The Pre-Primary 1 Parents Must-Have:
The P1 Parents’ Survival Guide to Primary School
Survival Tip 5: Areas to take note of regarding primary school
To make the transition to primary school easier for your child, you may want to take note of the following areas and prepare your child in advance:
- Pocket money: Teach them how to take care of their money. Teach them how to count money. Bring your child along when you go grocery shopping. Discuss with them the cost of the items. Let them buy and pay for some items. For school, give them a bit more than enough money to buy food and drinks and yet have some money to save. Teach them the importance of saving. Discuss with them whether it will be better to give them money on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. This will also depend on how mature and responsible they are.
- Payments in school: For payments to be made to school, if the amount is small, put the money in a ziplock bag. For bigger amounts of money, it will be better to prepare cheques instead of cash for your child to hand in to teachers.
- Buying food in the school canteen: Prepare them by getting them to buy food themselves at the food courts, coffee shops or hawker centres. Teach them how to queue properly, how to ask for the price, and how to receive change. Also teach them good etiquette like not spilling their food, not talking when their mouths are full and to return their utensils to the tray return point.
- Making friends: Share with them good social skills so that they can make friends easily. Encourage them to be kind to others and to be a good listener. It’ll be easier for them to adjust to primary school life when they can make friends quickly. With friends, they can eat and play together during recess and also explore the school grounds together.
- Health and hygiene: Primary school may not be as strict as preschool in term of health and hygiene policy. Remind your child to wash his hands after toilet breaks, PE lessons and before eating and drinking.
- Handbook/ notebook: Most schools will get their students to buy the school handbook. If the school do not have their custom-made handbook, prepare a notebook for your child to record all the important things the teacher wants them to note.
- Contacting parents: Get them to write down your spouse and your phone numbers in the school handbook/ notebook. Thus, if there is a need, they can contact you and they will feel more secure.
- Train them to be independent: It is important to teach them skills so that they can be independent. Assure them that they will do well in primary school. Always listen to them when they share with you about schools. Don’t be too fast to judge or even give advice. Get them to talk and think about solutions on their own.
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