- My child matters more to me than school results.
- The really important exams are in primary 2, primary 4 and primary 6. For the rest of the exams, we can use them to experiment with study process, let the kid experience some form of failure etc.
Good assessment books
- Andrew Er Maths
- Dr Seuss's alphabet computer games
- Model Chinese compo from China PSLE equivalent
- Step-by-step Math Practice Book by Simon Eio (easy)
- Visible thinking by Ammiel Wan
Motivation Strategies
- Structured choices - This is a 101 strategy for handling kids. Give them choices that are safe. Trains their decision making muscle under safe circumstances.

- Focus on Process, Not Grades - I believe this is the key strategy. Breaking down the study process into steps simple enough for autonomous execution and tracking. Use assessment books that kids themselves can validate their answers against. Encourage them to execute the steps habitually. Praise randomly, intermittently and variably to further encourage desirable behaviour. Relief parents of monitoring tasks. Teaching the kids to be independent. I like how the below sample process is separated into learning stage and exam preparation stage as the exam date draws near.


- Informational Feedback - My key takeaway for this strategy is the way the author attempts to grade her kid's composition. We know the way to grade maths. You either get the question correct or wrong. Language is more subjective. The author provides a good framework that can be understood by the kid easily and simple for parents as well.




- Difficult Victories - Letting the kid experiencing success that is hard to come by. Boosting his self confidence and crushing any limiting belief that he may have. Problem is how to create opportunities for him to experience such victories.
- Emotional Connection - This is a given. Nagging is not going to work in the long run.
- Random Intermittent Variable Reinforcements, Random Intermittent Variable Punishments - Similar to allowing kids to experience difficult victories, allowing situation to punish the kids. Let them learn from life lessons.
- Failure Management - Shaping the kids to have learning goal orientation. A learning approach that strives to develop one's skills and abilities and not fearing to make mistakes, rather, learn and overcome mistakes.
- Design Self Concept - This is basically about building up self esteem and self confidence.
- Set Goals - I have questions on this. Do we only use marks for this? I am trying to not emphasise on marks to foster the learner's mindset mentioned in the earlier chapter.
- Specify and Magnify - Basically, to notice the small good behaviours and praise in a big way.
- Physical Movement - Children need to move around and stay active. Helps in their learning as well.
Images from book "Internal Drive Theory" by Petunia Lee.
