All About Your Child

Finally!
Both are in the same session.
We had already planned for many Legoland, Movie, Arcade trips after the school bell rings at the end of the school day; on days whereby they have no homework from their teachers.
Alas!
Our plans were dashed.
Completely wrecked…

School now ends at 1.30pm.
An extra 30mins more.
A new change for a new year, said the Principal.
Yet even with this extra half hour, my boys still need to go for extra lessons from school after that.

Monday
1.30pm : out from school
4.00pm : leave home for Kitkit’s Science tuition
4.30pm – 6.15pm : Science Tuition
*Why Science tuition? The explanation is here “Science Tuition“

Tuesday
1.30pm : out from school
2.45pm – 3.30pm : Extra Lesson for Kitkit in School
* Sometimes he chooses to stay back in school for lunch and wait till 2.45pm
** Other times, he chose to have lunch with us, take a breather for a few minutes before walking through the school gate again

Wednesday
12.30pm : out from School
2.30pm – 4pm : Kitkit’s Chinese Tuition at home
4pm – 5pm : Binbin’s Chinese Tuition at home
*Why Chinese tuition? Because Kitkit failed his Chinese final year paper last year. My rule of the thumb is : Tuition only comes when my child could not get a passing grade.
**I did not want Binbin to have the Chinese Tuition, because he did not fail his Chinese exam last year. However, Allan thinks that it would be a waste when Binbin could score well for his other subjects but total score is being pulled down by the Chinese subject. So letting Binbin go for the Chinese Tuition was Allan’s decision.

Thursday
1.30pm : out from School
2pm – 2.45pm : Both kids had to stay back in School for extra lessons

Friday
The BEST DAY!
No lessons after school
So we are left with THIS day to enjoy.
However, we are also at the mercy of the weather.
If this day pours, it would be stay-home-day for the kids.

Though busy with tight schedule, I continue to balance their hectic school life with fun.

All school work must be completed first before a 30mins break would be given.

After that first 30mins break, they will come back to do worksheets given by me. Every worksheet completed will entitle them to another 30mins break.

This year I included READING as one of the task to be done daily. They are required to read a number of pages from a story book before they are allowed to go out of the study room.

With Xbox as the motivation during their break time, they often choose to complete TWO worksheets/tasks instead of one, so that they could have an hour of Xbox fun and not just a mere 30mins.

Well, its their childhood, they choose.

Since young, I remind them that there is always a time for anything.
When its time to play, enjoy.
When its time to study, concentrate.
When its time to sleep, relax.

One month after school reopened, their momentum of balancing study and play is back.
Finally!
No more dozing off in the middle of the day.
No more endless yawning when doing their homework after school.
No more tears of frustration from Binbin.
No more naps needed!
Yeah!
*clap clap clap*

What’s Life Like for 2013?

All my faithful readers know how UNINTERESTED I am about my children’s academic results. My ONLY FOCUS is “Did they pass?”

Yes, 50/100 and I am happy.

However, that is NOT the case for many parents and likewise, my boys’ grandparents are VERY PARTICULAR about their 6 grandchildrens’ school exam results.

During this time of the year, they always ask “So how much did they (KitKit and Binbin) fare for their final year exam?” However, my reply “Passed.” is NOT satisfactory to them, they want to know the exact score for each subject.

As my focus is different from theirs, I do not bother to remember their scores.

Thus I decided to do up this post, so that I can use this as a reference when they ask.

Kitkit’s Primary 1 Overall Results:
English Language : 86/100
Chinese Language : 82/100
Mathematics : 86/100

Kitkit’s Primary 2 Overall Results:
English Language : 82/100
Chinese Language : 66/100
Mathematics : 82/100

Kitkit’s Primary 3 Overall Results:
English Language : 78/100
Chinese Language : 52/100
Mathematics : 85/100
Science : 79/100

This year, Kitkit failed his Chinese Final Year exam paper (47.5/100), thankfully his OVERALL result (mid-year result + year-end result) managed to give him a ‘green‘ score on his report book.

Remember this post “Science Tuition“, whereby I admit that even though I scored A1 for my Science during my school days, I am NOT COMPETENT to teach. Knowing a subject and knowing HOW to teach a subject is totally two different issues. Thus I chose to let another person teach Kitkit this subject, while I continued to coach him on English, Chinese and Maths.

From a passing grade of 5 marks, now he scored 79/100. Yeah! Money spent on the Science Tuition did not go to waste. Hooray! *Super clap clap clap*

As he FAILED his Chinese written paper this year, I know that even though after using 5 different tools, plus lots of creativity, heart and determination as mentioned in this post “I need tools to teach Chinese, or maybe not” it is still NOT ENOUGH to help him pass his Chinese exam.

I think, the bottom line is, MY FOUNDATION OF THE SUBJECT was already not strong in the very first place.
Whenever he asks, “Mummy what is this Chinese word?”
I had to look it up in the Chinese dictionary and that breaks the reading momentum.
Imagine me doing this constantly, how can Kitkit or any child stay interested right?

Like I had said in the very beginning, my focus is ‘PASS or FAIL’. Now that he had failed his Chinese under my coaching, I had decided to send him for Chinese tuition next year. Hopefully he can get a passing grade from then on for this language.

So much for Kitkit, now lets talk about my younger son’s result.

Binbin’s Primary 1 Overall Results:
English Language : 87/100
Chinese Language : 71/100
Mathematics : 97/100
Yeah!
ALL PASSED!
*clap clap clap*