(2002) Any 2002 babies?


Pin,
my ds1 used to be in MMI to learn phonics. the curriculum is good, but the teacher is not.
now my ds1 is in MMI learning maths, the curriculum is more suited for 4 year olds...no choice already paid deposit, so letting my boy go through to build up his foundations.
The MMI centre need 2 month notice of withdrawal which i find ridiculous and also closes for 1 week holiday every term, which i also find ridiculous for enrichment centres.
WIll not consider going back there for ds2.
Am looking at montessori based childcare centres as i like its curriculum,.
 
fz

wow is ridiculous to have 1 week holiday every term. The one i am considering is cs montessori as the fees is quite reasonable. Class is 4 hr every day and course fees is 1500. Because the one my girl attending now is 1000 but only 3 hr, and she still need to attend enrichment. Was thinking if she can go montessori might withdraw her from all the enrichment.
 
Pin
you mean the cs montessori is a childcare? if the curriculum and teachers are good, why not?

ya..i already board a pirate ship....ridiculous week holiday every term (school fees still payable), ridiculous 2 months withdrawal notice and ridiculous 1 month non-refundable deposit unless you complete the course. No choice cos its the nearest to my place within walking distance. The service also lousy. Silly of me to make the mistake twice. Good thing my boy enjoys the lessons.

Am now looking at Cherie Heart montessori and Littlewonders montessori for my ds2...have yet to visit them. Intending to source for 'all-in enrichment plus childcare' cos looking at taking a different approach from ds1 (ds1 did not attend childcare, now is with PCF plus enrichment). Need to really spend more time alone on ds1 especially next year he P1.
 
Pin
$1500 for a term (10 weeks) or per month? Per month then super ex!
What other enrichments is your girl attending?


fz
MMI is franchise. So depends on which center, some good, some bad
how about sending your ds2 to different session kindergarten? Then you can have a few hours alone with ds1


mommies
attended a Maths workshop today on primary school Maths. wow, now I start sweating. Questions are so tricky! not the typical questions we see in assessment books. Even if we plough through lots of assessment books also cannot guarantee top grades. Now the new trend is creative thinking, not die die remember formulae
 
hippo2002,
ds2 will not be due for kindergarten/nursery until 2010....by then, ds1 is in P2. Just now ds1 complained why i spend a lot of time with didi...:p

creative thinking is pretty hard to train. eventually, it will boil down again to drilling through '10-year series' to try to spot the questions and its twist.
 
the speaker said cannot use 10 years series anymore
questions will not be repeated from there. Drilling is out according to him

20% on creative Maths in PSLE
 
fz

no, cs is not a childcare. Still considering because her school now is quite good, only a bit far as they move to newton. And montessori seem to be more on study and no play.

I thought most school is 1 month notice, and why need to complete the course than cn take back deposit.

sleepy

1500 is for per term. I think for montessori is quite cheap. She went for chinese, phonics and math. They say children in pri 1 need to read graph also , dunnot true or not.
 
hm...then must bang on getting 100% for the 80% to get an A lor. :p
but then again, creative questions...plus minus also should also be almost from similar basis and can derived from similar techniques. if they don't penalise for wrong questions, my strategy is always to just use whatever techniques that one can remember, in hope of squeezing some marks out of the otherwise hopeless questions. :p

mommies,
how does your kids reacted to 'loud' teachers? my boy will burst into tears....tsk tsk. How to train?
 
Pin

no lah, no need to read graph. Not x, y axis that type
but must understand picture graph. 1st column 8 monkeys, 2nd columns 6 monkeys, which column more monkey that type of questions


fz

no wonder last year PSLE scholar score 292. She must have differentiate herself distinctively from the rest
must pray hard hard remaining 80% no careless mistakes, otherwise also gone case liao
 
Hi hippo
You attended the workshop by Dr Yeap? Is it good, I wanted to go but got some prior commitments. I heard he conducts such workshop every year, so must look out for the next one.

fz
My girl also has problem with loud teachers and also new teachers. She takes a while to adapt to them and it could get so bad that she'll refuse to go school. I also dun know what to do..haiz
 
PressuredKid

I was expecting some model drawing but he didn't cover any of those

Quite insightful though, he conveyed the message don't die die learn formulae like our times in school

the trend is to think creatively. He also mentioned P5 can use calculators, no long require to use brutal force (manual calculation)
 
Hippo,
True that they case use calculator. Tat's why many say abacus is no use now cos can use calculator so speed is not an issue. The killer is modelling which needs practice + understanding. For a while, I taught PSLE maths tuition and nearly vommit blood.

Fz,
About 'loud' teacher, think it depends the child's temperament. My dd ok with loud teachers but if any teacher (even soft spoken one) tell her she did something wrong, she will cry also.
 
Iwg26

How to find out more about modelling?
Is there any resource or website we can refer to?

really clueless about modelling


so I guess questions like 52x17 is no longer relevant, can easily solve using calculator
 
fz

Can ask your boy not to take it personally? that the loud voice is not directed at him

one of my girl's teachers is very fierce. I always heard her scolding loudly during class. When I asked her is your teacher fierce, she said no leh

maybe my girl isn't too sensitive to adults reaction.
Even when I am scolding her, she can ask me innocently 'mommy are you scolding me now?'
'huh? you can't tell I am scolding you?' Faint!
 
Hippo,

you were there on sat? i was there 2.
happy.gif


did u buy any of de bks they were sellin?
 
hippo,
your dd so cute.. Good in that she won't take it personally. My dd v thick skin. She will cry but in 10 minutes she will forgot everything. But bad thing is she never learn her lesson ; (

You can find out about modeling in primary school assessment / guide books. The guide books will have a summary and sample questions & answers at the beginning of each chapter to guide you through. I suggest start off at Pri 4 or 5 because the PSLE ones are super qiam. I told my hubby it's more difficult than my O level, A maths exam. Maybe because our generation is brought up in Algebra so modeling seems so Alien. Can't believe I have re-learn everything !!
 
Hi Devi,

Sorry din not log on for so long. My gals are in Queenstown Good Shepherd & the school does provide Chinese Immersion Programme at additional cost. Therefore, I enrol her there for conveninence sake lor.

Just curious, y put ur gal at Montessori Farrer Rd when there are quite a number of kindergartens in Queenstown area ?

Yalor, gd idea we should meet up have coffee & discuss abt the schools in Queenstown area :p

Re : P1
<moe>

Not true leh. I email the school directly to enquire whether my place is within 2km &amp; whether balloting is a common practice. They replied that <so>.

According to the info that i gathered last yr, balloting were conducted outside 2km. Vancancy for 2B were 60 &amp; number of children registered were 27. Vancancy for 2C were 94 &amp; number of children registered were 99. Sob sob ....... That means our chance are really really slim !

Hmmm, can we hope that not much babies were born in 2002 &amp; that there are more boys than girls ! If so, our chance will be higher lor :p
 
Devi,
this part were lost ....

Re : P1
MOE to check my chances for CHIJ Kellock but unfortunately i was told "slim" cos its vacancies are filled on earlier phases and the school do not go for balloting

Not true leh. I email the school directly to enquire whether my place is within 2km &amp; whether balloting is a common practice. They replied that So far, no balloting for those within 2km.

According to the info that i gathered last yr, balloting were conducted outside 2km. Vancancy for 2B were 60 &amp; number of children registered were 27. Vancancy for 2C were 94 &amp; number of children registered were 99. Sob sob ....... That means our chance are really really slim !
 
hippo,

bought de series of maths bk written by de speaker. thot since de speaker advocates creative maths, thot may b his bks teaches dat; i'm totally lost at creativity. hsven't really read de bks so hope they r gd n relevant.
 
My kids have been away from kindergarten the last 1 &amp; half week.

HFMD cases still rising according to news last night. Called the principal &amp; was told last week one more new case

Aiyo, don't know how long I need to keep them at home...


jh

oh, I didn't notice the books written by the speaker.
hehe, he should have mention he is an author during the talk, sure can UP the sales figure
wink.gif
 
Hi

Understand that some of you have attended the workshop by Dr Yeap last Saturday.

I was there too. It was interesting and creative although i find some of the questions could be quite tricky. I myself also don't quite understand how to get the answers.

So any of you mummies here signing up the MPM course for your child?
 
Hi Linda
I just started my dd on MPM, although if you read thru the archives, some parents find not much coaching with the child by the centre. I did not consider kumon as I heard from mummies that they have homework, and I do not have time to sit with my dd to ensure she completes the work.

MPM has homework too, but just half a booklet, still managable, I'll normally get her to finish up the work right after we reach home from her class, she'll take less than an hour to complete. She just started, only completed 2 workbooks so far, so cannot give comments if it's good.
 
Hi pressuredkid

Thanks for your feedback.

My ds is generally weak in Math. His teacher in his childcare centre commented that he doesn't quite understand the concept of simple addition and subtraction!

So now am very worried and stressed about how he can cope when he goes P1 next year. So I'm now searching/looking for Math courses which can help him. Don't know whether MPM can help him or not.

I intend to start him on MPM. I've made an appointment next week at the MPM branch near where i stay for him to take the diagnostic test.
 
my hubby's colleague just withdrawn his girl (P2 this year) from MPM

Initially his feedback was quite favourable but now he said his girl does not understand &amp; there isn't any coaching by teacher. So parents and child struggle together with those creative problems

I visited a MPM center some weeks ago. Indeed quite chaotic, only 1 teacher &amp; some younger kids were standing on chairs. I didn't see the teacher do any teaching at all

He switched to Sakamoto. I am waiting for feedback since only switch recently
 
hippo,
Did you go to the branch at Siglap? My neighbor's 5-yr old girl was quite "traumatised" after she had to sit still to finish worksheet in 1 hour. She kept crying so the mum withdrew her. But her mum feels that it helps for the son because the son tops the P4 class in Maths after attending MPM.
 
hi Linda,
did u buy any bks durin de wkshop?

dun 4get 2 use de discount voucher if u decide 2 sign up mpm.

btw anyone wans dis voucher? expiry july.

fz,
heard dat de bks (All Kids R Intelligent! series) r not sold in normal bk shops. but i thot i saw other non-maths titles in dis series sellin in Times many yrs ago.

they sell only to schs or workshops like dis so may b those wif pri-sch-goin kids may noe them. they give parents in advance a list of bks they r sellin, de parents order thru de list n de kids pic up on de actual day, or somethg like dat.

i got their namecard if anyone wans their contact.
 
Hi jh

No, i did not buy any books from the workshop.

Thanks for reminding me to use the discount voucher.

Understand that you bought the books from the workshop, have you let your child try on them?

Is your child attending any Math course now? Do you intend to sign up MPM?
 
differences

1. MPM has less homework. Kumon 5 pages everyday

2. MPM questions seems more creative whilst Kumon is plain drilling


similarity

1. both don't teach. The child can spend 30 minutes to 2 hours (struggling) in the center

2. the child can accelerate if he or she is more advanced
 
With regards to the coaching part, I wonder if parents can speak to the teacher at the centre if their kid encounter problems or do not understand?

I asked the teacher at the centre when I send my dd for assessment if they explain to the kid how to answer the questions and she told me yes. The MPM workbook has no instructions at all so I'm wondering how would the child know how to answer the question without any instructions.

So far for the past 2 weeks, I saw the teacher sitting with my dd when i go and pick her from the school. The parent should be able to monitor if their child understands the concept by seeing them complete the next half of the workbook. Think I'll just have to monitor my dd's progress and will request the teacher to explain to her if she does not understand the question or concept required.
 
thks hippo, for the clarifiations.

i started my sons on Kumon a few mths agos but i have not seen any results yet.

i also heard that sakamoto is also not bad.


hi rfbabe,
i think mindchamps is to teach the children the technique to learn, not drilling.
 
Jasmine

I sent my girl back to Kumon. Noticed her Maths standard deteriorated after withdrawing

Although I do not think Kumon is ideal (not creative, plain drilling, different direction from MOE Maths focus in thinking Maths)

but I couldn't find another enrichment to stimulate her. I guess better let her continue in the meantime before she forgets everything


Mommies

I feel that Maths enrichment should ideally be
1. creative
2. stimulate more indepth understanding of a topic (instead of acceleration to other topics)
3. not too homework intensive

Is there such a Maths enrichment in the market?

And what about English? Your child attending any English enrichment classes? especially in creative writing?

Thanks for sharing
happy.gif
 
hippo2002

ya...it is pretty difficult to find suitable math enrichment in the market.

my boy's english enrichment is more for him to learn the workings in a classroom environment...eg copy homework from board, doing worksheets within the time frame, learning spelling...nothing special...can't complain cos very cheap. the MMI my boy is having math under do have creative writing programme, but i am hesitant to explore there due to its ridiculous company policy.
 
My son is attending kumon... seen the improvement in his work, especially on the time taken to complete his work. Much faster now.

:) Hopefully he will be ready for P1.
 
rfbabe
is your boy taking English with Kumon too?


fz
Do share with us if you visit that Maths center
happy.gif

not easy to find English enrichment too
 
i think kumon is good for some kids. i havent seen how my son has applied his kumon learning to his school work. maybe time taken is slightly faster, that's all.

i have also heard kumon english is not bad. there again, it really depends on the child.

i heard sakamoto not bad, it follows moe syllabus.

for kindergarten children, i think it is important to learn phonics, to enable them to read.
 
hippo2002,
ya..will do...just need to get my driver's license first so that i can 'sack' my current chauffeur (aka my husband) cos he complain he 'work'(aka drive us around) long hours for ds1's enrichment. :p

jasmine,
for kumon, i am worried about drilling killing interest. while it is impt to do fast and accurate, the joy of learning is equally important.
 
fz,
u can do 5 pages instead of 10 pages. they will feel more motivated to do 5 pages and thus they will finish it quickly.

i understand ur concern, that's why some parents dun like kumon. i have started only a few months, yet to see the results. but so far, my boys are okay with it, probably becos it is only 5 pages.
 

linda,

haven't tried de bks yet; no time
sad.gif


din send her 2 any maths class; dun noe which 1
happy.gif


abt de bks, saw some sellin at jurong east popular ... urrggghhhh ...
 

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