no tuition Archives - Kids 'R' Simple

Do Our Kids Really Need Tuition?

Do our kids really need tuition? If you ask me, I would say maybe out of 10 kids, at least 5 may not need it at all. And then we have the other 5 who may really need it due to perhaps, a disengaging school teacher who kills all the passion in the subject, the child’s slow learning pace, lack of motivation and more reasons. So for the 5 who may not need, what is the compelling reason to take extra classes at all? Are our school teachers so incapable of teaching a child such that he or she does not understand the subject well? Is it that we want our kids to be able to answer every single question, problem sum, leaving practically nothing to be wrong?

When our first child was born, certainly the thought that we have to set aside funds for extra tuition classes never ever crossed our minds! However, we did secretly hope that we need not spend money for extra lessons. We wished that our children can perform well in school. We know how tuition classes are like from friends and media. And we do not want our children to spend their after school or weekend hours to sit in a class again to understand the same topics. Maybe it is just that we are selfish, we do not wish to ferry them back and forth classes. We certainly would be happy if we can save the money and time on tuition and better allocate them to playgrounds, building sandcastles, picnics, nature or even one or two expensive toys. If you have followed my PSLE series post, you would have known that Missy belonged to the average student and now that she has completed primary school days, my verdict is that I am glad I did not send her for tuition.

Many have asked me how we can go the No Tuition route. The answer is really very simple. Lower our expectations of our children. If you really want me to say the true answer, then it will be:

Have NO Expectations of our child

But how many people can do that? Don’t we all wish for our children to be top 3 in class? For some, getting our children to be top students may be fulfilling what we could not achieve when we were students ourselves. Maybe the real question to ask ourselves is: Why do we want our children to be top students? Can we accept Bs and Cs and why not?

With the pursuit of academic excellence, there are bound to have some opportunity costs. I think these are heavy costs.

Doing well by own efforts

We take away the chance to do well academically by our children’s own efforts. By enrolling tuition from as young as kinder or lower primary, we have never given our children a chance to prove to themselves that they can do it without additional help.

You are no good

We are telling our children that your results are no good, and that is why we are sending you for extra help so that you can improve. If your child is good enough, it is good enough, why do we want them to get the extra marks or even pursue for perfect score, not tolerating even one or two marks loss? What is life all about? Being perfect and always on the top 1% no matter where you go?

Nothing else matters except Ace

Our message to our children is: Academic comes first and anything non-academic or non-competitive do not matter. Is this the right message that we want the children to receive? Childhood life is just that: Ace Ace and more Ace?

No chance to fail

We deprive the children of a chance to fail. They grow up in a world of excellence and In their dictionary, it is missing the words “FAILURE” and “RESILIENT“. We should worry for the day when we no longer can help them achieve excellence and should they fall down, they cannot stand up on their own.

As parents, we all want the best for our child. Apart from basic morals and values, I find that having no expectations on our child is perhaps the best present that we can give them. When we do not expect anything, we allow the child to develop on their own, take charge of their own learning, take responsibility for consequences. By not expecting anything, does not mean that we are totally hands-free and let the child swim on his own. In fact, we can give help, guidance, and if really beneficial, send the child to tuition because the child needs it and not because WE want it. We can give moral support, and all kinds of help but let’s not expect anything in return. Our job is to do what we can to arm the child with the right tools so that he can walk on his own, grow on his own, not dictating which path he must take.

I am all for parents who send their children for tuition because they see the need to do so to help the child. But I wish that this post can remind parents whose children who are already doing well academically, that there are many other things in life that matter more. Some children mature slower, and a less than average results may not determine the child’s future. Some mature in Secondary School or later part in life. Children who are already doing well, let them have the time to play. Children who are doing average, it may just be a time issue. When the time is right, they will do well eventually. It may not be doing well academically, but it may be other non-academic talents that we should nurture instead of focusing on what they are no good in. What for focus on something that you are no good in and struggle to better it in unhappiness than to focus on something that you are good in and better it in happiness?

There is no intention of stating what is right and wrong in the decision for tuition in this post. As parents, we are the best persons to determine if our child needs that extra help in academic. However, before we sign up for that expensive tuition class, we may want to revisit the opportunity costs that I mention above and if this is really necessary or we are just afraid that our kids will fail our expectations.

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This post is the first post of the No Tuition series that I am starting to work on. I will be sharing how we go about our journey on No Tuition and the revisions that we did at home to help our child in the next few posts. My objective is really to hope more parents will focus on a happy childhood instead of feeding the billion dollar tuition industry.

So… Did We Survive to Tell The Tale of Our No-Tuition Route?

It all started with Missy failing her Math in P3. That really was a turning point for us in how we deal with academic expectations or rather, no expectation. I had a realisation to be more involved in my kids’ academic instead of being a laid-back mum for way too long. We re-visited basics, dealt with terrible attitude to seeing the change in Missy with a super good attitude, and then customising our unique 30 minutes revision to suit her learning style, insisted in no-tuition route, and finally improving by leaps and bounds in P6 PSLE results. This sums up our No-Tuition route for Primary School and Missy and I DID survive to tell the tale.

There is no fairy tale to tell here. No miracle too. The ingredients to succeed in the No-Tuition path are many. They require perseverance, cooperation, the right mindset, everybody’s contribution and support in one way or another. But I guess if you were to ask me what are the major ingredients, I would say there are 2. One is Missy’s good attitude towards her studies and the second, me having no expectation on Missy’s results. And I mean really NO expectation.

PRIMARY 4

Back in P4, our revision times were totally unpleasant.

Missy would roll her eyes, look elsewhere, cross her arms, and often, I would slam the table, engage in shouting matches, and we end up angry with each other. It was impossible to teach and at times, I was debating if I should even beg her to cooperate! Those times, revision was a waste of time and nothing went inside her ears.

PRIMARY 5

Perhaps it was a growing up phase, come P5, Missy started to become cooperative and our revision gradually become effective. She could absorb concepts and explanations fast. It became a breeze and joy to teach! I could not even believe it was just a few months ago that I was tearing my hair teaching her.

PRIMARY 6

Missy continued her good attitude into P6 year. In P5, we concentrated mostly on Math so that she could catch up on her Math basics. You wouldn’t believe it. At the start of P6, I realised that I neglected her English. Perhaps it was more like I accepted her borderline pass in this subject for the longest time and I don’t even know why I paid no heed to the warning bells! To be frank, I debated on whether to send her to tuition for professionals to teach her English. Even though I used to teach Adult English Course, I was not confident in bringing her up to the standard to score a better than borderline pass within just 9 months!

I discussed with the hub who gave me a very wise advice: Revise on English nightly for just 30 minutes, no more, no less.

I panicked. How can 30 minutes a night be sufficient??? We should do at least an hour! Or else, how can I bring her up to the standard within 9 months? Mind you, we are talking about basic plural, singular rules! Well, I decided to listen to the hub to keep to a short revision. On syllabus, it was kind of my forte to plan out our revision curriculum. I bought an English Grammar book. We started on basics, really basic English. We kept to 15 minutes teaching, and 15 minutes practising. Before we started, I had a pep talk with Missy. She had to cooperate for a full 30 minutes and I ensured not exceeding the 30 minutes and then we would be done. A stop watch helped to watch the time. We ended up with a super fruitful revision. Although it was only 30 minutes, she improved her English quickly. I also encouraged her to read books to complement the learning of English language.

P6 SA1 Results

Then SA1 results was released, Missy’s English results stayed the same. But some sub-papers improved and some marks were lost for other sub-papers due to carelessness. I thought maintaining results may also be an improvement on its own. It is not easy to maintain the same results if you think about how difficult it gets with every progression of the examinations. We continued to work hard through the June holidays to see if our hard work would be paid off in the Prelims. There was no drastic increase in marks, but certainly we saw improvements here and there.

Apart from English, I taught Missy Math and Science as well. I learnt along with her on Math and had to learn it fast to be able to teach her. Each time I was stuck, I looked for help from teachers and my hub. Eventually, Missy could do her Math problem sums faster than I did. It was a satisfaction to see her grasp her Math concepts fast and tackling the difficult questions by and by. She was encouraged by how she could do more and more questions correctly. She began to love Math.

For Science, I must say that going to the Marshall Cavendish Science Workshop for Parents and Students helped Missy to score from a C in SA1 to an A in her PSLE. That was an amazing improvement that neither she nor me expected! Many had feedbacked that Science paper was quite tricky. Having 2 grades jump in Science was totally Missy’s efforts! She did not need any tuition to achieve a 2 grades jump! We are soooo proud of her!

PSLE Results

Not only Science, in fact almost all her subjects had a 2 grades jump in PSLE except for her Chinese which she had a one grade jump to the maximum! Now, you should have guessed how she had fared in her SA1 and before. Yes, despite her results were not satisfactory in most parents’ eyes, her Dad and I stick to the belief that she will made it one day. We have never put any expectations on her just so that she has no pressure to shine on her own, achieves excellence out of her own efforts with no external tuition help, and we are ready to celebrate her results no matter what she will achieve. To reiterate this point, I made an arrangement to deliver a bouquet of flowers to her just 1 day before PSLE Results release day with the following message:

As long as she tried her best with no regrets, she is our pride and joy!

Now that the PSLE Results are out, we hope she will go into her school of choice. She chose her desired school. We, as parents, went to the school open house to speak to the Principal and teachers personally just to ensure the school’s direction is aligned with our beliefs. Indeed, the Principal has a good reputation of steering the school well wherever he goes. The teachers, whom we talked to, sound passionate and it seems that this school is able to nurture Missy’s artistic talent too. The bonus is that this school is just a 10 min walk from our house and Missy will not need to waste time on travelling.

We are looking forward to our first child’s Secondary School phase. It will certainly be a brand new experience. There will be 8 or so subjects to study, many projects to work on, many leadership and holistic experiences awaiting, and new friendships to forge. Secondary School years are my best years where I find my BFF and good friends. I hope Missy will enjoy her teenage years and grow her talents in this phase. My only wish is that she enjoys her Secondary School days.

Taking The Path Less Traveled…

With this, I shall wrap up our PSLE Series learning journey here. So many readers and friends have given us support at times that we struggle to walk the path less traveled. Thank you very much!

It takes lots of courage to believe in what we did, ignoring well-meant advice to engage external tutors, ignoring some who were not optimistic about us. I admit I was scared because I seemed to deny Missy of getting professional tutoring help and I was seen to be taking a gamble on her “future” if what PSLE is all about. I put a lot of pressure on myself because I was afraid I would fail to bring her up to her rightful potential. She has the potential, it just takes time and time was not on our side.

However, I know that I am doing the right thing. Because I know Missy best, I was able to curate a revision that best suits her. I was also able to give her full attention on revision. With the insistence of no-tuition, there was much sacrifice and cooperation from many family members. Missy’s younger brothers had to have less of me for the 9 months. I didn’t have much time for my hub too. The stubbornness in me was determined to make PSLE a less UN-enjoyable year for Missy. I guess I succeeded because Missy was never at all too stressful in preparation for her PSLE. I ensured she still have her time for play and fun. In fact, while many quit piano and CCAs for this year, Missy even resumed her piano lessons and took her first piano exam in July. She played for the school to the Nationals in volleyball in early part of the year. So kudos to Missy for being able to juggle interests and studies in this crucial year! This is exactly what I wish she will pick up to be a holistic achiever. She is really amazing!

I hope Missy’s story is able to inspire many out there. Everything is possible and it just takes some courage to do it. With a good attitude, we can move mountains 😃

This post is published with Missy’s permission which I think requires lots of courage to reveal her learning challenges that many may put them under wraps. I am happy that she allows me to write the PSLE Series and wrap up in this way too. Thank you my dear princess, I hope your story will inspire many out there and encourage others too 🙂

How We Prepare For PSLE Prelims

PSLE Prelims is scheduled to be on the first week of August in Missy’s school. With only 5 weeks left after the June holidays, I sat with Missy to plan out a revision schedule. This is how we do it.

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Importance To Plan Together

When kids were young, it was easy to plan out a routine schedule and carried it out. But when kids grow up, we need to ensure that we plan out schedule with them so that they are aware, in agreement and committed to stick by the schedule independently.

Knowing the Subjects and Topics to be Tested

This applies to all levels, the knowledge of what are to be tested and ensure the child knows! In Prelims, there is no need to check it out, every topic from P1 to P6 will be tested. I find that only the Science subject has the heaviest revision topics from P3 to P6. Apart from that, Math is built up on basic topics and earlier topics in P1-P4, although important, are not heavily tested and usually appeared in Section A MCQ portion. For Chinese, the vocabulary words may be more skewed towards P5 and P6, not to say that P1-P4 work is insignificant, it is equally important too.

Separate the Subjects into Different Segments and Revision

It is important to break the revision and past year paper practices into clear segments. This is akin to practising piano pieces whereby the problem music phrases require target practices over and over again. Likewise, if we can divide the subjects into segments, we will be doing target practices for each segment to master them one by one. How do we do so?

a) Science

Science has 2 sections to its paper – MCQ and OEQ (Open Ended Question)

Section A MCQ – 56 marks
Section B OEQ – 44 marks

MCQ for Science should not be neglected as it carries a total of 56 marks (28 questions), which is more than half the passing marks! If one were to do well for this section, there will be no question about passing the paper.

If you had followed my post on PSLE Science Workshop by Marshall Cavendish, we have learnt to do target practices by:

– targeting 20 RIGHT Questions in 20 minutes for MCQ Section
– targeting 20 Marks in 20 minutes by choosing any questions that the child is comfortable and good in for OEQ Section. This way of choosing questions to target 20 marks is to be used only during practices and not during examinations unless your child prefers this strategy.

Our Science Revision Materials:

Science Guide Book
Science Journal (Missy’s own Science note-taking)
Top School Science Papers
Science Assessment by topics
School Science Worksheets and File (learn mistakes)

b) Math

Math Paper 1 usually tests on basic Math concepts that may be taught in P1 to P4.
Math Paper 2 consists of short and long “killer questions” that are more focused on P5-P6 topics.
Paper 1 – 40 marks
Paper 2 – 60 marks

It is important to ensure Paper 1 to be practised to near perfection as students tend to lose marks in Paper 2 long questions. We are working towards ensuring Missy gains confidence and knows the topics that tend to come out in Paper 1 well, which can be really basics like decimal place value, arranging fractions from smallest to biggest, rounding off, conversion of units, etc.

There are some standard Math topics that will come out in the long questions, like equivalent fractions, multiple fractions, percentage, ratio, groupings, geometry, volume, etc. We target to master Paper 1 and Paper 2 short questions before we focus much on Paper 2 long questions. It really depends on individual child’s ability on strategising Math revision.

Our Math Revision Materials:

Top School Math Papers
School Worksheets and File (learn mistakes)

c) English

Booklet A – 28 marks (Grammar, Vocabulary, Visual Text Comprehension)
Booklet B – 67 marks (Form Filling, Editing, Comprehension Cloze, Synthesis & Transformation, Comprehension)

It is easier to do target practices for English since all the segments are clearly distinguished from each other. We planned for target practices using Top School Papers to drill the same segment for multiple papers. We also used Synthesis & Transformation assessment book for useful reference. We constantly refer to the English Grammar Guide Book too. How do we tackle the English Paper? Click here and here to read my previous sharing and the guide books we are using.

Our English Revision Materials:

Top School English Papers
School Worksheets and File (learn mistakes)

d) Chinese

For Chinese, our way of revision is to drill 汉字 and give 听写. Missy practises on Top School Papers and revise her textbook passages to remind her of good sentence structures that can be useful for Compositions.

Our Chinese Revision Materials:

Top School Chinese Papers>
School Worksheets and File (learn mistakes)

The Timetable

We considered a few important factors. We marked holidays, days that Missy returns late from school, weekends engagement, how heavy the revision is for that day, etc.

It is also important not to be overly ambitious to complete a fixed number of Papers / Revision Topics and be F.L.E.X.I.B.L.E when implementing the timetable!

We decided to break the Top School Papers into Paper 1 and Paper 2 to be completed on different days. The reason is to dilute the heaviness of each Subject across different days to ensure maximum absorbance of knowledge and focus. We usually mix Math and English, Science and English revision on weekdays.

When I come back from work, I will mark the papers that she does for that day and go through each and every question, be it correct or wrong, with her. This is important to capture her freshest memory of the question on the same day, if not, the next day at most. Going through the correct questions give her a chance to clarify uncertain concepts and ask me questions. I can spot her weaknesses and strengths and focus accordingly.

On weekends, we have slightly more time and Missy can do one full paper and time her speed. I leave her alone to revise Chinese and test her on 汉字.

Nearer the Prelims, we dedicate the weekends to study School Worksheets and mistakes. I kept her P3 to P5 Math and Science Worksheets and it is good to go through them and refresh her memory.

On the day before examinations, we usually revise School Worksheets again by selecting the topics that need re-look.

Everyone has his/her style of revision that may be different from ours. Our revision plan is purely calibrated for Missy and may or may not work for your child. Nevertheless, I am happy to share our way of revision and hope you will find something useful to apply on your child’s revision plan. I am also responding to many parents who have been asking how we plan our revision by writing this blog post. I welcome strategies and advice from you so that I can also learn a trick or 2 for preparation for PSLE and for my subsequent kids 🙂

For our journey on PSLE tips and tricks, you may click here to read more 🙂

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Learning English at Eye Level Centre

Hey! Didn’t I advocate no tuition for my kids? Didn’t I say I place absolute trust in MOE teachers to teach our kids well enough to excel in PSLE? Well, indeed I did and we are still going the NO-TUITION way towards PSLE, just in case you wonder. But while we are doing the revision on our own, it is a good opportunity to review an Enrichment centre’s program to learn good tips and tricks so that we can use them at home, just like what I shared about the MCE workshops’ precious takeaways!

Hey! Didn’t I advocate no tuition for my kids? Didn’t I say I place absolute trust in MOE teachers to teach our kids well enough to excel in PSLE? Well, indeed I did and we are still going the NO-TUITION way towards PSLE, just in case you wonder. But while we are doing the revision on our own, it is a good opportunity to review an Enrichment Centre’s program to learn good tips and tricks so that we can use them at home, just like what I shared about the MCE workshops’ precious takeaways!

Heard of Eye Level? Let me introduce to you that Eye Level originates from Korea 41 years ago!! What a long history and still going strong must show something for sure! There are 18 centres in Singapore islandwide. It specialises mainly on Math and English. Eye Level caters to all students of different learning abilities and pace. That’s one thing I like about the flexibility of progressing according to the students’ needs. Eye Level also encourages self-directed learning and one will see that the students here are encouraged to be independent and everything is kind of systematic and has its own place.

Eye Level’s curriculum takes students from the basic motor skills needed for reading and writing, through the building blocks of Grammar, to the more complex concepts that allow the mastery of verbal and written communication.

What Makes Eye Level English Different?

– Fundamental Language Skills : consists of basic language arts and reading with vocabulary.
– Individualized Program : allows students to begin at the point where they are able to work independently with confidence.
– Interesting and Fun : helps to foster students’ interest in reading, writing effectively, and approaches it in a fun, creative way.

Eye Level English guides students in the mastery of English language proficiency through in thematic approaches, repetitive practices, and strategies that combine listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Here are the topics the English program covers:

Environment

Eye Level Centre at Square 2 is located at Level 4. It has 2 rooms, one to conduct Math lesson and the other for English. There is a waiting area outside with benches for parents to lounge around waiting for their kids. Not only that, it has a low shelf with toys and books to entertain little ones too. I think that’s very considerate.

Diagnostic Assessment

Prior to the first lesson, Missy 12 and Master 10 had to take a diagnostic assessment test on a booklet. This is to gauge their level of competency to determine which level they should start with.

Each Eye Level lesson has a duration of maximum 45 minutes. I am totally pleased with this duration as I have learnt from my #30minrevision that kids’ attention span is really just that short. Eye Level recognises that and thus 45 minutes is sufficient to grasp the kids’ full attention and efficiency in learning.

Self-directed Learning

On our first lesson, we signed in attendance via the Tablet at the reception. We were greeted by the friendly Teacher JDrea whom my kids took an immediate liking already when we first met for diagnostic test. She spoke clearly and softly and has a warm smile. I liked her instantly too! I always believe if the kids like the teacher, they will tend to excel in the subject. Considering this is the first time the kids attended an academic enrichment class, I was glad that they had a good experience and thus, would continue for the next 7 sponsored classes. My worries about their reluctance to go for their first academic enrichment class were unfounded!

The kids were brought into 1 of the 2 rooms in the Eye Level Centre at Square 2.

All students have to take off their shoes upon entry and the next thing they do is to find their marked workbooks from previous lesson from the shelf with their names. Then they will each go to their respective study desks which are divided by partitions for privacy. They listen to audio and do assigned exercises.

There is an English curriculum to follow through. Every lesson targets to complete 2 exercises per workbook which is to be brought home as homework. And each workbook has 4 topics and that makes it 1 workbook to be completed within 2 lessons.

Teacher’s guidance

During the 45 minutes of lesson, each of the kids is assigned another booklet to be used in class. They are to complete the selected exercises and go to Teacher JDrea to go through their mistakes. This is a 1-1 session of 5-10 minutes whereby the student will have full attention of the teacher to guide him/her through the topic to ensure the student understands the mistakes made. This is akin to what I have done during our weeknights’ 1-1 #30minrevision where I assign Missy 12 to complete some exercises and go through her mistakes right after that. But the difference is that we have now a proper English teacher to help her in her English as opposed to me, an amateur, self-taught English tutor!

Feedback to Parents

You know what? I love to talk to educators, instructors, trainers and facilitators! I get to learn lots of knowledge and even get refreshed and corrected on what I had learnt before! Each time I talk to Teacher Jdrea, I learnt something new in English. I never knew I have got some simple Grammar rules wrong! Sometimes, I feel a tinge of regret that I had not read enough books and spent more time on language. But, it is never too late to learn now, alongside my Missy 12!

When the lesson ended, Teacher JDrea would give me a summary of what the kids had learnt for the day. She bothered to explain in details on each topic of English Grammar that they had covered. I find that very useful to me as I got feedback on which areas each of the kids was weak in and needed more practices. With that, I am able to focus more on their weak areas during our own home revision.

Homework

As Eye Level encourages self-directed learning and independence, naturally there will be homework to do. To be frank, the kids were not so keen to do the homework assigned. Who loves homework anyway? They found that there were many Comprehensions to do in the workbook. As much as I could feel for them, I appreciate the many Comprehension practices because it helps to train the kids to understand Comprehension passages and learn how to answer them. By reading more passages, it helps to boost their understanding and exposure to sentence structure and Grammar rules. Only by doing more of such Comprehension practices will one improve the Comprehension segment of the exam paper.

Reward

I have heard of many enrichment centres dishing out expensive rewards. I am not so sure if that won’t make the kids materialistic and consequently send the wrong message to these young ones. But Eye Level did it just perfectly. Each of the students is given a reward sticker board. They need to collect about 20+ stickers before they can fill up one board and get to choose a reward gift on the gift shelf. I look through the rewards and they were mainly practical stuff like stationery and small toys. The value of these rewards is not too pricey but enough to motivate the kids to work towards collecting them. I am definitely not for expensive rewards and find such high value rewards tend to desensitise the kids’ idea of what a reward should be. Even for me, I give my kids a small gift of their choice that is within the budget of $20-$30 for the hard work they put in for the whole academic year. I don’t believe in expensive rewards as a motivator.

Assessment

Before a student proceeds to the next level and a new skill set, an Eye Level instructor will give the student a level test to evaluate if they have achieved mastery of the current material. This constant monitoring of the kids’ competency with close teacher’s guidance during the 1-1 sessions, allowing learning at the kids’ own pace, plus the Feedback from Teacher to Parents and vice-versa are really the strong building blocks to effective learning. Many Enrichment Centres hold big classes which makes learning at own pace impossible. Further, 1-1 sessions are limited or none. With such comparisons, I come to appreciate Eye Level way of helping the students to learn effectively.

Well, stay tune for my next post on more information on Eye Level English Curriculum as well as our verdict of Eye Level Centre!

More information on Eye Level Centre:

Fees: $140 for 1x per week lesson; $180 for 2x per week lesson
Website: Eye Level Singapore
Facebook: click here
To enquire: call 6397 6117
To find a centre near you: click here

Disclaimer: We were invited for 8 English lessons for the purpose of this review. It is a good first time for the kids on academic enrichment class and we have many takeaways in terms of gaining knowledge and intangibles which I shall share in my next post. All in all, I am glad that they have a good experience with Eye Level!

Life Goes On in PSLE year – from a Mum with NO Expectations

Life goes on in the PSLE year. I must ensure that. Indeed we are doing that.

I gave ourselves a day off from revision on Good Friday holiday and played board games at home and relaxed on that rainy day. And we are talking about 3 weeks to SA1. We do not stop the piano lessons and the art classes because of PSLE. We still go for kids run events, check out Safra Yishun new pool, go for dinner gatherings, have sleepovers, and Missy will be taking her piano exam in July. Nothing is very much different except that we revise almost daily, doing just #30minrevision. We are fine with skipping a day or 2 of revision and choose sleep over study. When people ask Missy if she is stressed with PSLE preparations, she replied no. With that, I think I have done my part to shield her from academic stress. Remember? I was determined to make PSLE year a not-so UNenjoyable one for her.

But ask me if I feel stressful with my first child’s PSLE year. My answer is a Yes.

I am stressed because I worry that I may not be capable to help her meet her expectations to enter her target school. I put the entire home teaching responsibility on myself since I decided to go the No-Tuition route.
I am stressed because even though I know time is insufficient, I cannot cramp in too much revision time because I advocate balance and play.

And ask me if I have any expectations for her? The answer is ZERO expectations if you are talking about grades and marks and target schools. Expectations on ATTITUDE? Yes, plenty! Don’t bluff! You might say. Believe it or not, the only expectation comes from Missy herself. My role is to help her to get into the school that she targets for. That’s all.

Because I do not have expectations, it guides me a great deal in our revision plan.

I started by focusing on her weakness and basics. Initially, I was alarmed that her foundation was so weak in various subjects. Since I have no expectations for her to go into any top schools from the start, I calculated that we have time to start anew and drill the basics. If I have expectations to target for top schools, then I can bet that our revision will be a super stressful one to cover basics and advance to being able to do any kind of killer questions. Tackling killer questions is NOT our priority nor a MUST to master. If time permits, yes, we shall do that and A* will be a bonus, but NOT a MUST-HAVE.

Once the basics were grasped, which was really quick because of Missy’s good learning attitude, we explored further in depth. Within 4 months from January to now, we are ready to tackle the harder questions in Math, putting more ticks than crosses in English Paper Booklet B, and getting the hang in answering Science Open-Ended Questions.

I do not ask for her to complete all the 10+ sets of top school papers for every subject, nor do I expect her to complete half the assessment books. We try to do revision within our means and time available. There is still much laughter in the house everyday and Missy is still her jovial self. Seeing that she still has a life despite everyone else getting stressed up in this year, I am really happy.

I can’t emphasize enough on how Missy’s change in learning attitude drives her to improve in a short time. It makes revision time so much easier. In the past, we spent much time dealing with tantrums, testing each other’s patience, teaching through gritting teeth with angry tones that refused to enter the ears. And not forgetting the eyes-rolling, head turned away and arms-crossing act. By and by, it took more than a year before she came to an awakening, got motivated, became receptive to my teaching and cooperated perfectly during revision time. I must say consistent love helps a lot in her attitude transformation.

I told Missy:

If there is any improvement in your academic, you are the one to make it happen.
You will certainly do well, it is just a matter of time.

I hope she continues her good attitude which will certainly bring her far in life.

To PSLE, here we come!!

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