10 Tips on Preparing Children for Primary One

It has 9+ months since Pei Pei has become a primary school student. I am glad that she has been enjoying her school life, and am thankful that her teachers from her school and student care centre have been very supportive. In Term 3, she was given opportunity to take up leadership role as the class leader. To my surprise, she volunteered herself to take up the role as Chinese class leader, and was elected by her classmates!

Time flies, Hao Hao is also going to primary school in a few months time! After going through the phase of preparing two children for primary school, I had learnt a lot along the way.

1. Handling money 

Take a look at our post on how to teach children counting and handling money. 

On Primary One Orientation Day, do let your children to buy food from the canteen, so that you would be able to observe and guide them if they face difficulties.

Starting from the first day of primary one, I give pocket money on a weekly basis. I learnt from a mum blogger from Mum's the Word on using pill boxes for distribution of pocket money, and bought the boxes from Daiso. For money that was not spend would be placed in the saving can.

Don't say I never warn you, the school bookshop can be a dangerous place! The children may be tempted to buy stationery or stickers or other stuffs! Take time to talk to your children about what they want and what they need.

2. Telling time

Buy a watch for your child, and practise telling time. If you ask me, should you buy analogue or digital watch, I would just an analogue one first. Because they learn about telling time from analogue watch / clock in Kindergarden 2 and Primary 1. Here is how our children learn about telling time.

3. Organising and packing 

Since the children were young, they learnt to put their toys and books back to original place. This develops their skills in sorting and organising. 

As the children have English, mother tongue languages and mathematics worksheets from their preschool, get them to learn filing according to subject.

Packing bag is also a skill to be learnt. Instead of throwing everything into the bag, train the children to organise their stuffs in their bags neatly.

4. Taking care of personal belongings

Take note that pasting name labels on the belongings is just a measure for children not to mix up their belongings with others, and for the belongings to be, hopefully, returned to the children if those are lost. Therefore, it is more important to remind the children to take good care of their belongings, for example, check whether they have taken their belongings before they leave a place.

5. Taking down notes

Teachers write instructions on the board, so there is a need to train the children to take down notes. This develops note-taking skill, which is important for their studies.


6. Learning sight words and high frequency words
Knowing sight words and high frequency words promotes the children's reading comprehension. Take a look at our post on how to teach children sight words and high frequency words.

7. Establishing a routine - work first, play later

After shower and dinner, the children are told to complete their homework or study for spelling or 聽寫 first. And they are promised that once the homeworks are completed, they can play! It becomes a habit after a while, and now the children would automatically do their work first, knowing that they can play after that.


8. Sleep early and wake up early
If your child does not have the habit of sleeping early and waking up early, do start training them early!


9. Dressing up... fast
To prevent mad rush in the morning, train your child to dress up fast! Especially if the uniform has buttons!

10. Essential Things to Get for Primary One
Other than school uniform and textbooks, together with the child, get the following items:

• School bag 
• Pencil case
• Wallet 
• Elastic chain - one side attached to the wallet, the other side clip on to the pocket of shorts or dress / skirt
• Files - one thin A4 size file to put inside the school bag, and some ring files to keep the materials at home
• Labels to write name / Customised name labels
• Small notebook for writing down homework
• Water bottle
• School shoes and socks
• Pencils, erasers, and ruler (we have not bought these yet because they collected a lot from the birthday goodies bags that they received at preschool!)

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• Primary School Registration
• Choosing Student Care Centre
• Handling / Counting Money
• Telling Time
• High Frequency and Sight Words

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Teaching Children High Frequency and Sight Words Playfully

Learning high frequency and sight words helps to promote reading comprehension. In order to help my children to learn about the words without too much pain (I mean, for myself), I thought of using games to make the process more interesting.

When we attended Pei Pei's primary school orientation briefing, we received a list of high frequency and sight words. I typed the words using Microsoft Words, printed them out, and then the children helped to cut the print out into small card size, and put each word into a clear card protector.

Game #1: Snap! 

I turned the stack of cards upside down, and turned the card up one by one. The children have to read out the word and snap the card. The first person who reads correctly and snaps the card gets to keep the card. The winner is the one with the most number of the card at the end of the game.

Game #2: Scavenger hunt

Some cards are placed all over the floor, when I read a word, the children search for the card with that word.

Game #3: Read and search

When we read story books, the children look for the cards with words that appear in the book. 

What activities do you have for teaching children high frequency and sight words?

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• 10 Tips for Preparing Children for Primary One
• Primary School Registration
• Choosing Student Care Centre
• Handling / Counting Money
• Telling Time

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Telling Time for Children

One of the essential skills for primary school children is to tell time. While teaching the children about "o'clock" and "half past" was very easy, I had some difficulties in teaching them how to tell the minutes. 

Some time ago, I saw this printable learning clock with small divisions. The paper hour hand and minutes hand were too flimsy, so I used cardboard. 

For the start, I taught the children multiples of 5. Searching through my craft box, I found a bag of embellishment that was useful for the children to count groups of 5.

   

With the paper clock, there are two activities that we can do:

1. Position the hands of the clock and ask the children to tell the time
2. Tell the children the time and they position the hands of the clock

Of course, practice makes perfect. We have a clock on the wall of our living room, and the children have their watches, we keep asking them, "What is the time now?" 

We are still in the process of learning to tell time in minute e.g. 3.11. What suggestions do you have in teaching children how to tell time? Do share with us!

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• 10 Tips for Preparing Children for Primary One
• Primary School Registration
• Choosing Student Care Centre
• Handling / Counting Money
• High Frequency and Sight Words

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Letter to My Primary-One-to-be Child

Dear Pei Pei,

During your Primary One Orientation, you waved bye-bye to me, and followed your teachers and classmates to the classroom for some bonding activities. I was sitting at the last row in the hall, waving hard to you. I was the one who suffered from separation anxiety. The Principal and teachers were sharing a lot of information about the school, but in my mind, I kept thinking about what you were doing, whether you like the teachers and classmates. And whether you know the way to toilet and not to get lost in the school.

On the same day, it was also your preschool graduation day. You were the first person who delivered the graduation speech. 3 seconds into your speech, I found the taps of my eyes turn on uncontrollably. I was just a bit emotional. I finally accept the fact that you are going to be a Primary One pupil in 1+ month time! It is going to be your new milestone, and it is also a new milestone in my parenting journey.

I am thankful that you have been studying for your spelling and 聽寫 diligently. When we bought your Primary 1 textbooks (with damage of $100+), you start reading the books without us telling you to do so. This is the kind of effort and passion in learning that I hope you continue to have. I don't expect you to score full marks, it is ok to make mistakes, and learn from mistakes. MaMi is happy as long as you are willing to put in effort. 

Many friends asked me why we did not ballot for you to the well-known primary school nearby. There were many considerations (read this post to find out). And now, I am clear of the reason, not just because we were afraid that there would be no more vacancy in other nearby schools if we were not successful in the lucky draw balloting. What is the purpose of primary school education? To achieve high score for PSLE? No. I just wish that you will become an active and independent learner, and most importantly, I wish that you grow up to be a person of good character with positive values. I have met youngsters who excel in their studies, however, they don't even know how to say "Please" or "Thank you".

If you face difficulties in your studies, let MaMi know, ok? Oh, I don't mean I am going to do your homework for you. I hope to be able to stimulate your critical thinking and problem solving skills, and to inspire you to love learning. Yes, that's why I said that it is also a new milestone in my parenting journey, since I have so many things to learn too!

Other than academic studies, I hope that you will find passion in other activities that you enjoy, be it sports, performing arts or others. Study hard, but don't forget to play hard too!

As you are growing, you will find that friendship become an important part of your life. Do get to know more friends, but do stay away from those who hurt you.

Please remind me to read this letter, if one day, I say something like "Why you score only 90% for this test?"

Let's learn and grow together, my dear.

Love,

MaMi

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• 10 Tips for Preparing Children for Primary One
• Primary School Registration
• Choosing Student Care Centre
• Handling / Counting Money
• Telling Time
• High Frequency and Sight Words

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Choosing Student Care Centre

Registration to Primary School, done.

That is not the end of the story.

As we are full-time-working parents without helper, and we do not want to trouble our parents, one big challenge we face is to look for student care service for our children after school hours.

Initially, one of the factors for the choice of primary school was the availability of school-based student care centre. However, after speaking to a supervisor of one of the school-based centres, I realise that it is not on first-come-first-serve basis. Students from low income families or with challenging family situations would have the priority. In addition, the centre can inform the applicants whether the application is successful only by late November. So if our application is not successful, then it would be too late to look for another student care centre, since the few centres near our place may not have any more vacancies.

So we decided to look for student care centres outside the school. Now then I know that there are centres that are community-based, operated by Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWO). I was thankful to find one near the school our child is going to attend. 

Though the fee it charges is higher than the school-based one, the whole centre is air-conditioned, and has bathroom facilities. Being operated by VWO, the students may get to go on outings with organisations that offer community involvement service.

We brought Pei Pei there recently, it seems that she enjoyed her interaction with the teachers and potential classmates. 

Factors for the choice of student care centre for our children:

Proximity from school

Note that the centre may not offer to fetch the child from the school if the school is too far from the centre. Then the parents would have to arrange school bus.

Teachers

Loving and caring teachers are the pillars to a good school / student care centre. 

Environment

Since the children would be doing their school homework there, the classrooms must be bright enough. It is also preferable to have shower facilities, so that the children can freshen up after hours of lessons in school, especially if there is physical education lesson in the morning. 

School Fee

Our wallets are "private limited", not able to afford school fee that is too high.

If you are sending your children to student care centre, what are the factors that affect your choice?

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• 10 Tips for Preparing Children for Primary One
• Primary School Registration
• Handling / Counting Money
• Telling Time
• High Frequency and Sight Words

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Primary School Registration

After reading and hearing so much ravings about primary one registration, we are finally part of registration process this year. It is going to be a new milestone for Pei Pei, and it is also a new milestone for us as parents.

DaDi's primary school is closed down while mine is a distance away from our place. As a full-time-working-mum, I treasure the weekend time with family so I didn't sign up as parent volunteers (ok I admit that I am actually lazy). We do not have any form of affiliation with the primary schools. So we can only register in Phase 2C. (What is "Phase this and that"? Please refer to Ministry of Education's website.)

Initially, we hoped to register our children with the primary school that is a stone throw away (School A). There is a covered walkway that links our block to the school's back gate. This saves time and expense on travelling. Distance is one of the factors in our consideration. Oh, we didn't buy the house because of that school, I wasn't even aware that there was a school nearby when we bought this house! 

But well, so close yet so far.

School A is a very popular school. Even parent volunteers / active community leaders have to ballot  during Phase 2B. So our chance to get a place in Phase 2C is very slim. Friends who know me for a long time would know that I don't have luck in lucky draws.

Of course, you may say, just give it a try. But the problem is, if we don't get balloted, by Phase 2C Supplementary, the next school that is close to our place (School B) may not have a vacancy! Then we have to travel further!

Other than distance, another consideration is the availability of student care centre in the school or near the school. This is essential for us as we are working, and we don't have any help to look after the children after school. I went to visit the student care centre at School B, the supervisor informed me that the priority is given to low income families and those families that are facing difficulties (e.g. single-parent families). Then I went to visit the student care centre just next to School B, it is on first-come-first-serve basis. 

Another consideration in choosing the primary school for my children is, whether the school suits them. As we hope both children study in the same school for convenience sake, we have to consider both of their personalities and interests, though we are registering for the elder one now. I just hope that through primary school education, my children will become confident individuals with good character and have a love for learning.

While I was very tempted to give it a try to ballot for School A, to get an experience of heart attack during the balloting process and hopefully miracle happens, recently the temptation was reduced after I read some parent forum. Ok, again I am too lazy, as some parents would have read the forum at least one year before registration. Parents from School A discuss things like PSLE results, tuition centres and enrichment classes, comparison between results of different classes, and some parents even expressed that they were worried as a teacher was new and "could not produce results". On the other hand, parents from School B mainly share information about administrative matters, and some share that the principal is very nice.

So it seems that for School A, though it is just a stone throw away, we may have to give it a miss.

What are your considerations in choosing primary school for your children?

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• 10 Tips for Preparing Children for Primary One
• Choosing Student Care Centre
• Handling / Counting Money
• Telling Time
• High Frequency and Sight Words

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Preparing for Primary One: Handling / Counting Money

When I heard about the dates for Primary One registration, my first thought was: where is my baby? My firstborn was just a baby not too long ago, and now she is going to be a Primary school student next year! I couldn't believe it! 

After calming down, my next thought was, have we prepared her for this transition? No, no, I don't mean preparing her to do algebra or Newton's Laws of Motion or writing a composition. I am more concerned about essential skills like handling money, reading time, taking down notes. etc.

In this post, I shall share with you how I taught my children how to handle money, and some challenges I faced.

Activity #1. Identifying the denomination of coins and notes

My first challenge: there was a new series of coins which was rolled out last year, the old series and new series have a slight difference in terms of size (I myself had mixed up new 50 cents coin with old 20 cents coin!), so I had to search and collect the two series of coins to carry out this activity.

I taught them to differentiate the coins not only by looking at the sizes, but also to look at the denomination printed on the coin.

Activity #2. Pretend Play

We set up our canteen. Oh well, our canteen for that day sold vegetarian food only. 

In this activity, they learnt about reading price tags, and used the real money to pay. Oh, just notice Hao Hao can count money with his speedy shadow-less hand!

My second challenge: it took me a while to teach them the combination of coins. For example, to pay for something that costs 30 cents, it could be three 10 cents, or one 10 cents plus one 20 cents. 

We started the pretend play with goods ranging from 10 cents to 1 dollar. It was my mistake to be so ambitious. So I reduced the range of prices, and progressively increased the range of prices in the next few pretend play sessions.

My third challenge: 10 cents in Chinese is "一(one)毛". I think I may have caused some confusion by using English and Chinese at the same time. I could have taught them one language, make them familiar first before I use another language.

Activity #3. Real-life application

When we go for shopping, we make effort to teach them to read the price tags. We also hand them some coins to make payment themselves.

I am still working on how to teach calculation of the change. If you have any tips, please share with me ok?

This is our first part of "Preparing for Primary One" series, stay tuned for more sharings!

Our Primary One Preparation Series:

• 10 Tips for Preparing Children for Primary One
• Primary School Registration
• Choosing Student Care Centre
• Telling Time
• High Frequency and Sight Words

Thank you for visiting PeiPei.HaoHao. If you enjoy reading this post, do stay connected with us on Facebook!