Something had to give

Our first born is an overachiever. Packrat claims that she takes after me. I guess. At one point, Jordan was doing ballet twice a week, gym twice a week, art once a week, swimming once a week. And at that point, she was doing extra Chinese twice a week and Math once a week. It was a scheduling night mare and it just did not sit right with us because there was too much on her plate and she needed time to play. Some told us we were doing the right thing and comforted us by telling us that since most of her extra stuff was not school related, it was play. Unfortunately, that wasn't our definition of play. So we kept asking her quit something. In response, she asked for piano lessons.

Eventually, she had to choose under duress but not really from us.

At the end of May, Jordan competed in another gym competition and did not fare as well as she did previously. This was about the same time that we were hearing that actually, the gym she was at wasn't all that great for building foundation and skills properly and we were shopping around for another gym. Jordan became taken with this other gym that was run by China coaches and insisted on switching there despite our reservations of it being too great a leap from a 'play' gym to a gym run by China coaches. She dug in her heels and they insisted that if she wanted to join them, she had to put in a minimum of 6 hours a week.

That was the gun to her head.

She chose to give up everything; ballet, art and swimming. We had decided on giving up Math without consultation with her anyway.

That was when you could hear two hearts shatter in unison, from a mile away. Both Packrat and I were extremely saddened at her decision to give up ballet and art.

For me, part of it was vicarious. Because I had danced, I had wanted her to. I am not ashamed to admit that. But it was also because when she danced, there was pure joy and musicality and I would miss watching her move with the music.

For Packrat, there wasn't the vicarious reason but he loved watching her dance and how she immersed herself in it. With the art, her eye for detail and how she drew every time she found a piece of paper made us feel wistful that she chose to give it up.

Putting these away was difficult.

Our consolation was that with the numerous hours of gym she was going to put in, if she wanted to go back to ballet, it would not be all that difficult.

And art was something that she could do on her own and there would always be opportunity. A case in point was when she went off for a day with a friend from church and when I picked her up, she had a canvas painting of the both of us for my birthday.

At the same time, we had to remind ourselves that it was what she wanted to commit her time to and that we had to respect the decision she was making. So, she now spends an inordinate amount of her time upside down and has core strength and abs that put us to shame and she's happy. 

So while we mourn for what she could have done with the ballet or the art, the sparkle in her eye after gym despite 3 hour long classes makes us realise that she knows herself best.

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Exam Season

The question I'm getting asked most often this week is "Do your kids have exams?" followed by "Are they/ you stressed?"

The short answer is no, they don't have exams. But the long answer is that the short answer is a load of crap. Any test that we are informed of at the beginning of the school year, has the children bringing homes files for revision and has a mock test before the actual one is an exam however they try to couch it. Mini-test, Bite Sized test, Continual Assessment, Holistic Assessment; all exams by another name.

Are we stressed? A little bit. The twins are resentful of the sheer amount of work they have had to do in order to revise and be prepared for the test. But a contract's a contract and they're very admirably sticking to it and living up to their part of the bargain.

There are a few things that have helped me and them keep sane. I know the pressure and expectation intensifies as they get older. But here are some things that have been doing the trick this time round.

1. The aforementioned contract: Now, knowing that Packrat is dead serious and knowing what they have to lose if they slack off, both Evan and Jordan have been remarkably on task. Of course, there is complaining and mistakes but the earnest attempt to actually complete their work is more visible. That helps because I don't need to come home to a pile of undone, messy work.

2. Planning: I sit with all their stuff and schedules open and look at what needs to be done and whether it is realistic in the given time frame. Then I work backwards from the number of days I have, the number of pages they can realistically complete and date the pages. I don't spring anything more than the stipulated pages that I had already dated. That way, they know that once they are done, they're done and they can play.

3. Have good support: I am thankful I have good support for the twins. They have a brilliant Chinese tutor that makes learning fun. She has squeaky hammers and tennis balls as part of her bag of tricks. I do the boring stuff with them like make sure they finish whatever revision papers she sets them and I try to go through as much of it as I am able to (ability here plays a huge role). I sat with the tutor before the test season and discussed how we were going to do it. I told her specifically not to have the twins sit there and do papers with her but for her to just focus on the bits they needed help with.  So she does just that and I pick up the slack on the bits that the twins need less help with.

On top of that, the twins are still at BlueTree. And once again, while their teacher is strict with them and expects quite a bit out of them, she revisits old topics as she moves ahead, making their understanding of multiplication and division, for instance, more malleable. She intersperses the table work with games and physical math. So the twins came home declaring their ability to use the measuring tape and regaling tales of the various things they subjected to the measuring tape. So, while she keeps their noses in the grind with homework, the twins are willing to do it. It also has got to do with the amount of scaffolding she gives them. Making them not fear Math, just like the Chinese tutor that makes Chinese fun for them is truly half the battle.

If I hadn't been blessed with having these teachers around to help then I think I would be spending much more time making and looking up resources so that I could replicate these things at home though I'm not sure what degree of success I would have with them.

4. Mastery: The biggest thing that is keeping me from losing it and taking it out on the twins is the constant reminder that these tests really aren't about the grades and an end in themselves. Whenever I feel the urge to let rip a roar of frustration, I remind myself (to varying degrees of success) that it's one test and it's not what matters. I'd figured out that a lot of the stress comes from my expectation of what is good for them. Having been brought up in the Singapore education system, it's easy to say that the best thing for them is to be in the top class and in the top school. I constantly have to fight that voice in my head. In the last few months, there is another voice; softer at times, not as confident but gaining more each day, that reminds me that if the twins are truly struggling, despite all efforts then perhaps the top class isn't where they ought to be and what I think ought to be re-looked. The semi-epiphany that I came to is that eventually I want JED, Muffin included, to be able to grasp the concepts and be able to use them. In one word, mastery.  So then, what we should be working  towards  isachieving that mastery and I've tried to shift my focus towards helping them attain that.

I'm not sure if I'll still be singing the same tune next year or this year end when the stakes are raised. After all, I am fighting a rising tide that is our ridiculous education system that epitomises academic inflation. But framing testing in this light does seem to have given me a little bit less to yell about.

All that being said, I really cannot wait till next week is over and everyone gets some much deserved rest and play time. Even as a teacher, I don't know if I looked forward to school break as much as I have in the last 18 months.

On that note, here's a little bit of a shout out, for those looking for something for the kids to do during the holidays. The twins saw this mailer from BlueTree- an Art-Science camp about the feathered friends and have asked to do it. It's two days at the beginning of the holidays and since I'm going to be at work, I figured why not. And the best thing about it is that after having fun at BlueTree, they're still going to have the rest of the day to play!

There's an early bird special going on, so catch it before it flies off. (Bad puns intended!)

BlueTree Education is at  271 Bukit Timah Road, Balmoral Plaza #02-15 Singapore 259708. You can call them at 91064702.

 The twins' Math class for the term are being sponsored by BlueTree Education. If anyone is keen to try their stuff, they offer free trial classes. I love what they do at English, Logic and Literacy (which sounds way fun!) and Current Affairs Club too but for now, the twins need more play time than classes.

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The math that adds up

The other reason why we pulled the twins out of the Nazi Chinese school was this.

A friend of mine, Liz,  set up an enrichment centre last year. It's called BlueTree Education. Muffin went there in December for Santa Camp and they all fondly call it Santa School, which has a nice ring to it. Anyway, I've always liked all the stuff that they did there. If ever there was coveting for enrichment classes, this was it. Not because it would explicitly guarantee them good grades but because the classes seemed to framed around the creativity, critical thinking and imagination. All things I believe in. Then Liz asked if the twins wanted to try out their Math programme.

I hedged because the twins have a very packed school week. That and the fact that although an educator, I don't want to buy into the tuition culture more than I have to (the 'I have to' part is the Chinese) . Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me as well as Jordan who has actually been bugging me for Math class, we went to pay Liz a visit one early Saturday morning. Liz doesn't actually teach the class. The class is taught by another ex teacher.

I dropped them off and ducked out, happy to have 90 minutes to do non-kid related things. When I got back to get them, they were chomping on a chocolate chip cookie each and looked extremely disappointed that I was there.

By the time I managed to wrangle them out of the centre I'd blown my 10 minute grace period with parking,

So what did this have anything to do with why we pulled them out of Nazi Chinese School?

1. It showed that enrichment centres/ classes weren't made equal.
2. It showed that classes could be engaging for the children and they could actually want to go to class and have fun there.
3. It showed that there were different ways of teaching children and to build their confidence.
4. It showed that learning didn't have to happen by rote and didn't require beating the child down to do it.

And why I liked the BlueTree Math specifically?
1. They used manipulatives. Both Jordan and Evan are visual learners though Evan is able to do rote a little bit better. But nothing helps them understand the concepts and apply them as manipulatives do. I've always been a big fan of manipulatives and spend a lot of time looking at what to get on Amazon.

2. Math games that teach both speed and accuracy.

3. Not a ridiculous amount of homework but a doable set. On top of that, the homework set they take home is consolidation of what they've done in class. Same sort of questions, different numbers and different levels of difficulty. So there hasn't been excuses of  "I don't know how to do my homework!" and much more willingness to practice. That's also meant they've become more confident with their Math and the positive cycle going on now is nicely self-perpetuating.

4. The teacher is encouraging and affirming of their efforts. Evan used to come out of Nazi Chinese ecstatic. But his ecstasy came from the fact that the 2 hours of torture was over. Evan comes out of class here beaming, telling me what games he's played and how much the teacher encouraged and praised his effort.

5. Jordan, who has always felt that her strength has been in English has become bolder with her Math because  it is explained in a way that she understands and as a result, she gets them right. That makes her dare to try more challenging questions. It makes me smile to see her take on her Math, that she struggled with a little bit more than Evan and it reminds me of this ad about reminding girls that they can be pretty brilliant too.

All good things.

So for now and while they say it's fun and they want to go, we'll let them do Santa School (BlueTree Math) and learn something while they're at it.


 BlueTree Education is very kindly sponsoring the twins' Math class with them for a term. If anyone is keen to try their stuff, they offer free trial classes. I love what they do at English and Current Affairs Club too but for now, the twins need more play time than classes. 

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Choosing our battles with Chinese

We're almost at the end of the first term of Primary 2. Things are moving at an infinitely faster pace. It isn't frenetic yet but it's slowly getting there. There is something on practically every day and the twins take it in their stride as long as they get some time to run around downstairs and shout on top of their voices. But the day they hate the most is Wednesday. On Wednesday, they spend two hours in what Packrat and I have labelled Nazi Chinese class. This was the same holiday class that the twins were doing at the end of last year. This was the same class that Evan didn't want to continue and we insisted they had to because it was good for them.

Admirably, they've stuck to the strict regime of homework that would require the entire week in between classes to complete. Chinese compositions to re-copy, spelling to practice, paragraphs to memorise and passages to practice reading out loud. But the thing is while they've definitely become more resilient in the face of great difficulty and in their eyes, drugery, we have decided to concede that it isn't for them. 

We discovered this about 3 weeks into the term but decided that we had a responsibility to the twins to make sure they see through the term. The reasons why we felt this way were that

1. Evan was demoralised. Every single Tuesday night, he would tell us how much he dreaded going to class the next day. He felt like he was being picked on by the teachers because he was slower writing. I didn't believe him until I saw the teacher rolling her eyes at him above his head. So he didn't see it but the Mommy peeping in to check if they were done caught it in full.

2. The school and therefore the teachers work on a different pedagogical philosophy than we subscribe to. We don't and have never believed in putting down a child to motivate him or her to succeed. Perhaps some children respond to that but we have never treated JED that way and therefore they recoil from being treated in that way. It has a lot to do with my mother reminding me to "teach a child from what he knows to what he doesn't know" rather than "This is what you ought to know, I don't care how you get to that point, but you bloody well get there or suffer wrath." And it didn't seem to matter that what they ought to know was various standards above what they actually knew at this point. This actually makes this Nazi Chinese class a great class for kids who want to excel. But for kids like mine that still need to have the love for the language cultivated and the pillars of the language strengthened, nope. Akin to building a skyscrapper on swampland.

3. We spent many of their pre-schooling years in schools that were bigger on nurturing than demanding excellence for results. This school was markedly different. Nurture? Where is there time to nurture? We have things to do and places to go. Flail? Learn how to swim? Can't? Then, drown.

4. Jordan was becoming too competitive. Because they put so much emphasis on who finished first, she always wanted to finish first regardless of the quality of her work.

I did blog about sticking to our guns and letting them go through it. Well, guns have been stuck to and gone through they have. We've given our notice and we're done with it.

Practically, it does leave a big hole in supporting their Chinese. And we've been trying to plug it ourselves, the way we want them to learn while we find something of the right fit. This has meant that I've had read to JED in my very rusty and patchy Chinese. It's also meant that Packrat and I have spent a whole afternoon on the floor drawing up matching flash cards for the twins just so that part of their revision becomes a game rather than mundane memory work. Perhaps this way, they retain it past the test next week.

It would be so much easier to concede as necessary the whole rote, over-teaching schtick that everyone is buying into. That way, I can, in all good conscience, keep them in the Nazi Chinese class because it is good for them and I can be sure that they won't fail at the language. My way? They truly might fail But that is looking at it only from my perspective. From their point of view,  Evan hates the language already and barely tolerates it. If I stuck him at the Nazi Chinese Centre for the long term, it might end up with him having such a revulsion for the language that once he figures out how to be more rebellious, he won't care if he fails at it. Jordan, she might pick up a bit more from it but at what cost? Becoming uber competitive and crying every time she doesn't come in first?

I wasn't fantastic at Chinese but I had neighbours that I played with, who spoke only Chinese and I loved the Channel 8 dramas. Those two things saved me from the fate that awaited my very anglo, mission school- going brothers. I didn't hate it like they did because I used it and I was conversant in it and it helped me do relatively well for it. Even if I'm no longer there, it's where I want JED to be at and my sense is that forcing what seems to be the industry's standard of what is the best down their little potato-banana throats is really not going to help this cause.

So we fight smart. We forsake this war in the hope that we will have energy for the longer battle and it might be a little bit more painless.

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Lesson learnt

Despite the fact that it is a universally accepted truth that children in Primary One have no exams, there are these things called mini-tests. And in my book, when we are told ahead of time that there is a 'mini' test, files are sent home so that they can revise for it and that we are told that it will be a certain percentage of their final grade, IT IS AN EXAM. An exam by any other name is still an exam.

They did it mid-year too but since they had only been in school 5 months give or take at that point, the twins had no problems with it. This recent one, culminating the entire year's work required much more revision and because there was more to test, it was also a longer paper.

They survived relatively unscathed, except for their Chinese paper.

What we took away from it.

a. There is actually wisdom in setting practice papers for the children to do. Mistakes that were carelessly made were not specific to but more endemic to the end of the paper where I suspect they were mentally exhausted from the effort. Practice papers however, have to be timed. I should have known this. I have spent a lot of time doing this with my students but I had been under the false impression that kidlet exams didn't require the same amount of mental endurance.

b. Being pedantic is important. So many marks were lost because of punctuation and where upper case letters were required but were absent.

c. Reading instructions are important, even if it were in a language they aren't competent in. Or, the level of competence needed for Chinese had to be at least where they could read the instructions. Jordan dropped an entire grade because she chose to write the characters of the words rather than the number of the word, as specified. And because she had written the word inaccurately (see pt b.), marks got docked for it despite her knowing the answer.

d. We ought to allow our kids to get what they deserve. I wanted badly to go to school and take it up (see pt c.) with the teacher. After all, she did get the answer right. But two things stopped me.

i. The teacher could easily have decided that she should have docked all the marks in the section because Jordan hadn't followed instructions. Then, rather than helping her gain a better grade, I would have caused her to drop yet another grade.

ii. The girl's gotta learn. Stupid things like that can cost dearly. And in national exams eventually, the papers do not get returned for checking so making a mistake like that would mean irrevocable consequences.

So, she has had to stick with her- 1 mark shy of a higher grade- mark.

e. We know where their weaknesses are now. One of the things about assessment is that if done properly (meaning they test what has been taught rather than toss something out from left field at them), it can act as an indicator of what the child knows and doesn't know. So, instead of teaching ahead as Singaporean logic would dictate, we're going to spend an hour every day during the holidays building on what they haven't got a good grasp of. That way, they'll still have to listen in class at the beginning of next year and they might get a bit better at their multiplication and division. That's the plan.

Of course, the egos of my two 7 yos have deigned P1 work for babies. They can't wait to not be at the bottom of the school. Our response thus far has been, show me work with no mistakes then we'll break out some P2 stuff. Though in truth, if they could show us stuff without mistakes then they ought to use that time to read all those wonderful books on the shelves.

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A contractual agreement

Evan signed his first contract today. Just before heading off to bed, he asked me very innocently if there was 听 写 (Chinese Spelling) tomorrow. To which my reply was "you tell me?". When he unearthed his Chinese list, it was evident that there was 听 写 tomorrow.

I had two options.

1. He sleeps late to study for it.

2. He doesn't learn it and faces the consequences of doing badly tomorrow. Both from us and from school.

I chose the latter.

I asked him if he thought I was mad, he said yes.

When I asked him why, he said because he lied.

I told him it wasn't about lying. It was about being responsible for his work. With both Jordan and him, I forget dates and what they have to do. It's impossible for the most Type A amongst us and I am by no stretch of the imagination, super Type A. So I tell him that I am upset because he was irresponsible. And that came with consequence.

Thereafter, I asked him what did he hope to get for 听 写. He said full marks. So we drew up an agreement that anything less than full marks would have consequences because he forgot to study for it.

A concept he is unfamiliar with.

We came up with a list of the 5 things he enjoyed doing most and ranked it.
1. Playing with our neighbour, Kate.
2. Going downstairs to play.
3. Going on a night walk.
4. Watching television on the weekend.
5. Reading his Star Wars books.

The agreement:
If Evan gets 100, nothing gets taken away.
If Evan gets 95, no Star Wars books for a day.
If Evan gets 90, no watching television on Saturday.
If Evan gets 85, no night walk for that week.
If Evan gets 80, no going downstairs to play for 3 days.
If Evan gets 75, no playing with Kate for 4 days.

Signed and agreed by him, witnessed by Jordan.

It's up on the fridge in the kitchen with everything else important, for everyone to see.
 
I'm not sure if he truly understands consequence yet but I sure hope this teaches him something because behind the 'zen' mommy was a one who was about blow a gasket and have an aneurysm, all the while still in work clothes.

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Mom's homework woes

Since the twins started P1,the most common question I am asked, by parents who have primary school going children, is how do I cope with homework from two different schools for the same level. This is especially so because they are in Primary 1 and the concept of independent homework has yet to be mastered.

So to say the least, two different sets of spelling in English and Chinese and different paces at Math and various different pieces of oral work have left me extremely confused and frazzled regardless of my efforts to keep everything organised.

But there are little things that help me give up, retain some sanity and have some lunch while making sure they get homework done.

1. Show me the work
Rather than dig through their bags for homework, I make them dig through their own bags and pull out everything they need me to look at, sign as well as homework. It doesn't really save a lot of time but at least they come to me rather than my going to them. That way, I can be having lunch and barking at them to bring out their stuff. By the time I am done with lunch, they would have finally gotten everything out onto the table. Yes, it takes them that long, in between chatting, running off because something caught their eye or a bird flying by.

2. Combine the spelling lists

Cruel but convenient and I'm sure all the tiger moms out there would approve. Evan has 10 spelling words, Jordan has 8, so for the week, they get to learn 18 words. They haven't caught onto it yet but I'm sure when they have, I can't do this anymore!

3. Level the playing field

The homework isn't consistent. As a rule, Jordan seems to have more than Evan does. So to prevent the complaining, Evan gets to do Mommy's homework while Jordan gets through her stuff. I try to work on Evan's Chinese while purposely ignoring Jordan while she does her work. This is in the hope that she will slowly learn to read instructions on her own and work out what she has to do without my sitting beside her. Eventually, I hope to graduate to not being there during homework time though I would want my presence to still be felt!

4. Make it fun

We have taken to making spelling fun by deliberating telling them to make the most ridiculous of sentences or stringing all the spelling words together into ridiculous sentences and having them write it down. Purists would probably burn us at the stake because we are totally ignoring semantics here. Anyway, it gets them chuckling and raring to hear the next ridiculous thing that has been made up.

The truth is, for the life of me, I cannot remember how I learnt how to spell; possibly why I spell so badly as an adult. But I know for a fact that writing it down a million of times is not just boring and may not be the most effective way of getting them to remember the words.

Both of them love using different mediums to learn it. Physical letters, writing it on our glass door, using chalk, sticks, paint and playing word games. Occasionally, I get the opportunity to do something fun that totally appeals to them. Jordan had to learn how to spell her shapes. Muffin has a set of shape stencils. So, I told her that after she did the boring write-the-word a couple of times thing so that she could draw out the shapes and label the shapes (not using the word 'spell' in my later instructions). She loved it and insisted on cutting each one out and then use them to teach Muffin.


5. Playing Teacher

I think because children are exposed to teachers so much of their day, they inadvertently want to be teachers. I suspect it has got to do with the fact that their teacher wields ultimate power and subconsciously, they all want the same thing.

I let them take over the testing of each other. They are way more Nazi than I am with their 'student' not a lot of time in between words and great mocking and teasing ensues when mistakes are made. But they take it in their stride, revel in getting their own back when it is their turn to be teacher and all the while, not just having to learn their own set of words but their student's set because Mommy doesn't allow the spelling list to be used during the marking.

These don't solve my problems but they make things slightly easier or slightly more entertaining and easier to bear. I never thought I would dread homework more than I did when I was in school, but we discover new things about ourselves everyday!

 

    

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Family portraits

The twins drew us the other day. Some things were very obvious from it. To Evan, order was very important within the family. In his portrait, we are ranked by height, not age. He is ahead of Jordan even though Jordan is older than he is.

Jordan had no particular order that she followed. Evan and herself were together, Muffin was on the other side of Packrat, Mommy took up significantly more room in the portrait and everyone but Mommy was of Daddy-Long-Legs proportions.

The thing that tickled me most of all was like in Jordan's eyes, we were pretty much a family of zombies.

In Evan's eyes, we were all smiling and I liked that.

What warmed me about both their portraits were that they included Kakak into it.

These pictures now reside on our fridge and everyone who walks past it, stops to look at it and smiles.

Technorati Tags: twins, family

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Teachers make terrible mothers

One of my pet peeves, as a teacher, is bad handwriting. We mark essays 100 at a go and it is, for the want of a better word, exhausting. What makes it even worse is bad handwriting. When faced with one of those, at the end of a long day, it is akin to the straw that broke the camel's back.

Jordan came back with some work already done. It was all correct but it was written terribly. I saw it at night, after Jordan had fallen asleep. But it bugged me through the night. The next morning, I showed it to her and whipped out an eraser and cleaned off everything, having her do it again.

Of course, she argued that it had already been done and it was all correct so why did she have to do it again? I used it to explain to her the things my mother explained to me; that any work I did had to be to the best of my ability and it wasn't about just getting it done, but to actually get it done properly. All those things that didn't mean anything at that point but must have ingrained themselves into my sub conscience only to be brought to surface when I became a teacher and then now, as I parent school going children.

That said, Jordan has beautiful penmanship. It is the other reason why she got told off; because her handwriting was messy, it was slip shod and she thought it didn't matter.

Unfortunately for her, I am a teacher and I wouldn't want her,  Evan or Muffin for that matter, to contribute to any teacher's angst.

 Technorati Tags: twins, teachers, teacher peeves

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A for Art book

The visual arts are where I have the least amount of personal exposure in. Possibly because I failed art in Sec 1 and was shamed by my art teacher. But I married the president of the Art Club and my children seem to enjoy and have a flair for art more than I do.

When I saw this book, I Spy, An Alphabet in Art, on Amazon, I immediately bought it. Partially because then I would know 26 great art pieces and not be as ignorant as before but also because it was a really fun and slightly more adult way of learning the ABC.

Each page starts of with "I spy with my little eye something (either beginning or ending) with ..." And there is a painting with something sometimes as common as a Cat for C or uncommon as L for Lily.

Jordan loves looking at the pictures and occasionally trying to draw something from it. Evan can't really be bothered with it although I've seen him take cursory glances at it. But Muffin loved it. He looked at every page, read out every letter and tried his darndest to find the object in the picture that was associated with the letter. Some of them were so way out that even I didn't get it and the ones where it the object ended with the letter, he needed help. 

But he went through the entire book and then flipped back to look at the pictures he liked best. E for elephant was an Indian painting with ceremonial elephants and he was tickled with A for Apple because I asked him where the man's eyes were and he couldn't tell me since the apple blocked his face. (See cover). 

I loved that I wasn't needing to use conventional methods to teach him the alphabets. I hate flash cards and I am desperately trying to wean him off the iPad. I also liked that Muffin wasn't limited to the cartoony run-of-the-mill basic alphabet object references. But most importantly, this was fun and didn't feel like work to either of us although there were occasionally furrowed brows. This was F and poor Muffin couldn't understand why Picasso had painted the fish as a plate on the lady's head.  Neither could I for that matter and I am a grown woman who already knows her alphabets!

 Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, art

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Repetition makes the world go round

 Some days, my days feel like Groundhog Day. They loop and repeat themselves. It is a given that school and academic stuff, they work well with repetition. Every morning, they know that they have to read their Chinese reader. It is the only way they are ready for the next week. By the end of the week, they are smooth, precise and confident. So, okay, in that way, repetition is great.


But even things that are fun for them, they do a rinse and repeat on me.  Once they figure out that they enjoy something, they do it, exclusively, to death.

We read the same books every night. To the point that we have memorised the Gruffalo (Evan's favourite), The Snail and the Whale (Muffin's favourite) and The Stick Man (Jordan).

 

Then there are activities that they want to do. Any where they have been with the school before, we have to follow suit. In the exact same fashion. It is Evan, the stickler for rules that demands that. So, because the school has been to the Butterfly Park at Sentosa, we had to go. A few months ago, I took them to the Botanic Gardens that front Cluny Road and we have been back twice since, to do the exact same thing; pick up rotting or if we are lucky, dried up fruit.Then, most recently, there was the Kids Kampong that they went about a fortnight ago and the minute there was a free day in sight and Packrat was back in town, they were clamouring to go. 

It makes it easy to keep them occupied because we can go to the same places again but there are some places that they have gone to that they would like to repeat, like indoor playgrounds that I try not to accede to. But when I don't accede to their flavours of the month, then, like a broken record player, they ask and ask and ask. For an entire year, Evan has repeated his desire to revisit the indoor playground with air cannons. In this aspect, I am pretty sure, he has more resolve to repeat himself than I do, to repeat myself.

 Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, Kids Kampong, Reading

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Chinese redux

Last week, someone was trying to describe his fiancee to Packrat and struggled to find the words. Eventually he lapsed into Chinese. Someone else in the group had to then translate what was being said to the very lost looking Packrat. Packrat stated that he was effectively monolingual. I added that our 5 year olds had a better command of the language than he did.

Our 5 years olds do a decent job with a language we don't use much at home. We have learnt that the most effective way of introducing a second language to a child is to have each parent responsible for one language and only speak that one language to the child. That sounds like a good idea in theory but in practice, that meant me. We were also told that unfortunately, the parent tasked with the second language would get ignored more because communicating with that parent would be more difficult. Humph.

Anyway, we decided a few things when it came to our kids learning Chinese. It had to be fun and relatively painless. It shouldn't scare them and most importantly, it shouldn't stress them out and cause them to dread it. All the memories of Chinese tuition and memorising copious amounts of words and phrases we barely remember now have left an indelible mark on us.

It's been 2 years since they've started a weekly Chinese class. For the most part, they are willing to go, Evan more than Jordan but I've explained that already . It has got a lot to do with very encouraging, un-intimidating teachers who play with them and dramatise stories for them. And they've gone from getting 1's (hardly ever using Chinese) to being able to read Chinese better than English and random pages of a Chinese story book as well as write their names. In a nutshell, they've overtaken their father.

Having said that it doesn't stress them out, it does stress me out. Admittedly, it is a rigourous curriculum that they are put through and the only way they are able to read their readers is that I, the designated 2nd language parent, take them through. Being the best person for the job doesn't take much in our family and on paper, I do have a distinction in the language. But when it comes to reading, I am just about their level or have to depend heavily on pinyin. Even then,  I am occasionally stumped by the twins' reader and more so stumped when conversing with them. There have been days when I photograph the page with offendingly difficult characters and send SOS messages with pictures attached to my more Chinese enabled friends. (I never trust the twins when they read me the character because once, I stupidly  believed them when they told me the Chinese character for the dog's bark was "wo wo". It wasn't, it was just the onomatopoeic way of referring to the dog's bark but they had me fooled for a while.)

Thankfully, it seems much more painless for them. For now anyway. Plus, I have the added tools of Chinese videos that they enjoy watching, wooden block games that look suspiciously like mahjong but it gets them to identify and put together radicals to form characters and other games that they have lots of fun doing.

For Muffin, who is still disturbingly pre-speech, I'm just leaving him to jig to Chinese songs and telling him what his name is.  I can just about handle one level of Chinese at a time.

 


I won't be able to keep this up forever and at some point, it will definitely get too difficult for me. Then, I will have to cede the job to someone better qualified than I am.  

Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, Learning Chinese, Singapore

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Parent Teachers Meeting

Being teachers, both Packrat and I look at Parent-Teachers Conferences for our children as a little bit of a minefield and regard it with not just a little bit of irony. This is because of all the nasty thought bubbles that have appeared in our heads over the umpteenth parent teacher conferences that we have had to sit through as teachers. We are well-aware of the self-imposed, for the sake of self-preservation, gag order that prevents us from saying what we truly think about some of the students that we have taught over the years.

Because of that, when the twins started school and we had to start meeting their teachers, we faced it with a great amount of reading between the lines; using on teacher lexicons to fish out possibly negative things about our children. Did 'independent learner' really mean that our kids were anti-social? Did 'easy going disposition' equate to down-right lazy?

Thankfully, the twins didn't require euphemisms to be used. We were told that Jordan would sometimes wander into her own little world and it took various rounds of calling her to extract her from it. We were told that Evan would whine a little bit if he felt he wasn't given enough time at the Learning Centres (areas in the class marked for them to play learning games). All in, we are thankful our twins are well-behaved and polite in school, they are friendly and socialise well with others.

What stood out for each of them was very different, however and it served to highlight how different these two, who spent a good 37 weeks gestating together within me, are.

For Evan, the highlight of this year's Parent Teacher Conference was when I was talking with his Math teacher and she said that he had an inclination for Math. I added that it was very amusing that he was tossing addition sums at me to do while we were in the car, as if he were testing me. His teacher was very pleased and announced that he would be well ready for addition next term. To which, I gazed with her slightly uncomprehendingly and the ensuing exchange still sends me into chuckles as I write it today.

Me: "You mean you haven't done addition?"
Teacher: "Nope."
Me: "Then how did he figure it out?"
Teacher: "I thought you taught him".
Me: "I thought YOU taught him"

Then silence, as both of us were a bit awestruck by a not yet five year old who seemed to have taught himself to add and was also well on the way to teaching himself how to tell time. I am thankful for that because, then one day, he can figure out those scary Math modals that are far beyond my ability and teach it to me and also his sister and little brother. I will probably pay him in Angry Birds time and he will be most obliging.

Then there was Jordan. Jordan, I fear will always be a little bit in the academic shadow of her brother. As her teachers point out, she is intelligent in her own right. And she is learning things that an average four year old is learning and probably doing it a bit faster than most. But the problem is that she has a brother, younger by 2 minutes who has leap-frogged his age group and about to blast holes in string theory or something similar. But the good thing is that she is a girl and he is a boy. I am not being sexist here but it means that they don't have to share the same school and she came emerge as her own person. That, we are seeing quite clearly as well.

Her teachers were full of praise of her drawing ability. She doodles, she draws all over her workbooks. The only time she isn't drawing is if she is watching television or chasing her two brothers up and down the corridor. And she draws stuff quite impressively. That we always knew. What her teacher pointed out that we didn't know was that Jordan had the ability to improvise in her drawing. She wasn't just doing a good job copying other images she saw. She was copying, making changes according to her own imagination.

When asked why this fish looked upset, she told me that it  was because she had forced the fish to spit out her Papa. For full story, please check here.

Now,that  made both Packrat and my jaw dropped. For me, it was because I came from a background of having failed art exams and my mother forcing me to practice still life painting as if it were piano scales. For Packrat, I think it was a great amount of pride. He was afterall, President of the Art Club and spent his life doodling too.

But that was not what pleased us the most. What did that was having the teachers rave about how heartwarming it was that the twins were so close to one another, looked out for each other and seemed overjoyed at the end of each school day to be reunited with one another. We were also told that they were very proud of one another and would introduce each other to their own teachers. It is my greatest wish that they continue to be like that.

One of the teachers asked me what I wanted her to do more with the children. My response stunned her. I told her I didn't have KPIs (Key Performance Indicators- Civil Service Speak!) for them. All I wanted was that they were helped along where they were weak and encouraged further where their strengths were. When I asked her why she looked so surprised, she told me that the other parents had requested very tangible things like having their children able to multiply up till 12 by K2! I assured her I wasn't expecting that because I wasn't sure if I could multiply up to 12 mentally myself at this point!

So, what we took away from this was that our kids are doing well in school and they have gifts in different areas. And how did we feel about it? We felt pretty damn proud of them for growing differently and special in their own ways.



  Technorati Tags: parent-teachers conference, Being teachers

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