Blue Pearl:

Many thanks PreciousLife for your sharing. I am quite scared for my girl because as a working mother, i put her in a childcare. Her tamil is not good. She can't read well or write well.She understands but not able to reply well. I would say below average. I cannot put her into any kindergarten because nobody to pick her up after kindergarten and even she wants to go to childcare, the timining is not right. Next year she is Primary 1. Not sure how to coach her.


Do u have any ideas to share with me.

Many thanks.

My child took chinese in preschool. Was sending him to grp tuition for abt a year and a half but stopped as he wasn't learning anything except to write out the tamil letters. Was just a waste of time & money. Then i tried coaching him at home whenever i could; he enjoyed it more. I sang to him nursery tamil rhymes, read him short tamil stories and we took an effort to speak more of the language at home. Then we realised learning starts at home and parents are the best teachers. I also bought tamil alphabetical chart and pasted it on the wall where he could see.

This yr, we were very worried as well for his P1 tamil but luckily the teacher was understanding and started slowly without affecting his confidence or interest in tamil. Exposure to tamil songs, music really helps alot. He started singing songs we were interested in. Then i started showing his songs on youtube and thanx to this medium he won 2nd prize in his sch tamil singing competition and watching it continues till today. I exposed him to old mgr songs, barathiyaar songs and nursery songs from india. Don't worry, your child will slowly pick up the language; don't make it seem as a sch subject; let your child realise how beautiful our language is. Btw, we don't watch tamil movies with him. Once our children gets interested in listening and singing the language, i believe half the battle is won.

All the best wishes to you. Don't despair & don't give up.

Blue Pearl:

can any parents share with me what will kids be tested in Primary 1

Dear Blue Pearl,

There is no formal exam for P1 Tamil. Instead, there is holistic assessment. Pupils will be given a variety of tasks be it written, spoken or even performed. And they will be assessed based on their performance for the given task.

Some examples are singing, talking abt particular topics, spelling, listening comprehension, writing, ability to read given words. Singing, talking on given topic are performed in the front of the class. Ability to read words is done 1-1 with the teacher. There is a rubric which the teacher uses to assess the pupil. In my child's sch, it is done with stars ranging from 1 star to 4 stars. Bite-sized tasks given every now & then but pupils are given time to prepare certain tasks like singing & presenting on a topic.

It's quite interesting as it gets the entire family involved esp in the singing & topic presentation. Using stars is also not disencouraging; instead it motivates pupils to aim for 4 stars.

I hope this is useful to you.

Hi, with ref to ur ques:

12/6 or 12 divide by 6

It means for instance divide 12 sweets equally among 6 frenz;
How many sweets do each fren get?

So 12 divide by 6, u shud circle the sweets in 2s for each fren. There are no leftovers and each fren gets 2 sweets equally. 12 divide by 6 equals 2

U can illustrate using manipulatives; anything u can get in hand like colour pencils. I hope this is helpful.

Hello everyone!


My child is in Lianhua Primary 1 this year and I have joined the Lianhua PSG. How fast time flies! It's the 3rd week now and my son has been coping pretty well. The hours are sure long and from next wk, school ends at 4pm on mondays due to PAL. I'm pretty worried how he's going to cope. Tht will be another hurdle to cross. How have you all been coping? It's a change of routine for us parents as well. Hope to share our stories and be of support to one another. Hoping to hear from you pple soon! Take care till then.