Learning from the best during Secondary School Open House @ Primary 6

Remember we went for secondary school open house last year November when DinoBoy was in Primary 5?  If not, you can read it here.

Singapore Secondary schools host their open house in April/May and October/November every year, click here to see Open House Dates of Secondary Schools 2018.

Since we missed out April/May open house last year, I was determined not to miss them this year, especially for the school that DinoBoy set his mind on since Primary 1.  

With our experience last year we did not attend the Principal's Talk in both schools coz it's a bit dry and boring we already have specific target/aim in mind - to feel the vibes of the school and it's environment thus we start off with a school tour led by the students.   After that we made a bee line to where the action and activities were; the school hall or field for various clubs and uniformed group simmersion.

We do not encourage you to follow our footsteps, we skipped the talk because we weren't interested in understanding or knowing about the school, their achievements, the curriculum they are offering etc.  We had gather all these information either through word of mouth or on their website, some schools also have goodie bags for every one who comes to their open house where they will have such information in it too.

Like before, I let DinoBoy take the lead to walk around the school to see things that attracts him, trying to gain more understanding of the CCA through interactive and hands on activities.  Besides playing a couple of Chinese chest games (again! lol), checked out the Science and Robotics club he tried his hands on some "manly" sports such as shooting and fencing, got to know a bit more about NCC or National Cadet Corps which he did not have a chance to do so last year.  It was an eye opening experience for him.

This school has a showcase filled with items about our late Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

Wushu or martial art is DinoBoy's passion, even though this is not a niche for this school but he decided to check it out.  He did some tumbling, kicks, flips with the other boys under the instruction and guidance from the older boys and their coaches.  This is the first time I see him do those stunning wushu stuffs and I am impressed! 

I was curious about the daily schedule of students who got into the school through wushu Direct School Admission or DSA so I had a chat with the teacher in charge.  She shared that on top of the regular CCA days these students have extra training on a few certain mornings (I forgot how many days) just before the school starts.  Wow~ sure more hard work for these students.  

PS : I am not going to touch on DSA, you can click the link I provided above to read more detail about it.

DinoBoy felt wonderful after this try out, he learned something new that day and did some new stunts too.  I hope he will be able to continue pursue this passion when he is in secondary school.

WAH! He can jump so high!

Important : Information on changes to the DSA announced in March 2017 can be found here.

Learning from the best

This seems like a usual open house visitation day as before but something happened that made this an extraordinary experience.

When we reached the hall, I left DinoBoy and started to wander around the area before finding him at the same spot a while later, chatting with some students.  When I approached them, one of the boys turned to me and said "Madam, actually you don't push your son so hard.  Ya, he has to revise his work daily but he also gotta have time to rest too.  Don't stress him to much otherwise he may not do well in PSLE."

Well said boy!  

Curious by the boy's remarks, I asked DinoBoy later what were he and the boys discussing, he replied "Nothing much, just some chatting", casually mentioned that he asked them the following questions before reiterating their conversation.

How did you study to get into this school?  Was it by grades or DSA?

That small episode may seem like a normal conversation between kids but it revealed something else to me.

Raising an independent son means he gets to decide on many things, especially when the decisions are about him, so far DinoBoy has always shown us that he is clear and confident on taking such responsibilities.

The conversation with the boys showed me that DinoBoy has matured a little bit more in his thinking and planning skill.  By gathering information from those Secondary school boys who had walked the PSLE path before him, he can better plan his studying techniques and tactics. 

I believe these boys had changed his mindset too because during the June school holiday, he did not utter a single word of protest, whined or gave any excuse when I threw him past years test papers and assessment books for revision.  He diligently did the correction by copying the model answers, he even did 2 Chinese composition and let his teachers go through (I will share this in a later post).  We got a lot of work done during that month and both of us have a sense of achievement, it was the only school holiday that we didn't feel that it went to total waste.

School has started for 3 weeks, school work has piled up and we only managed to read 2 Chinese model composition passage but its better than not able to do anything. 

With 2 weeks left till Prelim Oral, I feel my anxiety kicking in, I am trying to stay as calm as a cat but it is getting difficult to control it.  I didn't want to transfer these anxiety to DinoBoy because we know he is feeling very stressed up as the exam day draws nearer.

With my heart in my mouth I will bravely fight on with DinoBoy till we slayed this PSLE demon and emerged in victory!