During our previous issue, we talked about how to create a positive learning environment. Today, we will share with you some tips on how to encourage your child to enjoy learning and become a lifelong learner.
Ten Tips for Encouraging Joyful Learning
Parents can make learning into a truly joyful experience. By injecting some creativity and thoughtfulness into your child’s learning experience outside the classroom, you can develop your child into a self-motivated and engaged learner.
a) Making your child’s study more inviting: Adding more colourful murals, changing colour of the lightings, putting comfortable chairs and hanging colourful curtains could transform a sterile study room into an inviting space to learn and study.
b) Finding pleasure in learning: Once you have redecorated your child’s study, you should learn more about his/her interests. Your involvement and efforts to tailor his/her learning to these interests could motivate an entirely different kind of learning, where motivation comes from within and no outside force or coercion is required. For instance, if your son loves cars, think about how to weave cars into his learning process. One way is to use the speed of his favourite car and your family car to teach him mathematic concepts of speed, distance and time.
c) Creating things: Children like to make things – By allowing them control over their work and creating something original using their minds and hands, they achieve a tremendous sense of pride and achievement. It also empowers and encourages the child. For instance, if your child likes drawing and painting, get him/her to paint a picture or make a craft as a gift for family members or friends. To build your child's imagination further, you can encourgae him/her to write a story or poem based on his/her artwork and include them in a gift card. Whether it’s a painting, a model or a powerpoint presentation, you should inspire and encourage your child bring his/her own ideas and creations to life.
d) Showing off good work: When your child has done good work, don’t be shy to ask him/her to share it with your family. If he/she has drawn a beautiful picture, you may want to put it up in the wall in the study room or in the living room. If he/she wrote a touching story, you may want to ask him/her to recite it to your family after dinner.
e) Taking time to experimenting: By keeping students at their desk most of the time, listening to lectures, reading textbooks, filling out assessment books, schools sometimes stifle the grand ideas that are innate in young children. You can help your child re-ignite his/her creativity by allowing him/her experiment with hands-on activities or encouraging him/her to try different methods to solve the same problem. Using different objects or work of arts to explore different perspectives will also help your child expand his/her learning capacity and willingness to experiment. During this school holiday, try surfing the web and look for simple experiments to conduct together (one good idea will be to build a solar-powered microwave oven).
f) Letting your child choose: You can help your child by allowing your child to pursue his/her interests outside classroom. It is possible to promote joy in learning when there is some ownership. Instead of planning what activities he/she should take up, try listening to his/her interests and allow him/her to pursue these interests. Similarly, during holidays, instead of packing him/her off to memory enhancement programmes or more tuition, try letting him/her decide the topic. You can then help shape his/her ideas into purposeful inquiry-based learning. This sense of ownership will not only motivate him/her to learn, but also help nurture his/her curiosity and find joy in learning.
g) Reading good books: Everyone loves a good story - by immersing your child in a culture of good books, you can surround him/her with joy. Students today already have tons of reading to do from school. You can help your child pick up reading by encouraging him/her to read books just for pleasure, including not so serious genres, such as action-adventure books, fantasy, or even non-fiction on topics he/she loves.
h) Going outside: Students today spend an inordinate amount of time in school, tuition centres or enrichment programmes. Sometimes, your child may need to take a break and take in some fresh air. During weekends, instead of packing your child off to his/her tuition classes, take a field trip and bring him/her outdoors. The botanical garden is a good place to get close to nature and at the same time, learn about science and biology. For younger children, Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden is a good place to visit. For older children, it is not inconceivable to let them plan a weekend trip out for the family, allowing them to learn about responsibility at the same time.
i) Offering different activities outside the classroom: Professor Howard Gardner’s work on multiple intelligences has illuminated parents and educators on the uniqueness of each child and the need to provide opportunities to use their varied strengths and interests. Unfortunately, in our efforts to improve test scores and to get into good schools, we tend to de-emphasis non-academic activities, such as physical education and humanities. If your child has a special affinity for visual arts, music, theater or sports, remember to leave some time for him/her to participate in these activities and let him/her experience some joy.
j) Having fun together: Being a parent is a tough job, but if you can create a joyful learning environment for your child, you can also experience the joy in teaching them and learning with them. You can also create a stronger bond by having fun learning together.
By Ms Angeline Tong and Ms Brenda Yeow
Showing posts with label How to Help Your Child. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How to Help Your Child. Show all posts
Friday, November 14, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Practical Tips for Positive and Joyful Learning (Part I)
In this issue, we take a break from the “Helping your child excel in the 21st century” series to bring to you some practical tips to develop a positive learning environment for your child and inject joy into his/her learning. Parents may find these tips useful while planning activities for the upcoming school holidays or preparing for the new school term.
Before we discuss the guiding principles for crafting a positive learning environment, it is important to understand the power of words. What you say to your child and how you say it is critical in creating a positive learning environment for him/her and allow your child to maximise their learning potential. For this week’s entry, we will be focusing on the use of communication to create a positive learning environment.
Take a moment to reflect on the times when you were a student – how did your parents and teachers talk to you? What kind of words did they use and what were their tones? Did that make you feel motivated or insecure, and even angry? As parents, it is critical to understand that your words would shape your child’s learning. According to research by renowned developmental psychologist, Vygotsky, words can affect your child’s learning in the following ways:
a) Affecting a child’s sense of identity: imagine how a child would feel if he really likes singing and a parent, instead of offering praises and encourage, asks the child why he is so noisy and wasting his time on singing and not on his maths homework
b) Helping a child understand how he/she is doing: naming a specific attribute could actually help your child develop his/her interests or talents. For instance, if he/she drew a very nice picture, you may want to encourage him/her by specifically naming an attribute that really attracted you – for instance, you can praise him/her on the vivid colour combinations
c) Influencing parents’ relationship with a child: To a child who has just quarreled with his cousin, one can say “stop quarrelling with your cousin or I will punish you” or one can ask “I saw you quarrelling with your cousin. Can you let me know what had happened?” The latter would build a trusting parent-child relationship versus the former, which is one based on threats.
Five Guiding Principles for Positive Communications
How then can you ensure that your words support your child’s learning and create a positive environment? There are several guiding principles that can help you:
a) Using a kind, straightforward tone and be direct: It is important to say what one mean, but in a kind tone. Avoid sarcasm or indirect comparison to win compliance. Sarcastic language like, “ which part of sitting down and keeping quiet don’t you understand” will embarrass a child and create mistrust and resentment. Instead, you can be firm and just tell the child to sit down so that everyone in the family can enjoy the show together.
b) Focusing on actions: Focusing on action will point towards desired behaviours rather than attitude or character. This is especially important for young children, who tend to be concrete thinkers and may not be able to understand abstractions. An example of an abstraction you may want to avoid is to tell your child to be respectful. Instead, ask him/her to treat others with kindness by helping their friends when they fall down or carrying shopping bags for their grandparents.
c) Keeping it brief: Young children find it hard to follow long sentences. More often than not, before you finish your long sentences, your child will be thinking about other things and have lost focus. Thus, it is important to speak in shorter sentences to allow your child to absorb and understand what you are saying and expecting.
d) Using silence: Using silence after asking your child questions could actually help him/her craft a more thoughtful response. While a 3 second pause may seem very long, it allows an open space for your child to think, rehearse what to say, and can solicit a higher quality response. This also teaches your child that a true listener will attempt to understand the other party’s questions, before formulating a better response.
e) Expressing confidence in your child: If a parent is able to demonstrate faith and confidence in the child, he/she will be more likely to live up to the parent’s expectations. Spare no effort to notice and comment on positive behaviour in a calm tone. Be specific in your observations, such that it will provide hard evidence on why your child should believe in himself/herself.
Look out for our next entry in a fortnight’s time, where we will be sharing with parents, ten tips for encouraging joyful learning in their children.
By Ms Angeline Tong and Ms Brenda Yeow
Before we discuss the guiding principles for crafting a positive learning environment, it is important to understand the power of words. What you say to your child and how you say it is critical in creating a positive learning environment for him/her and allow your child to maximise their learning potential. For this week’s entry, we will be focusing on the use of communication to create a positive learning environment.
Take a moment to reflect on the times when you were a student – how did your parents and teachers talk to you? What kind of words did they use and what were their tones? Did that make you feel motivated or insecure, and even angry? As parents, it is critical to understand that your words would shape your child’s learning. According to research by renowned developmental psychologist, Vygotsky, words can affect your child’s learning in the following ways:
a) Affecting a child’s sense of identity: imagine how a child would feel if he really likes singing and a parent, instead of offering praises and encourage, asks the child why he is so noisy and wasting his time on singing and not on his maths homework
b) Helping a child understand how he/she is doing: naming a specific attribute could actually help your child develop his/her interests or talents. For instance, if he/she drew a very nice picture, you may want to encourage him/her by specifically naming an attribute that really attracted you – for instance, you can praise him/her on the vivid colour combinations
c) Influencing parents’ relationship with a child: To a child who has just quarreled with his cousin, one can say “stop quarrelling with your cousin or I will punish you” or one can ask “I saw you quarrelling with your cousin. Can you let me know what had happened?” The latter would build a trusting parent-child relationship versus the former, which is one based on threats.
Five Guiding Principles for Positive Communications
How then can you ensure that your words support your child’s learning and create a positive environment? There are several guiding principles that can help you:
a) Using a kind, straightforward tone and be direct: It is important to say what one mean, but in a kind tone. Avoid sarcasm or indirect comparison to win compliance. Sarcastic language like, “ which part of sitting down and keeping quiet don’t you understand” will embarrass a child and create mistrust and resentment. Instead, you can be firm and just tell the child to sit down so that everyone in the family can enjoy the show together.
b) Focusing on actions: Focusing on action will point towards desired behaviours rather than attitude or character. This is especially important for young children, who tend to be concrete thinkers and may not be able to understand abstractions. An example of an abstraction you may want to avoid is to tell your child to be respectful. Instead, ask him/her to treat others with kindness by helping their friends when they fall down or carrying shopping bags for their grandparents.
c) Keeping it brief: Young children find it hard to follow long sentences. More often than not, before you finish your long sentences, your child will be thinking about other things and have lost focus. Thus, it is important to speak in shorter sentences to allow your child to absorb and understand what you are saying and expecting.
d) Using silence: Using silence after asking your child questions could actually help him/her craft a more thoughtful response. While a 3 second pause may seem very long, it allows an open space for your child to think, rehearse what to say, and can solicit a higher quality response. This also teaches your child that a true listener will attempt to understand the other party’s questions, before formulating a better response.
e) Expressing confidence in your child: If a parent is able to demonstrate faith and confidence in the child, he/she will be more likely to live up to the parent’s expectations. Spare no effort to notice and comment on positive behaviour in a calm tone. Be specific in your observations, such that it will provide hard evidence on why your child should believe in himself/herself.
Look out for our next entry in a fortnight’s time, where we will be sharing with parents, ten tips for encouraging joyful learning in their children.
By Ms Angeline Tong and Ms Brenda Yeow
Monday, August 4, 2008
How to Choose the Right Pre-School for Your Child
This is probably the first of many important decisions you would have to make for your child. While going to pre-school is not a pre-requisite for admissions to kindergarten, let alone guaranteeing a successful life ahead, the right learning environment and social experience will no doubt provide your child with a critical head start academically and socially over their peers.
One of the most important learning outcomes for a pre-school programme is providing the child with the right academic foundation. This includes linguistic skills (reading, oral and aural), cognitive development, creativity, motor skills, number sense and rudimentary numerical skills. Socially, a good pre-school will also allow him/her to learn to interact with others, to share toys, to work and play in teams/groups. The experience will impart rules and structures of society and what is acceptable and not acceptable in school and in society to your child, critical in fostering emotional development and discipline.
Every child has unique developmental needs and there is certainly no one size fit all solution here. A pre-school that is suitable for your niece may not necessary be suitable for your child. Thus, we have developed a set of criteria that can help you evaluate the different pre-schools out there and select the ideal learning environment for your child.
1) School Leadership and Philosophy: First and foremost, it is critical that you evaluate the school leadership as well as its philosophy. What do we mean by philosophy? For instance, a pre-school that follows the Montessori Philosophy may stress learning through self-guided play while another pre-school may foster discipline and group work. As an enlightened parent, you will need to decide which environment would suit your child better and select one that accords to your values. Do not choose a pre-school strictly on pedigree or reputation if you do not feel comfortable with the vision or philosophy of the school.
Additionally, it is important to evaluate the experience and training of the principal and the teachers. What are their qualifications? Which institutions did they graduate from? How long have they been in the education field? How do the teachers interact with their wards? What is the approach to discipline in the pre-school? Finding answers to these questions during the interviews or site visits can certainly be helpful in making your decision. Visiting the school to see firsthand how the teachers interact with the children and how the children react to the teachers and environment will also give you a good idea whether your child will fit into the environment.
2) Level of Parental Involvement: While the credentials of the school leadership are important, it is also critical to understand how the school will involve parents. Research has shown that the higher the parents’ involvement in their children's education and school, the greater the child's chances of success. A good pre-school should be able to involve parents in a constructive way. For instance, does the pre-school inform you of what the child is learning in classes and provide some follow-on activities to help your child reinforce his/her learnings in school? Ideally, the teachers will also help identify your child’s talents/interests and are able to recommend extra-curricular lessons that can help develop this innate talent, be it in art or music.
3) Ratio of Students-Teachers: Studies indicate that the ideal class size is 1 teacher to 7 - 8 students for younger children in the 1st year of pre-school and 1 teacher to 10 students in their subsequent years to kindergarten. Class size determines the quality of care, interaction and instruction, and it is important that your child can receive ample attention and guidance from the teachers. It is only through such close interaction that the teachers can provide you with insights and progress of your child’s learning. However, class size alone will not determine the quality of your child’s learning experience. Having the same, constant relationship with the teacher is also critical.
4) Turnover rate of Teachers: While the impact of a child losing a teacher depends largely on the level of attachment, teacher turnover remains a serious and complicated issue. It is important for a child to feel safe and secure in a learning environment. Constant changes in a caregiver will not only affect your child emotionally, but also reduce the quality of instruction and learning experience of your child.
5) Quality of Instruction, Materials and Facilities: Last, but not least, it is important that you are comfortable with the quality of the pre-school experience. These could include quality of instruction, interactivity of the materials used and activities offered, safety and precaution that the school takes, nourishment of meals provided etc. For instance, activities and instruction materials should be interesting and varied to continue to engage young learners’ curiosity and motivate them to explore topics covered further. During class, teachers should also inculcate good habits, such as the right way to hold a pencil, good sitting posture, courtesy and treating all with respect and careful handling of common property.
Once you have interviewed the school principal, visited the pre-school and observed how the lessons progressed, you will be able to make the right decision for your child. However, bringing your child to an unfamiliar environment and leaving him/her with unknown care-givers will certainly pose some difficulties. While separation anxiety is a normal and positive part of child development, here are some simple tips for an easy transition:
i) Talk to your child in a positive mood about the upcoming change
ii) Visit the pre-school with your child to familiarise him/her with the new environment
iii) Develop a drop-off and pick-up routine and let your child know if it changes. It is important to plan ahead and do not rush or extend/delay the drop off & pick up
iv) Tell your child your schedule and activities while he or she is at pre-school
v) Always bid your child goodbye in a firm, loving and consistent way
It is important to consider what your child needs, evaluate the programmes and pre-schools available and select the ideal programme that can put him/her on the right track.
The right pre-school programme can provide a head start to long term academic success. It can also promote moral values, good habits, right attitudes, inspiration to learning and lay the path towards a life-long enjoyable learning journey.
By Miss Brenda Yeow and Miss Angeline Tong
One of the most important learning outcomes for a pre-school programme is providing the child with the right academic foundation. This includes linguistic skills (reading, oral and aural), cognitive development, creativity, motor skills, number sense and rudimentary numerical skills. Socially, a good pre-school will also allow him/her to learn to interact with others, to share toys, to work and play in teams/groups. The experience will impart rules and structures of society and what is acceptable and not acceptable in school and in society to your child, critical in fostering emotional development and discipline.
Every child has unique developmental needs and there is certainly no one size fit all solution here. A pre-school that is suitable for your niece may not necessary be suitable for your child. Thus, we have developed a set of criteria that can help you evaluate the different pre-schools out there and select the ideal learning environment for your child.
1) School Leadership and Philosophy: First and foremost, it is critical that you evaluate the school leadership as well as its philosophy. What do we mean by philosophy? For instance, a pre-school that follows the Montessori Philosophy may stress learning through self-guided play while another pre-school may foster discipline and group work. As an enlightened parent, you will need to decide which environment would suit your child better and select one that accords to your values. Do not choose a pre-school strictly on pedigree or reputation if you do not feel comfortable with the vision or philosophy of the school.
Additionally, it is important to evaluate the experience and training of the principal and the teachers. What are their qualifications? Which institutions did they graduate from? How long have they been in the education field? How do the teachers interact with their wards? What is the approach to discipline in the pre-school? Finding answers to these questions during the interviews or site visits can certainly be helpful in making your decision. Visiting the school to see firsthand how the teachers interact with the children and how the children react to the teachers and environment will also give you a good idea whether your child will fit into the environment.
2) Level of Parental Involvement: While the credentials of the school leadership are important, it is also critical to understand how the school will involve parents. Research has shown that the higher the parents’ involvement in their children's education and school, the greater the child's chances of success. A good pre-school should be able to involve parents in a constructive way. For instance, does the pre-school inform you of what the child is learning in classes and provide some follow-on activities to help your child reinforce his/her learnings in school? Ideally, the teachers will also help identify your child’s talents/interests and are able to recommend extra-curricular lessons that can help develop this innate talent, be it in art or music.
3) Ratio of Students-Teachers: Studies indicate that the ideal class size is 1 teacher to 7 - 8 students for younger children in the 1st year of pre-school and 1 teacher to 10 students in their subsequent years to kindergarten. Class size determines the quality of care, interaction and instruction, and it is important that your child can receive ample attention and guidance from the teachers. It is only through such close interaction that the teachers can provide you with insights and progress of your child’s learning. However, class size alone will not determine the quality of your child’s learning experience. Having the same, constant relationship with the teacher is also critical.
4) Turnover rate of Teachers: While the impact of a child losing a teacher depends largely on the level of attachment, teacher turnover remains a serious and complicated issue. It is important for a child to feel safe and secure in a learning environment. Constant changes in a caregiver will not only affect your child emotionally, but also reduce the quality of instruction and learning experience of your child.
5) Quality of Instruction, Materials and Facilities: Last, but not least, it is important that you are comfortable with the quality of the pre-school experience. These could include quality of instruction, interactivity of the materials used and activities offered, safety and precaution that the school takes, nourishment of meals provided etc. For instance, activities and instruction materials should be interesting and varied to continue to engage young learners’ curiosity and motivate them to explore topics covered further. During class, teachers should also inculcate good habits, such as the right way to hold a pencil, good sitting posture, courtesy and treating all with respect and careful handling of common property.
Once you have interviewed the school principal, visited the pre-school and observed how the lessons progressed, you will be able to make the right decision for your child. However, bringing your child to an unfamiliar environment and leaving him/her with unknown care-givers will certainly pose some difficulties. While separation anxiety is a normal and positive part of child development, here are some simple tips for an easy transition:
i) Talk to your child in a positive mood about the upcoming change
ii) Visit the pre-school with your child to familiarise him/her with the new environment
iii) Develop a drop-off and pick-up routine and let your child know if it changes. It is important to plan ahead and do not rush or extend/delay the drop off & pick up
iv) Tell your child your schedule and activities while he or she is at pre-school
v) Always bid your child goodbye in a firm, loving and consistent way
It is important to consider what your child needs, evaluate the programmes and pre-schools available and select the ideal programme that can put him/her on the right track.
The right pre-school programme can provide a head start to long term academic success. It can also promote moral values, good habits, right attitudes, inspiration to learning and lay the path towards a life-long enjoyable learning journey.
By Miss Brenda Yeow and Miss Angeline Tong
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
How to help my child excel in Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE)?
It is natural for parents to be concerned about their children’s PSLE performance. Anxiety among parents is starting to build up, especially as the big date is coming close. This week, we are dedicating some time to answer some questions that worried parents may have on how to help your child prepare and do well in his/her PSLE. This is not an exhaustive list. If you have more questions, please feel free to send it to us at info@handsonlearning.com.sg.
Question: My boy's grades are not ideal and he is not worried. What should I do?
The first thing a concerned parent should do is to reflect why the boy is not worried. There may be several reasons for this. He might have put in his best effort, but is still not able to reap the results you expected. Thus, he is given up and allowing nature to take its course. He may also not be motivated in studying as he had not have an ideal school in mind to work towards. Alternatively, it may be that he has low expectations and is satisfied with his current results, despite your high expectations.
It is important to jointly address this issue with your child and try to motivate him, by helping identifying the underlying factors. One good framework to leverage is the POWER framework.
1) Plan – Discuss with him what he wants to be in the future and understand the motivations behind that goal. Once you understand his ambitions and aspirations, you can help him plan how to work towards the goal. For instance, if he wants to be a musician, you can help him identify the steps he needs to work on to get there.
2) Organise – Work together with your child to identify how you can achieve the goals, including finding the right secondary schools, researching their areas of excellences, affiliation. For instance, you can accompany him to the open house of School of the Arts and talk to teachers to understand the programme better.
3) Work on it – Help your child identify the entry requirements and guide your child to develop a plan of attack to achieve the results that can get him into his first choice school, School of the Arts. Seek help in subjects where he is weaker.
4) Encourage – It is important to provide the right support your child to work towards his goals, but do not take over the whole process. You should provide opportunities for him to achieve the goal and not force him to attend programmes you think will be helpful. For instance, let him know what enrichment classes are available to strengthen his portfolio, encourage him to select one that he likes and could do well in.
5) Review – You should continuously review his progress and praise him when he scores well in his tests or does well in his enrichment class. Whenever you give feedback, remember to be constructive. When you receive the news of his successful entry, congratulate him and ask him to think of the next steps and what he will do in the year ahead. If the application is not successful, do not reprimand your child. Instead work with him to identify alternatives.
Throughout the discussion, you can also help him to discover his strengths/talents and how these can help him in his studies now and in his life in the future. It is important to note that your role as a parent is critical to help your child do well. There are 3 tips that we would like to share with you:
1) Instead of exerting too much pressure on the child, generate enthusiasm. You can stress that PSLE is a mean (not an end) towards his secondary education. Discuss the "fun" and new challenges that he will be experiencing when he's in secondary school. In this way, the child will look forward to rather than dislike PSLE
2) Be realistic about your child's abilities when selecting secondary schools. When your child genuinely believes that he has a chance to meet the goal, he will be more willing to try. Motivation requires optimism and optimistic children are confident that if they work long and hard, and apply enough creativity, they will, in fact, succeed.
3) Reluctant learners are unwilling to learn for a reason. They often have been wounded by comments from friends or adults about their perceived abilities. Isolate the reasons behind your child's reluctance and work on them with positive encouragement and reinforcements.
Next week, we will talk about how to select the right pre-school for your child. Stay tune!
By Ms Brenda Yeow and Ms Angeline Tong
Question: My boy's grades are not ideal and he is not worried. What should I do?
The first thing a concerned parent should do is to reflect why the boy is not worried. There may be several reasons for this. He might have put in his best effort, but is still not able to reap the results you expected. Thus, he is given up and allowing nature to take its course. He may also not be motivated in studying as he had not have an ideal school in mind to work towards. Alternatively, it may be that he has low expectations and is satisfied with his current results, despite your high expectations.
It is important to jointly address this issue with your child and try to motivate him, by helping identifying the underlying factors. One good framework to leverage is the POWER framework.
1) Plan – Discuss with him what he wants to be in the future and understand the motivations behind that goal. Once you understand his ambitions and aspirations, you can help him plan how to work towards the goal. For instance, if he wants to be a musician, you can help him identify the steps he needs to work on to get there.
2) Organise – Work together with your child to identify how you can achieve the goals, including finding the right secondary schools, researching their areas of excellences, affiliation. For instance, you can accompany him to the open house of School of the Arts and talk to teachers to understand the programme better.
3) Work on it – Help your child identify the entry requirements and guide your child to develop a plan of attack to achieve the results that can get him into his first choice school, School of the Arts. Seek help in subjects where he is weaker.
4) Encourage – It is important to provide the right support your child to work towards his goals, but do not take over the whole process. You should provide opportunities for him to achieve the goal and not force him to attend programmes you think will be helpful. For instance, let him know what enrichment classes are available to strengthen his portfolio, encourage him to select one that he likes and could do well in.
5) Review – You should continuously review his progress and praise him when he scores well in his tests or does well in his enrichment class. Whenever you give feedback, remember to be constructive. When you receive the news of his successful entry, congratulate him and ask him to think of the next steps and what he will do in the year ahead. If the application is not successful, do not reprimand your child. Instead work with him to identify alternatives.
Throughout the discussion, you can also help him to discover his strengths/talents and how these can help him in his studies now and in his life in the future. It is important to note that your role as a parent is critical to help your child do well. There are 3 tips that we would like to share with you:
1) Instead of exerting too much pressure on the child, generate enthusiasm. You can stress that PSLE is a mean (not an end) towards his secondary education. Discuss the "fun" and new challenges that he will be experiencing when he's in secondary school. In this way, the child will look forward to rather than dislike PSLE
2) Be realistic about your child's abilities when selecting secondary schools. When your child genuinely believes that he has a chance to meet the goal, he will be more willing to try. Motivation requires optimism and optimistic children are confident that if they work long and hard, and apply enough creativity, they will, in fact, succeed.
3) Reluctant learners are unwilling to learn for a reason. They often have been wounded by comments from friends or adults about their perceived abilities. Isolate the reasons behind your child's reluctance and work on them with positive encouragement and reinforcements.
Next week, we will talk about how to select the right pre-school for your child. Stay tune!
By Ms Brenda Yeow and Ms Angeline Tong
Saturday, July 5, 2008
How to help your child with homework?
Parents play a critical role in educating their children. The pressure cooker society today is making it more difficult for parents to increase their involvement in their children’s school career. One good way, however, for parents to be more involved in your child’s education is through homework. Research has shown that ongoing parental involvement in homework can provide a solid foundation for children’s learning and attitudes. When you are involved and maintain high expectations for your child's performance in school, regularly do homework related activities with their children, and display a positive attitude toward homework, your child will benefit. He/she will feel confident, enjoy and learn more from school; and understand the usefulness and importance of education and school.
Admittedly, helping your child with homework isn’t the easiest tasks. Many parents are dumbfounded when their children seek help on their school assignments, especially when they have forgotten concepts thought to them years ago. Others find it difficult to motivate their children and bring them away from video games, online chats or television programmes to concentrate on their homework assignments. We have also met overly anxious parents who sent their children to so many enrichment activities that the children hardly have any energy left to complete the homework. Of course, there is always the perennial complaint from parents that there is too much or too little homework. The list is never ending and we hope that through this week’s sharing, we can provide you with some practical tips, on how you can help motivate your child complete his/her homework assignments successfully and develop the right learning habits for life. Parents with children in primary and secondary school should find these tips most relevant.
Before we discuss ways on how you can help your child, we thought it is important to remind parents how homework benefits students - Homework encourages self-discipline and responsibility by providing them an opportunity to manage time and meet deadlines, teaches children to work independently, reinforces what children have learnt in class, and helps develop good habits and the right attitudes.
Showing that you think Education and Homework are Important
Children look up to their parents and it is very important that they know their parents’ care about their learning and think that homework is important. To help your child do well in school, you should first show that you think education and homework are critical. To do that, you could:
1) Begin early in the academic year. Start sharing early in the year inspirational/ success stories of immediate family members/extended family members/close friends, especially people your child is very close to or heroes he/she is familiar with, on how education and good learning habits (through homework) has helped their success.
2) Get child to set targets/goals; plan what to do to achieve the goals; get him/her to own the achievable goals (such as improving Mathematics scores by 10 marks).
3) Set aside a regular time for your child to do his/her homework. For a younger child, you can always work with him/her to develop a schedule. Remember to set aside time for his/her hobbies and for fun. For secondary school students, they are able to develop a proper schedule, but it is important that you ensure it is a good one.
4) Remove distractions during homework time – turn off the TV and other sources of distractions, such as loud music, computer games etc.
5) Show your child that the skills he/she is learning is relevant to things he/she will do when she grows up. For example, if you want your child to be motivated learning Chinese, let him/her see you reading Chinese newspapers, books or speaking in Mandarin with other people. You can also share with them what you do at work and how Chinese has helped you (perhaps negotiating a deal with a client from Taiwan or Mainland China). To motivate your child to learn maths, you can always show him/her how maths is useful for you (such as calculating payments during groceries).
6) Besides showing your interests, you can also make homework interesting. You can make time to bring your child to libraries, science centre or museums to do research required for his/her assignment (or just for enjoyment). Draw links back to his/her school work, but also the broader environment – to create a better understanding and awareness of his/her surroundings.
Helping them with their homework, not do their homework
It is important to note that while it is critical for parents to show interest in their children’s homework, they should only give support and not take over the assignments. Remember, the homework is for the children, not for the parents! By doing your child’s work, you are depriving him/her the opportunity to understand, process and use information, and making your child more dependent on you. The following tips could help you provide the right level of guidance:
1) You can encourage good study habits by helping your child manage their time to complete assignments. For example, you can help him/her plan the steps required to complete a big research project. During holidays, you can also select a project that your child is interested in and guide him/her on the steps needed to complete the project. This would not only allow you to provide guidance to help your child break assignments into smaller tasks, it will also be a good time to build and strengthen bonds.
2) You can also talk about the assignments with your child. Make sure that he/she understands the requirements of the assignments, where he/she might have problems and whether you could provide additional resources to help in completing the assignment.
3) It is also important to watch for frustration – it might be time to give him/her a break and continue to encourage him/her that the task can be done.
4) It is important to give praise. Your child needs encouragement from people whose opinions he/she value the most – you and your spouse. Little words of commendation can go a long way in motivating your child to do better!
5) Your child also needs to know if he/she has not done the best. It is, however, to keep all feedback constructive. Instead of telling your child that he/she is stupid for solving a maths problem wrongly, try using statements like “Perhaps you might want to try solving the problem in another way.” Then give praise when he/she has corrected the mistake and explain where he/she gone wrong in the first place.
Keeping a constant eye on homework assignments
As an enlightened and involved parent, you should also constantly monitor your child’s homework assignments. With your vigilance over his/her progress, it is more likely that your child can successfully complete these assignments. The degree of monitoring depends on your child’s age, independence and how well he/she does at school. In general, you should make sure that:
1) You are always available. Primary school children, especially, like parents to be around, so that someone they trust could answer any questions they may have on any assignments.
2) You look over completed assignments to ensure they are completed. Read the feedback that teachers gave after the assignment is returned to see how well your child has done and where improvements is required. No matter how well or badly he/she has done, you should always be generous with time, love, praises and encouragement. It is also important to praise good behavior, such as completing the homework on time, completing them correctly and neat handwriting.
3) However, if your child continues to have problems finishing his/her assignments, you should talk to your child to find out what the issue could be. Give your child extra time and help if he/she has difficulties understanding the homework assignment.
4) While all distractions should be switched off during the pre-agreed homework time, parents should also monitor the number of hours their children spent on TV and computer games. This could be an underlying reason why homework is not completed on time.
Parents should also not hesitate to contact teachers, if they wish to clarify something with regards to the homework assignment or when their children are not able to complete the homework frequently. Homework is not only a good way for parents to be involved in their children’s education; it is also a common platform for teachers, parents and families to improve students’ learning.
By Ms Brenda Yeow and Ms Angeline Tong
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