All in a day's work... (or not!)

So I have been dead quiet recently on the blogging front besides some giveaways. The main reason is that P3 has taken a toll on both me and the kiddo where I sort of lost my blogging mojo with the larger scheme of things.

In January this year, I attended a Parent Teacher Briefing with the hubs where we saw the kiddo’s new form teacher for the first time as she was with the same teachers and classmates for the past 2 years. The new form teacher shared on what they will be doing for each of the subjects and *dang dang dang dang* the amount of daily homework.

The homework load was something which I have heard about from well meaning friends but experiencing it, trying to manage the kiddo’s schedule and encouraging her to attempt the work properly is an entirely different matter.

We were told that MOE’s guideline is that the kids’ homework (at this level) does not exceed 1.5 hours at this stage. On the average, if the kiddo has homework for 2 subjects daily, it will come up to 1.5 hours as she’s still learning to focus on the task at hand (read: taking longer than usual to clear!). Added to the fact that I am anal about vision breaks, the work sometimes can take more than 2 hours for her, with 3 subjects. Plus, our engines were a tad cold when we started the year; everything has been slow to start. It has been trying and I have been doing remote control parenting – calling to ensure that she’s started on her work. This is because if the work is not completed before I get home, it will be a mindless mad rush when I get home!  

Now that we are into week 9 with last week being a tad mad with all the CAs (for all 4 subjects), I think we both have finally settled into our new routine (without me having to nag much. Phew!)

Here’s sharing some tips which work for us:

• Have an hour break after school for some R&R plus lunch time before attempting to clear any work
• Getting the kid to list down all the items she needs to complete and then crossing them out when she’s done (it gives her immense satisfaction to cross them off the list too)
• On this note, my earlier challenge is that she does not have a habit of listing down the homework in her daily journal. *sweat* So there were instances where she completely forgotten about some. So I started some reward programme for her to record her homework and being a stationery lover, here's what I bought as some of the "rewards":

• For the kiddo, her focus and energy wane a bit after some time so I always get her to work on the “harder” stuff first
• Get your kiddo to place a clock / watch on the table so that he/she is able to manage his/her time better. This is also where I have been getting her to set targets for herself to finish by a certain time. This is our clock LOL 

• Vision breaks after 45 mins for at least 15 mins. During this time, she’d make / take a drink, call me, head for bath room breaks, etc. before she starts the next task.

Having said that, with some new classes she has decided to take on, this also means that we needed to work out a new weekend schedule but it has been a good balance of sports versus interest versus work so far.

How’s your kiddo coping with the new academic year?