Parent Volunteer Experience- Suncatcher Workshop

 The Parent Support Group wanted to start some interesting activities for the P6 students who have finished their PSLE and one of the workshops they were organizing is a suncatcher making workshop.

Since I was free, I decided to go volunteer lor.

The process of making the suncatcher was a relatively simple one...

First you get a old CD that you do not want to use anymore and punch a hole in the CD using a hole puncher.

Then, you paste scotch tape on it and quickly tear it away to tear away all the printing on the CD. However, some CDs are easier to tear than others. There are some whose printing is so fixed that you cannot tear it away... so you need to experiment for this.

Then leh, you can either trace a design or come up with your own design and you draw out the outline using permanent marker.

Next, you use watered down acrylic paint and gold glitter to decorate.

Then you can put some beads through a string and tie them on the hole you punched.

That's it!

Helping out as a volunteer, I noticed some things about the kids that I find rather interesting....

1. Kids These Days Are Not Very Hands On
   These kids are all 12 years old but many of them needed help with tying knots. One even said he could not put the thread through the beads. I guess kids these days dun use their hands very much and so their fine motor skills are not that good.
   
2. Everyone Loves Glitter!
   Including the boys! When we took out the glitter, it got passed around and the whole bottle finished rather quickly!
   
3. Kids Just Need Encouragement
   While most of the kids are enthusiastic about this workshop, there are some who give up really easily. After they try once or twice, and they cannot do something, they will declare.. 'I cannot do this... " and break the CD into two.
   
   So I went to the boy and told him, "You can do it. It is simple.. see, other people are doing it too. Come, I teach you how to do it." And then I demo to him how to do it and then with lots of encouragement from the Parent Volunteers and his classmates, he finally completed it!:)
   
   PS: I was told one boy said that he would rather do PSLE everyday than workshops like these:) hahahaha...
   
4. Girls Tend To Be More Careful
   When they were painting the CD. It is quite easy to colour too much and so I reminded them not to put on too thick a coat of paint because then their sun catcher will not be able to catch any sun if it is opaque:) And most of the girls are just more careful and will do things like layer bit by bit.. and remember to leave transparent parts... But the boys will be happy to slap on LOTS OF COLOURS:) hahahahaha...
   
5. Children These Days Are Not Strong In General Knowledge
   Hahahaha.. It's true! We only provided primary colours and white... and so when they wanted a different colour, they did not know to mix colours and needed to ask me. Even when I prompted them that if they wanted purple, make a guess what two colours they can mix? Most of them dunno the answer! But I thought this is common sense and is general knowledge a 12 year old should know lor...
   
   
6. Every Adult Is Cher To Them
   Even though they know we are parent volunteers.. they all will call us Cher.. "Cher, can do this or not.." "Cher, can help me with this?"
   
   
7. There Is Something Called The "PSLE Pencil Case"
   I noticed that everyone using like the same see through pencil case and asked them why they all have the same pencil case and one boy told me this is their PSLE pencil case. I am a little shocked that now they have synchronized pencil cases.. hahaha.. and when I told Max.. he asked why there is a need for it.. I made a guess that perhaps they had a fixed list to tell the children what to bring for exam and Max was like, "Sure or not.. so big liao still dunno wat to bring for exam?" And then I found out later that the PSLE pencil case is applied throughout the whole of Singapore as they are only allowed see through pencil cases to ensure that there is no cheating.

Being a parent volunteer also meant we got to see the teachers in actions. I know I shouldnt be judgemental and I understand it is not easy to be a teacher in Singapore and understand that there are cultural differences. But I was a little shocked when a teacher went up to the student and said something along the lines of "You better don't play a fool or I will make sure you will be very sorry..."

I mean as an Asian Parent, obviously I also will use that on my son sometimes.. hahha:) but I am just like shocked to hear it in school and thought immediately ... "That will never happen in Horizon School!"   Maybe the teacher treats the children like her own bah...

Anyway, I asked if Ace knew that teacher and he did and he does come into contact with her too. He told me she is very fierce but a very caring teacher. Asian elders just care for the younger ones differently i guess...

But still I noticed that sometimes even when the children are just sitting there and doing their own thing and being their own person, teacher will come over to scold them or threaten them... I really pity the kids... Cos I feel that all children are different but they are all expected to do the same thing and almost like be the same person like tat...

Eg, I saw a kid fiddling with things and I understand he is probably a kinesthetic learner and so I told him that he can fiddle with that thing but please do not spoil it and please do not disrupt other children.. ok?  He said OK and so I let him be lor.. but a teacher saw and came over and said he cannot touch that thing.. he has to sit up straight.. he has to this and that... So poor thing right?

But the teacher just wants everyone to sit up right and be proper and pay attention lah.. nothing wrong with that also I guess in singapore context... But I do think that teachers in Ace's school should learn about human behavioral science and also more about child psychology and also empathy. It will be so helpful for them and for the kids...

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