Is Your Child Investing his Time in the Right Area?

Most people have the impression that everyone on earth is born to do what most of us excel do well in - academic studies, sports, financial management, parenting, driving, marketing and so on...

Myself included.

But in exact fact, no. Not everyone can become Michael Jordan, presidential scholars and top businessmen of the world and so on...

In Singapore, we have a pretty good education system to help filter out our child's inborn gifts and talents.

Primary school kids that do not fare well in their studies (for whatever reasons - lack of interest, poor memory, questionable family background etc) are filtered into classes of different grades in accordance to their academical performance. Those will special talents are drawing, singing, sports are singled out and special programs are tailored for them.

For example, if a particular child is poor in Mother Tongue language, he or she may get streamed into a Mother Tongue class that have students of similar grades.

And if he or she is strong in subjects like Maths and Science, the child will get assigned to higher grade Maths and Science classes where students share the same level of affinity towards those subjects.

It is actually NOT a bad thing if we consider the fact that teachers are better able to take care of ALL students that need help in a certain subject in one fell swoop. And students who are already faring well in certain subjects get to learn more advanced topics in a different class.

My primary 4 kiddo is pretty weak in his Mother Tongue language - it can be painfully embarrassing to hear him speak Chinese at times. It is pretty obvious to me at this stage that his affinity towards the Chinese language is almost non-existent and I have decided not invest more of his time into leveling up his affinity towards it.

Since the starting of this year, he has been "investing" most of his time towards his strong subjects and I could see marked improvement across all other subjects.

As for Chinese, he got just a passing grade which is already a blessing in itself. :)

Honestly, such time arrangement and investment is perfect for me, at least my kiddo will waste his time flogging a dead horse.

My kiddo has strong talents Maths and Science and his ambition (for now) is to be either a scientist or astronaut.

Fortunately, his poor affinity towards the Chinese language will not hinder his ambition to become either one. I hope.