P1 Preparation for parents of mutliples

[winth]

For you info, I am separating my 2 boys (not twins lar) for pure study work.


One half hour (22 months old), the other (now K2) at 1.5-2 hours.

When they even ‘study’ together, it happens when they are playing with some interactive & educational games or flashcards which I’ve made on the PC. Also, when I’m doing story-reading, they like to sit together too. Other than that, if I even put both together, it usually ends in screams and tears.

But when it comes to teaching subjects or pure work-related, I reckon you separate the two as both your boys will have very different strengths and likings to a single subject or topic.

I’ve taught both boys (as my students) before, and in one single lesson, I will sit them together, but they will do different work. Meaning, when one is writing/doing work, I’ll be teaching the other boy something else. And they take turns to get my attention. I will even ask their mummy to let me start with one boy half hour earlier, and then the other will come in and end half hour later than his brother.

[nonKiasu]

Hi, Vividlaurel and mmpiglet. Glad to have 'found' you!


I have a set of triplet boys who are in K1 now. They are borned prematurely in Nov (suppose to due in xmas week) and like mmpiglet's ones, mine are also slightly behind their peers.

Mine hasn't attended any enrichment course until I found this website last month. After reading so much in this forum, I also get scared. I started them with Chinese at Berries last month bec the primary next to my house is a SAP school (sign, don't know is this lucky or unlucky). Planning to send them for phonics in Mar. Mine in childcare and so whole day play a lot there. I think their teacher are not even trained in phonics!

mmpiglet, which centre did you go for the enrichment course? For us, everything times 3 is really very xiong. So hope that can find centres that are good and cheap.

Vividlaurel, i think it is still not too late to start them enrichment course this year. You still have 1 whole year to prep. I think K2 can pick up things faster than those younger than K2.

I started to teach my triplets at home starting this year. I have to do 1-to-1 too as they are different. I need to use different approach. So, with only 5 weekdays, there isn't enough! Given that each of them spend only 2 nights with me, I have to teach from Mon to Sat! Worst, I sometime lost track of who are taught what because of different approached used, things are progressing differently. You see, I teach everything - phonics, chinese, maths, reading, writing... somethings all in 1 session bec say, my son is bored with chinese, then we start counting. Count until bored, we do sentence writing, etc. If he is ok, then we can continue the same subject for whole night.

Good if you can share how you teach your twins at home as well.

[mmpiglet]

Hi nonKiasu,


For my boys, there are attending K1 and K2 classes at Berries Orchard. They were not able to cope with the K2 materials at Berries so the teacher advised me to let them join the K1 class as well to improve on their chinese. I have also sent them to a reading program called I Read N Write at Pandan Valley which doesn’t use phonics to teach reading. It more like teaching reading using visual learning. Their development is already so slow and I found that phonics did not work for them. Then they also have maths at My Think Tank.

So far these classes are not cheap.

[Lucky]

[quote] by Winth


One half hour (22 months old), the other (now K2) at 1.5-2 hours.
[/quote]Hi Winth
I would like to know how did you coach yr K2 kid for 1.5-2hours daily. Is your child able to do worksheet for that long period of time ?

Mine K2 gal at most will do half an hour of worksheet and she's off to play leow. :?: Wat's your recipe to enable him to be so focus.

[joyti]

hi,i am new in singapore.my daughter is going to k2.I am wondering what sort of prepration you all are taking.What should she know at this stage.

[winth]

Hi Lucky,


He has very good concentration since toddler stage. Able to sit down with me for at least 30 mins liao. Started working on him since he was 1 year old, usually with very colourful books.

But for K2, as the drilling process starts, I have been buying loads of assessment books for him, ranging from fun books to tedious ones. The books are usually very colourful with large prints, some are dryer with more words.

During that 1.5-2 hour, we range from reading 绕口令, doing IQ/EQ worksheets, grammar, vocabulary to comprehension and composition in english and chinese. And if time permits, we will do mathematics (addition/subtraction/division) and problem sums.

I buy loads of books for him, so he gets to choose the books he likes. During work time, the key is to change books all the time, do one to two pages at a time for each exercise so that it will refresh him. When I see that his ‘face’ change after writing long sentences for too long, I will switch to his fun homework (sticker pasting books/mazes).

[winth]

We usually start our work at 7pm, so I had to skip dinner (with some snacks beforehand).


An e.g. of one normal day (I usually do only 2 subjects per day, so that I don't confuse him too much)
7pm to 715pm: Grammar (MCQ) = explain why and when you use this
715pm to 730pm: Comprehension (story reading & MCQ qns)
730pm to 745pm: Re-arranging of sentences (he will give me the correct answers while I help him out), then that's H/W for tomorrow where he writes down the sentences
745pm to 8pm: Hanyu Pinyin exercise = must explain why
8pm to 830pm: Chinese Composition writing (picture-based)
830pm to 9pm: Go through all the correction from his H/W and exercises with him that I need him to do homework for the next day (mostly done for Mathematics as it's all hands-on without too much need for explanation or sitting down with him)

He'll do all the homework, usually maths and self-explanatory worksheets/exercises all by himself in the afternoon. Night time, then I will mark and go through correction with him.

By 9pm, hubby usually back from work and that's when he goes to bed while we have dinner and couple time together.

[schellen]

joyti:

hi,i am new in singapore.my daughter is going to k2.I am wondering what sort of prepration you all are taking.What should she know at this stage.

hi joyti! Maybe this link will help? http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=117

[Lucky]

Winth


I salute you la ! even can sacrifice your dinner to coach your son ! kudos to you !

[Twins]

mmpiglet:

Hi Vividlaurel,


I have twin sons who will be in P1 next year. I am also having a hard time preparing them for P1. So far they have maths, chinese and reading enrichment classes.

Both of them are different when it comes to studies. My elder boy hates doing homework whilst the younger one is ok with it. They were born in December, thus they are quite slow compared to their peers. I am not able to make them study at the same time, so I will do work with them one at a time but only a very short period of time as they have short attention spans.

hi mmpiglet and vividlaurel

I'm a mum with twins boys in K2 this year too! Hello hello , so nice to hear there are so many pairs of twins of the same age!!

I too, have to separate the boys when i coach them...my elder one is the one who picks up very fast and enjoys \"helping\" the Di Di by giving him the answer - - so frustrating for me, and di di!!

I believe as a mum to your own kids, you will know best on what motivates them, keeps their attention span up etc. Perhaps a little reward at the end of the session may work. Or start a reward chart where u give a star sticker (or something meaningful) if they complete your given task. 10 stars will mean a certain reward...trip to the zoo, an ice cream treat etc. With twins, the reward chart can create a little healthy competition between the 2.

Just my 2 cents worth...

May I know what school you have in mind for your twins?