(2002) Any 2002 babies?

Natellehcim hope your son is feeling better now. OMG my dd has not started any revision on her textbooks yet. And for EL paper 1, she has to write 50 words for picture composition and she hates comprehension for both english and chinese. I am feeling so stress out... Its good that we have this forum to ventilate our stress
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Hi Valerie,
thanks, he's better now. Yesterday he had his Chinese oral, and today shall be his English. He told me he can manage his chinese, so let's see how it goes. Gotten his exam schedule. Funny schedule, 27 Oct, 30 oct, 2 Nov and 3 Nov.
 
Nate, thats great.
Mine is 29/10(EL1), 30/10(CL1), 2/11(EL2), 3/11(Math), 4/11(CL2). No formal oral assessment for P1, but informal assessment will constitutes 5 to 10 marks.
I was wondering why they do not have mock exam this round.
 
Hi Valerie,
not to worry. exam still 4 more wks, so i guess maybe next few wks shall be mock papers. My ds had been having mock papers for past weeks. I find funny because of 27 oct then 30 oct, why can't they make it closer...
 
Nate that's great to hear he is doing well.

I got my son yearend test dates as he is not having any exam this year. However, i would just start to prepare him lor.. term 3 I am not aware about his tests, luckily managed to pass. Phew. Hope he would be less careless.

Just to check, how you ladies prepare your kids for exam? Via those exam papers sold in the market or assessments? I just started getting my son to read his chinese text 1B. Already quite a few words does not know how to read.
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Do I need to get him to know all the words as to read and write?
 
Nat,

A few days apart for them to prepare for the next one wat. When I am schooling, I usually wished for a few more study days to have better concentration on a subject.
 
ohohjazz, agree with you. However the longer it drags, the longer we (mummies and kids) will suffer...ha..ha..
Very contradicting hor..
 
ya agree with you.. ha.. contradicting...

So far I've yet prepare anything with my ds, get him do some sch papers when free, but realise he is extremely careless. With given words he even can write them down wrongly.... *sigh*
 
Hi my gal's compo in school just ended. Ddo you think it's more difficult to teach gals than boys? My gal I already headache. Can't imagine my boy's turn. He can't even write a sentence properly and he can't sit still. We literally has to force him to sit down and write. Sigh... Anyone w boys to share tips?
 
Hi Daisy,

I got the same situation with you. My gal always need to push for study and all the nagging. My boy more worse. At times, got to see his mood and whenever he is happy he will read more or via versa. He also can't sit still to do homework.
 
daisy, I have a boy, i think my boy is also difficult to handle, ask him to do assessment, he can't sit down and do one, he will walk and stop to chit chat about other things instead of his own work... hiaz, i think its not really a gender issue, i think its their "pattern".

Any mummies has any tips on how to teach compo?? my son can't really spell most of the words... how to help him huh? make him learn all the spelling but he will foget after sometimes...
 
milo,
what you mean 'spell most words'? you mean normal high frequency words or special words like 'suddenly' and 'immediately'?
i made my boy memorise these words.
 
Aiyo, I ask my son write short compo. He wrote singlish. When he's pri 1, I "no eye see" already. May have to get him a proper tutor or eng enrichment class.
 
fz, i mean really common words that we use. Think he got no good phonics foundation thats why. when he was in K2 then there was a change in management and they stopped phonics. Hiaz
 
My gal is also weak in compo writing, hardly use any adjective or connective words, and weak in contents. She usu writes stuff like "The girl is reading a book.""The boy is standing behind the girl"."The girl is sitting in front of the boy"..*faint*
I bought some model compo books to illustrate but they did not help much.
The sch did guide her using the 5W and 1H (Where, why, when, who etc). I told her to draft out her compo, and then try rearrange those sentences and add some "bonus" words to form a storyline.
As highlighted by fz, there are some "bonus" phrase or words that are really useful eg "Suddenly", "look forward", "interesting", "pulled a long face" etc

Frankly speaking, I doubt I can spend much time polishing up her writing skills now. Her compo paper is 2 weeks away. It would be good enough if she does not waste marks on punctuation or grammars.

I am contemplating to sign her up for writing classes during the Dec Holidays.
 
remember I complained about my dd's non-existing writing skills some time ago?
I have been sitting with her, coaching her to write sentence by sentence. Rather tedious. Now waiting for the outcome of my hardwork...


I asked her whether she felt confident on the day of exam. She replied 'very kan cheong lah, so nervous hor'. I must have looked horrified because she started giggling 'I am referring to you, hahaha!!' she really knows how to rub it in
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bebe75,
i don't even know what the sch teaches for compo. the teacher didn't even go through for SA1. don't see anything in the english file.
and compo exam is mid oct!
 
Hi fz, my gal hardly brought back her compo work. I think, I saw her works once, in Jul. I saw some pieces with good flow and I asked if she did them herself. She said she copied from her teacher who wrote some examples on the board. Sigh..so they were not her own work lor.
Anyone knows what is the usu weightage for Oral and compo in the SA2?
 
Aiyoh...I see all these posts I very stressed! My girl also in P1 but till now, I've not revise anything with her...not even for her monthly tests! I just let her take the test and after the paper has been returned, go through the mistakes with her. I've not even seen her textbooks since the beginning of the year...

feeling what a lousy mummy I am!

My idea is to let her grown at her own pace...does anyone second this style?

Also can check roughly how much time a working mum would/should spend with the child?

ps : ling(sishu007) - I'm still waiting for you to arrange collection/top up for your learning resource items leh...
 
bebe, any good recomendation for writing class? I heard one not too far from my house but the student ratio is like 15max. I wonder if he could concentrate. My son also like your gal, he alwasys write "there is a boy sitting" 'There is this there is that" but i already told him many times that he got to make up a story not say what he see from the pic... faint....

yawn yawn, think your gal is quite confident if not why would she dare to make fun of u?

jxmum, i would also like to second your style but looking at his progress and his "pattern", if i don't push or ask him to work, he would jolly well sit and play... he would not take his iniative to do revision, so i guess i can only go on your style when he is more mature bah
 
milo, actually I'm not sure if student care centre helps. What I did for my girl is to send her to student care centre, so that at least she gets her school work completed. And if she's not sure, she can always ask the helpers there. So far, she has been passing her tests lah...so I wasn't too worried (till I came across this thread again..). She has been scoring 17-21/25...which I'm still ok..since afterall, her mummy is also not very smart lah...ha ha ha
 
mum2zm,
if i am a working mum, i'll probably adopt your style. but i am a sahm, my husband expects me to keep my boy on his toes! my source of stress...
 
Jxmum
I'm also working. Simply no time to coach. I just ask her to do assessment (3 sets per week) either maths, eng or chinese, then on Sat + sun I will go through with her. Also might get her a private tutor to coach her instead of me stressing it out!

I am considering for some creative english writing class over Nov / Dec holiday. Any mummy has recommendation?

Milo,
My gal keeps using "and then.... And then...." Even though I told her ample times, cannot write " my friend and me", should be "my friend and I", she can still repeat e mistake. Recent test make me vommit blood. The MCQ, subject is people, she can choose "it" as the answer. She must be daydreaming while doing test.
 
Hi, I sent my boy to phonics class in the middle of K2 as I realised to my horror that he could not spell and read most words..His K2 class got no spelling. Then I enrolled him in a writing class in June this year..Not sure of the results yet..his composition exam is on 13 Oct..Now I am getting him to write 2 picture compositions a day to prepare him..Anyone can recommend good sources of picture compositions...online / assessment books?
 
I also encounter similar issues with my boy when teaching him...want to drink water lah, tired lah, need to go toilet lah..On some occasions, I resorted to my school days method..bring him to fast food restaurant to teach him.. LOL. Any mummy can share how to increase kid's concentration when studying?
 
Hi mummies - I am quite relieved that my gal is not the only one struggling with the compo writing. Or could it be that our expectations towards them are too high?? Frankly speaking - at P1 level, I really do not expect them to write those compo shown in those model books. I thought their writing competancy should be limited to reasonable story flow with proper grammars and sentence structure. Therefore, if my gal can stop using "bad English" eg "I eat finish already", "I also the same", "Teacher got give me the books" - I would stop being so upset. I cannot really blame them. It is our fault that we do not correct them, or teach them the proper usage when young.

I also want to let the kids learn at their own pace..but I think with the intense education compeititons in SG, it is quite difficult to do so. I believe not all mummies are kiasu...but certainly they do not want their kids to be those in the last laps of the race or to be pushed out of the race. Our education system has evolved very much from our time. In the past, we can survive the system through rote learning. But now, the system call for conceptual and application learning. I find it difficult to teach concepts to children as some have very unique way of viewing and understanding things. That is why we parents find it tough to teach the kids ourselves. On top of that, the pre-schools in SG are not standardized in their syllabus. Some kindergartens are very academically focus while some emphasized "play and learn". You get kids of various standards coming together at P1 and apart from learning how to socialise in bigger group, they have to learn their maths/languages in another mode, it can be really stressful for the kids.

I think the issue of whether non-working mother is able to coach their children better is dependable on the learning apititude and capability of the child. I have 2 gals but they are very different in characters and learning competancy. The elder one is a slow learner and she needs a lot of encouragement to progress. She is very shy and dares not approach teacher for help, the worst part she is always resistance to changes and challenges. If you twist the questions a bit, she will not be able to answer you. The younger one is rather witty (but careless), I can practically leave her alone to complete her assignments and she is very inquisitive...sometimes I am dumbfounded by her analysis. She is not afraid of making mistakes and trying things on her own.
If I did not quit my job to coach my elder gal, I do not think she can survive her tests. I really have to spend more time guiding her, correcting her and motivating her. I always thought of going back to work once she can be independent and on par with her peers...working is definitely less stressful than teaching her at home.

Mummytiffany - I have tried bringing my gal to fast food restaurants too..ha ha. I woke her up for breakfast meal (usu restaurants are quiet on weekdays morning) and then "forced" her to sit there to complete the assignment. Free aircon somemore..ha ha. It worked for a while..cos she started getting sick of their breakfast meals.
I gave my gals DHA capsules at least 4 times a week..not sure if they help to increase her concentration, but no harm trying.

I am still sourcing around for creative writing classes - both chinese and english. Anyone has any good classes to recommend?
 
hi bebe75, i totally agree with your analysis. My kids are similar to yours, elder one like your 2nd, younger one exactly like your eldest. that's why I'm not so worrying about him, but cannot imagine my younger one going to P1 next year.
 
Hi Natellehcim, when my eldest gal went to P1, both my husband and I were shocked to see that she was "so weak" in all subjects. It was a wake-up call for us, esp my husband. He used to think that all kids will learn at their own pace, it is just a matter of time that they will get it there. Now he realise that it is not simple. We simply have to go with the major flow. In the past, we would say "Our gal is not smart, but it is okay, she will get it on her own one of these days." Now we know that time will not wait for us. If we are not careful, we will be kicked out of the race soon. And I know my elder gal's character. She is always afraid of failure and lack of confidence. We have to constantly encourage her so that she will not give up trying and learning. I really really pity her for having to study in this era.

You know one of the typical heuristic questions: 4 legged animals and 2 legged animals? She is still not able to solve them. I have given up testing her on those questions. Like what my bro (who studies in US) had said life is not about counting legs. He finds it ridiculous for the sch to test P1 kids on these kind of questions. He felt that the whole SG educational system is now gearing towards identifying the smartest one, rather than letting all the kids developed their interest in learning and discovering. He often reminds me not to be so hard on my gals, I might kill their joy of learning.
 
My gal is aware she has a EL Paper 1 on Monday. She simply think it is just a big test.

This paper is 4 pictures with helping ways. Need to write 60 words.

I think when we were younger, simple and straightfoward sentence is better than trying to be very fanciful. The "bigger" word you try to write the more mistake you might make. Just simple adjective and usage of linking words should do the trick.

So I rather get her to watch on tenses and spelling. Today I sit down with her to get her to write , she is simply restless.

Then when we went out to have breakfast, I just point to the sky. Get her to form a sentence on the weather. Then as we walked, I get her to describe what we are doing. And just continue the story for each action we did. I think she find it more fun.

I have spoken to someone to teach creative writing near hougang. She says kids love craft, we can get them to do the craft then write about it. This will make them feel it is less demanding from them. I agree with her as my daughter is more keen to draw and write about her drawing then simply just look at the picture and write about the pictures.

Jxmum
long time no hear from you. Great to see you here. Your gal is fine lah. I think she has self discipline vs my gal very very lazy one. Imagine I tell her to finish that page she can rest for 15 mins, she can complete in top speed as compared to her slow motion in previous pages.
 
chicken little : yeah! stumble upon this thread while looking for someone. By the way, have you moved? To hougang? If you are thinking of engaging someone to start a class on creative writing, and if the charges are not atrocious like JG, I'm keen to send my gal.

My girl doesn't do any assessment, and neither is she attending any classes outside school. But as she's in a neighbourhood school, I think the stress is not too bad.

For me I just made a conscientious effort to speak to her in proper english. I will correct her when she speaks wrongly. So that's about it, what I do to 'help' her.

bebe75 : I totally agree with u! In the first teacher-parent session, it came as a rude shock, or awakening call, that my daughter's reading is only at 5yo. Both me & my hubby was really shocked. In fact, since she's in K1, I had wanted to enrol her in classes like kids can read, phonics classes etc, but my hubby feels that these classes are for parents who doesn't know English. Guess how shock he was when he heard the truth which really hurts! i think daddy's tend to simplify things??

Fortunately my dd school got reading programme, the official programme is run by professionals, and there's the un-official one run by parent volunteers which my girl is attending the latter. I should say the programme is good, cos after the June holidays, suddenly, she can read! I was really impressed! She even started reading books without pictures liek the 'Daisy' series.

I guess what the school offers is really very important, and secondly, the confidence the child has. I can see that she performs better or put in more effort when she gets encourage from her daddy especially! Even though she's never really close to her daddy, but somehow, she looks up to him for approval!

maisydaisy : think I will be going shopping for some assessment books tomorrow! ha ha ha...

btw, I just found out that she had 3 topical tests since after june holiday! She will have her last test in early November. Still thinking if I should be taking leave...
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Jxmum
nope now at clementi temporarily while sourcing for house. Hmm I am surprised at the teacher comment on your gal. I always thot she is strong and well spoken English.
 
Forgot to add
Jxmum
You may not want to get too many now and stress her as you have not done it with her before and this may make her feel uncomfortable.
 
bebe75,
i guess choice of schools also determines the level of difficulty. my boy's neighbourhood schools does not teach the legs questions or similar heuristic questions. they do not use the popular 'My Pals are Here' math book and uses a very simple book that teaches basic concepts. with that, it is stressful for me too cos the gap with other papers i saw is very wide and i am so worried when the level of difficulty eventually meet at psle level. so i am using free online papers to push up his level so that he won't get the impression that school is easy breezy. ds1 is the studious type fortunately. for cheeky ds2, when the time comes, the simple syllabus will probably be suitable for him and i'll be just glad if he can pass with a decent grade.
 
chicken_little: my gal speaks well. She just couldn't read then....She is able to answer questions provided the teacher reads out to her. So the teacher was quite stress as for the 1st half of the year, she has to pay special attention to jx as she couldn't read...
 
Hi fz - I did not expect my gal's sch to be "that" tough..or maybe my gal is really below average. Hiaz. I also refer to the free online paper to test her and let her try out different exam techniques. But for those papers that are set at high standard - I gave it a miss...don't want to let her feel discouraged by difficult questions.

Jxmum - my husband was like yours..he disliked the idea of sending kids to academic enrichment classes when they were in pre-sch. He was not very discouraging when I insisted on sending the kids to phonics class when they were in K1/K2. He said they had no problem conversing in English, esp when we spoke English to them most of the time. I agreed that phonics does not work for every kids. In my case, it works for my younger gal, but not my elder one. My elder gal is quite weak in blending the sounds, she goes by word recognition. And so we have to read to her frequently. My husband only gave in when he revised maths with my daughter in Term2. He realised that she has no maths concept and we really need to seek help. And now whenever we are in Popular, he will be loitering around the P1 assessment books section and browse the latest assessment books available. Parenting nowadays is not that simple.
 
fz
Me too. Kids' grades are my performance evaluation report


bebe75, Jxmum

My hubby subscribes to the other extreme. Better over prepare than under prepare. He feels that it's even more stressful for the child if can't cope in school & affect self esteem


bebe75
this type of legs questions seem more for P3 onwards? too difficult for P1


chicken little
your method of teaching is very creative!
 
creative writing

I'm still looking for creative writing classes for my dd.

mommies, if got lobang please share
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I read good review on learning lab but hesitated because of the fees. So expensive!
 
yawn yawn,

what abt getting a tutor? I got a tutor to teach my gal and I just do reinforcement with her at least I am not so stress & sour the relationship.
 
Anyone tried Morris Allen @Bishan? I prefer classes that allow interaction..thought it would be good to let my gal open up a bit..
 
hi mummies, did not get to my PC during the weekends. I do understand bebe75's concern, because my girl is also like her dd1. For my ds1, so far so good in his neighbourhood school. ya it really depends on how the school 'manages' their system. Although my ds was not tested in those heuristic qns, but I've notice his teacher did teach them some of it. It's kind of 'extra' for them to learn.

For my case, I am a bit worrying is both my kids 'english'. We are not from a mandarin speaking family. When they were young, I have the thought they will eventually pick up english from their peers for many kids are from english speaking family then. Thus, I do not have the habit to talk to them in english. To my 'horror' is when I realise there were not 'proper' english books anymore, like what we used to have when young, whereby teachers will start teaching us grammar eg 'is' 'are, singular, plural, etc. What they have now are BIG TITLE BOOKS and their worksheets are so wordy and cloze passage style.

Ya singapore's edu system really put many 'foreigners' off, esp countries like US, europe, etc. Our edu system seems to really 'pick' up those smart ones. If not why the GEP comes about... but 1 thing to proof our edu system did 'work' somehow. Otherwise, how to have three Singaporeans topped their respective courses at Oxford University this year. This was published in the recent news.
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Jolene

I prefer enrichment centers, seem more structured in terms of syllabus & coverage.

More importantly, to supplement my English. During creative writing, I realised I'm rather confused by some of the complex grammar rules. So sometimes not sure whether I'm teaching her the right thing when writing sentences.

Won't sour relationship. I'm not fierce at all
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Hi yawn yawn,

Heard Mind Stretcher is quite gd...u might want to give it a try...

For me I always loose my patience with my gal when I teach her...she will end up crying most of the times cos I am very fierce
happy.gif
haha
 
Jolene

Aiyo, my dd is the fierce one. If I repeat a few more times, she will get impatient & ask me to keep quiet. I must remind her not to snap at me, so rude. Then she realised she's out of line but after a few days forget again.


mommies

Does your hubby coach your P1?
When I asked hubby to coach my dd on her Maths, he sits with her alright, together with his PSP !
 
Yawn Yawn
My husband will help out if I asked him to. But usually only giving tingxie or spelling. Or at most be there when she needs help as she does her maths assessment or test papers. But of course his main task was looking at his PC. sigh

Phew my gal's EL paper 1 was over yday. She says it was easy and she used all the helping words for the picture. Told me her story but she said instead of 60 words she wrote 100 words. So to me more means more mistake. Sigh. Lets see how it goes
 
Hi mummies, i am really stressed out, just marking her assessment works and going thru the correction already drained me out.

Sigh..my hb is not bothered about coaching and always turn on the tv when she is revising.

Chicken Little, maybe we should give your dd some credit for making effort to write 100 words. Did she really count the words?
 
Hi Mummies,

I have been too busy with my work and looking after my son cos my hubby travels quite often these days.

I agree that it depends on the school's directions and goals.

My son is quite lazy when I am not home. He will continue to watch his cartoons instead of doing the homework after the resting time stated by me. He will start to do when he thinks I am about to reach home. Haiz...

He does not listen to his dad or my mum. The moment he hears either of them talking to me, he will immediately off the tv and start doing his homework. Sigh!

Apart from the laziness, he does improve in his studies. So far, he has done well in his surprise class tests.

Composition is one of the hardest thing to teach.
My case is so diff from Chicken Little cos I need to ask my son to write more *haha*

Bebe75, Yawn Yawn and Mum2zm
Not sure about your budget. I enrolled my son to Lorna Whinston's creative writing class during school holidays. They follow closely to MOE's guidelines on creative writing.
 
Valerie
ya lah credit still goes to her as she seems quite confident and was very sure she wrote in past tenses, left 2 finger spacing to start the paragraph and ensure her spelling is correct.

She said she had enuff time to check and count the number of words before submitting to the teacher to ensure she did write 60 words.

She was telling me about the 100 words because teacher told them in P2 they need to write 100, P1 they are required to write 60.
 


Avrilf
I was keen to sign my gal up for LW too but will see how she fare in this SA2.

I had problem during revision too. I have to ask her to write more. She can tell me she used up all helping words and cannot do 5 sentences. But in school she will be able to do it. Good or no good I dunno till the result is out ha ha
 
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