SweetieTots

Does your kid’s teacher(s) has passion for teaching children?

小猫 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:42:28 +0000

Miloboy’s Primary One teacher last year (in year 2009), is someone who really has a passion with teaching kids. She alerts me of Miloboy’s condition and she keeps Miloboy’s attention in check, letting him sit in the middle of the classroom and getting the class’s probably best student, to help supervise Miloboy’s attention span.

I am really very glad that she did all these that she makes me feel a bit apologetic to the girl who helps to “supervise” my boy. But, when I heard that she took Miloboy’s stationery without permission from Miloboy, I tell myself, well, she got her “payment”. Don’t feel too bad about it….

How I wish she’s teaching Miloboy this year. Well, sometimes, you just have to accept the fact that Life is full of up and downs. You do not get someone as good as that teacher every year. If your children do, you must be the world’s luckiest parent!

This year, Miloboy’s teacher made him sit right at the corner of the classroom, which is also the “backdoor” of the class. You can imagine, an ADHD kid, it is pretty hard for him to concentrate at a position like this. I must say that Miloboy has done well. So far, he only “forgotten” to takedown his homework 3 times….. Trust me, he really improved compared to last year….

I did alert the teacher. He KNEW about this. He even acknowledged it. I was a bit surprised to know that Miloboy is not sitting somewhere that the teacher can help to monitor him. Then again, he has NO obligation to help Miloboy.

Also, those kids sitting beside Miloboy also seems to have the same problem, maybe milder than Miloboy. This is because, they also seem to heck care or not aware of what is happening around them. (Happens to most ADHD and Autism kids)

My only conclusion is, if a teacher who has passion for teaching children, he/she will want the best out of everyone. Miloboy’s teacher this year seems disorganized and have not much passion for teaching…. pretty much from what I have seen and conversed with him so far….

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Need Something to Perk Me Up

小猫 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:12:12 +0000

I did something that makes me feel so bad this week.

I am not sure why I did that.

But somehow, I know I wanted my boy to grow up and be a person who is able to protect himself.

Nowadays, I talk to him nicely, and I can find immediate improvement in his behaviour.

Its not easy as he really exhibits real poor awareness and a bit of unbalanced behaviour towards his sister that I sometimes wished that Miloboy is not my son.

It is as bad as it is, but life still goes on, and nothing is changed, so, get back up and perserve, no matter what…

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Overprotective Over Children Does More Harm Than Good

小猫 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:47:35 +0000

I have thinking of writing a post on this.

My kids, especially Miloboy, has been overprotected. Not by me, but no point crying over spilled milk. I have been trying to guide them to be independent, bit by bit, so that the kids will not react defensively to me. Ever since I quit, I have been doing that.

There are trying times too. Sometimes the kids refuse to budge, cos they have been ‘pampered’ for at least 5 years of their life. Needless to say, Miloboy’s case is the most serious, I have to keep trying and trying.

Basic stuff like wearing own socks and shoes are perfectly fine for Miloboy now. He even brings out his own uniform to try wearing them himself ever since school reopens. It’s a great improvement! You see, I also got to ‘convince’ others to stop helping Miloboy. That’s why its taking me a long time to get Miloboy to do things himself, and does it well.

Miloboy now eats himself at the dinner table. Very significant improvement since school reopens.

Sweetie is doing well. Now waiting for her to get used to bathing by herself. She enjoys school, enjoys company, enjoys her teacher’s jokes and she seems very happy to go to school now. Compared to the first month, she sometimes cry when she misses me a lot. hehe

Her only problem is her emotional up and downs.

As for Miloboy, I need to hang on and control my temper when I see ’someone’ helping him. I had to talk to Miloboy separately to express my concerns.

Overprotection also causes problems when it comes to writing journals, dairy or a short story. The kids becomes not so creative and they will have problems when it comes to story writing, or we can call it a short composition. Primary One and Two children need to do this in school.

Parents have to be especially careful when handling and managing such kids. Miloboy sometimes makes me feel that everything I do is futile. But it is really not the case. Perserve on and you will see results, it just comes slowly.

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Free Financial Literacy Lesson For Children (Singapore Only)

小猫 — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:05:02 +0000

I have a friend who set up a business on providing lessons to children on Money Habits & Financial Literacy has just opened for business and they want to run free lessons as a promotion to their business to create more awareness.

Well, the biggest benefit goes to the kids.

They are currently looking at children aged between 10 to 12 years old for the free lesson.

For more details, visit this link -> http://bit.ly/63OsCR

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What is ADHD

小猫 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:27:42 +0000

This article can be found at http://www.spark.org.sg. I personally find it is a great resource to read up on understanding ADHD.

You can compare and see what kind of traits your kid possess if you suspect them to have ADHD. Words in blue are my findings of Miloboy and Sweetie, my second child, when compared to the article.

(Miloboy did an assessment of ADHD earlier this year and he is diagnosed with ADHD, with inattention as the Primary Characteristic.)

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ADHD is generally considered to be a neurobiological disorder. Researchers believe that the symptoms of ADHD are caused by chemicals in the brain not working properly. It is characterised by the inability to sustain focused attention, impulsivity and hyperactivity.

There are 3 types, based on the latest diagnostic criteria of the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM-IV:

ADHD with the combined characteristics of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention,
ADHD with inattention as the primary characteristic, and
ADHD with hyperactivity and impulsivity as primary characteristics.

Both my kids have ADHD with Inattention as the Primary Characteristic. Miloboy has ‘more’ displays of ADHD than Sweetie. Her Inattentiveness and Hyperactivity is most evident when she is at a shop, or an enclosed area. You will see her playing, touching, or even climbing up things….. and yes, she likes to climb to the window, and we had our window grills fixed up when we had our house.

The first and third types are most often and easily identified because these children tend to have symptoms that are highly noticeable. These are the ADHD children who are loud, always on the go, take risks, engage in dangerous behavior, and talk back to adults.

My Miloboy talks loudly, especially so when he is excited. My therapist taught me to let him know what ‘level’ he is operating at.

E.g. Level 1 is Whispering. Level 5 is Shouting.

My Miloboy always operates at Level 4 and 5. Now, when he talks loudly, I will tell him to operate at Level 3, and sometimes he will listen to me with a smile. And when I need to whisper, I will tell him I am now operating at Level 1. And it never fails to bring a smile to his face.

Another noticeable symptom is Miloboy talks back to adults. He talks back to his teacher, not only me…. But well, he is sometimes cute when he does that. Cos he likes to be funny at times.

The second group, which is often where females are placed, are the quiet daydreamers. They lose personal belongings, can’t work alone, don’t finish tasks, and are often lost in their own thoughts.

Miloboy loses belongings but Sweetie seldom loses, rather, you will see new things in her pencilcase…. She can’t work alone. She needs me by her side in order to finish her homework. (This is a very common trait amongst kids)

As for Miloboy, he can do it all by himself, provided nobody distracts him. Sweetie likes to distract Miloboy as she wants him to play with her. Miloboy displays more “Daydreaming” trait than Sweetie. Not that she doesn’t.

Researchers estimate that ADHD occurs in as few as 1% and as many as 20% of children under 18 years of age. The most accepted estimate is 3-5% of school-going children. That translates into 2 such students in a class of 40 in Singapore’s context.

List of Problems typically faced by ADHD children:

Poor attention in class (Miloboy always gets this complaint)
Poor classroom participation and failure to ask teachers for necessary help (applies to Miloboy too)
Poor understanding of material taught (unless they are ‘gifted’ with high IQ) (If so, Miloboy should have high IQ, cos he can understand)
Poor study skills (Hmm, what’s study skill?)
Poor organization skills (ie. does not know how to organize time and work) (applies to both Miloboy and Sweetie)
Great difficulty in doing homework (Applies to Sweetie, she knows her work but simply refuses to do it…)
Failure to complete (and hand up ) homework (Applicable to Miloboy at times)
Sloppy or illegible handwriting (Miloboy is slow, so he rushes to finish his work and his handwriting is sloppy now compared to first half of this year.)
Disrupting the classroom (Not applicable to both kids, lucky…)
Getting into fights with peers (due to poor social skills) (Miloboy’s classmates find him funny and likes to play rough to Miloboy, e.g. pulling his shirt, chase after him and you will see hand marks on his shirt..)
Low self esteem (Both kids display some traits of low self esteem….)

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A Simple Tip On Teaching Our Children

小猫 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:08:49 +0000

I met the mother of my daughter’s classmate yesterday. she is very very interested in education for children and she likes to deal with children.

She happened to be one of the playgroup teacher of Miloboy when he was 3 years old.

She shared with me a simple tip while chatting yesterday. She knew I am concerned with the kids’ mother tongue.

She recommended teaching the kids, say, 3 words/characters a day. She told that this method is easy and fast and should not be too much of a problem. Like me, she believes in instilling interest when learning.

Learning through play is best. I totally agree with that. I will try it and post the results.

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Speech & Occupational Therapy For ADHD Kids

小猫 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:00:03 +0000

Miloboy is currently undergoing Speech & Occupational Therapy as recommended by his Doc over at Child Guidance Clinic. Miloboy is slowly improving, at his own pace. I would like to share some of the activities we did.

Do note all of the below things I did are ‘customised’ for Miloboy.

Activity #1 – Playground Helps To Channel Excess Energy

I find bringing him to the playground very good to help him fall asleep at night, especially on days where he uses much energy, such as playing chasing. The sessions last 45 mins each and there’s plenty of recommendations by the therapists to do at home with Miloboy.

But, the therapists do warn that we should not force the kids when they do not want to.

It is not easy to get ADHD kids to do homework. Same for those “exercises” that the therapists ask me to.

Activity #2 – Read Out Loud

Tip – Praise & Encouragement For The Kids

Miloboy knew he could not read very well. Sometimes, when he is stressed up, he stammers and tends to read the same word twice in a sentence. But when he is relaxed, he can actually read quite well. I do strongly suggest PRAISE & ENCOURAGEMENT for all kids when they did well. It works for Miloboy.

Activity #3 – Star Jumps For Hand Leg Coordination

I will also do Star Jumps with Miloboy to improve his hand leg coordination. But Miloboy does not fancy that. He only did it once (I had asked him to do it with me for 4 days in a row). Got to keep asking…. Don’t give up!

Activity #4 – Paste papers on wall for writing/drawing

I also pasted mahjong papers (white paper) on the walls to get him to write and train his wrist muscles, at the same time, teaching him Past Tense. This is a pretty common activity but Miloboy likes it.

—————————-

I will share more activities that we did as we go along. So far Miloboy has gone for 4 therapies for the past one month.I am glad that I am not working so that I can bring him there weekly. Gotta count the blessings.

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Missing Fundamental Learning In Primary Schools

小猫 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:54:07 +0000

When I was a 7 year old grade school kid, I can still remember that the first few years of school are what we called, Fundamentals Of Learning. Everything was nicely paced and there was little to no stress.

However, it could also be because at that point in time, we are mostly raised in families that spoke our own mother tongue rather than English. So, most of the kids like me only aim for a passing grade in English. I remember I have to crunch my Primary English Textbook very very hard, English is so hard to learn.

Now that Miloboy’s in Primary One. I am so shocked that he has to learn SO MANY things in one year. He learnt the Nouns, to common Nouns, then proceed on to Singular and Plural of animals, to Singular and Plural Forms of Verbs, to Punctuation (include speech based punctuation) then Present Tense, Present Continuous Tense to PAST TENSE….

That’s basically his syllabus for Primary One. I am real amazed by the fact that our Ministry of Education Singapore did such a Compressed English Syllabus for 7 year olds, when they really should be focusing on strengthening their English, instead, they chose to move on with speed to the deeper levels of English.

That is not all.

All Primary One kids are supposed to be able to write a minimum of 60 words based on a 4 picture sequential story telling composition by the final term. The model answers given by the teachers are Full of Adjectives and one look at it tells me, its not something that all 7 year olds can do…. well, ironically, those kids that receive Enrichment Courses might be able to do it.

Miloboy missed a point to the passing mark on a mock storytelling composition. But I really can’t blame him. What he wrote were very simple sentences.

E.g. Model Answer Opening: It was a bright Sunday morning with beautiful white fluffy clouds. My mother exclaimed, “Why don’t we go to the beach?”.

Miloboy’s Opening: Last week, we went to the beach.

On several other occasions, Miloboy mixed up Singular and Plural forms of verbs with the Past Tense.

E.g. Do (Present Tense), Did (Past Tense), Miloboy told me the Past Tense of ‘Do’ is ‘Does’.

These made me realise that the Fundamental Teachings are gone…. They compressed so much stuff in one year, for the poor 7 year olds. I wonder by what age they need to write Reported Speech. That is one of the most difficult part of English.

Even so, you know, teachers also make mistakes. They also get confused at times. I have seen errors in their marking before, let alone the poor 7 year olds who have to digest so much stuff in one year?

PS: When will it ever end? (Quoted by the Drow Ranger in DOTA)….

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Some Photos On The One Week Holiday

小猫 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:15:10 +0000

These are some photos taken during the one week school holiday. ^^

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I like to talk to the kids

小猫 — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:55:05 +0000

Today is a rainy day. I thought I can bring them to IMM, a shopping mall that has small playgrounds at the 3rd and 4th level. Unfortunately, due to the rain, I cancelled the plan.

Both kids spent 2 days (yesterday and today) at home… They drew and they played with each other. The funniest thing yesterday was that Sweetie ACTUALLY DREW ON MY WALL……Gosh….

I am not angry with her, really.

I am just …. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry….hehe ^^

The drawings at the wall look kinda nice though. I will upload a picture when I am able to, maybe next week.

The kids are funny. I wanted Miloboy to go take a bath, and he refused. I told him jokingly I will soap him up into a BubbleBoy, and he will smell really good. He retorted back jokingly, “You’ll soap me to death! hahahahahaa”.

We had a good laugh.

I had brought the kids to have a nice lunch on Wednesday. Then we went to look for swimming costumes as I want to sign Miloboy up for swimming lessons. The ADHD Doctor had said that sports will be good for Miloboy. I have not contacted any swimming instructor nor looked for one yet. I will look for one, maybe after the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar.

PS: I think I forgot to update that the plan to get a Japanese Private Tutor for Sweetie failed. The Japanese teacher contacted me that she was returning to Japan and could not, therefore, take up any more jobs. Sad….