Finishing Primary 1

In the blink of an eye the year is drawing to an end!

After all that excitement about starting Primary School, the first year is well and truly over.
Madison had her last day of class on the 13th November.

There was a bit of excitement towards the end: she had to try out for the tennis developmental team in school. I took an afternoon off to take her there. It felt like a culmination of all the lessons she's had in the past 4 years. It didn't go well. It wasn't just that she wasn't selected to do the extra curricular activity for next year, it was just that she lacked the style and technique/ basics that she should have.

The result: I've stopped her at the Singapore Swimming Club tennis and private lessons that she's been doing for the past 2 years. I got the contact of coach Weber and his Alfo group at the Raffles Institution from one of Madison's classmate's mum. Coach Weber was very kind to allow the girls to try out at his group session the very next Saturday. Within that hour, he was able to show us that Madison did in fact have a nice swing.  I was sold.

So for the time being we are doing private lessons with him. I think of it as being 2 hours with the club coach squeezed into 1 of Weber's.

Annika is finishing up with K1 at Pat's Schoolhouse and there's been some upheaval at the school. It started with a change in principal from Ms Elsie to Ms Serene, and I guess with any change in management there is bound to be some disgruntlement until the dust settles. There has been a movement in teachers within the school-- not all necessarily bad, but it did unsettle the parents. Annika had a change in her English/Math teacher, but since then her reading has improved. I guess one of the concerns is if the new group of teachers will be able to maintain the standards at the school. School fees are also increasing year on year so that's a concern too.

Liam is a work in progress. He's getting into the difficult twos/threes stage and still not eating well. I suppose with that is also his speech is still not the best but we are starting to hear clearer words and sentences from him. I'm hoping that its a transitional stage... it's a distant memory now of Annika being a fussy eater-- she's so much better now, to the point I am able to take her and Madison out for meals on my own without feeling stressed. I've signed and paid for him to start Pat's Schoolhouse for 2016.

The other thing that's troubling me is the question of after school tuition.

I've heard so much from other mum's with older kids that it's pretty much inevitable from the end of Primary 2 if you want to avoid the whole screaming at the kids type thing. Perhaps tuition isn't as it was in the past. And the reality is that the classroom is 40 kids to 1 teacher. The kids don't get enough attention from the teacher. I think perhaps we should re-frame it to being more like university? Time is school is like going for lectures. Then home/centre based tuition is the tutorials for more individual attention and time to work on weak areas?

We went and did a trial / diagnostic test at a centre called Eye Level just yesterday. The guy running it seemed like a patient person, and his strengths are probably in English and Math( primary ).  The diagnostic test did show us the kids weaknesses and starting point. So maybe not a bad idea. The girls seemed to find him ok, but I guess only time will tell. I think of it more as individual attention for the kids outside of school?

It's so hard to know what to do! I don't want to do too much, but it's also unfair if all the other kids are getting the extra help and your child is the only one to struggle on her own, right?