Kay Kay First Day of School in P1

Date:  Jan 6, 2015

We have been waiting for this day for so long.  Finally, Kay Kay has entered Primary 1.

There is no problem for him to wake up at 6am on the first day, because we slept 8pm the day before.  

By 6:10am, he already brushed up and eating his breakfast.

It shall become a daily (on weekday) routine for him.

No problem wearing his own socks and shoes.

I think the bus air con will be a bit cold, so, we let him wear a jacket to school.

He is quite small build.  So, we keep reminding him to eat more, to grow taller and fatter (not like his brother, moderate will do).

Especially when he put on his bag at his back.  The bag is almost 1/2 of his weight may be (or lesser, 1/3).  So, when you got pushed by people it is easy to fall down.

Here is a nice shot with his brother, Jay Jay.  Jay Jay will protect Kay Kay in school for the next 3 years.  But it is unlikely they will see each other during recess as the timing is different.  But to go to school together with his brother is one of the things he is looking forward to.

Here come the bus.  This is Kay Kay’s first time taking School Bus to school. 

After picking up the boys, the school bus goes directly to school.  So, Kay Kay will be in school quite early.  So, he has plenty of time to do some reading.

More students gradually came.  He is a bit shy on the first day.  So, you can imagine me and his brother trying at home to teach him how to break the ice with other classmates.  “I am Kay, what’s your name?” or “My name is Kay, what’s yours?”.  “Where do you stay?” “ Do you take bus to school?”  “ Which pre-school do you go to?”  It is great tactic and he actually follows.  The second days onwards, he comes home and tell story about “Grace” and “Wayne” whom he makes friend with.

Kay is still shy talking to classmates.  But he tries chatting with teachers.  A good sign.

Then. parents attending the talk on P1 matters, etc.  

And he survived the first day.  With no problem.  Very excited.  A bit too shy to talk to classmates.  Give him some times, he will become the same Kay we knew in K2.

A very happy kid coming back from the school bus.

Very happy indeed.  The first day of his P1.  He is going to spent the next 6 years here.

Day 2.

So, same routine.  Read books and wait for others to come.

Jay and his prefects friends all have been tasked to look after the P1 during assembly time.  Make sure every one take out books and read.

In fact, there will be 4 prefects (Brayden not in photo), Jay, Lukas and Aiden who will be looking after Kay Kay in school.  These are his playmates since Lorna Whiston day.

Day 2, Kay is still shy in front of his classmates.  But he is starting to get more familiar with the teacher.

National songs and pledges.

Time out, so, need to talk to him and encourage him to interact more with other classmates.

And there he goes along with his class back to their class room.  May the force be with you!

Well, I said it way too early.  An incident happened.

Kay was playing with a P1 girl from another class at the Bus waiting area.  The girl keep pulling his bag, and he asked the girl not to do that.  And the girl not happy and kick his leg.  And the next thing you know, he fell down to the floor face down.  And hurt his nose, and cause some nose bleed.  Poor kid.

Jay uses a slightly strong word, i.e. “bully”.  But I think we have to teach the kid the right way of dealing with this.

1) He was playing with the girl.  So, they were playing and accident might happen.

2) Some students they need to learn,  If you ask them to stop and they do not listen, they need time to learn how to listen.

3) Especially when Kay fell down, and the girl saw the nose bleed.  Imagine how the girl feels.  She might feel terrible.  So, she might not foresee this happening, but I am sure it scare her a lot seeing the blood.  It might have a chance that the girl will never do this again, and will treat him well.

4) Teacher came and sort out the matters.  And teacher has already recorded down the other student (the girl’s name).  So, adults know about it.

5) Students will need to sort this out among themselves too.

6) The girl still take the same school bus every day, so, Kay will still see the girl.  So, I asked Kay to say Hi the next day when he sees her.  And encourage her to continue to play with her.  Tell him that accident happens.

7)  And I communicate with the form teacher, and asked the form teacher to talk to Kay as well to award him a “star”.

So, Kay received a medal +1 point for Bravery.  Thanks Mrs. Woon for awarding him that.

So you can imagine his face when he reads the word “Bravery”.  Makes him proud too.

He is so happy although the bruises actually take form today.  Become darker colour.   

Some more can teach people to play chopstick in his Taekwondo class.  Hahaha

After yesterday incident, already recover become happy boy.

Oh ya… we received Kay’s year book.  You can tell he is very happy kid.  Enjoy!

Word Bank Book (WBB)

Date:  Apr 25, 2013

Jay Jay has a "Word Bank Book".

This is a book where he will have to write down the words that he just learned.

This is an good idea from the school.  Jay Jay now has to write compositions.  Teacher will give him a topic to write, and he has to write many sentences about the topic.  So, today topic is "My Adopted Pet".  So, he wanted to write about his cat, Molly can "catch" lizard.  So, he asked me how to spell "catch" and "lizard".  Then, he will first write it down into his Word Bank Book, and then, he start to refer to the word bank book to write his composition.

You can tell the kid has grown up after two terms spent in the P1.  Good Job Jay Jay, keep up the good work!

The Singapore Model Method for Learning Mathematics

Date:  Mar 4, 2013

Call me a Kia-su Parent, I don't care!  But what I care is, when your kid bring a simple math question (or is it an English question about math) to you and you are not able to solve it using the correct Singapore way.  What will you do?  Will it be too late to learn the correct math?

Welcome to the world of "Model Method" for learning Mathematics.  :)

From time to time, my ex-colleagues will pass me some math questions for their primary kids and hope that I, "the Engineer" can solve it.  Well, the truth is, when I see the question, it is very simple question.  But when you try to solve it, by nature, from what we learned 30 years ago… we used Algebra to solve it. In fact, most of the questions took me more than 10 minutes to solve.

Wait now, we are talking about primary school children, so, how on earth that they know about Algebra in Primary school?  

Well, Singapore's answer is the "Model Method".  A very powerful visual method to help solve complicated math question for Primary School students.

I know Jay Jay is only Primary 1 this year.  And they only learn about Model method in P3 onwards.  But you know me, I have strong interest to learn and explore "Model Method" and there I go...

To sign on a one day short seminar about Model Method.  From http://OnSponge.com

(Note:  You don't really have to pay money to go for this seminar, some school do provide this free or as low as $2 with free food.)

The reason I went is because one of my friend went there, and she think it is good. 

Also, these are the people who write math books for schools here in Singapore.  Only sell it in school's book store I heard.  So, can't be wrong right?

I bought this book after the lesson so that I can practise 3 questions a week.  So, by the time Jay Jay reached P3, his daddy will be or should be able to solve any kind of math questions using the Model method. kekeke

OK.  Let's do one simple question so that we can have a quick peep on what is Model Method.

Question:  There were 320 more red marbles than blue marbles in a bag.  If 30 red marbles were removed and 80 blue marbles were added, there were thrice as many red marbles as blue marbles in the bag.  How many marbles were there in the bag???

To solve this question, one has to be GOOD in ENGLISH.

Also, one has to be able to brackets or highlights the different condition.

Once you have understand the question.  It is time to draw the model.  

So, there are 320 more red marbles than the blue one.  So, you draw two blocks, one for red and the other for blue.

Stacks both blocks together.  And then, the red one should have 320 more marbles.  So, you indicate "320" in the additional block for red.  At this stage, you don't know how many blue marbles, or whether it is more than 320 or lesser.  So the SIZE of block is not important.  So, don't worry about the proportion of the blocks.

Now, some thing has happened.  So, you drew the same model diagram below and call it "IF (this happen)".

So, what has happened?  IF 30 red one were removed…. So, you SHADE the small block and label it 30.  Whenever you SHADE the block, that means, you have remove that number of block from the red one.  In our example, 30 red one is removed.

Very important tip is to use pencil to draw the model.  Because from time to time, you will need to erase the block and redraw so that it is nicer and easy to understand.

Next, 80 blue marbles are added.  So, you draw a small incremental block beside the blue block.  In our case, label "80" on it.  This is to indicate that you added 80 blue marbles.

Next step.  "EQUAL PARTS".  So, if you add 80 down at the blue block.  You EXTEND a line in the red block.  Then, fill in "80".  This is call to EQUAL the PARTS.

Now, you now that the additional block beside the red original unlabelled block has a TOTAL of 320.  So, that makes the remaining parts to be 210.  i.e. 320 - 30 - 80 = 210.

Lastly, "There are thrice as many red marbles as blue marbles at the end.  So, the total red block represents 3 UNITS compare to 1 UNIT of blue block.  

So, the remaining 2 units is actually 210.  Can you see it?  The original 1u blue + 80 = 1 unit of blue.  So, the total red now becomes three times of this 1 unit of blue.  So, that makes 210 equal to 2 unit of blue.  So, solving the 2 unit of blue will tell you what is a single unit.

As you can see … the confusing part is the size of the block of 210 is almost equal to size of 80.  And the 1u size is greater than these 80 and 210 blocks.  So, that is why proportions are not important.  The key important concept is that you know how to visualise the model diagram and solve the puzzle.

Once you can see 2 units of blue equal 210.  You can easily solve the math question.

The truth is, when I first read the questions, I got stuck there for almost 2-3 minutes with my mind blank.  But after the trainer explain how you solve it, I am like understand a bit here and there.

Then, when I continue the next 15 questions in different categories, again, each question is like a new question to me.  So, it is not easy.  And I am glad that I went to course to learn this.

At least, it gives me an idea what I am facing in next two years.  And it also gives me the preparation I need to teach my Jay Jay the correct math.  So, it is important to teach them to think how to solve it using model diagram.  No longer you need to memorise formulas or solve complicated algebra.  By using some block diagrams, you are able to solve these math questions.

It is a big WOW for me, but I enjoyed every single questions and every single challenge.

This is another good book where the trainer heard it is good.  This is for P1.