Had a chat with gorgor about his new school term so far. He told me his friends have voted him as group leader again. He lamented that he doesn't like to be group leader as he would rather play during recess than helping his group members on their corrections. I was surprised as I thought it was just helping the teacher collect & distribute books in class. I didn't expect the group leader to coach other members academically.
I was dumbfounded. As a mum, should I discourage him from helping others? Did the teacher assign additional roles because she thought he was capable to handle? Was he just complaining or really not happy with the arrangement? Could he have feedback to his teacher himself?
I was class monitress and prefect throughout my pri school days. I don't remember helping the class with anything academic except running errands, taking attendance & filling up forms. I wasn't especially happy or reluctant about being the class monitress. I hope my son can take on roles within his capabilities and develop his leadership qualities at this age.
I guess I'll just be his listening ears at the moment. He may just be group leader for a term like last year. If he thinks he doesn't want to continue, he must learn to speak up for himself. Afterall, we don't enjoy doing everything we are assigned. We need to fulfill obligations and duties at certain circumstances. I think it's part & parcel of growing up.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Don't miss the teachable moments
In our daily interactions with our children, there are numerous teachable opportunities we have to make use of, be it involving them in decision makings for the family or pointing out to them their mistakes & how they can improve in future.
Recently, we had a debate on whether we should make a trip to the newly completed Hello Kitty land. You see, we just visited Legoland & missed a few rides like dragon & water slide. In our post-trip discussion, we thought of visiting hello kitty land if we are going Legoland again.
Gorgor: No way! I'm a boy & boys don't go hello kitty land. If you are staying at the hotel for the night, I'll stay in the room to watch tv.
Meimei looking disappointed
Me: But gorgor may be captured by bad guy & you will have no gorgor...we can't go hello kitty land unless gorgor comes along
Meimei thinking about the implications
Meimei: Ok lo. We won't go hello kitty land. I don't want bad guy to catch gorgor
After a few hours...
Gorgor pondered over his decision after observing how disappointed meimei was
Gorgor: Mummy, meimei is very caring hor...
Me: Yes, why (totally forgot about the discussion)
Gorgor: I watched on tv commercial that there is a station to make accessories at hello kitty land. I will go & make accessories for meimei lo
Me: (eyes wide open)...speechless
My heart melted when I realized how much they love each other. Although it is only an hypothetical discussion (ya, we didn't promise when we are going), these are the teachable moments of taking the sibling's view into consideration when making decisions. At least I know if I'm not around one day, they will take care of each other.
Recently, we had a debate on whether we should make a trip to the newly completed Hello Kitty land. You see, we just visited Legoland & missed a few rides like dragon & water slide. In our post-trip discussion, we thought of visiting hello kitty land if we are going Legoland again.
Gorgor: No way! I'm a boy & boys don't go hello kitty land. If you are staying at the hotel for the night, I'll stay in the room to watch tv.
Meimei looking disappointed
Me: But gorgor may be captured by bad guy & you will have no gorgor...we can't go hello kitty land unless gorgor comes along
Meimei thinking about the implications
Meimei: Ok lo. We won't go hello kitty land. I don't want bad guy to catch gorgor
After a few hours...
Gorgor pondered over his decision after observing how disappointed meimei was
Gorgor: Mummy, meimei is very caring hor...
Me: Yes, why (totally forgot about the discussion)
Gorgor: I watched on tv commercial that there is a station to make accessories at hello kitty land. I will go & make accessories for meimei lo
Me: (eyes wide open)...speechless
My heart melted when I realized how much they love each other. Although it is only an hypothetical discussion (ya, we didn't promise when we are going), these are the teachable moments of taking the sibling's view into consideration when making decisions. At least I know if I'm not around one day, they will take care of each other.
Oh Xmas Tree!
Xmas is round the corner. Like previous years, we have made creating our own version of crafty Xmas Trees our family tradition. When the children were younger, we explored conical objects, complete with a star to top it off. Now that they are older, we decorated, painted & pasted to assemble a Xmas tree. Of course, we still top it off with a star!
Merry Xmas!
Merry Xmas!
Friday, November 16, 2012
Rounding up the academic year 2012
Time flies. A year just slipped by and this week of school term is filled with PTMs, open house, farewell parties & the anxiety of receiving the report book.
Enjoyed watching mei's performance & how she interacted with friends in school. She's loud & clear in her singing & recital, great in her motor skills to coordinate the dance steps & followed the timing of the song playing on the xylophone. Mummy was busy snapping photo of her proud moments while she explained her art work including the missing kite that has been chosen to appear in the school magazine.
Spent some time talking to the form teacher as she won't be taking them through K2 next year. As a mum herself, she shared her experience of bringing up children of different abilities and characters, juggle worklife balance & latest changes of pri school system which I have not realized. Specific to mei's development, she recommended to practice more on addition questions through games like fishing (add up 2 cards to get the number). Learning through play is so much fun, we will definitely play more this holidays.
For gorgor, it was time to clear his locker & school bag. Well, 1 learning point is that we will need plastic covers to sustain his books for mei to use. His worksheets & quizzes are all crumpled even with a folder. Guess he's still not organized enough & room for improvement in P2.
Academically, he came in 1st in position & aced all 3 core subjects with occasional Bs in social studies, moral education & PE. I know his motor skills are still not as developed & even received a letter to go for a flat-foot check. I'm proud that he has completed the 1st leg of the marathon but also know that there's a long way to go. There will definitely be some disappointment in upper pri & sec school grades in later part of his life as P1 is relatively easy. I'll wait for that moment to deal with it. Meanwhile, it's time to pack for our 1st road trip...
Enjoyed watching mei's performance & how she interacted with friends in school. She's loud & clear in her singing & recital, great in her motor skills to coordinate the dance steps & followed the timing of the song playing on the xylophone. Mummy was busy snapping photo of her proud moments while she explained her art work including the missing kite that has been chosen to appear in the school magazine.
Spent some time talking to the form teacher as she won't be taking them through K2 next year. As a mum herself, she shared her experience of bringing up children of different abilities and characters, juggle worklife balance & latest changes of pri school system which I have not realized. Specific to mei's development, she recommended to practice more on addition questions through games like fishing (add up 2 cards to get the number). Learning through play is so much fun, we will definitely play more this holidays.
For gorgor, it was time to clear his locker & school bag. Well, 1 learning point is that we will need plastic covers to sustain his books for mei to use. His worksheets & quizzes are all crumpled even with a folder. Guess he's still not organized enough & room for improvement in P2.
Academically, he came in 1st in position & aced all 3 core subjects with occasional Bs in social studies, moral education & PE. I know his motor skills are still not as developed & even received a letter to go for a flat-foot check. I'm proud that he has completed the 1st leg of the marathon but also know that there's a long way to go. There will definitely be some disappointment in upper pri & sec school grades in later part of his life as P1 is relatively easy. I'll wait for that moment to deal with it. Meanwhile, it's time to pack for our 1st road trip...
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Desaru Learning Journey
These days, children get to go on overseas trips in primary school. Yes, at P1! I recalled my first overseas school trip was at sec 2 to melacca. Well, that also meant that parents need to go along. Since we are applying leave, must as well bring mei along and make it a family holiday.
We covered 3 destinations- Desaru fruit farm, chocolate factory & wong's kampong. At each destination, gorgor had to complete some quizzes after each visit or activity. In Reggio, it encourages the child to learn and explore the environment- real life, in action, from self-observations, interactive instead of reading from books or listening to teachers. We (yah, parents included) learnt more about fruits, how chocolate is made and Malay culture. We also survived long bus rides with rowdy boys while we were trying to catch forty winks while caught in the PIE jam.
It was a long day for all of us. To reinforce the learning points, we recapped our experience from photos we took over the weekend. Documenting our memories through collage and captions. Last but not least, gorgor had to email his teacher about his trip. I realized how ICT has become an important communication channel to a kid now. He needed to address his teacher and sign off with his name instead of simply submitting a composition or diary which is already tough enough for a P1 kid.
That aside, I'm sure the children will remember their 1st overseas school trip like how I remembered mine. It's the beginning of the learning journey and more eye-openers in the days to come.
We covered 3 destinations- Desaru fruit farm, chocolate factory & wong's kampong. At each destination, gorgor had to complete some quizzes after each visit or activity. In Reggio, it encourages the child to learn and explore the environment- real life, in action, from self-observations, interactive instead of reading from books or listening to teachers. We (yah, parents included) learnt more about fruits, how chocolate is made and Malay culture. We also survived long bus rides with rowdy boys while we were trying to catch forty winks while caught in the PIE jam.
It was a long day for all of us. To reinforce the learning points, we recapped our experience from photos we took over the weekend. Documenting our memories through collage and captions. Last but not least, gorgor had to email his teacher about his trip. I realized how ICT has become an important communication channel to a kid now. He needed to address his teacher and sign off with his name instead of simply submitting a composition or diary which is already tough enough for a P1 kid.
That aside, I'm sure the children will remember their 1st overseas school trip like how I remembered mine. It's the beginning of the learning journey and more eye-openers in the days to come.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Paper Plate Crafts
Paper plate is another versatile craft material for kids. It is round, hence suitable for making masks and animals without the hassle of cutting. We have used paper plates to make clicks, turtle shells and animal faces. The best part is they come in different sizes.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Give them a Childhood
Prime Minister urged parents to give our children their childhood at his national day rally speech. Well, childhood in Singapore is no longer like kumpong days. I grew up in HDB flats and outdoor was limited to playgrounds & occasional family excursions to haw paw villa & east coast park. So what should a proper childhood be, in today's context- fast paced, technologically-dependent, self-centered society?
Specifically, he was referring to giving children more free time, instead of sending them to 2 kindergartens & tuitions round the clock. Ok, that's manageable. Our children have been attending 4-hr kindergarten b4 starting primary school. Enrichment is restricted to their requested activity- music, art or ballet. They spent most of their free time drawing, playing, singing, watching tv, playing iPhone (oops!) etc. Homework is restricted to 2 pages of worksheets on Fridays for K1 and e-learning for P1. I'm trying to enforce more outdoor time per week, but it's constrained by our schedule, weather and pure laziness.
To encourage more babies, strategies like worklife balance, subsidies/ priority in housing and pre-school education are suggested, without details until the white paper is out. It has sparked off discussion online and forums on printed media. Everyone gave good and bad examples of sending children to pre-school enrichments, pri-sch preparations and whether homework should be given for pre-schools.
To me, all these are personal decisions that cannot be moderated at the ministry level. Didn't MOE enforce 5-day week? Why did I still see children in uniform regularly on Sundays at nearby popular primary school which was over-subscribed 3 times at phase 2b this year? It can only be encouraged but not endorsed. Maternity leave of 4 month was reviewed and considered "sufficient". If an employee needs more than 4 months, she can extend using her annual or even no pay leave if required. There is no one- size-fit-all model.
Among all the strategies discussed, giving them their well-deserved childhood is the minimum we can offer. And to do that, I can only afford to have 2 kids, with 24 hours to distribute between family, work and self. We will continue to implement our no-tuition policy and include more outdoor time in our schedule. Afterall, childhood is the memory that a child has when he grew up. I can only remember the silly games I played with my sister but has long forgotten what was taught in the classroom.
Specifically, he was referring to giving children more free time, instead of sending them to 2 kindergartens & tuitions round the clock. Ok, that's manageable. Our children have been attending 4-hr kindergarten b4 starting primary school. Enrichment is restricted to their requested activity- music, art or ballet. They spent most of their free time drawing, playing, singing, watching tv, playing iPhone (oops!) etc. Homework is restricted to 2 pages of worksheets on Fridays for K1 and e-learning for P1. I'm trying to enforce more outdoor time per week, but it's constrained by our schedule, weather and pure laziness.
To encourage more babies, strategies like worklife balance, subsidies/ priority in housing and pre-school education are suggested, without details until the white paper is out. It has sparked off discussion online and forums on printed media. Everyone gave good and bad examples of sending children to pre-school enrichments, pri-sch preparations and whether homework should be given for pre-schools.
To me, all these are personal decisions that cannot be moderated at the ministry level. Didn't MOE enforce 5-day week? Why did I still see children in uniform regularly on Sundays at nearby popular primary school which was over-subscribed 3 times at phase 2b this year? It can only be encouraged but not endorsed. Maternity leave of 4 month was reviewed and considered "sufficient". If an employee needs more than 4 months, she can extend using her annual or even no pay leave if required. There is no one- size-fit-all model.
Among all the strategies discussed, giving them their well-deserved childhood is the minimum we can offer. And to do that, I can only afford to have 2 kids, with 24 hours to distribute between family, work and self. We will continue to implement our no-tuition policy and include more outdoor time in our schedule. Afterall, childhood is the memory that a child has when he grew up. I can only remember the silly games I played with my sister but has long forgotten what was taught in the classroom.
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