On the other end of the scale, I have witnessed how some children excel time and again, scoring more than satisfactory results during their PSLE. Too early to test them and judge them, we say? Perhaps it is really so, but we cannot change the fact that they will have to sit for the dreaded four-lettered (no, not the swear-word!) examination when they reach the end of their primary school education.
I had thought long and hard about it, and have decided to take it upon myself to create readers in my children. It is true that children are inquisitive. Look at my younger princess - even when she cannot comprehend what is written in the books, she sits at the table or on the floor to browse through the books that once belonged to her elder siblings.
I have planned a multi-pronged approach to achieving my goal. My children, like most others, love watching television programmes. Before anyone judges us and lament that 'too much television is not good for children', especially at their tender age, I had thought of capitalising their 'love' to maximum effect. We let them enjoy their dose of cartoon shows on Playhouse Disney (not a lot nowadays, since they are away in play-school most of the weekdays), rather than soap operas or drama serials where they may not learn anything from at their age.
I have converted myself into an avid fan of the channel and its shows when they are around too. I have to say that I have learnt a few things from the programmes! Other than that channel, we have invested quite heavily earlier on quite a few Hi-5!, Barney and other types of education CDs to entertain them, sometimes during the weekends.
You might have seen the pictures of the books I had taken earlier. Then again, there could be books which are bought, but left as 'white elephants'. I take it upon myself to read with at least my elder two children now when I am at home, to read with them before I put them to sleep. Rachel and Felix enjoy reading, no doubt about that. They will always ask to read a book before they hit the sack, and frown when we tell them that it is too late.
From time to time, when Rachel and Felix come across print on signages, they will read them aloud. I help them with the ones they do not know and ask them to spell words that I think children at their age can handle. The last I counted, Felix can spell quite an impressive amount of words. In fact, he showed me that he has better concentration and memory by beating his elder sister to mastering spelling of words 'one' to 'ten' and understanding that rhymes mean spellings are similar (for example: he mastered spelling the word 'eight' quite fast, and remembered well when I told him that 'night' is spelt similarly).
My latest approach deals with phonics and phonetic awareness using word blends. Not being 'trained' in phonics, this is not easy. Thankfully, their play-school teachers have been doing their fair share to teach our children and I add in my part on blends. I am working on simple ending blends at the moment and it seems to work out well. The A5 pieces of recycled paper are used to write some blends and pasted onto the frames of their bed. Rachel and Felix will blabber off at the words before they go to bed after reading. That has, thankfully, reinforced their pronunciation and learning.
My next target will be to start getting Rachel to read the newspapers with me. Her current year's teacher at the play-school does that with her former students (I have seen her do that) and has announced to Rachel, "You have to start reading newspapers." The coming years will show if all my efforts will bear fruit. My fingers are crossed!
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