I think it's too early to worry about speech delay as she is only 16 months old. It may be true that girls generally speak at an earlier age compared to boys but each child is different.


Just sharing my personal experience - I have two girls and the older one started speaking before she turned one. Everyone tells me that it would be faster with the younger one. Ah! they were all wrong. My DD2 could only say \"mama\" at 18 months. Most of the time she would point to what she wanted or use sign language. Importantly, I could see that she understood what was being said to her and obey instructions, hence I was not terribly worried when she was still not speaking at 22 months. Thereafter, she started using monosyllabus words e.g. up, bus, car etc.

My DD2 finally opened her golden mouth the week she turned two and can't stop talking. From monosyllabus at 24 months, she can now string three words together e.g. mama sit down at 25.5 months.

To me, I think it's really up to the child and she will talk when she is ready to talk. Both DDs are looked after my helper, supervised by my parents. I can't really see the correlation between chatty caregivers and age at which toddler speaks. My DD2 is surrounded by at least 3 adults and her older sis all day.

My advice is to just relax and wait for your child to speak when she is ready.

711mum:

sleepy:

Sometimes I feel that I should withdraw my dd1 from all tuition to free up her time. Her schedule is really tight with 3 tuition. One of her classmates is thriving with 5 tuition! Confirmed mission impossible for my dd1's slow snail character.


And with so many resources in popular as well as those I bought & remained white elephants in cabinet, if without tuition then she can afford the time to really digest those resources, perhaps it's way more fruitful than attending group tuition which is one size fits all?

And I heard that school teachers will be bombarding them with tonnes of past year papers from next year so I think that should be sufficient prep?

I don't know for sure la... it's just my hunch. I've been harbouring this thought for months ever since the disappointment with dd1's SA1 results. But dh thinks it's risky because others sending theirs to tuition while I withdrawing mine :siao:

No you are not alone, same thought has been bouncing around in my head but since we are coming to the end of Term 3 now, will let things remain status quo for now...

I really think it all boils down to individual child. Don't jump onto the tuition bandwagon just because everyone is doing it. Do an assessment of your child's weak area(s) and see if the results matches with current tuition. Tuition may not the only way to help the child. Personally, I think it would be great if parent can help coach the child as he will be available 24/7 unlike the tutor whom the child meets once a week.

If the teacher is already giving so much practice papers and ready to take on any questions that your child has, then I do not think it is absolutely necessary to have tuition.

Just my two cents..

thankgod:

other than preparing for P5 SA2 ...


the questions coming up for club 2002 kids will be
- current tuition enough or not?
- need more tuition for next year?
- psle 2014 what to revise?
- psle 2014 what is the revision schedule?
- dsa 2014 ... to apply or not?
- \"O\" levels? IB? IP?

all questions ... to which i simply have no answers for ...

I have decided not to stress over all these. Hence my answers would be:
- no additional tuition. Stick with current ones for the languages.
- revise everything for Math and Science to prepare for PSLE.
- not bothering with DSA.
- \"O\" level or IB/IP decides on the T-score.

Sun_2010:

Trina:

[quote=\"insider\"]

My nephew is 29 years old this year and his daughter (my grand niece) will be in P1 in another 4 years time.

He been through the model method in his primary school and is a poly grad (through him I first got to know about model method when I gave him tuition when he was small).

Coz he has been through the system personally, guiding his kid/s in model method will be a breeze (at times, he still can guide my 10 years old easily when he visits my house).

So, not so much of whether an O level or a PhD when model maths is concerned. It's about the exposure that one has been through that counts.

The generation around my nephew's age onwards will not make so much noise about model coz it will be the 'norm' to all (wait till if MOE wants to change to other newer methods then maybe the noise may begin again...)

I come from the old school of good old algebra and love it. But after helping DD1 with Math the past few years and \"studying\" model math via Conquer Problem Sums by Onsponge, I actually like the modelling method and find it very useful to solve various kinds of difficult problem sums.
It's really not that hard to keep pace with Math, just need time and effort to change mindset and learn a new skill. Making time for it however, is a challenge for FTW parents like us.

Yes. Mindset change needed.
I too was a parent who saw no purpose of model drawing. Why learn a method that is not universal like algebra and one that is time consuming as we need to draw? More over the initial models were so simple that there seemed to be no point drawing it and the tough ones seemed very complicated . So i taught algebra to my Dc while school taught model. And it was through my child I understood how Model/unitary method etc can help one work out solution logically simplifying the data while algebra was an abstract solution. In ways I was glad that my child had learnt what the school taught despite my interference. She had learnt different heuristics enough to know which was best to use in which situation. There will be questions in Primary school for which algebra might need 3 variables, and about 8-10 mins to work out, while logic and other methods can get you the answer in 3 mins.

I am not good at this model thing, I dont put in the practice, and like Trina, my thinking is too steeped in algebra to come out .

Fortunately for me my \"I know maths better than your primary school teacher\" did not impact my child negatively. That is why i take pains to tell others not to diss a method without genuinely attempting to understand it . And you never know how useful your child may find it if you dont let them learn it.

To each his own, experiences differ , as individuals our opinions differ.
Just my 2 cents[/quote]Aiya! Sun_2010 think you misunderstood me liao.
I do not use algebra to teach my DD. I made myself learn model math in order to teach my DD. It's actually easier than I thought and when drawn correctly, the answer is right there, staring at you. Hence I only use model math and branching (P5 & P6) when teaching my gal.

insider:

Dora1:

Although we should be involved in our child's education, but I find the fact that university graduates are required to go for math workshop to unlearn and relearn pri sch maths so that we can teach our kids to answer questions \"the way the teacher wants\" is plain ridiculous. I am aware that officially PSLE accepts any logical working methods, but it's the teachers at individual schools that are driving the stress.

My nephew is 29 years old this year and his daughter (my grand niece) will be in P1 in another 4 years time.

He been through the model method in his primary school and is a poly grad (through him I first got to know about model method when I gave him tuition when he was small).

Coz he has been through the system personally, guiding his kid/s in model method will be a breeze (at times, he still can guide my 10 years old easily when he visits my house).

So, not so much of whether an O level or a PhD when model maths is concerned. It's about the exposure that one has been through that counts.

The generation around my nephew's age onwards will not make so much noise about model coz it will be the 'norm' to all (wait till if MOE wants to change to other newer methods then maybe the noise may begin again...)

I come from the old school of good old algebra and love it. But after helping DD1 with Math the past few years and \"studying\" model math via Conquer Problem Sums by Onsponge, I actually like the modelling method and find it very useful to solve various kinds of difficult problem sums.
It's really not that hard to keep pace with Math, just need time and effort to change mindset and learn a new skill. Making time for it however, is a challenge for FTW parents like us.

dardar63:

roxy:

next year 2a2 for popular schools will be very risky...


then after that 2a1 = 2a2, no difference already cause everyone will join alumni

2A2 incl siblings of ex students, children of teaching staff etc. those cannot join alumni

Now I am feeling stressed!!!!!
DD2 is more than 6 years younger than DD1 which means that she falls under phase 2A2 instead of 1. Always thought it's quite safe until now.
It's quite unfair to parents with children more than 6 years age gap who have to go through the stress of registering again. Will that also indirectly affect birth rate if people think twice about having more kids when the youngest is older than 6 years old??!

My gal had her camp last year. Before the event, she was worried about rushing through the bath, cold shower, food choices etc etc. In the end, she had so much fun that she wants to do it again, despite sleeping with creepy crawlies.

At my end, I was only concern about lighting striking the camp site as it apparently happened to an earlier batch. Mobile phones were prohibited - didn't speak with her for whole 2.5 days :sad:

There will be an overseas trip at end of the year. Am not worried this time as DD has proven that she can look after herself. :rahrah:

My DD uses my old iphone 3 with prepaid card. We switched off mobile data roam after she blew $60 in 2 weeks. She used to have a nokia phone to call us to fetch her after CCA until this year when her classmates started using whatsapp to arrange outings and she felt left out.


Lately I found that she can still access internet without a data plan cos her friends has \"kindly\" provided her with personal hotspot. :shock:

CNS:

Guys, my gal seems to have great difficulty in English and HMT compre. Any suggestion on how to improve ? For English, though she gets the points correct, the entire question is given zero marks cos of the way she answer. Anyone with such experience ? E.g. What caused him to fall ? Teacher expects the answer to be, the tripping over the stone caused him to fall. Child answer - He tripped over a stone and fell. The question is totally marked wrong.. :slapshead:

OMG! Both answers sound the same to me, just different grammatically. Did you ask the teacher why it is marked wrong?

KSP:

Maybe some parents already aware but just to share that the fees for independent schs are much higher than gov schs. Perhaps can find out more about the various scholarships available during the open house.

Actually the fees are posted on the schools' websites. Did a quick google:

RGS $300 (excluding supplementary fees)
ACS $325
MGS $335
Nanyang $312.50
Hwa Chong $250

Seems expensive but still cheaper than what I am paying for the pre-schooler :moneyflies: