The education system in Malaysia has its ups and downs, for the entire positive that is in it, it is also besieged with numerous shortcomings. Large classes and too many activities cramped into a limited time make learning inadequate. The quality of teachers is also not consistent with the quality of teacher that your child get may as well be akin to the luck of the draw. My own experience as a teacher shows that there will somehow be at least one or two teachers who your kids and you will not be happy with.

It cannot be denied that parents can no longer depend on school alone for the education of their children. Parents have to play a significant role to ensure that their kids get the maximum input during their most impressionable years of their development. Of course all study is bad and parents should know how to create a balance to ensure both play, rest and study are all included in their kids life.

Before we proceed, let us first explore the purpose of sending our kids to school. To get the grades, to get into a good university, to get a ‘good’ job (whatever that is), status and a position in society are no longer the main objectives. The main reason we send our kids to school is to be educated; to come away from a situation from not knowing to knowing, to be improved in many ways, cognitively and emotionally, to be able to function and cope with the various situations that he/she will encounter in his life.

Parents can use workbooks to satisfy the above needs.

The Use Of Workbooks Will Reinforce What Is Learnt in School
Due to many factors, some children will not be able to catch what is taught in school. They might be slower, sick, absent or the teacher is not clear in his/her explanations or just too fast. Whatever the reason, the parent can use a workbook to teach the child the content that was problematic.

By getting the child to do exercises that we taught in school, the parent can also know if the child has a grasp of the topic and quick measures can be taken to rectify the problem.

Workbooks Offer Practice
A certain amount of time must be allocated everyday for study. The amount of time spent for this purpose will depend on the age of the child. Smaller children should be given adequate rest. Older children (primary) can do at least an hour of study at home. Of course when there are piles of homework to be completed, the workbooks should be put aside and schoolwork comes first.

Workbooks allow kids to practice what they have learnt in school. By doing exercises from the workbooks they are able to grasp the topic better and this will develop their confidence and affect their performance. I usually encourage parents to keep a few workbooks at hand and give the kids exercises of the similar topics from different books. You will need a few, as children will usually go through these books very quickly!

Workbooks Provide Enrichment Activities
Workbooks are able to take the kids beyond the reach of the school. There are many workbooks that introduce children to simple research online or poems or craft activities that children simply love. These are usually placed at the end of each topic and are fun to do. In fact, there are so many workbooks out there that focus on enrichment alone. Kids usually look forward to these enrichment activities as they denote the end of a particular topic has been successfully completed and creates the idea that learning is fun. Young children enjoy colouring activities or join the dots type activities that id entertaining.

How To Use The Workbooks
Parents should take the trouble to choose quality workbooks. Make sure the content is running parallel to your child’s work in school. A word of caution though, workbooks should never be used to replace school but rather to complement it. For kids who are home schooled, the workbooks would complement the textbooks used. Vernacular schools and mainstream school use different books and parents should know the difference. Look at the material and decide if it suitable for your child. Each child is different and parents should only buy what is needed.

I usually like to take a few workbooks for each subject, simply because my kids seem to complete them quickly. Workbooks gave them something to do during ‘study time’ when toys and the television were not allowed. Somehow they felt grown up sitting with us doing their work while my husband and I did ours. Give your child his/her own study space, where the workbooks can be arranged neatly and be reached easily. Workbooks need not be seen as something negative but rather as something that kids can do at home in their free time.

It sure beats going for tuition classes at odd hours of the day.

This blog entry was written by Kalai Lingam for Peekabook. Peekabook specializes in workbooks for Malaysian schools.