When I heard about how Caden has scored for his CA1 English paper, I tried not to look disappointed because I suppose he had already tried his best. Given that he ended up as one of the bottom lot in his class, I raised the idea of getting him back into English tuition lessons in Mind Stretcher (we compromised earlier this year to drop English because he did not want to have tuition this year). He reasoned it out with us that it will add "stress" to him if we get him on more lessons apart from what he's going through with his school's revision.
The term 'stress' was something new that came out from his reasoning. He probably had picked this term up from his friends in school or through some of the conversations in class.
Ethan happily added to his brother's point and said, "ya lor, you know we have a lot of stress one!"
I asked both of them in return, "what do you understand with the term - stress?"
Answer given to me was " Headache lor"
Their response was not entirely wrong but my point to them was that if they don't want tuition, then they will need to exercise more self-discipline in getting their own revision done in their spare time. The boys will be getting the rest of their CA1 results soon and I know that I can't pin too high hopes on any eye-popping surprises.
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Monday, March 06, 2017
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Founder's Day and Open house - 28th May 2015
MP, Ms. Sun Xueling is the guest of honour for the event
It took him 3 days to get involved in rehearsals before this big day.. he must had some fun in school experiencing this ..
After the prize giving ceremony, Caden partnered up with his classmate, Kesler, to man the Math Booth for the Open House event, as they explained some of the rules for a Math puzzle for those who visited.
It is the first time he represented the school to play the role of an ambassador and represented the Math department. I think he was selected as he's seen as someone ' dependent upon' to carry out the task with his friend.
Both boys had a good time and played their roles well when I stopped over to 'spy' on them.. Ethan obediently stood by the side and guessed his own set of answers..
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| Getting the participants to guess the sum of all sides of the dice (including the hidden sides) |
 a shot of their partnership at their booth |
It's definitely a good experience for Caden for being involved in the Open House event this year. One of the rare moments I get to photograph him in his scouts uniform in a school's setting =)
Monday, February 22, 2016
Daily Journal
Ethan came back from school one day and updated me as follows:
E: ' Mummy, we got back our composition scores today. Highest score in class is 13/20. Rest are all below 10 marks. Lowest score is 3/20!.. Heehee...'
Me: ( frozen) ' So what's your score?'
E: "You guess?"
Me: "Please don't tell me that you are that 3!"
E: "I'm 6! Hahaha.."
Me: "oh gosh.. why so bad???"
E: "my teacher said I wrote too short, no expressions, no relations made to another character, and many more.. "
I know that E doesn't make much effort in terms of writing. It's surprising to know that he actually reads a lot of books but somehow, the strength of language has not been translated into his school work as yet.
I have started something last week, in getting both the boys to write a Daily Journal (aka diary) and write about whatever happens to them during the day. Each of them will earn themselves a dollar each, after 5 journals have been recorded. This seems to work out for them, as they seemed to have something in mind that they wanted to buy badly.
It's quite a good start, both of them have been writing diligently for the past few days, and Caden went a step further to have an additional component 'News report', which covers some news updates that he has watched on the News each night. Although it's just 2-pages of write-up each day, I guess this will help to cultivate them to write better and be more attentive to the writing styles as they read more.
I know that E doesn't make much effort in terms of writing. It's surprising to know that he actually reads a lot of books but somehow, the strength of language has not been translated into his school work as yet.
I have started something last week, in getting both the boys to write a Daily Journal (aka diary) and write about whatever happens to them during the day. Each of them will earn themselves a dollar each, after 5 journals have been recorded. This seems to work out for them, as they seemed to have something in mind that they wanted to buy badly.
It's quite a good start, both of them have been writing diligently for the past few days, and Caden went a step further to have an additional component 'News report', which covers some news updates that he has watched on the News each night. Although it's just 2-pages of write-up each day, I guess this will help to cultivate them to write better and be more attentive to the writing styles as they read more.
Friday, September 04, 2015
Ethan's P2 Math test
Ethan came back from school mid this week and told me that he had scored full marks for the math test that was taken the day before. Caden has set this same achievement for his CA2 math test this time round and to my mind, I find it really unbelievable for Ethan to have done it too!
I am biased. I know. Ethan's cognitive skills are not as strong as his brother's. He has difficulties understanding the questions - what exactly is required. He has issues in grasping new concepts. He makes careless mistakes like simple addition and subtraction questions. He rushes through work MOST of the time, so this habit causes unnecessary errors included in any test or assignments ...
During the math revision period which I had planned for him, I almost, literally vomit blood every single day, so much so that I have to outsource some explanations to his PaPa to take over from me.. it was so hard and painful to work through and review the answers he came up with for every math question assigned to him. He lacks motivation to attempt questions that will have 3 to 4 steps of workings and just left them not attempted, citing the reason that he didn't know what the question was asking for. He lacks the determination to solve more challenging math problems. have to break down the question into parts, and explain to him part by part before he can derive the answer. Questions like what is the dollar equivalent of Twenty 20cents? Forty 50 cents? I have to do so many drills with him on questions which he was weak in.
His memory is short too. For past topics which were covered in Terms 1 and 2, if we don't cover them during revision period before Term 3 test, he couldn't remember how to attempt them (typically the school will include past topics taught in 1st half of the year as the year progressed). Thus, when I planned the schedule for his math revision, I will set aside 2 to 3 sessions which will include questions from past topics.
I suppose after all these years, I have already come into realisation that each child learns at a different pace. Although both brothers were put into the same routine since young, Ethan turns out to be much weaker. The best way to overcome his performance is Patience, Patience and Patience!
Although I have not seen the hard copy paper back from school as yet, I believe in my son's claim on his achievements.. Hopefully we can continue to maintain this good momentum :) I am definitely not asking for full marks results from him but a better learning attitude to be demonstrated by him which will be more sustainable.
I am biased. I know. Ethan's cognitive skills are not as strong as his brother's. He has difficulties understanding the questions - what exactly is required. He has issues in grasping new concepts. He makes careless mistakes like simple addition and subtraction questions. He rushes through work MOST of the time, so this habit causes unnecessary errors included in any test or assignments ...
During the math revision period which I had planned for him, I almost, literally vomit blood every single day, so much so that I have to outsource some explanations to his PaPa to take over from me.. it was so hard and painful to work through and review the answers he came up with for every math question assigned to him. He lacks motivation to attempt questions that will have 3 to 4 steps of workings and just left them not attempted, citing the reason that he didn't know what the question was asking for. He lacks the determination to solve more challenging math problems. have to break down the question into parts, and explain to him part by part before he can derive the answer. Questions like what is the dollar equivalent of Twenty 20cents? Forty 50 cents? I have to do so many drills with him on questions which he was weak in.
His memory is short too. For past topics which were covered in Terms 1 and 2, if we don't cover them during revision period before Term 3 test, he couldn't remember how to attempt them (typically the school will include past topics taught in 1st half of the year as the year progressed). Thus, when I planned the schedule for his math revision, I will set aside 2 to 3 sessions which will include questions from past topics.
I suppose after all these years, I have already come into realisation that each child learns at a different pace. Although both brothers were put into the same routine since young, Ethan turns out to be much weaker. The best way to overcome his performance is Patience, Patience and Patience!
Although I have not seen the hard copy paper back from school as yet, I believe in my son's claim on his achievements.. Hopefully we can continue to maintain this good momentum :) I am definitely not asking for full marks results from him but a better learning attitude to be demonstrated by him which will be more sustainable.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
Ethan's P2 English progress
Ethan's learning progress has not been comparable to his elder brother since young. We were aware of this since he was K2. We left him alone to catch up with school work for the past years but it became more pressing when we saw his results for this year's mid year exams.
He was slow in understanding Math concepts, more so because he explained to me that he did not understand what the questions were asking. His English standard was not above average either. He struggles with Grammar, with basic rules like:
1) He 'like' - instead of he 'likes'
2) We 'likes' - instead of 'like'
3) This, That, These, Those questions
4) is, are, was, were
5) may likes / liked - instead of 'like'
6) past / present tenses
and so on...
So I started an intensive English and Math programme with him during June holidays (pockets of the days when we are not out). I spent some time sitting down with him to practise on grammar questions, explaining the rules. I also read Math problem questions with him, and broke them down into parts for him to understand what needs to be done.
When he brought his English term test results back home this week, I was happy that he scored 35/40, much better than what he used to achieve (low end of Band 2). He was proud of himself too.. citing the statistics that only like a handful of classmates were in Band 1, etc.. I scanned through the paper and was happy that he managed to score full marks for all the Grammar sections. We are making some progress!! =)
I am hoping that he will make the same progression for his Math as well, but only will know after his term test in August.
He was slow in understanding Math concepts, more so because he explained to me that he did not understand what the questions were asking. His English standard was not above average either. He struggles with Grammar, with basic rules like:
1) He 'like' - instead of he 'likes'
2) We 'likes' - instead of 'like'
3) This, That, These, Those questions
4) is, are, was, were
5) may likes / liked - instead of 'like'
6) past / present tenses
and so on...
So I started an intensive English and Math programme with him during June holidays (pockets of the days when we are not out). I spent some time sitting down with him to practise on grammar questions, explaining the rules. I also read Math problem questions with him, and broke them down into parts for him to understand what needs to be done.
When he brought his English term test results back home this week, I was happy that he scored 35/40, much better than what he used to achieve (low end of Band 2). He was proud of himself too.. citing the statistics that only like a handful of classmates were in Band 1, etc.. I scanned through the paper and was happy that he managed to score full marks for all the Grammar sections. We are making some progress!! =)
I am hoping that he will make the same progression for his Math as well, but only will know after his term test in August.
Saturday, June 06, 2015
School Trip to Peranakan Museum Singapore
A few weeks back, Caden came back home with a consent form asking if he can join his class for a school excursion to Peranakan Museum. I said okay and he then asked if I can be the parent volunteer for this event. Given that this venue is air-conditioned, I agreed to sign up without much consideration.
Somehow, I became so lucky again, and got selected to be the ONLY 1 Parent volunteer (PV) for his class. So on the last day of this semester, I tagged along with his class to the museum =)
The class was divided into 2 groups and I got paired up with their co-form teacher. She has to brief the students as we moved from gallery to gallery in the Peranakan Museum. We covered all 9 galleries within an hour and a half. I particularly loved the Food & Feasting and Weddings galleries, as they have the exhibits of the nyonyaware porcelain and collection of Peranakan beadwork (which was an essential element of their weddings).
The P4 students are very independent so my role as a PV on that day was rather simple. I just have to be the last person in the group and ensure that no one got lost from the pack. Caden didn't want to stick to me at all throughout the trip (unlike Ethan) and he was working, chatting with his friends in the group. So I felt that I was like a sole visitor to the museum, admiring the artifacts.
Although we finished the entire tour in 1.5 hours, I was dead tired after the event because we had to climb up and down the stairs in the museum as we moved from gallery to gallery!
Will I sign up as a Parent Volunteer again next time?? Will only consider if the venue is air-conditioned! Tsk..
Somehow, I became so lucky again, and got selected to be the ONLY 1 Parent volunteer (PV) for his class. So on the last day of this semester, I tagged along with his class to the museum =)
The class was divided into 2 groups and I got paired up with their co-form teacher. She has to brief the students as we moved from gallery to gallery in the Peranakan Museum. We covered all 9 galleries within an hour and a half. I particularly loved the Food & Feasting and Weddings galleries, as they have the exhibits of the nyonyaware porcelain and collection of Peranakan beadwork (which was an essential element of their weddings).
The P4 students are very independent so my role as a PV on that day was rather simple. I just have to be the last person in the group and ensure that no one got lost from the pack. Caden didn't want to stick to me at all throughout the trip (unlike Ethan) and he was working, chatting with his friends in the group. So I felt that I was like a sole visitor to the museum, admiring the artifacts.
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| at the food and feasting gallery |
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| super candid shot |
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| Student asking questions along the way |
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| this class is so obedient and earnest! |
Although we finished the entire tour in 1.5 hours, I was dead tired after the event because we had to climb up and down the stairs in the museum as we moved from gallery to gallery!
Will I sign up as a Parent Volunteer again next time?? Will only consider if the venue is air-conditioned! Tsk..
Thursday, April 09, 2015
School Trip to Butterfly Lodge
The school has organised a trip to the Butterfly Lodge, Oh'Farms (Oh Chin Huat Hydroponic Farms) near Sembawang road. One of P2 Stellar curriculum topics in this semester is 'A Butterfly is Born' so the purpose of this trip is to bring classroom learning to reality. Ethan pestered me to sign up as a Parent Volunteer for this trip since I am still on school term break. I agreed to sign up as a Parent Volunteer (PV) for this trip without much thought as I felt that I won't be so lucky to be picked by his teacher (hahaa)..
A week before the trip, Ethan came out from school telling me that I was selected to be the PV for the trip to the Butterfly Lodge. I asked him whose parent is going with the class as well and he said only me! I got to know later that there were 5 parents who had signed up and I turned out to lucky one. Only until then, Caden shared with me that we will need to enter into an enclosed area with butterflies flying around freely and one of the butterflies even landed on his head back then!
The day before the trip, Ethan came back from school telling me not to scream the next day at the Butterfly Lodge when I see those butterflies. I was also told not to apply insect repellent since we will be up close and personal with them (oh gosh!)... Obviously, the information downloaded at that point was not going to be very helpful for me..
I couldn't sleep the night before, probably because I got so nervous about confronting the insects (flying ones) and caterpillars, pupa, etc...
So the day came, we left school at 8 am and travelled together in a school bus (it's been ages since I last rode on a school bus, so the feeling was nostalgic).
We were first briefed by Mr. Oh (he should be the owner) on the life cycle of a butterfly (like the eggs come in 3 colours), how caterpillars breathe (through spiracles), what do butterflies eat (only liquid food - nectar). I learnt that butterflies are important to us as they help to pollinate the flowers, form food for other animals (e.g, birds, lizards, spiders, etc) and the presence of butterflies are good indicators in assessing how healthy/clean the environment is.
After his briefing, he brought out some stick insects to show the class and Ethan was super-excited with them!
We were then invited to the enclosure (my most feared area!)
In the Butterfly Lodge, we could see the stick insects again and Ethan rushed to hold them again:
I think the trip was educational and informative.. but because weather was extremely hot and humid, and the information downloaded during the briefing at the holding area was quite cramped, the children were mostly not attentive after 10 minutes (including E). We took the school bus back to school at 10.15am so the whole trip was rather short.
I spent some time getting to know some of his classmates during break time and was quite popular with his classmates because I prepared snacks and distributed to his classmates. Some of his classmates were rather cute but some others were actually more rowdy.. so I sorta dropped subtle hints to my boy to ask him to mingle with those whom I really like =p
I will definitely be more selective next time, before I sign myself up as a PV for their outings! This trip is traumatising enough for me! Having said that, the best benefit of being a PV is that I get to take pictures of my child's experiences during the trip, and getting to know his playmates better!
Just a confession to make, on the day of the trip, I pasted a mosquito patch on my T-shirt in hope that maybe the smell will repel the butterflies, although it's supposed to combat against mosquitoes, tsk tsk..
A week before the trip, Ethan came out from school telling me that I was selected to be the PV for the trip to the Butterfly Lodge. I asked him whose parent is going with the class as well and he said only me! I got to know later that there were 5 parents who had signed up and I turned out to lucky one. Only until then, Caden shared with me that we will need to enter into an enclosed area with butterflies flying around freely and one of the butterflies even landed on his head back then!
The day before the trip, Ethan came back from school telling me not to scream the next day at the Butterfly Lodge when I see those butterflies. I was also told not to apply insect repellent since we will be up close and personal with them (oh gosh!)... Obviously, the information downloaded at that point was not going to be very helpful for me..
I couldn't sleep the night before, probably because I got so nervous about confronting the insects (flying ones) and caterpillars, pupa, etc...
So the day came, we left school at 8 am and travelled together in a school bus (it's been ages since I last rode on a school bus, so the feeling was nostalgic).
We were first briefed by Mr. Oh (he should be the owner) on the life cycle of a butterfly (like the eggs come in 3 colours), how caterpillars breathe (through spiracles), what do butterflies eat (only liquid food - nectar). I learnt that butterflies are important to us as they help to pollinate the flowers, form food for other animals (e.g, birds, lizards, spiders, etc) and the presence of butterflies are good indicators in assessing how healthy/clean the environment is.
After his briefing, he brought out some stick insects to show the class and Ethan was super-excited with them!
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| E was trying to squeeze to the front to see the stick insect |
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| Always brave enough to hold (weird) insects |
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| Classmates looking on as E took over the insect 2nd time |
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| E walking behind Guan Lin and Lucas in the Butterfly Lodge |
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| Offering to hold the stick insect again!!! |
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| There were 2 stick insects on the guide's body |
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| E managed to take over 1 stick insect |
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| Still attracted by the stick insect and didn't observe the butterflies around |
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| Looking at how stick insects camouflaged themselves |
I spent some time getting to know some of his classmates during break time and was quite popular with his classmates because I prepared snacks and distributed to his classmates. Some of his classmates were rather cute but some others were actually more rowdy.. so I sorta dropped subtle hints to my boy to ask him to mingle with those whom I really like =p
I will definitely be more selective next time, before I sign myself up as a PV for their outings! This trip is traumatising enough for me! Having said that, the best benefit of being a PV is that I get to take pictures of my child's experiences during the trip, and getting to know his playmates better!
Just a confession to make, on the day of the trip, I pasted a mosquito patch on my T-shirt in hope that maybe the smell will repel the butterflies, although it's supposed to combat against mosquitoes, tsk tsk..
Monday, May 26, 2014
First national competition
Our little boy took part in this year's CMA abacus national competition on Sunday. We were actually not keen to put him on this competition when we were invited by his centre to join. However, mister lil E was so enthusiastic about the competition and asked us to sign him up. We were partly apprehensive about taking part because it was a whole day event and we were concerned that he will lose confidence if he doesn't do well..
The teachers helped to prep those kids taking part in the competition well (I think they put in effort to do so). Ethan seemed to be quite confident the night before as he told his brother that he thinks he will get to go up the stage. He has been told for 1st to 3rd prize winners, the kids will receive their trophies on the stage. So he was setting himself such a high benchmark before the competition. We overheard the conversation between the brothers and were amazed with his aspirations.
On Sunday, after registration, Ethan kept telling me that he's very nervous. Funny reaction from this cool (or rather bochap) kid of mine. Anyways I told him to treat this like normal lesson and enjoy the experience.
The parents were ushered to another hall where we get to watch live feed of the competition. It's an eye opener for me to see how much more enthusiasm other kids have displayed for abacus/mental calculation.
We waited long for the results to be released. And we were really really surprised to see Ethan coming in 2nd and 3rd for Abacus and Mental calculation segments respectively. Although we were proud of his results but dreaded the fact that we had to stay longer to wait for the prize giving ceremony (the consolation winners, 4th and 5th can picked up their prizes straight after the release of results)
2nd and 3rd prize trophies
We hope he has gained more confidence in himself and puts in effort in every other thing that he's doing.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
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.
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.
Friday, January 03, 2014
First day of school
Finally Ethan has started in the same school as his brother this year. Being a primary 1 student, parents are allowed to get into the school compound together with them in the morning. I chaperoned dear son to the hall where he's supposed to assembled. The elder one has to go parade square for his usual anthem song and pledge taking.
The boys woke up at 630am and thankfully they ate the breakfast fairly fast.
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| All ready for school! |
During recess, he has the help of a P5 buddy to get his food
And he finished his food within the 30min slot
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| One of the shortest amongst the school mates |
On an overall basis, Ethan seemed to adapt well to the environment in school. I am hoping that he will slowly adapt to the school academic requirements.
Caden as usual, is happy to be back in school to catch up with all his friends.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Caden's ABRSM theory exam
Caden completed his Grade 2 ABRSM theory exams on 26 October at East Asia Institute of Management. When I brought him to the exam venue, I was surprised to see so many candidates sitting for the exams on that day - it's really amazing to see so many children being part of this event (the same place was held for exams from Grade 1 to 6).
And we only got to know his results from his teacher recently - thankfully, he passed!
It was tough revising the exams with him, given that there are so many meanings of the piano terms to memorise, which were greek to me. The teacher told us that he can skip the Grade 2 practical test this year, and attempt the Grade 3 practical test come October.
Hopefully his passion for piano stays till then and he can pull through the exams. Fingers crossed.
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| relieved face after the test |
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
Microscope
Over the last weekend, we got a microscope for the boys to cultivate their curiosity and enhance their interest for science. Caden was so excited when this equipment was fixed up and started by collecting samples to put under the lenses.
The first sample selected was an ant and it was amazing to analyse their body parts under the microscope. Even myself was amazed.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Parents-Teachers forum
There was a parents-teachers forum held for P2 and P3 sometime in February as the school wanted to brief parents the focus for the level during the year. We get a chance to have a short catch-up with Caden's English and Chinese teachers after the forum in the classroom and saw some of his works being pinned up in the classroom.
Yamaha Grade 9 Piano exam
Caden has his Grade 9 piano exam today. Finally, after 4 years of Yamaha course, he gets to sit for the piano exam.
Caden was quite nervous before the exam as he told me that he had a stomach pain on our way to his centre. We had to report in the school half an hour before his slot at 2.18pm so I had planned the trip out early at noon to have our lunch there.
The nervous boy holding up his 2 books waiting for his turn.
I have asked them to play some toys to distract his attention while waiting
There were 2 senior piano teachers as the examiners. They looked friendly but Caden told me that he was nervous in the room. Was asked to play his favourite piece so he picked Woodpecker. The examiner picked 'Dance of the Clowns' for his second piece of song.
He told me that his sight playing wasn't done well. And the harmony piece, he forgot to play block notes at the end. Least I can see his relieved face after he came out from the examination room.
Right after the exam, I brought both of them to vivo to watch Oz, the great and powerful as part of the school holiday's treat. They enjoyed themselves..
I am glad that Caden made it through on piano this far, and without much help from parents, he was able to catch up with the class (who has musically trained parents to guide them throughout the 4-year journey). And hopefully, Caden will continue to have an interest in music (piano), after we switch him to learn one-on-one (private at home).
Hopefully, Ethan can make this far too..
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Our first PTM at Caden's Primary School
We have to recognise the fact that Primary education should be taken seriously, even at P1, as this is the stage where the school builds a good foundation for the children to progress on their secondary stage.
Caden's first PTM at Mee Toh school happened on the 24th May and we took half day to attend a scheduled 10 minutes session with his form teacher.
The wait was fairly long, although our timeslot to meet the teacher was due, the earlier session with another group of parents happened to be highly engaging. I was thinking to myself.. what's there to be discussed which would have taken half an hour at P1 PTM? (we were earlier at the school 15 mins before our timeslot and had to wait for another 10 mins after our timeslot - so the earlier group took at least 25mins with the form teacher).
Mdm Suzie came across as a warm teacher. She commented that Caden is a shy boy at class, doesn't speak loudly during lesson but able to communicate well with the teachers when need to. He had also played his role as the team lead well in term 2, coming across as very responsible and shown good leadership in his team.
She went on telling us that Caden can be careless in his work (which we are aware too) and would like to see more improvement on that area. When we asked where does he stand in terms of academic, she said "He's average"
AVERAGE?? At the point in time, my heart dropped. Average? Despite us putting in that level of effort with him and he turns out to be average in class? I thought he was doing not too bad, based on the test results that he brought back in term 2.. so at that point, I was thinking, wah, this school's students' standards are really high!
Then Mdm Suzie went on to show us his school portfolio, where they have filed in his compositions (creative writing modules) and show and tell scripts. She then shared with us his test results (which we were aware too) and then said that, " for Math, he's in Band 1", "for English, he's also in Band 1, but at the borderline".. we then found out that actually the definition of Band 1 is the top tier group in his class, so was finally relieved that least, what we have done so far, are on the right track.
His personal portfolio..
Caden's first PTM at Mee Toh school happened on the 24th May and we took half day to attend a scheduled 10 minutes session with his form teacher.
The wait was fairly long, although our timeslot to meet the teacher was due, the earlier session with another group of parents happened to be highly engaging. I was thinking to myself.. what's there to be discussed which would have taken half an hour at P1 PTM? (we were earlier at the school 15 mins before our timeslot and had to wait for another 10 mins after our timeslot - so the earlier group took at least 25mins with the form teacher).
Mdm Suzie came across as a warm teacher. She commented that Caden is a shy boy at class, doesn't speak loudly during lesson but able to communicate well with the teachers when need to. He had also played his role as the team lead well in term 2, coming across as very responsible and shown good leadership in his team.
She went on telling us that Caden can be careless in his work (which we are aware too) and would like to see more improvement on that area. When we asked where does he stand in terms of academic, she said "He's average"
AVERAGE?? At the point in time, my heart dropped. Average? Despite us putting in that level of effort with him and he turns out to be average in class? I thought he was doing not too bad, based on the test results that he brought back in term 2.. so at that point, I was thinking, wah, this school's students' standards are really high!
Then Mdm Suzie went on to show us his school portfolio, where they have filed in his compositions (creative writing modules) and show and tell scripts. She then shared with us his test results (which we were aware too) and then said that, " for Math, he's in Band 1", "for English, he's also in Band 1, but at the borderline".. we then found out that actually the definition of Band 1 is the top tier group in his class, so was finally relieved that least, what we have done so far, are on the right track.
His personal portfolio..
As we left the school, ,my ah lou also commented that he was shocked when Mdm Suzie told us that Caden falls under the 'average' category when his test results, we thought, are not too bad.. so her words really caught both of us by surprise. This school really advocate that we need to continuously improve the children's academic standards for their benefit.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Our 2nd hand Yamaha Piano
The piano is finally here in our house and it was after 2 months of search. We had a hard time hunting down a reasonably priced 2nd hand piano and found this M108 at Emmanuel and Sons. I had asked to reserve this piece when Mr Kwan told me that he had just recieved the stock 2 weeks back. Emmanuel and Sons do not have a lot of 2nd hand pieces in their shop so we had to put our request with Mr Kwan and call him each week to check if there's any suitable stocks. This cost us $2.5k but thought it was quite reasonably priced since these days, you hardly can find a Japanese made Yamaha model and the sounds do sound quite nice to our ears.
We have deliberated on this purchase for the last 2 years, was worried that money will go to waste if Caden's interest in music diminished after he starts primary school. To-date, he asked to continue with his Yamaha Junior Music Course eventhough there are times when he was really not persistently practising.
This afternoon, Caden was excited with the arrival of the piano and kept playing on it.. I wonder how long will his interest last. I became more interested in picking up playing, and attempted a few simple pieces with Caden's 2nd year book.
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Big Investments
I know where most of our hard-earned money has been channeled to most of the times:
1) School fees - Ethan's Living Sanctuary School fees are not cheap given that it's a 3 hour session, plus a $110 per month school bus fare and $100 per term computer lesson fee
2) I can read - we just started Ethan on I can read programme too after seeing how Caden benefited from it
3) Berries - Chinese lessons - pre-emptive measures of having the fear that they are not able to catch up with the Primary school pace
4) Piano lessons - Ethan also just started on Yamaha course. Being my childhood dream to learn piano, I hope my boys will excel and I believe this has many intangible benefits on a child
Today, we decided to drop by Kinderfun store in Centrepoint after getting to know about the ergonomic desks and chairs that they are carrying. We were impressed with the design at my brother-in-law's place where they have bought a set for Emma 1.5 years back. Our curent study table in the study room was customed made by our contractor when we first moved in and the height of the table was made to be used by an adult so both Caden and Ethan have not been able to sit there long enough to do their reading or homework. Caden has always been all over the house doing my pre-assigned homework in the last 2 years, we feel that he should have a more designated spot in the house, and be given a more conducive environment to do his homework and in 2 years time to come, to study for his exams. PaPa was more affirmative to buy the set than me (I was still half-hearted given the price tag that comes along)as this helps to correct the posture, which I agree that it is important to have a good start, and the table is adjustable for an adult to use (which means we can maximise this through his education years). The table has a feature where the main panel can be tilted to a certain angle for reading and be placed at 90 degrees for writing. Nonetheless, we went to see-see-look-look today to have a feel of the prices and the models available.
So happens that the store is giving a 20% storewide discount today and ending tomorrow (they call it a CNY promotion), we worked out that we will be saving $420 if we were to buy them today (yes, it's this pricey!) and ah lou was telling me that it's ok to buy now rather that coming to visit the store again and again while waiting for the best deal (which can be $350 discount plus $50 store voucher plus $50 bag voucher). And so, we decided to go with our biggest one-time investment on the kids so far:-
This cost near $600 before the discount
A Germany brand with a humongous price tag
Ah lou was hoping that this will not end up being a white elephant in the house, I reassured him that we can make it work by encouraging Caden to use the table each night when we spend time working through his school work with him.
So this would also imply that I can forget about replacing my living room's lounge chair and doing an upholstery of our current sofa since our finances are relatively tight this year.
And I should also forget about redeeming my nine west shoes on Tuesday (which is the end of CNY) although they have now been slashed by 50%.
1) School fees - Ethan's Living Sanctuary School fees are not cheap given that it's a 3 hour session, plus a $110 per month school bus fare and $100 per term computer lesson fee
2) I can read - we just started Ethan on I can read programme too after seeing how Caden benefited from it
3) Berries - Chinese lessons - pre-emptive measures of having the fear that they are not able to catch up with the Primary school pace
4) Piano lessons - Ethan also just started on Yamaha course. Being my childhood dream to learn piano, I hope my boys will excel and I believe this has many intangible benefits on a child
Today, we decided to drop by Kinderfun store in Centrepoint after getting to know about the ergonomic desks and chairs that they are carrying. We were impressed with the design at my brother-in-law's place where they have bought a set for Emma 1.5 years back. Our curent study table in the study room was customed made by our contractor when we first moved in and the height of the table was made to be used by an adult so both Caden and Ethan have not been able to sit there long enough to do their reading or homework. Caden has always been all over the house doing my pre-assigned homework in the last 2 years, we feel that he should have a more designated spot in the house, and be given a more conducive environment to do his homework and in 2 years time to come, to study for his exams. PaPa was more affirmative to buy the set than me (I was still half-hearted given the price tag that comes along)as this helps to correct the posture, which I agree that it is important to have a good start, and the table is adjustable for an adult to use (which means we can maximise this through his education years). The table has a feature where the main panel can be tilted to a certain angle for reading and be placed at 90 degrees for writing. Nonetheless, we went to see-see-look-look today to have a feel of the prices and the models available.
So happens that the store is giving a 20% storewide discount today and ending tomorrow (they call it a CNY promotion), we worked out that we will be saving $420 if we were to buy them today (yes, it's this pricey!) and ah lou was telling me that it's ok to buy now rather that coming to visit the store again and again while waiting for the best deal (which can be $350 discount plus $50 store voucher plus $50 bag voucher). And so, we decided to go with our biggest one-time investment on the kids so far:-
This cost near $600 before the discount
A Germany brand with a humongous price tag
Ah lou was hoping that this will not end up being a white elephant in the house, I reassured him that we can make it work by encouraging Caden to use the table each night when we spend time working through his school work with him.
So this would also imply that I can forget about replacing my living room's lounge chair and doing an upholstery of our current sofa since our finances are relatively tight this year.
And I should also forget about redeeming my nine west shoes on Tuesday (which is the end of CNY) although they have now been slashed by 50%.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Steep learning curve
One of the piano exam Grade 1 task is to read an unknown score on exam day and play the notes shown in the score. As I know Caden has been relying so heavily on the Do Re Mi abbreviations which I painstakingly penned down during his every lesson, I decided to start playing piano together with him from this term onwards by just reading the music notes off the book and play after deciphering the tune.
To be honest, I think age is gradually creeping up on me, besides struggling to carry out my role in my new work place through applications of numerous frameworks, policies and getting involved in giving formal trainings, I am finding it slightly more difficult than I thought it would be to practise piano with Caden. But I had to somehow find a way to teach him to read notes in a quicker way rather than counting from the first note 'Do' which is located right at the lowest line of the score. So now I tried to make him remember that the note that falls right into middle/third line denotes 'ti' and the note that falls on the top line indicates high 'fa', so he gets 3 different sets of base points to read the notes that fall in between these range.
I still have abt a year to get him used to reading the notes off the music book and play the song by looking at the score. Hopefully I can pick it up real fast on my end to find better methods for him to acquire this skill set.
I stand by my belief that I need to learn with my children to fully maximize what is being taught to them.. But it's going to be one tough journey to hang on..
To be honest, I think age is gradually creeping up on me, besides struggling to carry out my role in my new work place through applications of numerous frameworks, policies and getting involved in giving formal trainings, I am finding it slightly more difficult than I thought it would be to practise piano with Caden. But I had to somehow find a way to teach him to read notes in a quicker way rather than counting from the first note 'Do' which is located right at the lowest line of the score. So now I tried to make him remember that the note that falls right into middle/third line denotes 'ti' and the note that falls on the top line indicates high 'fa', so he gets 3 different sets of base points to read the notes that fall in between these range.
I still have abt a year to get him used to reading the notes off the music book and play the song by looking at the score. Hopefully I can pick it up real fast on my end to find better methods for him to acquire this skill set.
I stand by my belief that I need to learn with my children to fully maximize what is being taught to them.. But it's going to be one tough journey to hang on..
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Ethan's PTM
We went to LSK this afternoon for Ethan's parents-teacher-meeting with Mrs Quek and Chai Lou Shi.. Generally the feedback from Mrs Quek wasn't too positive - E was too quiet in class, doesn't like to participate and weak in tracing.. but he takes instructions well, understands his numbers and alphabets and can do the first sounds.. Chai Lou Shi's feedback on the other hand is more encouraging - she mentioned that she saw E's true self as she was in charge of the school bus saying that he's very happy interacting with the children on the bus, and bubbly.. but tends to be quiet in the class as she believes that Ethan is being respectful to teachers but on the shy side. She said that E does his work well this term and enjoys music lessons alot. She also noticed that he also does his work fast so he could go to the books corner and read the story books by himself while waiting for the others to finish the work.
2 variations of how quiet behaviour in school were communicated to us. As a parent myself, obviously the chinese teacher's testimonial give me alot of comfort.
At home, Ethan like to do coloring... today, he took out his McQueen book and started to doodle..
2 variations of how quiet behaviour in school were communicated to us. As a parent myself, obviously the chinese teacher's testimonial give me alot of comfort.
At home, Ethan like to do coloring... today, he took out his McQueen book and started to doodle..
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Enrichment update
After enrolling Caden and Ethan into Berries (finally), we realised that we have officially sank into a stage where we got Caden signed up in practically almost everything (english, maths, chinese and music).. and we were thinking of signing Ethan up on the same programme as the brother (english and maths) by the time he starts K1 next year. I think Caden has reached a stage where he could pick up and learnt new things fairly quickly, not sure which enrichment programme has helped but probably a combination of them stimulates his left/right brain. As we signed more of these classes for Caden, I am also gradually trying to be less stringent in his daily homework routine so he gets some time off in play on weekdays, plus outdoor activity on weekends.
We will drop Caden out from the abacus class by end of this year, so the funds can be channelled to Ethan's enrichment pool when we start him next year.. and depends on his passion for piano, if it dies down by end of the year, we may also stop Caden on music lessons after he sits for his Grade 1 exam..
We will drop Caden out from the abacus class by end of this year, so the funds can be channelled to Ethan's enrichment pool when we start him next year.. and depends on his passion for piano, if it dies down by end of the year, we may also stop Caden on music lessons after he sits for his Grade 1 exam..
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