Hello everyone. I need some advice to see what is going on in my 10yo boy’s head. Here is some background:
He was selected into GE last year (no tuition/enrichment). Both my husband and I were surprised because he was not the top 3 kids for any subject except science.
Start of this year after first week of school in GE, he came home and started saying he was tired, which never happened when he was in P3. He said GE was fun and finally something to keep him occupied since P3 was boring.
Fast forward 3.5 months, I received message from his English and Science teacher saying that he has been forgetful for not completing his work and bringing files. And the surprising part was, his science teacher commented that he needs to pay more attention in class and that he looked spaced out. This was a surprise to me, not in a good way because he was top in science in P3. So in only 3.5 months, I’m hearing that he needs to pay more attention in science which is his favourite subject. I talked to his P3 Science teacher (still in P4 form class this year) as well and she was surprised with the GE teacher’s comment.
As I’m curious person, I took a screen shot of some topics (not found in P4 textbooks) that were taught for Mathematics and Science and went straight to a bookstore. I was short of taken aback that the topics range from P5-S2.

1. Is my boy spaced out because he couldn’t understand what the teacher was teaching? Are the topics too advanced? But he told me he does understand and his school worksheets were mostly correct.
2. Did I make a wrong choice to put him into GE? Maybe he is only interested in Science but now for whatever reason, his teacher hints that he is not doing well.
3. Is GE selection really foolproof? I think half or more than half of the kids in GE class went for GE enrichment since P2 onwards (kids talk in school).
4. Is my boy at a disadvantage because he didn’t attend any rigorous enrichment that prepare them for GE? Since other kids have attended the outside GE enrichment, they would’ve probably expect what will happen when they are in GE?
5. Should I pull my boy out from GE? He didn’t show signs of stress and he isn’t the kind to get stressed easily but I’m afraid with more comments from the teacher, he’ll start to feel stressed.

I have always wanted to make study fun for my kids. But now, seemed like fun is not the word to associate with studies anymore.

Any advice or insights to what might have happened to my boy will be helpful.
Thanks!

floppy, what i meant was as of now, all Phase 2A no matter how far they stay, they still get into the school of their choice because they are linked (alumni/old boy/old girl). They only does balloting when Phase2A has more people applying for the same school.

But, when distance is being taken into account in this Phase, only 1km to 2 or 3km can apply. This will automatically cut off those who wants Phase 2A but stays more than 3km away. This will create more places for 2B and 2C. And honestly some very popular schools do not have that many places for 2B (except for those children whose parents are teachers in that school) because they have plenty of parent volunteers whose kids are currently in the school.
So the chunk of people who took up the places are Phase2A leaving little or exactly 40 places in Phase 2C.
If parents want to use Phase 2A, they’ll have to stay nearer to the school. Not letting the child travel half way around SG just to go to primary school.

So scared going to get scolded by stressed out parents.


But I am thinking why not just put a distance to Phase2A(1)(2) and Phase 2B. Let it be the same like Phase 2C within certain kms.
Phase 2C is within 1-2km. Why not extend or limit the previous Phases to 1-2.5km. This is of course taking into account that there are other primary schools to apply for after those km. I understand that some places, primary school is like 3km away.

Hello everyone. I don’t use this site much, so I think my previous post has been send to ???


I am wondering what is the school time for VS? Is it 7.30am, 8am or later?

Our first born is interested in VS and his results for last year was good. We are now looking at the timing for him and comparing to Dunman, VS is very near to our home. We do not want him to travel much.

Also, can enlighten me what is olympiad? His Teachers gave him forms to go for Math Olympiad for Hwa Chong and Maths and Science olympiads for NUS high. We only sign him up so the teachers will not call us for reason(s) why we did not do so.
DS says he wants to go becoz he can use them as tests to see if he has done well for his exam preparation (he does not have any tuition/enrichment).

Thanks in advance!

Vitamin C and Scotts Fish oil will do. Unless your child is underweight, pediasure is recommended by PDs. Otherwise I think normal food will give enough vitamins for kids. Everything in moderation.

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I love my dibea- into my 2nd one and scooba mopping machine. And the handheld Samsung vacuum helps when there are on the spot cleaning I need to do. My issues come in the washing of clothes, bath towels, Hand towels, dish washing towels. There are just too many of them. Any one has suggestions on how to deal with these?

Get a good dehumidifier. Our place for drying clothes do not have enough sunshine. Every night, I will turn on my dehumidifier in the kitchen from 11pm to 6am the next. The electric usage for using dehumidifier daily compared to using dryer weekly is much lower and everything (clothes, utensils etc) will be dry by morning even the towels that are hanging in the common toilet. But for safety reason, switch off all electronics apart from refrigerator when you are using dehumidifier. This will prevent mildew from growing on kitchen walls or toilet walls. But remember to close the kitchen door when using.

jkids\" post_id=\"1967176\" time=\"1584261579\" user_id=\"6320:

Hi mummies

Can advise which brand of bra is suitable for sec sch teens?

And should they be wearing wireless or wired bra for school?

Wireless bra for secondary until JC/ Poly gals.
Sports bra if your gal is active and also better during PE.

Hello, newbie here - in sense for this forum. I'm a SAHM for almost 12 years since the day I found out I was preggers with my elder boy (difficult pregnancy). Mummy of 2 boys 11yo and 5yo.

SAHM has it's ups and downs. The downs are of course less income and almost absolutely no personal time...LOL..
The ups, you get to see your children grow and be part of their growth. You get to see them getting taller, becoming independent, questioning loads about everything under the sun, the insane amount of food they eat due to growth spurts, their tricks when they get naughty, the money you can 'save' on enrichment (apart from Chinese) and 'subsidise' on food since you can guide them at home and you won't be afraid that your neighbours will think that you are a psychopath (yes, I consider it an up) since you have been yelling at them to study almost every single day...
I love being a SAHM even that means no annual overseas holiday, which, I had only travelled once since the birth of my elder boy compared to before having kids.
So yeah, there are sacrifices to be made, things to think about and worrying about money since it becomes single income. But I don't think I will return back to workforce even if I had an easy pregnancy. Enjoying their birth to where they are now, nothing can trade it.

I will rate what my elder boy has gone through. He is in P5 now.

He started with berries at 4yo, at that time, everything was okay. He enjoyed it but didn’t learn much or speak much mandarin until P1. They rate him as normal Chinese (yes, they do rate) and did not give him a preferred time slot for enrichment (which is a blessing in disguise). The teacher that taught P1 enrichment was biased and rude. So we switched him to Tien Hsia. Apparently, there were quite a lot of kids switched from Berries to Tien Hsia. The parents commented that their kids were also rate for normal Chinese and not HCL. Therefore, the teachers/ berries did not give preferential time slot for normal Chinese. There goes berries for us.
He started Tien Hsia from mid of P1 to P4, I can say that his Chinese improved a lot. Surprisingly, he was given a choice to take up HCL in P5 (and berries says he couldn’t make it… duh…) but we did not take up HCL because we do not want him to get stress out with an additional subject. We went to Tien Hsia because their timing suits us not because we want him to get into HCL. At the same time, we enrol him into Hokkien Huay Kuan for Chinese creative writing as it was a whole lot closer to us that Tien Hsia. I would encourage anyone who has a Tien Hsia near their place to take up Tien Hsia.
Currently at P5, he is in SHHK for Chinese enrichment and creative writing as it makes more sense since he loves the environment and the teachers over there. To be clear, he likes the teachers in Tien Hsia as well.
Our younger boy was in Tien Hsia when he was 3 and 4yo, but now is in SHHK at 5yo. His Chinese is a lot better than his older brother during this age.
All I can say is, if your kids learn through play, berries might be a good fit. But both my kids are old school, so writing and thinking suits them better. Also, do not get stress out if anyone rate your kid normal, my elder boy proves otherwise. He can’t speak a sentence of mandarin or recognise Chinese words when he was 3-4 yo to being offered HCL entering P5.
Have fun with your kids as they’re growing up and don’t get stress or pressured to do what other people do. There is no one size fits all.