Learning for kids Archives - Page 2 of 8

PSLE Student English Workshop by Marshall Cavendish Education

I think by now most of you know that I am exploring ways to teach my own P6 girl since she does not have tuition. In fact, I am looking at whether there are tuition centres for parents like me. Mummy Ed knows me well for sure, and introduce me to the series of Parent Workshops by Marshall Cavendish Education (hey, I am sure you have heard of MCONLINE!). It has all levels from P1 to P6 Coaching Workshops meant for parents to attend. I am definitely most interested in PSLE Parent Workshops!

But before I attend the PSLE Parent Workshops, I realized that they have PSLE Student Workshops too! Hence, I decided to coax my girl into skipping her art classes to attend the English Workshop since the dates worked out well for us. Each of the Student and Parent Workshops consists of a 2-part series, meaning that you have to attend 2 Saturdays for each subject upon sign up, usually from 9am to 3pm or 430pm depending on which subject it is.

In the English Student Workshop over 2 Saturdays which my girl and her friend had attended, they learnt the following:

The 5 Deadly Character Flaws – crafting a story from the inside-out!
- At the heart of every good story lies a flawed character who wants to/learns how to change.
- The 5 Flaws: Greed, Laziness, Anger, Envy, Pride
Unexpected (yet logical) plot twists!
- Identity shifts, unexpected consequences, defying the reader’s expectations
The 1-2 Punch Method of Combining Sentences
- Strategy for Synthesis & Transformation
The importance of asking the right questions (at the right time) – what is “right” anyway?
- Tenacity in asking questions – even if it means stinging your ego
- Situation Awareness – Jump out of your inner world sometimes!
- Classical Cases of People Asking the Right Questions who changed the world!

When I picked up the girls after the first session, I was anxious to know if skipping her usual art class for this workshop was a right decision. To my delight, both the girls gave their thumbs up! They enjoyed the workshop tremendously mainly because of one reason: the teacher (Teacher Joel) was a very humorous guy who cracks them up for the entire 6 hours. To enjoy the workshop is really the key to absorbing what has been taught. For this, the workshop is already a success with the right teacher!

The first part of this workshop is teaching them on writing a composition using the 5 character flaws, interesting plot twists, and ending with a funny Coda strategy: MFHD. Guess what it is?! It means:

M:My – Memories
F:Friend – Feelings
H:Has – Hopes
D:Diarrhoea – Decisions

The first two are for REFLECTING ON THE PAST, and the next two are for REFLECTING ON THE FUTURE. This is used for the last concluding paragraph.

IMG-20170204-WA0001 — Photo with courtesy from MCE

IMG-20170204-WA0003 — Photo with courtesy from MCE

During the class, Teacher Joel asked them to act out the character flaws. It really helped them to remember clearly on each point covered in class. And when the students handed up their composition homework the next Saturday, Teacher Joel made a funny remark about my girl’s starting words of “One day,…” which made her laugh hard, and you bet she will probably never use that start line again!

On the second Saturday, the girls returned to the second part of the workshop learning how to work on Synthesis and Transformation questions using the 1-2 Punch Method. Basically, it is about the order of action just like in boxing punch of rapid succession of 2 blows. Well, what a way to describe the method to imprint on the students’ minds. Even I had a deep impression reading about this 1-2 Punch Method. Seriously I was wondering if the handouts were prepared by Teacher Joel too, since the contents are kind of humorous! And there is a TOP SECRET handout that says “For your eyes only” which has a formula table for all kinds of conjunctions.

When I picked up the girls after the end of the second class, they couldn’t stop talking about the class titbits. It is certainly worth skipping two art classes to attend such an interesting workshop and learning these extra tips on English.

Today, my girl had her English Paper 1 CA test. She came back and told me she had used a plot twist and MFHD in her composition. Wow! I thought how timely this workshop is! And the bubbly girl went on to recall what the workshop teacher had taught them and shared the jokes again and again. It made me and Master 10 laugh out loud too! You must know that my girl is a natural when it comes to acting out a scene. I can practically see Teacher Joel’s funny acts through her!

And guess what? She asked to attend another workshop!!

This PSLE Student English Workshop was held over the previous 2 Saturdays and the next upcoming student workshop will be PSLE Student Chinese Workshop on coming 2 Saturdays and Math and Science in March. Here is a summary of the dates, one on Student Workshops and the other on Parent Workshops.

For more information, do check this out and sign up from the 2 links below to enjoy 20% discounted rate. This is bundle of 3 workshops in special rates!

PSLE Student Workshop sign up link: click here.

PSLE Parent Workshop sign up link: click here.

I have attended the PSLE Parent Workshop for English. Click here for my review!

Disclaimer: I was invited to the PSLE workshops for the purpose of this review. As I am writing a PSLE series this year, these PSLE workshops will be a good resource to share with all parents preparing for the big national exam! Stay tune for more!

The Start of PSLE Preparations From A Mum Who Insists On NO TUITION

I have wanted to title this as “The Start of PSLE Preparations From The Laid-Back Mum”. But I am not exactly so laid-back anymore after my girl, Missy 12, failed her Math in P3. I cannot label myself as laid-back since I do teach and revise with my kids one month before examinations. In comparison with most parents, I have done very minimal for my kids’ academic. There is one thing I have stick to my guns and am crossing my fingers that I am doing a right thing, is to insist on not sending my kids to tuition.

This year, Missy 12 is taking PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examinations), her first National Examination at a tender age of 12. I am not going to lament why the need for PSLE and why can’t kids just move on to Secondary school without going through such major stress. This post is about how we are going to revise for PSLE on our own, free of external tuition.

If there are tuition centres for parents to teach techniques in answering English Comprehension Cloze, Comprehension, Science open-ended questions, Chinese Comprehension and Composition tips, you bet, I will sign up for it. I will gladly use my time to learn and go back to teach Missy 12, so as to save her time. Perhaps I am unaware of any. So please let me know if you know of one ok?

I must admit that tuition centres or private tuition teachers have bags of tricks and techniques to teach students on how to answer questions. That is the major advantage of going for tuition classes. So by denying my girl to go to such sure-win classes, many have question about my sanity and label me as a stubborn bull. To speak the truth, I am scared too.

Should I stop Missy 12’s new piano classes now (she has recently asked to resume her piano class after 1.5 years of break) when everyone is doing the opposite by taking a year break from any kind of enrichment classes? Should I invest $100+ per lesson to give her a booster in English? Should I ignore her tiredness from 3 times a week of intensive Volleyball training and insist she go to 1.5 hours of tuition multiply by 2 or 3 subjects every week plus 1 hour travelling time back and forth? Or perhaps others may ask why is she still playing sports and going for NAFA art classes during this crucial year?

There are various reasons why I do not send her to tuition classes and why she is still continuing enrichment classes.

FATIGUE PREVENTS OPTIMAL LEARNING

Firstly, she has never attended a single tuition class and forcing her to do it now may backfire her learning interest. If she cannot catch what is taught in class, she may not catch it in another tuition class. Switching off when one has lost interest and simply too tired could happen to anyone. Besides travelling on the road to and fro tuition will deplete all her energy and attention needed in the class.

TRUST IN SCHOOL TEACHERS

Secondly, I believe our MOE-trained school teachers are very qualified to teach the students good enough to do well in PSLE. If not, shouldn’t we send our kids to tuition classes instead and skip school entirely?

STRIKING A BALANCE

Thirdly, I believe in BALANCE. I want my girl to be happy and learn holistically. I worry about her stress levels this year.

On the first day of school, her form teacher wrote down the test and exam schedule from Jan to Sep. I can feel that the teachers have started to emphasize to the students on how critical this year is, and have no reservations in instilling the awareness and stress in them. I am not so sure if Missy 12 feels the stress, but I took a picture of what she jotted down on this schedule and I couldn’t take my eyes off the snapshot of the schedule the next day. I am determined to “wake up” from my laid-back self and do my best to ensure she does reasonably well. It will still be only Mom Tuition and no external tuition. At the same time, I am also determined to balance her stress and ensure she still has a life. So, her piano and art classes and volleyball practices are forms of de-stress in my opinion and should not stop. I will respect her if, at any point of time, she thinks she wants to stop any of them. So far, she has not raised a flag.

REVISION PLANS

Ever since I saw the Jan to Sep exam schedule, I have gone to the Popular bookstore to buy more assessment books. I had chanced upon a parent who taught an unorthodox method to improve English in a short time. I had talked to several mums whose kids have been through PSLE. I have talked to teacher friends. Finally I discussed all my findings and thoughts with Kel.

We came out with a timetable for revision. We worked out how to settle the other 2 kids when I am teaching my girl. We put up a revision plan and teaching method for English, the weakest subject. I shall share details on how we go about revising in another post.

Each weeknight, we will have 30 minutes revision time for English. You may think it is very short. However, I am a working mum. Night time is short and precious. Energy is low, attention span is short. My girl returns late on 4 weekdays in a week from school’s commitment. She will need time to rest and do her homework. She may have questions that need my help to teach her too. Some time has to be catered to that.

Every weekend, we will have 2 parts of revision according to our weekend schedule. First part will be an hour’s revision and second part will be an hour and a half. Saturday will be focusing on Math and Sunday will be on Science.

That leaves Chinese out of the whole revision plan. Chinese is our kids’ strongest subject and it really helps to free up time for the rest of the subjects. It is hard to achieve bilingual excellence. While Chinese is their strongest subject, naturally, English becomes the weaker one. The reason why Chinese is a stronger subject is because we are a Chinese speaking family and my kids watch Channel 8 drama serials, listen to Chinese radio station and Chinese songs. Even though they do not have too much problem with Chinese, they still need to brush up compositions and get the right technique to answering Chinese Comprehension questions.

CHANGE OF ROUTINES TO PREP PSLE

Some routines will have to change a bit.

Sleeping early

This is a really difficult routine to change. Perhaps with one child, I may be able to enforce this with breeze since there are no toddler who runs in and out of the room before bed and no sibling to chat and giggle with long after lights out. I told Missy 12 that a simple way to help her do well in academic is to sleep early, as simple as that. A clear mind is like an empty sponge. It absorbs knowledge faster and allows one to think better. We are trying to have a lights out by 930pm.

No night TV

The kids love to watch the Chinese Drama serial at 9pm to 10pm. This will have to stop. I do allow them to have an hour of TV time in the day time once they have finished their homework.

Less weekend activities

This year, we may have to cut down on our weekend activities for the sake of Missy 12’s critical year. She has lots of homework from Friday school and has started to ask for more time to do homework. The first time she asked for homework time, I was slightly taken aback. The kids are growing up and school work is mounting. I have since cut down on blog events and ensure homework is done before we bring them out. Nevertheless, I will balance revision time with play. Moderating stress is my priority too.

Other siblings

So what do the other 2 kids do when I am revising with my Missy 12? I have decided to task Master 10 to play with Master 5. It works sometimes and it poses great challenges on other times. Master 5 yearns for attention after not seeing me for the whole day. I have even thought of the convenient way of giving the ipad so that he can quietly watch some YouTube videos and I can have some peaceful serious revision time. If you have good ideas on how to handle the other kids, do help me on this too!

To prepare for PSLE which is taking place in September, I will most likely take up lesser blog commitment and cut down on my girl night dates. It is indeed a family examination since everyone in the house has to change routine and adjust in one way or another to give moral support. I will be blogging more on PSLE preparation and my experience on it as we go along. I hope our revision plan works and who knows, I may really send my girl to intensive tuition if nothing works out!

I welcome PSLE mums to drop a comment below or on facebook page to exchange ideas and advice. Thank you in advance!

Till the next PSLE post!

Wake up Parents! A child’s life is more important than GRADES!

The day I read about the tragic news of a Primary 5 child who plunged to his death because he did not want to face the remainder of the day due to his poor results, my heart actually skipped a beat.

It was not because I am the type of Kiasu Mum who will punish my kids for not meeting my target marks, in fact, I DO NOT have a target mark for my children to meet, but it was more of getting a self-check on whether I am putting my children through high stress UNKNOWINGLY!

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

The day I read about the tragic news of a Primary 5 child who plunged to his death because he did not want to face the remainder of the day due to his poor grades, my heart actually skipped a beat.

I read through the article and it stated that the boy’s mum cried out that she did not expect him to get 80 marks and it was “only 70 marks” that she had asked for. That gave me a wake up call too. What if I thought that I am a good mum who is doing the best for my kids and that my expectations (if any) are reasonable, but the kids are actually feeling too stressed out by my expectations or actions? It never occurred to me that my kids may be stressed. Have I looked out for signs that they are feeling stressful? Have I been doing a self-check on myself and checking on my actions and my facial expressions when they bring back the exam papers to me to sign?

Kids, nowadays, are indeed subjected to too much stress, from peers, from teachers, from tuition teachers, from parents, from grandparents, from society. And to make things worse, they are more vulnerable than previous generations who are more resilient and know how precious lives are. Their vulnerability comes from being too sheltered, too scared to fail, no chance to fail, and comes from growing up in a safety net around them and not permitted to take controlled risks. Are these the results of our “can’t afford to fail” mentality expected of our children?

The first thing I did when I returned home that day after I read the news was to catch my girl in a relax mood to talk. I asked my eldest if she felt stressful with the exams preparation. She answered yes. I was surprised as I had never thought that she was stressful because she played more than she studied and I detected no signs of stress in her. Neither is she taking any academic enrichment classes outside school that will cause her stress.

Me: Why do you feel stressed?

Missy 11: I am worried that I will not do well in the examinations.

Ok, stress noted and acknowledged. Then, I started to talk about my learning journey of how I fared a 238 for my PSLE, went into a better than average school with lowest cut off of 232 (now a top school), and began to ace my Math which was my worst subject in PSLE, ace my way to University and ended up just an average worker in the workforce and not earning as much as those who fared average in school.

ALTERNATIVE ACADEMIC ROUTES DO NOT DEFINE OR CONDEMN YOU IN ANY WAY

Me: Well, that’s more to life than getting good results. So what if you do not score well in P5 SA2 exams or PSLE? When you grow up and look back, these are just 2 small chapters in your life. Just accept that you have done your best and have a pat on your back for that. If you do not do as well in PSLE, you may go to an average school, or take the slightly longer route in Secondary School of Normal Academic or Normal Tech. These are just alternative routes to learning and they do not define you or condemn you in any way. It is not going to stop you from achieving success in life with other talents. Maybe you are not academic incline in Primary School, and it doesn’t mean you will not realize your academic potential in Secondary School when you meet a good teacher. The most important thing is that you have tried your BEST and be HAPPY.

I recalled with my gal on the time she failed her Math in P3. Now, fast forward 2.5 years later, I really appreciate that failure.

I told her: The most important thing after a failure is what you do after that. Do you reflect on your failure and get more motivated to do better or do you wallow in self-pity or self-destruction and waste the ‘Failure’ experience?

In my girl’s case, it was a good failure which I am happy that it happened. Without failing, she would probably not have experienced and gone through what the failure made her to be: More resilient and more motivated.

I had earlier mentioned in my previous post that PSLE Year will not be an enjoyable year. Now I think about it, it doesn’t have to be that way. Since teachers in school are putting pressure on the PSLE students, all the more I should moderate the stress by planning activities for destress and enjoyment. How can one waste one year of life to mug for examinations?

PARENTS AS CHEERLEADERS

I feel that parents are the best supporters and cheerleaders in their children’s lives. As cheerleaders, your job is not to scold your teammates and instead your job is to motivate and give encouraging words. Who doesn’t know that positive words go towards better self-esteem and better performance for an individual? This is commonly known in sports team or workplace where coach/boss give a pat on player/employee’s back, in relationship when a husband give encouraging words to his wife or vice versa, and certainly it does more good than harm for a parent to give encouraging words to his child.

I seriously hope that PSLE can be scrapped one day. It does not provide much value add to move to Secondary School and beyond. Since we are doing away with school ranking, why not do away with an exam that serves no significant purpose in life except create a whole lot of unhealthy stress in our young children and us, parents? Further, in a recent news, ” South Korea and Singapore, both high achievers at school level, are below average in the graduate rankings.” Now, that’s some food for thought on our education system.

CHECK OUR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

Back to the tragic case of the P5 boy, all I want to say is that when a child does badly, he knows it. We don’t have to reiterate to him on how badly he does, or show him a disappointed face combined with a slow shake of head. We should never never punished physically for bad results. Most of the time, the child feels worse than us. After a while, our emotions subside and we may feel it was not such a big deal after all. But the child, on the receiving end of the parents’ disappointed faces or negative words may feel it for a long long time.

NEVER COMPARE

And never compare your child with another person, especially siblings. If my hubby constantly compares me with another woman, you will be sure I will detest that woman instead of improving myself. I supposed the same thing applies to comparing academic results. Comparing serves no purpose.

Nevermind that my girl is in the 2nd class from the bottom as long as she is happy and enjoys learning. Having said that, academic basics and foundation are still necessary to be reinforced to the ability of the child. As Confucius said,”Different strokes for Different Folks (因材施教)“, it is how the parents coach their own children according to their aptitude that will benefit them. I am determined to make PSLE year for her a less stressful year and one that she will not remember for an unpleasant learning journey.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

To give or not to give – smartphone

Steve Jobs’ invention of the iPhone is probably the number one devilish invention in this modern day in my own opinion. I love it and I hate it. But the hate factor is much higher than the love factor. I love it because it helps to move the world so much faster in terms of news outreach. It rekindles long lost friendships. It helps people to stay in touch with family and friends. It provides entertainment to young and old. It saves time for people on the go answering mails, tabulating spreadsheets and reading up news. It boosts sales, boosts blogs, and it even plays a big part in rallies for international support for humanity cases, swayed voters in presidential elections. It also replaces the need for another gadget- the camera, to pack in the bag, serves as a calculator, etc etc etc.

But with it, comes many problems that I hate to deal with and many social ills too. While it gives a chance of socializing on the go via apps, it inhibits human face to face interaction. It causes compulsive disorder Continue reading “To give or not to give – smartphone”

No Longer A Laidback Mum in Academics

Being a mum is a constant learning journey.

Each child is different and I have to craft my mothering skills differently on each child, be it nurturing his/her character or be involved in his/her academics.

I used to think that I will be a Laid Back Mum in Academics for as long as I like and my children will turn out fine studying by themselves, just like how I did it myself. How wrong I was.

After my girl failed her P3 Math exam last year, it was a kind of wake up call that my child may need me to be involved in her studies to some extent. I will not hold her hand forever and still will not load her with tuition and endless helicoptering over her studies such that she will be turned off by me. But I will guide her along when she needs my help or if I see that she NEEDS my help. Children may not know and may not always be so initiative when it comes to academics. I need to be more aware of their signals for help.

Imagine my elation when she came back to tell me she had scored 84/100 for her P4 SA2 Math exam!

This was from a “F” in P3 SA2 Math to a pass of 54 marks in P4 SA1 Math exam to an Ace (in my own mummy ranking) in P4 SA2 Math exam!

Not only that, she scored well across all subjects this time round and her friend actually told her that she should get the BEST IMPROVEMENT award 🙂

Best part is Missy 10 said this one evening when I was at the dining table: Continue reading “No Longer A Laidback Mum in Academics”