Ready For Primary 1?

GET THE READING RIGHT
Prepare your child by ensuring that she can read and write. Grace Ding started her daughter on phonics and reading two years before she entered Primary 1. The 37-year-old manager says: “If your child can read through the use of phonics, at least she will have a better understanding and feel less lost. It will also help in her spelling, even if you forget to teach her.” Grace also made it a point to help Ashley, now nine, improve her writing and copying skills so that she could keep abreast of the lessons in class.

WHAT A BIG LOO
Going to the toilet may be an issue, even though most children are fully toilet-trained by the time they enter Primary 1. Elaine Seow, a 35-year-old lawyer and mother of six-year-old Shannon, says: “I should have prepped Shannon to go to the toilet at least once during her school hours.

In kindergarten, the children are used to regular toilet breaks where they are ushered as a group to the loo. But, now, they are either too scared or clueless on how to use the ‘adult’ toilets found in the primary school.”

To get your child used to a regular-sized toilet, help him practise at home until he is comfortable getting on and off without help.

WAKE UP NOW!
If your child is in the afternoon session, you can breathe a little easier. But if he is in the morning session, you can expect a mad rush every day just to get him out of bed, dressed, fed and into school before the bell rings.

Angela Ng, who has three boys aged three, six and nine, says: “I find that having a schedule at home helps a lot. The first few months can be stressful because the child may not be aware of time yet, so getting him to follow a routine at home takes a lot of reminders.”

The 38-year-old stay-at-home mum adds: “But once he is used to it, he not only knows exactly what time he has to do what, there is also less argument over why he can’t play with his toys or watch TV, because there is a set time for work, and a set time for play.”

WHY NO TEXTBOOKS?
“When I received my daughter’s booklist last year, I thought there was a mistake because there were no English textbooks and workbooks listed,” says Fely Widjaja, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mother to eight-year-old Ferly. “There were only worksheets, which I had to pay upfront. And they would only be given to my daughter when school started. I thought this was strange. Then I realised the school was using the Stellar programme.”

Under this programme, teachers use “Big Books” that are read during shared reading time. The books form the basis for classroom activities and lessons to teach children to listen to, speak, read and write English.

THE LEARNING NEVER STOPS
Teaching methods have changed drastically over the years. What you learnt in school might be very different from what your child will learn. For instance, Chinese in the first few months of Primary 1 is now taught using hanyu pinyin, to make it easier for children who speak mainly English at home to ease into the curriculum.

For corporate banker Ricky Lim, 43, this meant having to brush up on his hanyu pinyin so he could help his sons, Ryan, nine, and Ethan, seven, with their schoolwork. “Hanyu pinyin is stressed so heavily in the first few months of the school curriculum that we had to catch up, too, just in case we had to pitch in with intelligent input when they were revising for spelling tests,” he says.

Read the April 2010 issue of Young Parents for the full story, and more tips on raising a smart kid.