Any problem in this kind of life?

bk2005

I have 2 children studying in kindergarten. They have school in morning and attend some extra-curriculum activities (or sleep for a while) in afternoon. We have dinner from 7:00 - 8:00. Then,
1 hr for elder child to play piano
0.5 hr for little child to play piano
0.5 hr for doing elder child's homework
0.5 hr for doing little child's homework
0.5 hr for reading book
(sometimes take addition 0.5-1 hr if there is additional assignment from school)

Usually, it is around 11:00 or 11:30 when all the above tasks are finished. Is there any problem in this kind of life?

bau

What problem do you think you have?

If you are not using the time for practising piano or reading book, what other things you expect you will do instead of this? watching TV, playing toys ????

Reading is very good to the kids especially they are interest in it and they will be happy if the parents can read the books to them.

Playing piano also can train up the kids and will become a good hobby for them and help them to relax when they grow up and facing difficulties.

I can't see any problem in your mentioned message and I believe you found very tired yourself in playing the assisting role but trust me, no pain no gain.

But if your kids are relunctant to play the piano and read the books, you should find another activities they like and have fun with them rather than forcing them to follow what your own wish.

WYmom

I think it is too late for the kids to sleep at 11-11:30pm.  Kids should be able to finish practising piano earlier before dinner.

Justin2002

Depends on how many hours of sleep each have every day!  I believe the younger the child, the more the number of hours of sleep he/she needs.  

I don't treat practising piano everyday is a must, no mention an hour for a kindergarten child.  Piano is for interests as long as he feels comfortable, he will play even you do not ask him to do so.

Reading is, on another hand, always a healthy habit but should not do so only when the parents are there.

My own experience told me that children need some 'day-dream' time and needless to say, play-time (with brothers/sisters) as well!

Just some sharing.

Justin2002

bk2005

Thank you for your response.

1. When I was a child, I had spare time to do what I wanted. However, it seems that I already arrange all the tasks in the chidlren's schedule. Children only know to follow the schedule. Is it not so good?

2. Can they afford the workload in Primary?

3. I am willing to contribute my time but I have doubt whether each parent have fews hours to accomplish with children everyday. I am afraid that my children will be too dependent on parent.

麟媽媽

我覺得夜左D。
幼稚園既功課好簡單，
可以叫小朋友下晝自己做，
如果佢地習慣了媽咪陪做的話，
上到小學自理能力變得不夠了。
而且我見你是每人半小時的，
何不一齊做，那兩人都能在半小時內完成。

練琴都一樣，其實咁細要佢練一個鐘好辛苦，
我鐘意訓練兒子自己分配時間的，
下晝自己先練一段時間，飯後叫佢覆琴你聽，
如果佢習慣自理時間，將來上小學大家都舒服d。

bk2005

Most of the kindergarten homework are writing, i.e English, Chinese and numbers. It is my intention to do such homework with them so that they can be trained up to have good writing.

For practising piano, my elder child is going to take exam very soon. It really takes more than an hour if she go through all the scale practice and songs for 5 times.

ingrid-mama

Dear bk2005

I am afraid it is too late for them to go to sleep.

By the way, you have 2 kids, maybe you need to spend much time for them.  But try your best to let them go to sleep earlier which is good for their health & brain.

WYmom

If the kids are only in kindergarten and still have a schedule like that, can't imagine how you manage them in primary years.

My 2 kids, one in upper primary, one in kinder.  Both can finish their homework and activities by themselves, parents just spend 1 hour time with them on reading.  They sleep at 9 - 9:30 pm everyday.  I don't allow TV time on weekdays.

ChiChiPaPa

Bk2005,

This is a good topic for discussion: What kind of life do you want? What kind of life do your kids want? Definitely, we can exchange our views and learn from each other.

I don't think that there is a problem in your arrangements. In general, 8-10 hours of sleeping are required by kids. However, the actual amount of sleeping needed by each kid is different. You only have to observe whether your kids feel tired in day-time so as to decide when they have to go to bed.

It's only a matter of priority in allocating time to kids' different needs in their growth, including rests, education and training. Different people have different preferences and values.

To me, I believe that judgement and human skills are the most important skills, even if they are developed at an expense of school marks and academic knowledge. My daughter has the final say to decide what to learn and how to use her time. Group activities, including games and various gatherings, are usually given a higher priority than reading and piano learning.

TWMa

一般的抄寫、數學及練琴等應可於下午自行完成, 媽媽回家後可用洗澡和吃飯時間親子一番, 飯後可要求他們再複一次琴給你聽, 然後看看他們有沒有不會做的功課, 已完成的功課是否正確, 字體是否端正, 有無鬼畫符, 最後用一點點時間溫故知新.
充足的睡眠才有好腦力, 幼稚園已需那麼晚睡, 小學要幾點睡呢?

bau

Let's share my girl's schedule.

She is in K2 and everyday she wakes up at 7:30am and catch the minibus to school. Her schools is close to my moms' home and she will pick up by the maid to my moms' house and stay there till I back to take her home after work.


When she back home, she has the lunch and then go to sleep for around two hours, then wake up and do the homework, usually 2 each day and can finish within half hour (if she concentrates). She attend some activities during week days but not every day, if no activites, she will play herself because she is the only child and I am a working mom and she stays with my mom and my maid. As I know, my maid is busy in doing the housework and my mom is not always giving her response but she enjoys playing with the toys (I think sometimes she feels lonely).

Attending the activities not only let her learn extra things but gives her opportunity to play with other kids and makes friends too.

She sometimes watch TV after doing homework and then she has the dinner at aroung 6pm (cook for her only) and will later have the shower.

I will back home at around 7pm and she will be happy to have someone to talk to during dinner hours as my sisters and her cousin will be back for dinner.

After dinner, I will take her to the piano company and have practising for half an hour (she has a lesson on Wed night too) and will then take the mini bus home.

We usually arrive home before 9:30 and she will change the clothes by herself and then takes out the book to read (actually she cannot read but see the pictures).

Usually we will go to bad at 10:45 but I need to read the story before sleeping and will then recite some poems before sleeping. She insists doing all these before sleeping and she will cry if I miss any one of it.

She enjoys reading very much and everytime when I am busy in doing houseworks or having the bath, she will takes out the books and read (actually she can't read but she loves open the book and see the pictures). But if I turn on the TV, she absolutely will choose watching TV so I only let her watch TV on weekend and Sun.

On both Sat and Sun, she has two activities too so she is rather busy but she said she loves them.

I believe the most important of all is to raise the interest of the kids and they will love to read and learn and won't  treated it as the work.

I know it is better for the kids to sleep early but as working mom, it is quite difficult to have time to do the revision for her or communicate with her is hse sleeps early especially when she attend primary, so I let her to take the nap during afternoon and hope
she has enough sleep after this compensation.

hhma

我都覺得夜左d啦.
我大仔小三, 10點訓, 細仔小一, 9:15已經訓架啦
如果你d小朋友有得訓下午覺, 就好小小.  否則真係太夜啦

bk2005

bau,

My case  is similar to yours. That's why you say there is no problem in my case. However,I am afraid that she will not have sufficient rest time after she promotes to full day P.1.

ChiChiPaPa,
I just want my children to have a happy life. My only requirement to them is to make effort in completing their responsible tasks. The result, e.g. academic rank or marks, are not important to me.

smalle

Agreed with 麟媽媽.

另, 要訓練唔好睡午覺, 比較好d(個人意見)

ChiChiPaPa

BK2005,

我的女兒讀小二，她亦是11時才睡。她是和朋友玩、和弟弟玩、看電視以及睇故事書，到想睡才睡。她現在又正和一班同屋苑的小朋友在家裡玩，很是吵耳。

不過，我得告訴妳，她的學校做了一個survey。其中一個結論是數學成績好的學生多是早睡的。小一、二的學生應該9:30pm就準備上床。妳真的只要妳的孩子盡責完成她的task到11時，而不計較她的成績。妳真的可以做到嗎？

8AMRSCHAN

bk2005,

i have 2 kids, they also study in KG morning session.
after lunch, elder does his hw for 20 mins, younger son does not have hw yet.
in the afternoon, they sleep 1-1.5 hr
we also have dinner around 7-7:45
then 8-8:30 story time
8:30-9 we play some games like matching card or extra exercises for elder son
they go to bed at 9:15


so, i suggest u:
1. start dinner earlier 6:45-7:30)
2. shorten the piano time to 30-45 mins
3. when elder child plays piano, can younger child do his hw? and then swop? (7:30-8:15)
4. also spend 0.5 hr for story telling (8:15-8:45)

Then your child can go to bed aroud 9.
what do u think?

jk67jk

bk2005,

If your children sleeps at 11:00 p.m., and they can wake up naturally in the morning, with no struggle; and you do not see them seems tired during the day, then they might have enough sleep.  Moreover, when they can have 1 - 2 hours of afternoon nap, it is already much better.

Some children do not need to sleep the normal hours like others in the same age group, but ... of course if they can sleep earlier, sleep more is better to their health.   The other reason is, when they go to primary school, no more afternoon nap.   As they have accustomed to sleeping late, it is not easy to adjust the "go to bed" time when they are older.   You might try to put them to bed at 10:30 p.m., ...then 10:00 p.m.

A child that can go to bed at 9:00 p.m. or earlier is too good and rare in HK.   I can accept sleeping at 10:00 p.m. (according to how he behaves in the morning).

As I sometimes can only be back home at 9:00 p.m., my child want to talk and play with me for a while.  So, it's too harsh to make him sleep too early ----  missing his mom!

bau

I think the problem of the kids sleeping late is mostly due to the working of the mom, if mom is a housewife, I think there is no reason for him to sleep so late even in primary.

My sister's son is study in P5 and he stills sleep before 10pm because he can do all his revision and homework before dinnere time and my sister is a working mom too, her son attend the tutorial class after school and even have time to play with other friends there when they finish HW and revision. Using too much time in revision and doing HW is not sure getting good result. Just let them love learning and don't think it is harsh is a way to get good result.

BTW, if you find your sons having not enough rest, even you put more time in practising or revision, this is useless and will only harm their health.