give her some bite-sized worksheets to do every day.

Eventually, the school will start giving homework. So working parents, how do you help your child with homework?

My child is in morning session, so she needs to get to bed latest by 9pm so that she can have enough sleep before waking up early the next day.

By the time I reach home from work, it is 7 plus or 8pm. So that leaves me only 1 hour or so with my kids (and I have 3 kids, not just 1). The P1 child is the eldest.

Ideally, if she would like to clarify some of the homework questions or don’t know how to go about it, I would like to help her while I am at work (so that I don’t have to waste that 1 hour of precious time I have at home - to be spread over 3 kids - dealing with homework).

But I can’t download skype onto my work laptop. Sometimes it may be difficult to explain by phone. Any other ideas on how to use the web / email / iPad / taking photos to help with homework? (How do online tutors do it?)