WHAT IS “NECESSARY”?
For our family, tuition is necessary when my children are unable to attain the results they want in spite of their best efforts. Perhaps they lack the correct answering skills, or have some serious misunderstandings that they simply cannot clear up with help from their school teachers.
I’d also say tuition is necessary when my husband and I are, for whatever reason, unable to give our children the guidance or support they need.
Chinese language is one such subject in our home. I encourage my children to embrace this mother tongue subject and even to learn it at a higher level if they can, but that doesn’t remove the tough practical aspects of learning a language we don’t use regularly at home.
We started off with group Chinese language classes for my oldest three children when they were in preschool. Today, my oldest son – who is taking his Primary School Leaving Examination later this year – is keeping up with Chinese tuition.
My second son has been doing alternate years of Chinese tuition, oscillating between stubborn refusal to commit to extra classes and desperation whenever he sees his grades slip. He has opted to wing it this term and wants to revisit the decision at the half-year point.
My oldest daughter who has just entered Primary 1 has stopped extra Chinese classes as well and is adamant on not taking any this year. Instead, she has agreed to do more practices with me twice weekly at home. We will see how this year unfolds and review accordingly.
My five-year-old hasn’t yet attended a single Chinese tuition class, but I plan on starting her at some point soon. It is not quite to give her a boost, but rather to prepare her so that she won’t be utterly shell-shocked upon starting Primary 1, considering that we don’t speak much of the language at home.
My two-year-old? No time for tuition of any kind. She’s just so busy being cute.
For now, other academic subjects seem to be manageable for my older children without extra tuition, so I’m happy to leave them be. (Admittedly, so is my wallet.)
