All About Your Child

Now I can say, “my CHILDREN are Primary School kids.” What a great summarising sentence, compared to last year, whereby I had to say, “One is in Primary 2 and the other is in Kindergarten 2.”

It was great to see how excited Binbin was, when he woke up at 8.30am this morning.

So different from his elder brother’s level of excitement.

Binbin was constantly looking at the clock and asking frequently, “What time do we need to leave the house? I don’t want to be late for school.”

“What time do I need to start bathing? I don’t want to be late.”

“What time are we going for lunch? I don’t want to be late on my first day of school.”

“What time do I need to finish my lunch. Cannot be late leh!”

etc… *laugh*

It was even more wonderful to have Keatkeat ‘sneaked‘ into the canteen with my camera phone to take this shot! ‘First Recess’.

Its something that I could not capture when Keatkeat was in Primary 1. *sigh*

Binbin’s buddy was as shy as Keatkeat’s buddy and was also a Primary 5 student.

Keatkeat really looked like a Primary 1 student when he went in to look for his brother. Ohhhhh Keatkeat, please stop slouching and grow taller…. faster!

They loved this big chess ‘board‘ because its painted with their favourite colours! Keatkeat loves blue and Binbin loves green!

Binbin was as cool as a cucumber today! I am so proud of him. *Grin*
The ONLY thing that makes me frown is the 30mins break on every school day.

Binbin needs to be in school at 12.30pm
Keatkeat is out from school at 1pm

30mins to go home and come back is not a sensible move because I could only stay at home for 5mins before I had to come out again. I can hardly do anything decent in that short time.

So loitering around the neighbourhood with Allan was what we did today. But the thought of doing it for ONE WHOLE YEAR ?!?!? *frown*

Binbin’s First Day as a Primary 1 student

It was a proud moment for Keatkeat today.

He was so happy, he rattled on the moment he saw me when I went to fetch him from school today, “Mummy, why did you say that ONLY Maths can get full marks? I got full marks for my English! English can get full marks too!
My English teacher said that I am the ONLY ONE who got full marks for the English (trial) Exam Paper in my class. And because of that, she used my paper to help the whole class to do corrections.
You see, (pointing at the red markings and yellow highlights made on his English (trial) Exam Paper) these were written by my English teacher. She drew on my paper to explain to the class and I just sit back and listen, don’t need to do anything.”

Me: “Well, I said Mathematics is the ONLY subject that can score full marks because, so long as you do your workings correctly and get the answer right, you will get your marks.
Unlike English and Chinese, because the languages test you on Comprehension. Different teacher has different standards, so some may not like the way you phrase your sentence and would deduct points. So it is more difficult to get full marks for English and Chinese papers.
I did not say it was impossible! But you did something that I have never achieved before! I have scored full marks for Maths paper when I was a kid, but never for any other papers! So Great Job, Keat! (squeezing him like a teddy bear…) I am sooooooo proud of you!” *Grin*

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Alright, so now he got full marks for his English (trial) Exam Paper, let’s see how well he would score for his ACTUAL English Exam Paper this Friday. *fingers and toes crossed*

***For some reason, the slideshow from Picasa could not work. If you want to look at his paper. You can click here:

English Exam Paper (Trial)

When he told me that his school gave him a mock Maths exam paper on Monday and that he was the FIRST to HAND IN his paper, I was a little skeptical as to how well he would perform. In fact, right after looking at my expression, he said, “Sorry Mummy, I didn’t check before I hand in the paper again.”

Me: “Why?”

Keatkeat: “Because I have never been the first to hand in any paper before. I want to feel good being the first.”

Today, his teacher returned him the paper….

Oh well, let’s see if it pays off:

I am so happy that the teacher gave Keatkeat’s class a trial test on how the Maths exam paper scheduled on 31 October 2011 would be like.

From this I will know what are the areas Keatkeat need more practice on before he tackles the ‘real thing’ at the end of the month.

Yet, when I looked at the paper, *sigh* …. it confirmed once again that it is his personality problem.

Carelessness:

Lack of concentration and being overconfident often lands him in this type of situation.

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Presumptuous:

The moment he saw this question, he assumed that it is a number bond. He did not bother to look at the arrow nor the numbers provided beside the arrows. When he could not see his ‘assumed answer’ in the multiple choice, he just pick any which he fancied.

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Laziness:

Since Primary One, he has been lazy to do the working for number pattern. He would ALWAYS look at ONLY two numbers in the whole line of number pattern and if the difference between that two numbers is +4, he would assume that the whole number pattern is based on that addition. *sigh*

He simply refused to check if the other numbers on the number line were a difference of +4 as well. Lazy! Assuming! *shake head*

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Over complicate things:

He feels that the empty box given is too big for ONE answer and so he chose to write two numbers in the boxes. *faint*

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Lack of Concentration Stamina:

It has become a trend for Keatkeat that he would ALWAYS get the last question on the last page of the paper wrong! *faint*

He often loses concentration-stamina faster than a falling metal ball towards the end of every paper. If he ever gets 99/100, I would not be surprise that the last point was lost in the last question of the paper. *sigh*

Because he did so well, he deserved a reward. We went out the whole day on today, forget about exam, forget about revision, forget about school work. Just play and enjoy fully for a day. He well-deserved it! *smile*

Well done Keatkeat! Hope you do as well as this for your Actual Maths Exam Paper end of this month. *fingers crossed*

Keatkeat is not an expressive child, in terms of words; but in actions, oh man! you can get all sorts of expressions! *laugh*

Whenever he wants to relate a scenario in school, we are often confused first, followed by questioning, before we could finally understand what he wanted to say. He does not fall into the ‘talkative’ category definitely and that hurts his composition dearly. He had his English composition paper on 21 September 2011, so that is over.

After 1 and a half year of home training on his English composition, I hope he would NOT write a story full of those below 6 words in a sentence kind of essay for his English composition exam; and I crossed my fingers and toes that he would REMEMBER to write that tiny dot at the end of every sentence: i.e. FullStop / Period.

Forgetting to write that tiny dot would then make him forget to write Capital letter for the first alphabet of the first word in the next sentence.*shake head*

As for Comprehension, all I can say is his concentration dies as he flips through each page of the exam paper. Comprehension is always the last section of the English paper, which is also the time when he would be losing his concentration at a racing speed.

When that happens, sentences like “Lily has not received the letter.” would be read as (in Keatkeat’s head), “Lily has received the letter.” Thus it affects the answer he provides in the question and answer section. *sigh*

Last but not least, he often thinks faster than he writes, so he would miss out words in his sentences, causing him to lose marks for poor grammer. For example, instead of writing “Snakes move on the ground by sliding their body.” He would write, “Snakes move on ground by sliding body.” *eyes rolled*

What kind of Common English Mistakes does your child make for English?

Common English Mistakes

At this moment, year end examination is in the process in many schools. Keatkeat’s first paper was on 13th September and his last paper would be on 1st November, which is one day before his birthday. *clap clap clap* Lots of breaks in between. Total 7 ‘examinable’ days.

Conversations between parents outside the school gate often includes,
“What do you do to your child during exam time?”
“How do you help him to prepare for exam?”
“No TV;”
“No Play;”
“Let him/her do past years examination papers;”
“Specially get past years examination papers from those Top Primary School for my child;”
“Let him/her keep practicing his/her weaker subjects, no time to waste;”

Then the conversation would change to,
“Kids nowadays are so pitiful. So much to learn and to do.”
“No choice. Have to do it. Or will fail exam then become a useless fellow in future.”

I am sorry.
For me, totally disagree.
Your child has lots of work to do because you gave your child more work to do on top of school work.
Your child does not need grades from school to become a useful human being in future.
There are so many millionaires and successful people out there who were school dropouts. So grades are NOT the ONLY determinant factor.

I know of a child who did badly in school and all that the parents know is ‘throw‘ the child in a tuition centre or engage private tutor, when in the beginning the parents did not play a good role in teaching.

Remember my previous post “Your Child is Not Stupid“, I said “Your Child Is Not Stupid, Its You Who Does Not Know How To Teach Effectively.”

Revision is not for examination only, but a daily routine.
I do not believe in cramming for exams at the eleventh hour. Because it creates unnecessary stress on the child and it causes the child to fear exam.

Every day, I would give my boys, Primary 2 and Kindergarten 2, worksheets for all 3 subjects; English, Mathematics and Chinese. Unless they have homework from school, then the revision for that particular subject will be missed. For example, if there are Chinese and English homework from School, then I will only give him revision for Mathematics.

After revising each subject, a 30mins break is given before the next revision for the next subject begins. When all three subjects had been revised, its play time all the way till lullaby hour. I am a strong believer in striking a balance between fun and work. Study time is just as important as play time. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Ever since I became a Mummy, I speak to my children in English because from Mathematics, to Science, to Geography, to History, to Literature, to Art n Crafts, to Home Economics, to Technical Studies, to Chemistry, to Biology, to Physics and every other possible subjects (except Mother Tongue: Chinese); ALL teachers teach ALL subjects using English language (except for Mother Tongue).

Therefore I strongly believe that English is more important than Chinese and any other subject. English must be the foundation. When your child’s English foundation is poor, it will affect every other subject that will come along the way throughout Primary and Secondary education.

Therefore to me, English should be emphasized the day my children were born, in order to build that foundation.

With that said and WITHOUT any conflicting emotions in me at all, when my children goes to Primary School, all 3 basic subjects: English, Mathematics and Chinese, should be given the same effort IN TERMS OF REVISION. Once the English foundation is built, time used on revision for all subjects should be equal.

Revision is not for the sake of getting good grades for exams. Revision is a lifelong process. What you see less, read less, speak less, you will forget. True?
Therefore, revision should be done on a daily basis and NOT for tests or examination period only.

When revision is done daily, your child will not feel unnecessary stress during exams or tests. Unnecessary stress causes more careless mistakes because the child tends to over-think when answering the questions.

Exams are NOT Stressful. The Stress on the child comes from the Parents. Its how the parents paint the ‘exam picture‘ to the child, that makes the child fear exam.

“I want you to get 90/100 for all subjects.”
“I don’t want to see any careless mistakes on your exam paper. I will punish you for every careless mistakes made.”
“Don’t fail this paper or I will NOT give you ________, which you want, as a punishment.”

Is the child studying for knowledge, or studying to please the parents, or simply to prevent being punished?

These unnecessary stress may lead to poor health, poorer concentration or may even lead to peeking/copying during exams.

Studying is not scary.
School is not boring.
Studying is not to find a good job but to increase knowledge.
School is a place to learn to handle different levels of human relationships and improve on discipline.
Studying in school is supposed to be Fun for children and not something that the child feels reluctant to go to.

I have said it before and I will say it again:
I LOVE EXAMINATIONS!
There are so much things to look forward to!

• During exams period, there is no proper lesson because all the curriculum had been completed.
• During exams period, there are hardly any homework.
• During exams period, there are so much more free time.
• And the best part is AFTER exams its SCHOOL HOLIDAYS!

*clap clap clap*

And I am instilling this ‘look-forward-to-exam’ attitude into my boy and that little fellow has no problem absorbing that! *laugh* ‘cos once the exams are over, he celebrates his birthday!

So to my son, exams or not, there is no difference and I would like to keep it that way. Without unnecessary exam stress, he is at his best. *Grin*