Category: Children’s learning

Academic Achievement, Children's learning, English, Maths, Parenting, ScienceLeave a comment

GEP or Not?

Clarice Lim

Congratulations! Now that your child has been selected for the GEP program, what’s next for him/her? It might be an extremely straightforward answer for some parents but not so for some others. My opinion is, go for it. Reasons being: PROS: It’s a great confidence-booster. Your gifted child knows what “gifted” means and there is no better way to inform your child that he/she is really good at what he/she has been doing than being identified as the top 1% of the cohort in Singapore. A generally high self-confidence can lead to higher competency in everything else that the child attempts … Continue reading GEP or Not?

Academic Achievement, Children's learning, English, Maths, Parenting, ScienceLeave a comment

Why Shouldn’t You Scold Your Child for Their Bad Results

Clarice Lim

It’s easy to blame your child for the bad results he received. “Why didn’t you pay attention in class?!” “You don’t know and you didn’t ask?!” “What were you doing when the teacher was teaching?!” These might have been your … Continue reading Why Shouldn’t You Scold Your Child for Their Bad Results

Children's behaviour, Children's learning, ParentingLeave a comment

The Importance of Hugs After Punishments

Clarice Lim

Hugs are forms of affirmation and affection for the child to feel loved. In the Asian context, the words “I love you” might not come out easily therefore making “hugs” even more important as an alternative to show affection especially after a harsh punishment. No parents enjoy punishing their children, but when the need arises, it is vital it is executed swiftly and with perfect orchestration. Firstly, it must be pre-warned that a punishment is coming,  but when the warning didn’t work, the punishment must be meted out. Once punishment is meted out, the child must always apologise for the … Continue reading The Importance of Hugs After Punishments

Academic Achievement, Children's behaviour, Children's learning, ParentingLeave a comment

How to make my child smarter?

Clarice Lim

Don’t most of us want to know that? The answer is, fortunately, easier than we thought. Apart from good genes, we can make our children smarter by using the appropriate praises. Research has shown that those who believed that ability is fixed, doesn’t feel that they need to put in effort to score in a test, they believe they will get good scores just because they are born smart. Even when they have gotten answers wrong, they won’t bother to find out what went wrong or how to fix it because that will show their disability in being smart. Whereas … Continue reading How to make my child smarter?

Children's learning, UncategorizedLeave a comment

A teacher’s viewpoints of the new PSLE grading system in 2021

Clarice Lim

Many websites have written about it, netizens have criticised it, but of course, some defended it as well. As a teacher of 14 years and a private educator of 3 years, I would like to present the changes and the impact it might have on children, their parents and the industry from a teacher’s point of view. Everyone knows, every child is unique. Each of them have their own learning preferences, cognitive ability and achievement motivation etc. To analyse the new PSLE grading system, I will broadly categorise the children into 3 groups: The High Ability (HA), Middle Ability (MA) and … Continue reading A teacher’s viewpoints of the new PSLE grading system in 2021

Children's learning, EnglishLeave a comment

Why not teach reading?

Clarice Lim

This has to be one of the most common questions asked to me. The answer is quite simple. Research has shown that children who acquire reading skills at an early age did not have an added advantage in reading comprehension later in life. In fact, those who were late readers (e.g. those who started reading fluently at 7 or later), when compared to early readers who started reading at 4 or earlier, caught up and matched the reading abilities of their earlier-reading counterparts within a few years. Some studies had even shown that late readers develop much better comprehension than … Continue reading Why not teach reading?