Preparing for Primary One- Questions and Answer Round Up

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Parenting Views, Recommendations Preparing for primary one, primary 1, Questions and Answers, Singapore education

For the past three weeks I have been  sharing with you what I have been doing to prepare Doggie boy for primary one. Today in the final installation I will be answering questions that were asked by my readers in regards to preparing their kids for primary one.

Question  #1   –How much pocket money is consider as enough for P1 kids?

 My answer:   $1.50-$2 a day.  The price of food has increased over the year.  It costs anything between $0.70-$1.20 for a plate or bowl of food during recess. Your child would be able to save a bit if he brings his own water bottle and do not buy drinks.

Question #2 – How much parental involvement is involved? Do you help with packing the schoolbags, or do you let them handle it themselves, and not bail them out if you forget something? How much homework supervision is healthy?

My answer:
In the initial few weeks I do check his bag after he has packed it. I let my kid do all the packing of the school bag by himself. I won’t bail them out if they forget to bring a book/item to school. He has to face up to the consequences if he doesn’t pack his bag properly or forgets to bring an item.

I do check my child’s homework after he is done and do check with the teacher off an on how he is performing in school.

Question #3- what are the things the child needs to learn by K2 in prep for P1 (Not talking about the KS type of over preparing the kid but if the child needs to know for e.g. Number bonds by then, this would be good knowledge) and for the various subjects please

My answer: I have covered this over at my Preparing for Primary One (2011)series

English

Vocabulary

• Classification of verbs (eg. jump, walk, crawl) and nouns (eg. aeroplane, house, shopping centre)

Grammar and Punctuation

• Singularity and plurality, adjectives, pronouns, possessives
• Present and past tense

Written Expression

• simple descriptive sentences for composition writing (Eg, Jane is wearing a red blouse and blue jeans.
• penmanship- legibility of words written given a specific passage.  (I’m personally not too concerned if Monkey Boy’s writing is not print perfect. It is more important to me that he and the teachers understand what he is writing. )

Oral and Show and Tell:

• Formal tests involving:
  • Reading of a passage in the presence of the examiner
  • Discuss the events depicted in a picture with the examiner
  • Develop and present materials for a presentation to the class based on topics chosen by the teacher (eg. “My Favourite Toy”)
  • Having a dialogue with the examiner based on a given scenario.
    ( *This is something new which will be slowly introduced to the students to prepare them for the changes which will be implemented during PSLE in the coming years. )
  • Students will be graded based on clarity of delivery and content.

Mathematics

• Addition and Subtraction up to 20
• Multiplication in 2s, 5s and 10s
• sequencing and number bonds
• completing 2 step questions and problem sums

Question #4- P1 classes are typically much larger – 30+ to 40 pax. This may intimidate a child. What can a parent do to ease the child into it?

My answer:  It depends on which kindergarten your child has been to. Some like PAP have bigger groups with 20 kids or more in the class so they may have already been used to big groups. As a parent you can bring your kid out to events for their age or sign them up for holiday camps with activities for groups of 30-40 people so that can get used to being around a larger group of kids.

Question  #5- How would you handle bullying?  If your kid is bullied, how do you help the child to tell him / her that it is NOT OK and what the child needs to do?

My answer:   I will advice the child to approach the teacher or an adult if he feels that he is being unfairly treated. He should tell the person to stop or go away from the aggressor. It is not okay to keep his feelings to himself but approach an adult for help if cannot stop the unwanted behaviour on his own.

Do you have any other questions which you want me to answer?

Do put them in the comments below.

Post in this series

1. Preparing for Primary One (The 2nd time around)
2. Preparing for Primary One- Doggie Boy Style (Mental Preparations)
3. Preparing for Primary One- Doggie Boy Style ( Physical Preparations)
4. Preparing for Primary One – Looking back at Primary One [ Guest Post]
5. Preparing for Primary One- Preparing yourself Mentally as a Parent
6. Preparing for Primary One- A look through The Eyes of a Mom [Guest Post]
7. Preparing for Primary One- From Teacher Sarah’s Desk [Guest Post]