Did you enrol your child into tutoring school this school holiday?

financialwar on 09/07/2015 - 02:45

I enrolled my two children into holiday courses at Pre-Uni College. Which runs the same as normal school time for two weeks, teaching four subjects. Costing me more than $2k altogether for the two weeks.

Both my wife and I work, so these program are perfect for my children, so that they have someone educated to look after them and keep them focused on education, making them more competitive as we are aiming for James Ruse High School and ultimate med school for my two children.

Did you send your children to a private tutor? If not, how did you manage the two week holiday with your children? What curriculum did you use? Who did you hire etc? Please state your race as well, I want to see if there is a cultural difference on how holiday should be spent.

Thanks.

Poll Options

  • 8
    full time tutoring
  • 2
    part time tutoring
  • 1
    full time homeschooling (one or both parents is must be unemployed)
  • 3
    part time homeschooling (one or both parents is must be unemployed)
  • 3
    Stay at home by themselves, but I check their homework (lol Lame)
  • 128
    Kids did whatever they want Mt. Druitt style
Education & Work

closed Comments

  • cr7 on 09/07/2015 - 05:44
    +36

    I think tutors are a waste of money, it's all on the child if they want to learn or not. You can spend thousands on tutor, private schools etc. but if they aren't willing to learn there really isn't a point.

    • Scorpiogirl on 09/07/2015 - 07:17
      +21

      Having been a tutor myself in the past and also had tutoring it can be very useful, however you have a point. It is just like learning at school. You have to want it. I am more concerned about the way you talk about having your children's lives all worked out. Oh boy, wait till there 18, if not before.

      What does it matter how children spend their holidays? I don't think negatively, like they would be up to no good. This should be a happy, positive time. Even children get tired and stressed and deserve to have fun and a break too. My opinion, we all have one. As mentioned by others i do not like or think anyone should be demeaned/put down because they can't afford the best of everything or even choose a different parenting style than yours. It doesn't mean pne is better than the other or one wrong and the other right. Sometimes a fantasy world is easier than reality. Seeing children smile and laugh can be rewarding also.

      • KaTst3R on 09/07/2015 - 18:30
        +19

        Funny how people are down voting you.

        My own true story is that when I was younger, all I wanted to do was play counter strike at the LAN cafe. My parents used to force me to study, even sending me to tuition which I hated. Now, 15 years later, I have completed my degree and two masters program with distinction. I look back and think that I wouldnt have been in my comfy (but stressful high paying) white collar job if it wasnt for them pushing me to get a good education.

        If it was my turn when I have kids, I'll probably do the same…

  • Geewhizz on 09/07/2015 - 06:24
    +25

    There's no poll option there for children having a holiday in the holidays. As you've alluded to though, OP, that's partially a cultural thing.

    Nor do you have any option, when both parents are working, for them to do anything other than leave their children home alone. I think you'd find the vast majority don't do that.

    In fact, on looking at them again, your poll options come accross as rather judgemental and critical and really quite ill informed. How does the simple fact that a child is not involved in tutoring of any type translate to them being left home alone? And FWIW, homeschooling your children does not translate to either or both parents being unemployed. I know couples who are both professionals and CHOOSE to work part time on different days to enable them to homeschool their children. Just to clarify that, they do not depend on the government to supplement their income, it's a lifestyle choice they have made. It means they don't have the latest and greatest digital camera and they don't go out and get updated phones every 5 minutes. They consider time with their children a far better investment.

    • financialwar on 09/07/2015 - 11:12
      -8

      What I meant by home schooling is instead of sending child to tutoring, you teach them at home yourself during the period of school holiday only. They still attend normal schooling during school term, this option is for parents who still care about education during holiday, but can not affording tutoring because it's expensive and one of the parent happens to be unemployed.

      Maybe I should add an option for "part time home schooling when parents come back from work". But that means the parent will have to work more than 14 hours a day (8 hours work plus 4 teaching plus 2 travel time)

  • DarkOz on 09/07/2015 - 07:09
    +26

    "James Ruse High School and ultimate med school for my two children…"

    Are you bragging or trolling, OP?

    • MynyMouqe on 09/07/2015 - 07:20
      +37

      It's getting pretty well established that this OP is a troll with the threads they've started.

    • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 17:04
      +3

      Both is my guess. A lot of parents are spending an awful lot of money to put their children on career paths that will either immediately or ultimately burn them out. You get one shot at being a kid. By all means expand the child's horizons but deciding that your children will be enrolling in med school for the prestige if they haven't shown an interest or inclination is harmful to the child. I see some specialists making crazy amounts of money but I wouldn't trade places with any of the GPs I know for anything.

        • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 19:26
          +11

          That's the problem with the whole system. It has become about prestige and not about what advantages it gains for the child or what they can actually learn.

          By the way given the intake of selective schools you must be easily astonished. The percentage that makes it in is small but the sheer numbers are quite large. This is not the Nobel Prize. It's entry into a school that requires as much cash as hard work.

  • pjetson on 09/07/2015 - 08:13
    +26

    Please state your race

    My race is "human". What is yours?

  • ChrisLevo on 09/07/2015 - 08:29
    +7

    Might be a troll, but quite well thought-through troll post.

    1. Uses quite poor English, to throw one off the scent.
    2. Talks about an Adelaide school.
    3. Then says that the aim is to send the children to medical school after studying at an agricultural high school in Sydney.

    What I find even more inventive is that the high school home page shows almost 100% Asian kids, reinforcing #1 above.

    Must have taken a fair while to construct!

    • nocure on 09/07/2015 - 08:48
      +2

      Don't forget the underlying "race" content.

      • Scrooge McDuck on 09/07/2015 - 16:28
        +9

        I don't think he did.

        My money is on OP being a false-flagging Asiaphobe.

    • hayne on 09/07/2015 - 09:47

      Where was the reference to an Adelaide school? Wasn't sure if you're thinking of the reference to Mt Druitt (presumably a reference to the NSW school which made the papers a while ago for having a high TER of 45 or 50 or something like that) or Pre-Uni College (couldn't find anything on that but Pre-Uni New College is a NSW tutoring school according to Google).

      • Marioedd on 09/07/2015 - 16:53
        +21

        You don't deserve to be part of the ozbargain community with all these rude and disrespectful comments and posts. Shame on you!

  • djones145 on 09/07/2015 - 08:41
    +9

    pre uni collage is so 2014

    I send my kids to uni in the holidays, they do summer school there, 10 subjects cost me 20k

    aim for Sydney Grammar, full scholarship

    and uni triple major to be a doctor, lawyer and finance

    • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 08:51
      +5

      Yet their parent can't spell college?

      • SydStrand on 09/07/2015 - 19:19
        +9

        Maybe he wants to put his kids into the arts, majoring in collage and finger-painting.

    • scrimshaw on 09/07/2015 - 09:09
      +5

      Don't forget violin and piano lessons.

      • djones145 on 09/07/2015 - 09:49
        +7

        my kids play all instruments, simultaneously
        please!
        and sports, he will be a pro golfer, tennis, basketball and NFL star

        • maximum on 09/07/2015 - 15:39
          +3

          Maybe you kid can marry mine who is going to do all the above - while also having a lucrative modelling career

        • scrimshaw on 09/07/2015 - 17:01

          @maximum:

          Whoa, arranged marriages over the internet, what an age we live in.

        • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 17:07

          @scrimshaw:

          That is so yesterday. Today is ashleymadison.com

  • nocure on 09/07/2015 - 08:50
    +26

    My kids are sent outside at 7am and told not to come back until it gets dark…it's the way I was raised.Good times.

  • Adz81 on 09/07/2015 - 08:57
    +38

    Why would I spend $2k on them? I've already spent enough on them and so far they've only disappointed me.

    • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 17:07
      +2

      Thanks for making me almost spit up my mouthful of coke zero! ;-)

  • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 08:58
    +5

    BTW OP, it's not up to you to aim for your children's career path, it's up to them. Putting pressure on them like that so early is a sure fire way to create resentment and distinction as they grow older. Not all people are mentally or physically cut out to be doctors. Even if they do get through to medical school, with a sole focus on academia, they are very unlikely to get selected for a decent specialism; the people they are competing against will all have similar if not better academic qualifications, and the people who select who joins each specialty will look for a well rounded person, not someone who has spent all their time studying, just to become a doctor because their parents think it will make them rich.

    • iridiumstem on 09/07/2015 - 09:54
      +2

      It's fairly Asian thing (as you would've guessed). I don't understand it (actually, it's more of I refuse to accept it) either, especially since being a doctor involves a lot of commitment. Then again, I am fairly out of Asian norms in terms of the way I think. I personally think it's a mixture of collectivistic culture ideals, stability of the jobs and probably perceived hierarchy of the jobs that's making the parents to force their child to go into those jobs.

  • Davo1111 on 09/07/2015 - 09:13
    +1

    Depends if they want to learn

  • shaybisc on 09/07/2015 - 10:34
    +1

    I could see the point of studying like a demon to get a high mark to get into medicine when medicine was an undergraduate degree but that's no longer the case is it? You can cruise through high school, get into any undergrad degree, easy peasy, then if you decide you want to get into medicine put the foot down and hit the books.

    • Htu08 on 09/07/2015 - 10:51
      +4

      Many institutions still offer it as an undergraduate degree!

      • andrew229 on 09/07/2015 - 14:06
        +1

        in WA all the med courses require you to do another degree first, and i thought our unis were copying what the east coast ones have done

  • shaybisc on 09/07/2015 - 10:41
    +4

    It amazes me that teachers and parents subject their little bastards to masses of homework in primary school when there is no evidence that homework has any academic benefit for children of that age.

    • Htu08 on 09/07/2015 - 10:50
      +1

      I PERSONALLY think it's about teaching routine to be honest.
      I mean, I think the minimum education requirement (Prep to year x) is pretty much 80% about teaching routine and teaching people how to study/learn rather than learn actual material.
      Honestly, think about how a higher education entrance requirement is scaled, a LOTE is valued the same as a mathematics, humanities and arts when attempting to gain entrance to higher education courses because it's just a score (which is scaled for difficulty etc etc).

      • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 17:08
        -1

        Teaching routine or teaching people to toil hard for little gain = virtual slavery?

      • spackbace on 09/07/2015 - 11:30
        +16

        This coming from the person that buys everything off ebay, spends work-hours on Ozbargain (so you can't be in a busy job yourself), and always chases down the cheapest price for everything.

        Nice trolling. What time does your night shift start at Maccas?

        • nocure on 09/07/2015 - 11:52
          +5

          and always chases down the cheapest price for everything.

          But never shares it.

      • airzone on 09/07/2015 - 14:08
        +2

        Pfft. Everyone knows that crime pays, and being a drug king pin pays best of all.

        • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 17:09
          +1

          Mr White is that you?

      • iridiumstem on 09/07/2015 - 14:15
        +3

        Heh, my high school was a prestigious private school, a Grammar school, and we were known as the druggy school. There's a thought.

        • spackbace on 09/07/2015 - 14:28
          +3

          @financialwar:

          Plus, drugs is not really put of our culture

          Ah huh

        • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 14:56
          +1

          @financialwar:
          James Ruse is also an Agricultural High School. Do you want your child to be involved in these activities? You should also see what the school also has to offer that is best suited to your child's interest. Not just HSC results.

          On a similar topic, I'm not going to move to Bellevue Hill just because "Rich" people live there.

        • iridiumstem on 09/07/2015 - 15:04
          +5

          @financialwar: And here you are, creating Asian brats who think they are superior than everyone else because they've got more As. Talk about the irony? Besides, aren't you the one who's trying to pave your children's way with your money so that they can get into a "selective school"? From what I've seen, kids who are smart enough never need those external helps.

          Also, fun fact, gambling disorder and substance addiction has so much similarities that it shares same category, Substance-Related and Addictive Disorder on DSM-5. It has a high comorbidity with substance addiction as well.

          I should stop biting the hands that would feed me in the future, shouldn't I?

        • SydStrand on 09/07/2015 - 19:16
          +2

          @financialwar:

          You bitch about 'rich spoilt white brats' getting into private schools. Yet you're the one spending thousands of dollars to hopefully get your 'rich spoilt Asian brats' into a selective school. Hypocrite much?

      • mung12 on 09/07/2015 - 17:06
        +4

        Wow. So stereotypical… Does not always work out that way. People have personalities and being raised in a discipline environment is one thing. But being born into that personality can be another. Not every person will follow your set views for them. Also, I am a dropout from year 10 with no degree, no atar or certificates and I find myself quite successful as an owner of a car detailing company. But most of all I enjoy my job the most as I love my cars. I get to ride my clients cars that get sent to my garage (ferrari, mercs, BMW).

  • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 12:03
    +11

    School holidays are holidays.

    We give the children a chance to do things they don't normally do in the school term. Experiencing life outside school, is just as good and educational about the way the world works as they can get while at school.

    We do a short session of Reading and Maths revision at night so the children remember their basic skills but we try to make it a fun learning time rather than a classroom environment.

  • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 14:18
    +42

    I'm Asian, I went to a selective school.I finished Uni.

    In hindsight. I can see you want your children to have the best education, but you can't force them being something they aren't, because you will just make them good at memorizing text books.
    The negative result I've seen:

    1. They may drop out of Uni because no more mentors.
    2. They change courses every 6 months because they don't know what they want to do in life.
    3. They will graduate from Uni, get a job in their field, then perform at the minimum requirement to hold the job, just to get paid.

    Unless you are living in a country where opportunities are limited, I would let the kid focus on their strength and form a career out of it, therefore they will have a passion on what they are doing.
    After all, I would like to see a doctor who has an interest in healing patients and caring for the ill. Not a doctor who's objective is to think they are better than you and wants all your money.

    • spackbace on 09/07/2015 - 14:29
      +1

      Very well put :)

    • SydStrand on 09/07/2015 - 19:12
      +7

      According to the OP, he's already mapped what his <12 year old kids will do for the next 50 years. Because that sort of over-bearing parenting has never gone wrong, right? I hope that this is another of his troll threads, like the one where he apparently showers twice a week.

  • ilsan0 on 09/07/2015 - 16:28

    Holidays are for fun so they had fun :)

  • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 16:29
    +10

    Everyone will tell you blah blah blah, let your children live, laugh, grow… whatever. Here's the real truth:
    Make your kids do a stack of extra curricular activity +/- tutoring at the end of high school. All the bonus points for uni applications come from extra curricular activities. Tutoring to smash the HSC/ whatever your state year 12 exam is a great idea. General tutoring is hit and miss.
    Work your kids like a dog from years 10-12.

    Once they get into the highest uni program they can, then life is much easier. It is definitely EASIER to get into a more difficult undergrad course than it is to go full merit based tertiary transfer/post grad.

    Take it from me - a poor kid who got a full scholarship to a small private school by cramming the scholarship entrance exams in years 6-7. Getting As and Bs in years 8-10 (nothing special), got worked like a dog in years 10-12 and got into medical school. When you're in, you get access to past papers and older students so passing exams gets easier.

    If you then find you don't like it, then you can always tertiary transfer into an easier course.

    The biggest mistake you can make is to "let them find their passion". 15 year olds don't have a passion. They will laze around, pass 3 years of time and then find that getting your foot in the door is muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch harder than they expected.

    • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 17:33

      Yes true. But passion can also be found in the subjects offered by the schools. Even High School debating, Creative Arts, Music, or Science stuff like Maths, Physics.
      At 15 yo, I already started to have a rough idea where I wanted to be, but had no idea how HSC and Uni process worked, so channeled the effort in the subjects I liked.

    • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 19:38
      +2

      This isn't the 1980s or even the 1990s. Graduating with a Bachelor's or Master's won't necessarily get you money or respect.

      I'm not going to take it from you because you're living in the past. I know a lot of people with higher education who get treated like dirt at their jobs. There are potential Nobel Laureates in this country who have found that to pursue their field they've had to continue on working for free.

  • windrc on 09/07/2015 - 16:37
    +5

    Hi OP, when I was growing up, I didn't study hard at all but still managed to get into James Ruse high school and ultimately graduated from a med school.

      • [Deactivated] on 09/07/2015 - 17:35
        +6

        OK confirmed troll alert!

      • SydStrand on 09/07/2015 - 19:09
        +2

        Right. Because according to you, Asian students only recently appeared out of thin air, like Beetlejuice.

      • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 19:37
        -1

        This isn't the 1980s or even the 1990s. Graduating with a Bachelor's or Master's won't necessarily get you money or respect.

  • Marioedd on 09/07/2015 - 16:48

    Usually just buy them excel books to go through the holidays so they dont forget everything.

  • HN Professional on 09/07/2015 - 17:10
    +2

    Please take your medication. You are going to burn yourself out with all these troll posts.

  • shaybisc on 09/07/2015 - 17:11
    +3

    Is medicine a good job? The times that I've been in a GP's surgery or in a hospital I am never envious of the doctors- quite the opposite- terrible jobs. Yeah, they're on good money but there are easier ways to make good money.

  • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 17:12
    +5

    Poll options

    • Stay at home by themselves, but I check their homework (lol Lame)
    • Kids did whatever they want Mt. Druitt style

    You forgot
    - Kids recognize parent is an elitist idiot and copy answers from back of book to shut dad up, then sneak out to play Xbox at friend's house.
    (These are the kids who will be our future politicians).

  • ChocDooder on 09/07/2015 - 17:37
    +16

    I'm Asian, went to Ruse, and all I can say is that I hope financialwar doesn't really have kids because oh boy, I'd hate to have him for a dad.

    By the way, as smart as you say 'your kind' (your extended family?) are, you seem to have made the egregious mistake of mixing up race with culture.

  • James987 on 09/07/2015 - 18:14
    +9

    I knew a student who grades were average. He was not permitted to play sport. His parents gave him intense tutoring and guess what: grades still average. He then joined a basketball team on Saturday and loved it. Guess what: grades went up. He found a balance of study and sport.

  • sweefu on 09/07/2015 - 18:45
    +7

    Im a lazy Australian with lazy parents. I spent my holidays surfing and riding BMX bikes. I didnt study very hard, and coasted through an average uni degree.

    Now I have a career that all my Asian mates parents are very impressed with.

    Grades are not everything. Let your kids enjoy themselves, or they will be boring people. Like you.

  • SydStrand on 09/07/2015 - 19:01
    +16

    How is this guy not banned yet?

  • mparf on 09/07/2015 - 19:21
    +7

    I hope your kids discover they want to drop out at year 10 and start a band in their mate's parents garage or something.
    Or you know.
    Something that makes them happy.

    • spackbace on 09/07/2015 - 19:29
      +5

      Or go another way, and decide they want to pay their way with their body…!

    • syousef on 09/07/2015 - 19:39
      +3

      I was in a garage band.
      I was also dux in year 10 and now have a Master's degree.
      Balance is the key.

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