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How are Singapore families coping in the final stretch of the PSLE journey?
It&rsquo;s life as usual for one KSP member.
Read on for her tips on keeping stress at bay.
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<h5>#Have A Daily Plan</h5>
The general guideline that we follow is to only have one &ldquo;major&rdquo; task, such as completing an exam paper, per day. If there is an answer scheme available, my daughter marks her own work and takes note of her score. We&rsquo;ve encouraged her to <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/exam-prep-getting-kids-to-study-on-their-own/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study independently</a> since her lower primary days.
On a school day, if my daughter already has a paper to complete as part of her homework, that will be considered her &ldquo;major&rdquo; task for the day. If time permits, I will check if she can fit in some &ldquo;minor&rdquo; tasks, such as vocabulary review&mdash;she spends 10 minutes a day testing herself on a <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/power-up-your-childs-vocabulary-and-yours-too-a-mom-tested-approach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vocabulary app</a>&mdash;or memorising a composition for Chinese, which takes her about 30 to 45 minutes.
At the end of each day, I&rsquo;ll ask my daughter to note down what she&rsquo;s accomplished for the day in her daily planner. This way, she can see at a glance what she&rsquo;s covered, and think about what still needs to be done.
<h5>#Rely On Your Support Network</h5>
We&rsquo;re fortunate as we live in a neighbourhood with a cozy enrichment centre just minutes away. The centre&rsquo;s charges are easier on the pocket, compared to brand-name centres, and the tutors are dedicated and experienced, so we&rsquo;re getting the best of both worlds.
My daughter has been attending a group class for science, and in this final stretch, I&rsquo;ve arranged for additional two-hour sessions at the centre, at $5/hr. During these sessions, my daughter spends an hour working on either math problem sums or science open-ended questions, and the next hour discussing the answers with her tutor. We also have a private tutor for Chinese.
I&rsquo;m grateful that we&rsquo;ve been able to afford tutors&mdash;it&rsquo;s enabled me to stay on the sidelines and focus on my own work, while ensuring that my kids lead a balanced life.
On days where my daughter has tutoring, she doesn&rsquo;t set herself additional work. If there is homework from school, she brings it to the enrichment centre to complete.
I should add that my daughter&rsquo;s school teachers are also a wonderful source of support. They&rsquo;ve held extra classes before and after school, and the students (as well as parents) are able to message them with questions at any time.
<h5>#Be Purposeful</h5>
With time running out and the need to conserve energy, it&rsquo;s crucial that a child is aware of the objective of each revision task.
For instance, I worked with my daughter on her composition writing during the June holidays. We wrote several stories&mdash;each with multiple drafts&mdash;on the same topic, to address specific problem areas for my daughter. She learned to omit superfluous details that didn&rsquo;t contribute to fleshing out the story&rsquo;s characters or advancing the plot. She also focused on creating stories close to real-life situations that she was familiar with, and practised writing conclusions that summed up the life lessons illustrated in her stories, without being overblown or trite.
I was heartened that my daughter saw an almost 10-point jump in her composition score for the prelims, and we received positive feedback from her English teacher as well.
I&rsquo;ve also been checking in regularly with my daughter&rsquo;s tutor regarding her private sessions at the enrichment centre. Instead of having her tackle questions first, and discussing the answers after, we&rsquo;ve decided to reverse the process&mdash;discussions first, followed by writing the answers down. I felt that this could help my daughter with information retention. We&rsquo;ve also decided to use this final month for her to reattempt questions that she&rsquo;s previously struggled with, as opposed to trying new questions.
The last thing that we&rsquo;re working on is her time management&mdash;her tutor will time her for each question that she&rsquo;s attempting and alert her when she&rsquo;s taking more time than is recommended.
<h5>#No Work After 6PM</h5>
That&rsquo;s our ideal schedule, and we try to keep to this as far as possible, since bedtime for both my kids is 8:30PM.
My daughter also takes breaks after each task, to read or surf. We&rsquo;ve cut out enrichment activities for this period, and once it&rsquo;s time to relax, it&rsquo;s fuss-free entertainment for both my kids&mdash;park walks, card and board games, badminton at the void deck, simple playdates with friends, and movie nights on Netflix.
I don&rsquo;t think she&rsquo;s too stressed out, and neither am I, which is the way it should be!
<h6>Contributed by Evelyn, a KiasuParents member and <a href="https://datewiththenights.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">parent blogger</a>. Find out how other parents are coping with the PSLE in our <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&amp;t=84699&amp;p=1869004#p1869004" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 PSLE Discussion</a>.</h6>
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