stress-free exam...

It is only natural to feel anxious when our kids are taking examinations. As parents, we often feel that the responsibility of children performing well in their exams partially lies with us.

Since Renzo entered Primary school last year, I've been going through revision with him before his term tests, just like most other parents do. I must say I'm really blessed that Renzo has never given me any frustrating moments or hair-pulling experience. He even told me that exam paper to him, is just a set of questions which he should already have answers to. I was pretty impressed with how calm and composed this little Primary 2 kid is. Of course slowly I figured out that he's probably just too innocent ignorant to understand how those test results will impact his life in the long run. Anyway I am glad he can remain the cool and chilled boy as he always is, even though the exam schedules can get pretty tight with his usual English spelling or Chinese tingxie coming at the same time.

Recently, this famous school Principal letter to parents  has taken the internet by storm. A friend of mine also shared that her girl's school principal advised parents during a parent-teacher-meeting session, that parents should refrain from reminding their children about upcoming test dates. As they have been reminded often by teachers in class, it's added stress to keep telling them about the same at home.

Interestingly, I do notice that compared to actual exams, Renzo has been performing better for his mock tests in the past, it has nothing to do with the difficulty level of the test papers because sometimes the mock tests can be even harder. And I do suspect that Renzo has unknowingly taken on certain level of pressure from my constant reminders before exams. So this term, I've decided to take a step back, since he's only in Primary 2 and there are plenty of chances to salvage his results, even if he fails his paper due to lack of preparation. We didn't even remind him on his test dates (we do have the dates pasted on the wall which he could easily refer to), let alone helping him with revision this term.

After the exam period was over, waiting for result became extremely torturing this time as we totally have no idea how he fares since we didn't prepare him before exams. He didn't do any revision either, but of course he followed his routine to complete his daily learning in the afternoon. We spent all our weekends during his exam period at Wild Wild Wet, I didn't feel like uploading our fun pictures on social media as all my other friends were sharing their tips (or at times struggles too) on how they prepare their kids for the upcoming term test.

End of the day, I was the one who stared in wide-eyed wonder at Renzo's SA1 results. Again, Renzo passed with flying colors, indeed his results for all sujects were better than what we expected. When being asked how did he manage to score well without any preparation before his tests by me, he answered, "I know, I just need to learn and practise everyday!", with the look of incomparable determination on his face!

The daily afternoon self learning routine we've instilled at home for Renzo seems to be working really well. Even on those days when I had to rush for work and forgot to leave any "smart work" aka assessment book for him, he would take his own initiative and work on a few pages for each subject. At the same time, he has plenty of play time when he gets to work on this Gundam models, Lego bricks or simply zone out in his cozy corner doing absolutely nothing!

I'm ending this post with a book I would like to recommend to all pupils, I believe this book helped Renzo tremendously in getting 12/12 for his English composition.

Will I be preparing Renzo for his term 3 papers? I guess not. I'm going to give him a stress-free exam period in hopes that he could perform his best again. But please don't get me wrong, not preparing him doesn't mean not caring about how he gets himself prepared. I will still be checking his school worksheets and as soon as I notice he needs help, I will step in and I will stay open minded about tuitions and enrichment lessons. He's never attended any as of now, but he might need it when things get tougher with one more subject added into his curriculum during upper primary.

helping Renzo with his Chinese...

Last week, Renzo had a Chinese mock test in school, which we were completely unaware of, and he wasn't prepared for it either but he aced his paper somehow. I wouldn't say we were very surprised at his result, because he did well for his Chinese during P1 anyway, although he always thinks Chinese is his weakest subject since it's a language he doesn't use at home.

We didn't send Renzo for any enrichment lessons although we are fully aware that he might have struggles with his Chinese in school. Instead, we made sure to make Chinese revision as higher priority and incorporate it into Renzo's daily routine after school.

I know you might have heard this a thousand times from Chinese teachers or your other friends with kids who absolutely hate learning Chinese, that in order to learn Chinese well, you need to use the language at home! Well I am not saying that's not right, but how many have seen significant improvement just by switching the primary language from English to Chinese at home? Personally I think learning Chinese involves a lot more efforts than just that, and there are many other good tips that actually help to reinforce what they've learned in school.

Tip #1 朗读课文
Reading aloud is the foundation for literacy development. While the sacrifices to read aloud are few, the benefits are many. I still remember when I was young, my dad always says he expects to hear 朗朗的读书声 from our room everyday when he's back from work. Kids get to hear their own voice when they read aloud, it helps to increase their attention span. Renzo is asked to read his textbook daily for at least 10 to 20 minutes. He always covers hanyupinyin with his hand because he's not supposed to rely on hanyupinyin to read since Primary 1 Term 3.

You might think their textbook is simple and getting them to read something out of the school syllabus is more useful. Well yes it definitely helps if they read a wide range of books. But when it comes to tests, most of the questions are actually based on their textbook, at least for lower primary.

Tip #2 掌握生字

The child who comes to school with a large vocabulary does better than the child who comes to school with little familiarity with words and a low vocabulary. Primary School kids all have this set of flashcards called 字宝宝, which they use occasionally during Chinese lessons. We bought another set for Renzo so that we could play with the cards before bedtime. Words which he could not read are left on the wall till he can recognize them. And we encourage him to form a sentence with the words each time, so he knows how to use them, not just how to read them.

At the back of their Chinese textbook, there's a list called 生字表, where they have all the 识读字 and 识写字 listed. You might find it simple but trust me, they need to master the list and you can't just rely on their weekly or bi-weekly 听写 in school, because most kids forget more than half of the words on their 听写 list, right after they've been tested. So make sure to go through the list and test your child on it regularly.

Tip #3 诗词背诵
Poetry recitation is literary work where ideas and feelings, accentuated with the use of distinctive style and rhythm is delivered through a public speaking activity with a focus on rhythm, alliteration some repetitions. Renzo doesn't have a strong foundation in Chinese, and we failed to expose him well in Chinese Poetry since young. So it is really tough work here, but for a start, I am getting him to copy Chinese Poetry only. It doesn't matter that he couldn't analyze or understand it, I just want him to slowly feel as if he's submerged himself in a hot spring, and experience the irrational joy or sadness in it.

Of course you can't really expect much result from poetry recitation as kids need a long period of time to accumulate such knowledge. But by the time they are in upper primary or secondary, they will benefit and composition will get easier for them.

Tip #4 勤做笔记
I've asked Renzo to note down all his mistakes from his past worksheets / test papers for all his subjects. But for Chinese, I am doing the job for now because I need to summarize the test questions and put things into different categories, which he's not sure about how to do it yet. I find it extremely important to understand the format of his test paper, so he could focus on the areas which he's not strong at.

For example, under the section 填写汉字, he's required to write the Chinese words based on hanyupinyin. Although he's tested on only 2 questions, it's harder than most other sections in my personal opinion because these are open ended questions, not multiple choices which he can even attempt to make a wild guess. And this is exactly why I said they need to master their 生字表 because if they can't remember how to write the word, they have no choice but to lose marks under this section.

And another example: 词语搭配. This is the section I go through with Renzo many times. Because in Chinese language, you can easily mix and match different words with similar meanings and that's where the confusion comes in. Renzo knows 认真写字 and 认真回答 are both acceptable, but he needs to choose 不敢回答 because he can only use one phrase once, and 认真 has already been used to pair with 写字in the sample given. He has to choose 不敢 to pair with 回答 as there isn't any other more appropriate phrase to pair with 回答. Okay I must say such questions aren't easy and they need to get exposed to a large pool of vocabulary in order to pair the words freely and comfortably.

Of course learning a language is not just about preparing our kids for their tests. Chinese language is one that is extremely profound, and we need to have the passion, to appreciate and embrace the culture in order to master it well.

5 tips to creating conducive learning environment at home..

Parents nowadays spend tons of money outside their child's school hours, at tutorial centers, enrichment classes and even indoor playhouses, they look at what different programs the place has to offer, how good the teachers are, how many sessions their child need to attend in order to show improvement, etc, etc. However, in the hustle and bustle of the hunt, parents often forget that the best place for their child to start learning is always - the home.

No doubt that teachers in school can teach both academic and social needs, but the home environment is most crucial to reinforce and retain the concept as children spend most time at home with their parents. With that in mind, it's no surprise that the number one favorite topic Daddy Chan and I share most often, is how to create a more conducive learning environment at home for the boys, and here are a few tips from us after much exploration and experiment.

1. Always have a routine
If you search the keyword "routine" or "timetable" on Renzo's blog, I guarantee it will return highest amount of posts, that's often I emphasize on it.  We foster routine by introducing a timetable since Renzo was a baby. Now that he's in Primary One and spends his every afternoon at home with helper, I can tell he's benefiting so much from a great routine. He memorizes his timetable by heart and can pretty much stick to it without much supervision. With a proper routine, it's easier for children to develop self discipline, which is key to developing great learning habit. We always tell Renzo, to have good self discipline now, he will enjoy more freedom in the future to choose the kind of lifestyle he enjoys. 

2. Set up the positive mood
A few months back, I read an article about how this mummy changed the family's habit of watching TV after dinner every night, into reading/playing together instead, simply by adding a "book wall'" in the living room. I shared that article with Daddy Chan and immediately he agreed to take some actions. Well it's not some major renovation in the house, but we do need to make a decision to let go our sofa in the living room, which means it's going to be rather inconvenient for guests. But I love what Daddy Chan said, we design our home based on our daily needs, we don't prepare our home for guest visits.  So, there goes our 3-years-old sofa, and here comes our new favorite piece of furniture in the house, a giant 2.3meter x 2.3meter IKEA bookshelf! To fill it up full is harder than we expected. I thought we have quite a substantial amount of book collection at home, considering we have 3 bookshelves before getting this huge one, one in each room. So after this small make over in living room, we still have the TV and the boys still watch their educational programs in living room as usual, however, they do spend more time reading, especially Rynus who didn't really show much interests in books in the past.

We also have flashcards wall in kids room, where we hang up flash cards and amazingly, a new set of card may stay on the wall for a few weeks, and without anyone noticing it, Rynus managed to pick up those words by himself. All he did was to stare at the cards, flip them from front to back, and back to front, again and again..

So that's what I meant by positive mood in their environment. You don't need to force them to learn, you just give them an environment that motivates them to learn. 

3. Make room for creativity
I was inspired by an online video to create this "weekly family wall calendar". Renzo has a timetable to follow on routine tasks daily, so I thought it's quite a cool idea to have this wall calendar which allows us to track our individual goals throughout the week. Nothing beats modeling behavior when comes to parenting so I really like that now the boys also get to see what Daddy and Mummy are up for. This also encourages Renzo to incorporate some of his creativity in artwork into his daily plans.

4. Make school activities relevant 
Finding a continuity between what kids learn in school and at home can help build the character of loving to learn. Renzo has a section of his bookshelf dedicated for any book that is relevant to school curriculum. We also display his test schedules and even his spelling list, so he knows when and how to get himself prepared at home.  Rynus is still young to map out his own plans for the day, but we still can use this wall calendar to track his major school events. He will have great sense of accomplishment seeing how "busy" his week is, just like his daddy, mummy, and elder brother's.

5. Change it up
Once a while, Daddy Chan and I will hold conversations about what need to be changed, or added to the boys' home environment, that can accelerate their intellectual development. Be it hanging up a new Multiplication table on the wall, or adding a new reading chair in study room, or a clearing away an old writing table that they've outgrown from. Changing up physical environment which they've been used to for some time already, gives them something new to look forward to and makes them excited to learn about other things.

Our next biggest challenge, is to provide them with separate study corners with minimum distractions by the time Rynus enters Primary School. Both Daddy Chan and I used to share study table with our own sibling and there's just too much distractions, I still remember telling myself I would study hard if I get my own table when I was young. So it's our priority to separate the boys once they both need a proper area to study. Yes we have slightly more than 2 years to work on that! 

In the end, the most important thing to remember in making the home conducive for learning is to let the love be visible and felt. A loving and supportive environment is what makes the home the best place to learn.

protecting kids from parents' negative emotion..

"Renzo, mummy felt really upset this morning because you didn't even bother to finish your breakfast on time, you know that we are rushing for school bus every morning, how can you take your own sweet time to eat while watching TV?! How did you feel when I didn't chat with you, wait for school bus with you, and wave at you when you got on the bus?!! I will probably feel sad for the whole day but I guess you don't even care..."

This was part of a message I left to Renzo on our daily communication book at home this morning.

Yes that's what I did after sending Renzo downstairs to take his school bus at 645am in the morning. I went back straight to the study room and wrote that message to him, so that he could read it when he's back from school around 2pm. I was feeling weary, crotchety, and sick to my stomach. The notebook was covered in scrawls and squiggles. For a second I paused and thought that pouring my negative emotion onto Renzo in such a way, potentially can ruin his day, but I couldn't care less, because my day was valready ruined by him!!

After taking a few minutes to recompose myself, I went straight with my morning routine - 20 minutes of Korean drama watching, yes I am a huge fan but I don't watch in front of kids, so usually I can squeeze out 20 minutes during breakfast to catch my favorite show. And guess what? 20 minutes later, I wrote another message to Renzo. And this time, I managed to tidy up my handwriting without me noticing that at all.

"Dear Renzo, mummy felt sorry for not chatting with you, not waiting for school bus with you, and not waving at you when you got on the bus. I LOVE YOU!! But please think about what made me feel and act that way? I do hope you can be more considerate and focused in the future, as you know we have to rush for school bus every morning..."

I thought I would be angry for the whole day and I blamed Renzo for that, but the actual fact is, I felt as if the whole world is on my side again after I've done something I enjoy doing. I realized I was so out of my mind 20 minutes ago, not because Renzo might have caused the bus driver to wait for him because he was too slow in finishing his breakfast, and in actual fact, his school bus only arrived about a minute later after we went downstairs, but probably, I was upset because I spent time and efforts to prepare his breakfast and he didn't even finish it, which made me feel less appreciated. But seriously, if he were to read the first message I left for him, how would he react? I might just demonstrated to him that it's alright to vent his anger on others by writing people a note.

We spent so much efforts each day, turning every unpleasant situation in life into learning opportunities for our children, in hopes that they would grow up with emotional intelligence to cope with different challenges in the world. But if we parents, are not careful about letting our emotions escape out for our kids to internalize, they will struggle to learn how to regulate their emotions and interact with others appropriately.

To end the story, Renzo hugged me and muttered "I am sorry Mummy" when I reached home at night after work. And I saw the notebook with his reply to my request on being more considerate and focused during breakfast, he wrote: "Yes I will do that (or at least I will try)",

After all, neither of us had the day ruined by our little episode in the morning.

Look beyond the school results..

If you are expecting to read my opinion about "academic result is not everything" after the recent news about changes to PSLE scoring and Secondary One postings, since Renzo and his peers will be the first batch to experience the change in 2021, let me just say, that's not the message I am trying to convey here.

As I mentioned in my post about our 1st PTM experience, Renzo has been doing well during first half of Primary One. It's week 4 of Term 3 now, we've already received a whole list of test information from the school and indeed, Renzo has already completed a Chinese Pick&Tell assessment last week.

Recently he mentioned to me that Chinese is getting a little tougher, which I fully agree because I think his pre-school has prepared him really well for the first half of Primary One, but now it's time for us parents to step in and guide him through the second half.

Nope I am not going to leave the learning part all to him although Renzo is a very independent learner so far, but what I need from him, is good learning attitude, coupled with effective learning method and habit, so for him to achieve best possible result.

Nope you are not reading this wrong, I know even the government leaders, and the education experts are telling us not to overemphasize on academic result, and it's 100% true that "exam result doesn't determine success in life", we parents should not neglect it is still an indication of their knowledge at one point in time, and poor result even at lower primary level, sends certain message, let me explain why I believe so:

1. It's only Primary School now, it's fine not to score well. 
NO! There needs to be a bottom line.
A friend recently told us that his 3 Primary school kids need to score 70 and above, to "earn" a family vacation overseas. For me, the expectation is 90 and above. Well you can say my expectation is very high. But for lower primary kids, their school curriculum isn't too difficult.  We shouldn't insist on 100 marks for every subject, we can allow them to make mistakes here and there, but anything lower than 90 marks, assuming they have normal IQ and are not suffering from any kind of learning difficulties, should raise the alarm, as that indicates there might be a problem with their learning method or habit.

Careless mistakes, not being able to recognize/read/write words, not paying attention during lessons, not being able to understand full question, etc, are all examples of not having the right learning method or habit. And these, should be corrected at younger age. 

2. As long as you try your best, your score isn't important.
NO! Kids have no concept about "try your best".
Renzo made 2 mistakes for his Maths paper last term. I asked him about how he feels, and I still remember his answer, "Mummy, I might not be the best, but I tried my best!". Trust me, I have no idea why he said so. Probably because he has teachers who encourage kids to try their best during exams. I personally do not believe in "try your best" philosophy for kids at this age. Well yes it's definitely the right way to encourage older kids in Secondary level, or at least upper primary level. But if I encourage Renzo this way, I think very likely he would only remember the "it doesn't matter what your score is" part, and forget about "try your best" part, or even if he could remember, likely he won't know how to quantify that, he probably doesn't even know in order to "try his best", he has to spend time in doing revisions. So how to expect good result?

Do parents really think by the time their kids are in upper primary school, they can score better by "trying their best" automatically, without laying a proper, strong foundation since lower primary days? I think the key is to set clearer, specific and reasonable goals for kids, and guide them in achieving those goals on a more regular basis.

3. Those who score well will become future scholars. 
NO! Scholars can definitely score well, but those who score well now might not be good at learning in the future. 
Even if your kid score 100/100 for all 3 subjects, there might be another 10-20 kids who get the same score in his/her class. Especially for lower primary, the gap isn't too big as the knowledge they are learning now is rather simple and easy to understand. What we should be focusing on, is whether our kids have adopted effective learning method that helps them to absorb the knowledge better, and whether our kids have formed great learning habit that allows them to develop the love and passion for learning.

And this is the very reason why those who did well in primary school might not necessarily get into a good University eventually. It's also why we often see a lot of "late bloomers" who only started to shine at later stage during their academic years. It all boils down to when a kid discovers the learning method that suits him/her the best, and continue the learning habit from there.

I was never once a top student during my school years in terms of academic results. But I've definitely picked up some great learning habits along the way which I still thank my parents for. Till date, I go for job interviews with a set of anticipated questions which I practised countless times. I always have a notebook and pen with me,  to fill up forms, jot down notes or even work on questions (sometimes there might be more complicated technical questions during the interview, where pen and paper come in handy). These, are habits I formed during early school years. It doesn't mean I will definitely score well in exams by doing so, but I definitely benefit a lot from it after entering into working world. Now that I'm on the other side of the table during interviews, I see many candidates who come for interview unprepared, but those who brings along pen and paper, often fits the bill eventually, which again proves your attitude determines your altitude..

Learning is a long term journey for kids, hence I can never agree that just because they are still young, it's only the beginning, we parents do not need to take their results too seriously. Look beyond their results, the process of guiding our kids to set specific and realistic learning goals,  building strong foundation, cultivating right attitude is what we should be working on right from day one.

What's for kids during this June school holiday..

Renzo's June school holiday has officially kicked start last week on May 28, and we went for a 3D2N trip to Malaysia Legoland to "celebrate" his holiday + Rynus didi's birthday. It's Renzo's 4th time and Rynus' 3rd time there and we had loads of fun as the boys have grown a bit older to try out more rides.

Anyway so, after that trip, Renzo is back on his usual routine again as Daddy and Mummy goes to work, Rynus didi goes to full day childcare. And his "usual routine" basically means, to spend the whole day at home with our helper. I do not give him any assessment but he just automatically works on a few pages everyday, which is really great, and there's time allocated for piano practise too, other than that, it's just play, play, and play.

I know many parents have planned a long list of activities for their kids during the school holiday period, SAHMs have the privilege to keep their little ones occupied with daily programs, and even FTWMs are often seen taking a few days leaves on a weekly basis, in order to bring their kids out for some fun. But for us, we prefer to let Renzo stick to his routine and luckily he's a homely person, he can easily spend a few hours customizing his own gundam model from a set of 20 years old gundam models Daddy used to build as a kid. And by the time we are home after work, he can proudly present us with his new creation, such as a 4-headed-dragon-transformer-alike-robot (now I know it's not true that once gundams are built, they are only for display).

You see, keeping him at home for the entire day isn't really that bad. I meant there are so many other kids who have to continue going to student care, although it's probably a full day of play at the center too. But Renzo definitely can enjoy much more freedom at his comfy own house! So instead of cracking our head to decide on what to do with him outside, well you don't have to as there's this popular blogger who shared more than 100 activities for kids which you can find on this awesome blog here, I've planned one single activity to keep Renzo occupied at home, which is, to help with household chores!

Let's face it, since we hired our 1st helper back in 2009, we have never done any real household chores, except for cooking of course as I love to cook for my family. I think back on what I used to do during my school holidays. My dad is a very hands on person who cooks his own meal and washes his own clothes at the age of 65 now. So I remember we had to come up with our own schedule during school holidays, and the schedule mainly comprises 2 tasks (of course besides completing any homework from school): housework, and writing book reviews. I benefit greatly from such good habits since young so I wish my kids could do the same too. Therefore I worked with my helper to come up with a list of items which Renzo could participate daily.

1. Pick Up Their Room — The boys have a rather neat and tidy room but their wardrobe is pretty much overloaded, oh yes the boys are rather fashionable and enjoy picking up their favorite pieces at H&M and Cotton On kids. Renzo's task is to take all his clothes out and sort them accordingly, pack away those no longer wearing for donation.
2. Laundry – Laundry is one of the most tedious chores in my personal opinion but it's also the best task to train great time management and organization skills. I am certain that the washing machine is enough to keep him excited for a period of time.

3. Wipe down piano — It's his own possession and probably he could develop more love and affection towards this most expensive piece of "furniture" in our house.
4. Empty Trashes — The rubbish chute is right outside our door so it probably takes a few seconds for him to hoist trashes into the dumpster. And the bonus part is, he gets to learn about recycled materials this way too.
5. Wash Dishes – He's done it before, stand on a stool at the kitchen sink and wash his own nonbreakable dishes is a piece of cake to him.
6. Organize Bookshelf — We have a number of bookshelves at home, with the biggest one recently added into the living room. It would be super cool if this little one manages to figure out a way to sort out his books nicely.

Renzo got a "Gotcha" book from his school, and he's so eager to collect 15 signatures from us so he could redeem a Gotcha Badge. Now I start to feel proud about the school holiday plan I mapped out for him, because he will definitely be able to achieve his goal before the end of his holiday!

First ever Parent Teacher Meeting (PTM) session 1:1

In the blink of an eye, Renzo has been attending primary school for nearly half a year, so before we welcome the June school holiday which is going to kick start in just 1 day (or probably already started to some), most parents are anticipating some nerve wrenching moment with teachers during PTM in the past few days or weeks. And we just attended ours yesterday morning.

Were we nervous about it? Not at all, at least not about Renzo's school results since he brings home worksheets often, and we know roughly how is he coping academically. We were more interested to know how's his behavior in school and in general, the feedback is he's pretty consistent in school and at home so there's no surprise at all, which is a great thing! It's interesting that Renzo's form teacher mentioned that we parents know our own kids the best so he doesn't have too much to feedback, which is 100% true for our case. (If you feel you do not know your kid well enough, maybe this book "The 5 love languages of your family" is a good starting point.)

Unlike the PTM we attended after term 1 which was held as a group event, this time, it's a one to one session and besides meeting the form teacher, we were also given the option to meet up with Mother Tongue, music, art and even PE teacher.

We had a very quick chat with his form teacher for merely less than 5 minutes, but a rather long chat with the Mother Tongue teacher.

Firstly, we were presented with Renzo's report book, I love the fact that his school made things very transparent by providing us the statistics on class mean and level mean marks for each subject, on top of individual's result, which also comes with a detailed breakdown on how the marks are calculated. For example, maths result is purely based on term 2 paper test result, whereas for Chinese, it's a combination of situational dialogue, listening comprehension, read aloud and paper test. Let me take this opportunity to thank all our beloved preschool teachers who have prepared Renzo well academically, they are truly amazing and I must give all the credit to them for saving us so much money in sending Renzo for any enrichment lessons!

My mummy friends had a good laugh sharing our first PTM experience in a group chat, and I jokingly reminded a mummy about how chatty she is, when she's expressing concerns about teacher's feedback on how talkative her son is. Lol.. Seriously it's no surprise that kids are mirroring their parents. We also chuckled when Renzo's teacher commented that he's very quiet and often in his own world, what's new?! Let's just say it's a Chan family's "trademark". And I was really glad that no one compared results since it can get rather sensitive as all parents definitely wish their own kids to do better. So nope I'm not going to touch on any figures in my post here either.

So my biggest takeaway from this session, was that TEACHERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!!

I always believe that parents are children's best teachers. But after our PTM session, I have to agree to certain extend, that teachers play the most important role in a kid's learning journey. Let me explain why..

Renzo's English teacher is an amazing lady who has tons of ways to motivate her students. All notes jotted down in Renzo's student handbook, are from the English teacher most of the time. They come in very neat and organized form, which reflects how the teacher manages her class in my opinion. (Of course Renzo also derserves some praises for copying the notes down accurately.) There are many reward programs and once a while, Renzo brings home some congratulation cards for good result or good behavior during English lessons. We can easily spot some reward cards hanging on the classroom wall, which helps to promote positive competition and encourage greater achievements.  And we just found out recently that his English teacher is a Year Head for Primary 1 and 2, so that pretty much explains why she's so enthusiastic and passionate in her job. We didn't get to see her this round but she shared a very inspirational speech with all parents during the first PTM session after Term 1. No wonder she's Renzo's favorite teacher and Renzo scored very well for English. No brainer right??!! You love the teacher, you love the subject, you put in more efforts in the subject you love the most, and you score well.

Renzo's maths teacher, who is also his form teacher, is rather the "old school" kind of person, my definition of "old school" basically means the typical kind of teacher whom you could find in your school 20-30 years ago. Strict, direct, and has zero tolerance in mischievous behavior. He commented many times that Renzo seems to love maths so much and one thing not so positive that he brought up, was that Renzo needs to focus and concentrate more during class, but he added, Renzo can multitask very well so although he appears to be "day dreaming", he's able to absorb the knowledge and score well for his tests.

And interestingly, Renzo's Chinese teacher touched on the exact same point, but she gave us a slightly different perspective. Her exact words in describing Renzo were: "Renzo is a very special student. He has found his own learning method so it can be a little frustrating at the beginning, when he didn't seem to follow teacher's way of teaching, but slowly I realized he has his own way and when he's focused, he doesn't get distracted by anyone else so it looks as if he's in his own world, but he's just absorbing." The Chinese teacher even noticed Renzo's potential in arts and commented that she's very impressed with his handwriting, drawing as well as coloring. I was truly touched by this teacher because we've heard hundreds of times about "Renzo seems to be in his own world",  for the past 3 years from his childcare teachers, and also for the past 3 minutes from his Maths/form teacher. Whereas his Chinese teacher, is the first person who managed to put the message through to us in such a positive way.

As parents of course we know Renzo's personality and we try to accept it even we are not 100% sure why he behaves that way, but I am so grateful that this teacher has paid extra attention to understand Renzo better. She even mentioned that when there's a need to hand in worksheet, sometimes she will go directly to get it from Renzo because she feels "Renzo doesn't like to be bothered much about such stuff, he rather gets focused on the knowledge". Wow wow wow!! I am not trying to say that it's right to encourage him to be less independent, we all know that handing in his homework is his own responsibility but seriously, for a teacher who sees him for less than 10 hours in a week, I think she truly deserves a pat on the back for being so patient and observant. And this is the exact reason why I emphasized that "TEACHERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!!". Guess what??!! For a kid who doesn't go for any Chinese enrichment lesson, and doesn't have a Chinese speaking environment at home, Renzo's Chinese result is the best among all 3 subjects! So obviously there's some truth behind the "good teacher = better result" logic. And throughout our conversation, Renzo was happily "playing" around as he heard the teacher mentioned that she really likes him, he's so comfortable in front of the her but just a while ago, with the form teacher, he sat still and didn't "dare" to move or talk. LOL..


So yes, result isn't everything and even Renzo's Chinese teacher mentioned that "Everyone knows that knowledge taught in school is often boring, so how to keep the kids motivated in learning is the key!". And personally, I always believe that handling a kid is just like managing an employee, you don't find ways to motivate an individual, instead you provide them with an environment to self motivate. To achieve that, one of the things I always love to do is to make our home environment more conducive, and we went ahead to expand our book collection by visiting the Popular Book Fair at Singapore Expo right after the PTM session. I am certain that Renzo has found himself some pretty good reading materials to keep this June holiday fun and fulfilling!

Renzo's afternoon routine with helper at home...

[WARNING: LOADS OF PICTURES]

A few days back, we bumped into an upstairs neighbor, whose elder son is going to primary school next year, he casually asked us about our opinions on Renzo's primary school, and then he popped an interesting question, which I've been getting often from my own friends recently too:
"So, your son is at home the entire afternoon with your helper alone? Won't he run riot with your helper?!!"

Well, the answer is, NO..

So yes starting this year, Renzo has been on this new routine where he needs to spend the entire afternoon at home with helper. We do have other options like many other families, to leave him to grandparents, or student care. But personally I feel no where beats his comfy own home. And I trust my help to do an equality good, or probably even better job than most other care givers. We prepared Renzo half a year in advance and he's fully aware that if he's not able to follow a proper routine at home, he will then need to attend student care. I've been telling him that our helper is his home teacher so, how dare is he to "run riot" with his teacher?!

Fortunately, Renzo has established a really great routine as he's been attending full day childcare since 19 months. All he needs is just a fixed timetable. And a "comm book" which is a notebook I use to communicate with him, sometimes I ask him about his day in school, sometimes I assign him tasks to do and all these are done through this "comm book". I always believe if we want to put kids on a routine, we parents need to have a proper routine too, so I always start my day with writing down a few questions, or tasks for him to work on.

And interestingly, sometimes he would correct my spelling mistakes, sometimes he would give me questions instead, and very often, I get answers which are totally unexpected, yet funny. But all these answers also help me understand him better.   At the same time, I secretly hope his writing skill will improve through such kind of writing activity. And English composition would be much easier for him to handle in the very near future.

Recently, he surprised me with answering the below random question 100% right, it's heartwarming to know he's realizing my love to him which I am trying to show through all the breakfast I make for him every morning.

My friends suggested me to chat with him over the phone but I never fancy that idea. I told Renzo that my time at work, is for my boss and my company. Everyone has our own roles and responsibilities so if there's anything urgent, his "home teacher" aka. our helper is the right person to address his concerns. Come to think about it, what if he calls me because he wants to watch TV but there's no slot allocated for TV on his timetable, and helper refused to budge, what would I do? Of course either to allow him turn on the TV or to allow that with certain condition attached to it, such as to watch TV after finishing a few pages of assessment book, otherwise, how to expect him to put down the phone? So nope, I won't allow myself to get into such kind of dilemma.

Kids being kids, he spends most of the afternoon playing, drawing his customized gundams (sometimes his favorite dragons or cars which he's not been drawing for a long time), or reading, because I do not have much work assigned to him. I still do not like the idea of assessment books as I rather they enjoy the learning process than to kill their interest for learning at very early stage with repetitive questions and exercises.

As for his school work, he's been coping well in general. Spelling and tingxie are not as difficult as what he got during K2 in childcare, so I only test him one day before the test date and as usual, I do not really give him time to prepare. If he makes any mistakes, he just correct himself from there. But no doubt, I do feel parents need to get more involved especially now he's in P1. As I always say, parents are their best teachers.

English
So far he's been doing very well although there are small mistakes here and there. He seems to love his English teacher and his English lesson the most.  His teacher also praises him often for good penmanship and nice drawing. Oh yes he's putting in a lot of efforts to draw on his English worksheet!

Recently he's tasked to prepare a script for his English pick and tell. I was very impressed and proud with the 1st draft he came up on his own. Being "very responsible" parents, we tried to help him edit his script but eventually, he decided to come up with 2nd draft on his own after he learned more from his teacher, his books and some video clips on animals. I especially love the way he shares his knowledge, informative and interesting at the same time with some trace of his humorous perosnality there.

Mathematics
This is the subject taught by his form teacher so I didn't really pay much attention, as there's no homework given up till now. I was a little surprised with some mistakes on his school worksheet, but eventually I found out that he's just having some struggles with "fact family", which honestly speaking, I see no reason why they were taught in such a complicated way, it's just simple substraction/addition which he could easily manage at the age of 4. Anyway it serves as a wake up call that nowadays kids learn their mathematics in a very different way and maybe he really needs additional assessment books at home, to reinforce what he's learned in class. After all, practice makes perfect!

Chinese 
Interestingly, Renzo seems to know that this is his weakest subject so he's been extra careful and scored full marks for most of his Chinese worksheets. So when we missed out the date of his very first weighted Chinese test (听力测验), I was pleasantly surprised that he scored full marks without any preparation. That's indeed my goal, to get him into the habit of revising daily and be prepared for test at any time.

Of course I know exactly how poor his Chinese is. Because we seldom converse in Mandarin at home, his vocabulary is extremely weak and his sentence structure isn't quite there yet. So I've been trying to dedicate 1 hour every Saturday for his home Chinese tuition. Boy that's totally not easy as we do have a younger one to manage at the same time too. This week Renzo is having his 2nd official test in school, which is his Chinese 听听说说 - situational dialogue. I am not sure how the test is structured but with some sample questions given by teacher on the left side of the picture below, I came up with sample answers for him on the right side.

It's definitely a long way to go still. And reading some other bloggers' sharing on how they manage home studying with their kids, surely make me a little nervous as some of the parents went all out with daily tuition at home. That's a challenge for full time working parents like us, so we can only entrust our son to manage his own responsibilities well in this case!