Transition from Primary 2 to Primary 3

Caden started his P3 journey this January in one of the best classes at his level.  Although I think he is not exceptionally strong in most subjects but the overall aggregate from his P2 results had helped to get him into this class (ie, being consistent throughout the year).

During his P2 days, we ensured that he set aside time each day to work on assigned homework (from us). What I tried doing then was to get him to work on assessment books after each topic was covered in school. For Math, I bought a range of books which are elementary to challenging problems.  So when each topic has been taught, he will start to work on the simpler book and move on to more difficult ones once his fundamentals are established to build the momentum and his confidence (rather than giving challenging ones from the start and made him resistant in attempting the questions). The same goes for Chinese.  English wise,  we only encouraged him to cultivate reading and work on some grammar and vocabulary books.

This year, starting mid Jan,  part of the school curriculum is to be involved in a CCA after school hours. He has picked Scouts to be his CCA (partly because his P2 best friend had chosen this as well). So he will be in school on one of the weekdays from 3 to 5pm. On top of this, the school teacher has also organised after school remedial lessons for certain subjects and he has to attend English (good free lessons). Another weekday afternoon is thus occupied with this session.  Going forward, he will be involved in some computer lessons which are scheduled after school hours as well.

Given the limited time at home (as compared to P2), I find it hard these days to catch his attention to work on additional assignments at home. His science and math teacher has also moved the syllabus fairly faster than the rest of the cohort ( he told me that his friend in other classes is still on part A while he had already started on part B workbook). I didn't want to push him too hard in term 1 as he may still be coping with 4 subjects and longer school hours.

I made some adjustments to the internal targets set for him. He doesn't need to work on the elementary math books (partly I think the school has given him enough practise). So we moved straight into the challenging questions once a topic has been covered. Chinese wise, I am trying to cultivate his interest in reading, partly to give him more context/ideas for his composition and expose him more to the Chinese language. I found quite a few short Chinese story books in the library and has been progressively getting him to read each day, since it only takes 10 mins to finish. Science, honestly, I have to study together with him in order to coach him the right stuff. I have been so cut off with the subject and the only thing I can recall from my primary school science is chlorophyll and herbivores/carnivores!

While he is adjusting to P3 lifestyle and demands, I had to adjust myself at this point as well, on top of making sure Ethan is also coping well with his P1 life.