My daughter just completed her PSLE. She is not a slacker and has been a consistent worker all this while. After she had completed her science paper yesterday, she came out feeling shaken because the paper was difficult. There were many answers which she was unsure of. She spent a lot of time mulling over the options in the MCQ section. In short, it was a nerve-wrecking experience for her.


There were other pupils who could not complete the paper. Her classmates, mostly above average performers, commented that it was a ‘hard’ paper.

I felt for my dd and her friends and all the pupils who sat the PSLE this year. Having completed 6 years of primary education, they sat for a National Examination and came out feeling unsure of themselves. The papers in the various subjects were tricky and mind-boggling this year. It was a confidence-rattling experience. There is no ‘feel-good’ factor that resulted from reaping what they have sown - hours, days, weeks and months of sheer hard work and practice. I feel for them because they ended up questioning why they couldn’t confidently tackle the paper despite the sheer amount of hard work invested into the exam preparation. While this may be a gross generalisation, I feel that many pupils emerged from the exam halls feeling that they had been cornered during the exam and booby traps implanted everywhere to ‘catch them failing’. Take the Chinese Listening Comprehension for example. The problematic turn-taking conversation question is one such example of a trap to catch the pupils ‘not listening’.

Yes, of course, at the end of it, we know that if a particular paper was pitched at a difficult level, it would undergo some moderation but I am more concerned about the insidious messaging in the whole exam system. By setting such challenging PSLE papers, it will reinforce the belief that PSLE is difficult. Nobody needs to debunk the myth that PSLE is challenging any more. And so the vicious cycle begins where teachers, parents and pupils embark on this paper chase - tuition, supplementary classes, setting tear-spilling and nail-biting prelim papers to fully prepare the pupils/children to battle the PSLE monster.

Of course, we can all console ourselves that if the PSLE was difficult, we can teach our children about resilience, about being prepared for the unexpected challenges in life BUT my point is, should this culminating final examination erode the pupils of their self-esteem and make them feel that they could not apply what they had learnt in school in answering the questions? Are such difficult papers necessary? Do we really need to break their spirit to see them grow?

Thanks for hearing me out…

Hi mommies,


My girl is in p1 this year. One of her teachers seems to be on sick leave or urgent leave regularly. I am so used to hearing her say X is not here again. Do u have similar experiences? Understand that p1 teachers will follow up the girls to p2. Is this still the practice? If that’s the case, my dd would have to be prepared to be more independent and do more self-study. Hope to hear from the rest…

autumnbronze,


looks like we have tricks up our sieves

autumnbronze,


looks like we have tricks up our sieves

northernstar:

Twinkle Belle:

I also use a normal Phillips blender for mashing up steamed pumpkin, potatoes, carrots etc. sometimes, I press a small amount of steamed food through a sieve to mash up the vege thoroughly. The blender is used when I am making and storing several batches of baby food. Have fun! It's satisfying to make baby food at home and not grab a bottle of Heinz off the shelves.

using a sieve is not difficult? i'm using a spoon or chopper to mash ya, Heinz bottled baby foods contain sugar.

Not at all. Sometimes, I steam a small piece of pumpkin inside the rice cooker when I am cooking rice. Once the pumpkin is cooked, I would place it inside the sieve and use a spoon to press it through. Of course, I have tried mashing it with a spoon but find that the texture is not as smooth as using the sieve method. I use the sieve to mash up bananas and papayas too. Sometimes, there is quite a bit of fibre in some of these fruit and veggies and this can only be filtered using the sieve. It's a method that my mom taught me cos in the older days, blenders are unheard of.

Of course, the sieve cannot beat the blender lah.

I also use a normal Phillips blender for mashing up steamed pumpkin, potatoes, carrots etc. sometimes, I press a small amount of steamed food through a sieve to mash up the vege thoroughly. The blender is used when I am making and storing several batches of baby food. Have fun! It’s satisfying to make baby food at home and not grab a bottle of Heinz off the shelves.

Hi Mommies,


I am looking to buy old copies of Young Scientists Levels 1 & 2. Prefer to buy them in sets, if possible. Please email me at [email protected] if you have any copies to let go off.

Thanks!