All the best to parents of PSLE candidates

[firefly20]

21 hours ago, Vinceng said:

Just hope that their children are coping within their capability, and not end up with a PHD (Permanent Head Disrder)

I have witnessed more than once, parents who coached their young children in cafes, got angry coz the children didn't understand fast enough, voice started to shrill and got louder to the annoyance of the other customers in the cafe.

I turned around once, witnessed this father losing this temper at what must be a 4-5 yr old kid coz he didn't understand multiplication. Felt very sorry for the boy as the father was putting him under so much intense pressure and actually threatening him if he didn't focus hard enough. But maybe he did focus, mabe his intellectual capability then did not afford him the ability to gasp the concept of multiplication. This type of parent I don't believe is doing that for his child's benefit. Coz if one is indeed a caring parent, he would never subject his kid to such stress at such a young age.

So what if a kid can't understand multiplication at 5? They only teach addition/subtraction at P1.

[firefly20]

10 hours ago, Lala81 said:

Simplistic to say like money is all powerful.

Money helps. Always have and always will. Money is just a compensatory mechanism that the more well to do have to compensate for individual effort on the parents.  This only compensates for learning a skill or academics, but not the child's actual development, in terms of character and intelligence. 

To us (me and the missus),  it's the parental effort and time that is much more important. 
Some people mould their kid's lifestyle around the parents. Most parents do a juggling between both. For us personally, our lifestyle at least until they finish primary education, revolves around the kids. Our own activities are as much as possible, planned around their waking hours. It does help that outside work, our other social/family commitments are minimal (since our own parents are still healthy and able).

It's a continuum of effort. Most parents are in the middle. Some men are on the throw $$ at the problem, just want to work, come back play with the kids for a short while, then need to sleep or do their own things. All other issues is delegated to wife, tuition/enrichment. 
Some parents, their kids are an afterthought. They still spend a lot of time on their hobby or social life, the child conforms around their schedule. They spend time together, often seeing a bored child tagging along with them invariably on a digital device. But it's not child-centric or only superficially so.

This is not a criticism of whatever parenting style you have. Just to each your own. You realistically only have that number of years to spend with your child, before they rely more on peers more than parents as they become true individuals during the stage of adolescence.

Agree with you that there's a glass ceiling to how much enrichment can boost a child's performance.

For e.g., not every student in TLL scores 250 and above for PSLE rite? A lot also depend on the intellectual ability of the students.

[Lala81]

37 minutes ago, firefly20 said:

I have witnessed more than once, parents who coached their young children in cafes, got angry coz the children didn't understand fast enough, voice started to shrill and got louder to the annoyance of the other customers in the cafe.

I turned around once, witnessed this father losing this temper at what must be a 4-5 yr old kid coz he didn't understand multiplication. Felt very sorry for the boy as the father was putting him under so much intense pressure and actually threatening him if he didn't focus hard enough. But maybe he did focus, mabe his intellectual capability then did not afford him the ability to gasp the concept of multiplication. This type of parent I don't believe is doing that for his child's benefit. Coz if one is indeed a caring parent, he would never subject his kid to such stress at such a young age.

So what if a kid can't understand multiplication at 5? They only teach addition/subtraction at P1.

Haha its common to lose temper teaching your own kids bah. Especially if u have repeatedly taught them. Sometimes they don't understand, sometimes they are tired, sometimes your examples they cannot comprehend, sometimes they are not ready/intelligence not mature enough, sometimes not enough repetition. 

Teaching requires a lot of patience. Sticky learning needs some struggle on the side of the student. The teacher and student need to understand that a good struggle is actually sticky learning. Unfortunately very few people actually understand this. 

Some kids just have an innate number sense. Some don't. 

[Wind30]

13 hours ago, firefly20 said:

I have witnessed more than once, parents who coached their young children in cafes, got angry coz the children didn't understand fast enough, voice started to shrill and got louder to the annoyance of the other customers in the cafe.

I turned around once, witnessed this father losing this temper at what must be a 4-5 yr old kid coz he didn't understand multiplication. Felt very sorry for the boy as the father was putting him under so much intense pressure and actually threatening him if he didn't focus hard enough. But maybe he did focus, mabe his intellectual capability then did not afford him the ability to gasp the concept of multiplication. This type of parent I don't believe is doing that for his child's benefit. Coz if one is indeed a caring parent, he would never subject his kid to such stress at such a young age.

So what if a kid can't understand multiplication at 5? They only teach addition/subtraction at P1.

U don’t know the the age of the kid.... maybe he is primary 3 already??

[Wind30]

12 hours ago, Lala81 said:

Haha its common to lose temper teaching your own kids bah. Especially if u have repeatedly taught them. Sometimes they don't understand, sometimes they are tired, sometimes your examples they cannot comprehend, sometimes they are not ready/intelligence not mature enough, sometimes not enough repetition. 

Teaching requires a lot of patience. Sticky learning needs some struggle on the side of the student. The teacher and student need to understand that a good struggle is actually sticky learning. Unfortunately very few people actually understand this. 

Some kids just have an innate number sense. Some don't. 

I actually think every kid can train to be smart. Like u said, it’s the struggle when young that build up your intelligence. If u don’t bother to solve it yourself... getting taught is the worst way to learn...

[Lala81]

1 hour ago, Wind30 said:

I actually think every kid can train to be smart. Like u said, it’s the struggle when young that build up your intelligence. If u don’t bother to solve it yourself... getting taught is the worst way to learn...

Every child can be trained to maximise their potential. As with all things, IQ is likely a spectrum.

Some kids maybe more geared towards physical endeavours, athletic or dance etc. Some of them don't like to sit down at all. 
My boy is not one of them, but i noticed a lot of other boys really just need to do physical stuff. And asking them sit down read a book/have formal lessons is really tough at the pre school level.

 

 

[Vinceng]

On 9/18/2020 at 9:05 PM, firefly20 said:

I have witnessed more than once, parents who coached their young children in cafes, got angry coz the children didn't understand fast enough, voice started to shrill and got louder to the annoyance of the other customers in the cafe.

I turned around once, witnessed this father losing this temper at what must be a 4-5 yr old kid coz he didn't understand multiplication. Felt very sorry for the boy as the father was putting him under so much intense pressure and actually threatening him if he didn't focus hard enough. But maybe he did focus, mabe his intellectual capability then did not afford him the ability to gasp the concept of multiplication. This type of parent I don't believe is doing that for his child's benefit. Coz if one is indeed a caring parent, he would never subject his kid to such stress at such a young age.

So what if a kid can't understand multiplication at 5? They only teach addition/subtraction at P1.

End of the day, you don't need to be a genius or do well in school to make it in life.

Its about WHO YOU KNOW.

Go join grassroots, mix with & get into the good books of the  the top honchos there.

Go start a company, maybe you can win some town council contracts.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Vinceng

[Ray7456]

All the best to parents whose kids are sitting for the national exams tomorrow during this unprecedented time 😀

[firefly20]

2 hours ago, Ray7456 said:

All the best to parents whose kids are sitting for the national exams tomorrow during this unprecedented time 😀

All the best to the parents when it’s the kids taking exam? Lol. 

I remember when my kid was taking his, for the final 2 weeks the main consideration was that he doesn’t fall sick. So he just take it easy, no more cramping for exam and we made sure he slept early.  

[Ray7456]

🤣 usually it’s the parents who are more kanchiong mah. Kids, they probably just want to get over with it soonest & have an advance school holiday. 

[Wind30]

All the best. I am just glad PSLE is starting and going to over soon

[Wind30]

English composition paper has started 🙂

hopefully she does well....

[Wind30]

8 hours ago, firefly20 said:

All the best to the parents when it’s the kids taking exam? Lol. 

I remember when my kid was taking his, for the final 2 weeks the main consideration was that he doesn’t fall sick. So he just take it easy, no more cramping for exam and we made sure he slept early.  

that is so opposite of my kid and mine study style 🙂

last two weeks is the GOLDEN period to cramp.... I study right to the last minute before the exam hall

[Chongster]

 

[firefly20]

12 hours ago, Wind30 said:

that is so opposite of my kid and mine study style 🙂

last two weeks is the GOLDEN period to cramp.... I study right to the last minute before the exam hall

That’s a risky strategy to adopt. My colleague’s kid felt sick and vomited during his papers. In the end, he fell short of 30 pt from his expected T-score and ended up in a low tier sch much to my colleague’s disappointment. 
 

The difference between a 23x and 20x kind of sch is massive. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by firefly20

[firefly20]

So did anyone manage to resist the temptation to ask your kids how did the compo go? 

The only thing I asked mine last time was did he complete the compo in time. Can’t resist that qn. 

[firefly20]

- double post -

Edited October 1, 2020 by firefly20

[Alfc]

1 hour ago, firefly20 said:

That’s a risky strategy to adopt. My colleague’s kid felt sick and vomited during his papers. In the end, he fell short of 30 pt from his expected T-score and ended up in a low tier sch much to my colleague’s disappointment. 
 

The difference between a 23x and 20x kind of sch is massive. 

Unfortunately, this would be the last year of the t-scores to gauge. Band-based system will be less transparent.

Yes, the calibre is indeed different. But this can be clouded if the school has an affiliation to primary school which has a much lower cutoff for its affiliated students. Then that is where a seemingly 23x calibre school (based on non-affiliated intake) is actually more flooded with 20x calibre student who got in due to this lower affiliation cut-off. One need to be discerning to know the underlying truth.  

Edited October 1, 2020 by Alfc