This is brilliant!
Want to know what’s happening in the world? Well, here’s a useful link to the newspapers in the world. You name it, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, USA, they have it!
Just click on the country / city you wish to read the newspaper on and the newspaper headlines would pop out.
Now you can know what’s happening in other parts of the world at your fingertip. Enjoy reading !
What does it mean when your child told you that he is having IPW week in school instead of his usual class routine?
“IPW” stands for Inter-Disciplinary Project Work and it seems that our primary schools are putting in more effort in promoting inter-disciplinary learning today. IPW allows students to understand a subject or topic in depth not through individual learning but through team work. Through research, discussion and brainstorming, it hopes to allow students to see things from different viewpoints.
According to my son, this is how I think IPW works:
Sounds pretty similar to what we have done during our school days right? Yes indeed, just that the children today start to “work” earlier.
My friend who is in the teaching profession sent me this picture when I told her that my girl’s teacher commented that my girl was not holding her pencil in a right way. This picture clearly indicates the way we should hold a pencil and what we should avoid to do when holding one. In case you are keen, here you go … the correct method of holding a pencil. Cheers!
A friend shared with me this blog by Dr Yeap who teaches at National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, which I personally find it useful and informative. It’s a platform to help parents and international teachers understand the way Mathematics is taught in Singapore schools.
An example of the question asked and answer by Dr Yeap as below (verbatim):
Question: A car needs 7 hours to travel from Town X to Town Y. A motorcycle needs 8 hours to travel from Town Y to Town X. The car leaves Town X for Town Y and the motorcycles leaves from Town Y to Town X at the same time. How long will it take for the car and the motorcycle to meet?
Answer by Dr Yeap: Speed Problems are frequently brought up. The earlier entries discussing Speed Problems. See below: So, how long will it take for the car and the motorcycle to meet. The standard joke is that we hope they don’t! That aside, we need to assume that the speed of the two vehicles are constant. If that is so then in an hour, the car travels 1/7 the distance in an hour and the motorcycle travels 1/8 the distance in an hour. The problem is solved when the distance travelled by the car and motorcycle add up to 1 whole. In an hour, total distance covered by both is (1/7 + 1/8) of XY. This works out to 15/56 of XY. In 2 hours, it is (2/7 + 2/8) of XY or 30/56 of XY. In 3 hours, 45/56. In 4 hours, 60/56. They would have passed each other in 4 hours. Can I leave it to you to complete the last step of the solution? It is by no means trivial but there are enough leads already.
If you have questions about mathematics learning, you can also send your questions to banhar.yeap@nie.edu.sg and the replies will be posted on http://www.askyeapbanhar.blogspot.com/
Hope you find this blog useful.
What are the criteria you look out for when choosing a preschool for your children? Costs, distance, curriculum, teachers, environment?
My 3 years old Genz Kid is now in attending preschool in my neighbourhood. My 10 years old Genz Kid used to attend private preschool which required him to do some travelling. Why the difference, you may asked?
Well, the 2 main reasons are (i) there’s no good preschool in my neighbourhood; and (ii) since my son was the one and only then, my domestic helper can help fetch him to and from school. It’s a bit tricky now that my son is in primary school. I need to take into consideration a number of issues when sorting out my daughter’s preschool arrangement.
The advantages of the neighbourhood preschool? It’s cheaper and within walking distance. The disadvantages? They do not offer 2nd language for Nursery 1 so my girl is not exposed to her mother tongue (i.e. Mandarin) in school, they changes teachers too often and sad to say, their teachers do not speak proper English (my husband once thought he was talking to an admin clerk when in fact he was talking to a teacher). To make matter worst, my girl does not enjoy going to that school. If you asked her if she wants to go to the school opposite, it’s a firm “No” but if you ask her if she wants to go to her weekend Chinese enrichment class, it’s always a firm “Yes”.
I recently asked my son what’s so great about his preschool, he said he liked the teachers (whom I am still in contact with) and the environment. For myself, it’s the communication and professionalism of the teachers that impressed me.
I believe that in order for you to do / learn something, you need to have a liking in that thing first. Once you have the interest , you will naturally enjoy doing that thing. Same philosophy applies to going to school, you need to enjoy going to school first before you enjoy attending the lessons and learn.
Now, I’m really contemplating whether I should put my girl in my son’s preschool even though it means more money and require her to take school bus (the journey is about 20 minutes one way). On bright side, I can be assured that she would be in good hand with professional and experienced teachers.
Which would you choose if you were me?
For reading, http://preschool.sg/ (a website where parents shared their views and experiences on preschools, childcares, kindergartens & early educations in Singapore)
My friend, who is seldom in Singapore is facing some family problem – her brother and his wife are chasing their father out of the house. They instigated their children not to call their grandfather and ignore his presence. Worse of all, they scolded and shouted at him in front of their children.
I could not help but ask if this is the way we should behave and to teach our children to show their respect for the elderly? How do you expect your children to treat you with respect when you are treating your parents like “dirt”?
Children learn through role modeling. In school, they role model their teachers. At home, they role model their parents. If you treat your parents with disrespect, I do not know how you could teach your children to respect you as their parents. How can you justify that? Can you simply just tell them that they have to respect you because you are their parents and you brought them up, give them you best and you love them? They would probably answer you that they are treating you like how you have treated your parents!” Indeed, they are not wrong … this is how you treat your parents, so don’t expect your children to treat you with respect when you do not know how to treat your parents with respect.
Of course, there are bound to be disagreement between adults. You can disagree with your parents. You may, occasionally, argue with your parents. BUT PLEASE, don’t do it in front of your children. You might think there are too young to know what’s going on. Believe me, they know what’s going on even if they do not understand what you are talking but the tone you used tell it all. Children are sensitive creatures!
So parents, next time before you disagree with your parents, think twice. Make sure you don’t do it in front of your kids. And please, don’t tell them to “disregard” their grandparents as if they are nobody. You won’t want them to do that to you in future!
Remember the golden rule – “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you”.
My colleagues are crazy over homemade ice-cream these days. It was to the extent that they attended the workshop organised by the trainer. I was told that the essential item you need to have is an ice-cream maker machine which costs around $88 and with that, you can make yummy and delicious ice-cream, sorbet, yogurt and gelato.
To tempt you more, I was told that the ice cream was so good that it is equivalent to those you eat at Hagan Das or Island Creamery, and best of all at an “affordable” price.
Here is a recipe of lemon & cream ice cream recipe from the website (www. dessertart.com.sg)
INGREDIENTS:
PREPARATION:
Happy Ice cream making ! Oh yes, before I forget, my colleagues said that their children’s friends were so amazed by them whipping out those yummy ice-cream that they are so “famous” amongst the kids’ friends now and their kids are so…. PROUD of them 
A good way of bonding with your kids? Maybe!
Link: http://www.dessertart.com.sg/
Email: dessert-art@hotmail.com
A new addition to our family tree – my little nephew was born in mid December and just returned back to Thailand yesterday after a 2 weeks stay with my parents. I got to see him twice over the Saturdays while he was here. He is a very cute little boy and am starting to feel sad just thinking that I won’t be seeing him this coming Saturday and not sure when will he be back again for “holiday”.
This little nephew of mine was a darling, who hardly fusses even when he is wet, hungry or tired. I recalled that he was having constipation one Saturday and while trying to get his poos out, he didn’t cry out loud like most babies would, he just shed his tears quietly. He has really big eyes and would start at you when you talk to him. He is so adorable that even my 3 years old girl loves talking to him. I told her last night that her little brother has went back to Thailand and we won’t be seeing him this Saturday when we go to her “po po” house, she looked sad and kept asking me “why?”.
We miss him (especially my parents who get to see him everyday for that 2 weeks) and if you have family members who stay overseas and comes back to Singapore only a few times a year, you would comprehend how we feel…
So till we see him again (which I bet he would look very different then), we could only affectionately remember him as how he looks like now!
Have you read “The Diary of Amos Lee” written by Adeline Foo? I brought the 1st book “The Diary of Amos Lee: I Sit, I Write, I Flush! for my son during his December school holiday last year. He enjoyed the book so much that he finished reading the book within a day. He said he couldn’t stop reading it once he started reading the same. I suppose the book must be entertainingly as I could hear his laughter while he was reading it. He said it was one of the best books he had read.
Last Sunday, my son was expected to write a journal as homework and he used the book as a reference. I read his master piece and gees, it was pretty interesting and humorous that I can’t stop giggling while reading it. Even Genz Dad thinks that the journal was written very creatively. As a result, in a spur of moment yesterday evening, I got him the 2nd book – The Diary of Amos Lee: Girls, Guts & Glory! As expected, he finished ¾ of the book last night and I bet he would finish the whole book today.
Here’s the extracts of the book review from the official website of The Diary of Amos Lee (http://www.amoslee.com.sg/home.html):
The Diary of Amos Lee: I Sit, I Write, I Flush!
This diary began as Mum’s New Year resolution to get me to write. She told me to write when I am doing my big business. “Five to eight minutes max!” she said. “I don’t want you to develop piles!” And so my writing in the bathroom began. My entries started with the boring old stuff… then Mum got this new job as a writer and, following her around, I got to do fun stuff, like ogle at deformed frogs, see into the future with a fortune-telling parrot and wow at a life-sized F1 car made of chocolate! That’s how I got more interesting things to write about. Plus, I had to deal with an EVIL bully who was tormenting me at school… thank goodness for my best friends, Alvin and Anthony, we rallied against the bully and got through this year with lots of adventures and good fun!
The Diary of Amos Lee: Girls, Guts & Glory!
The story of Amos continues. He is still writing his diary in the toilet, but he has found a way to hide it from Mum’s prying eyes. Amos joins the school’s swim team and learns about hunger, not the sort to make you want to eat food, but the drive to excel and win medals in competitions! The themes in Book 2 touch on family, friendship and loyalty. Lessons are also drawn from Olympic legends like Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis and Sebastian Coe, in inspiring legions of young athletes to be the best in both studies and sports. Amos seeks his Olympic dream, in this second installation.
Parents, if you are trying to cultivate good reading habits of your children, try these books.
English can be quite confusing. There are a lot of words and some may sound the same, some with similar spelling but different meaning. It is almost impossible not to make mistake in English, even if you are a teacher or a university graduate. The only thing we could be is perhaps to avoid making them.
There are these 2 words which can be confusing – “Advise” and “Advice”. When do you use “advise” and/or “advice”. Firstly, we need to understand that these 2 words though somewhat sound the same, have different meaning. “Advise” is a verb meaning the act of giving a recommendation and therefore refers to the act of giving advice. E.g. The lawyer advised that the defendant plead guilty to the charges. “Advice” on the other hand is a noun meaning recommendation. E.g. The client thanked the lawyer for his detailed advice.
There are many other confusing words such as altogether vs all together, any one vs anyone, borrow vs lend, everyday vs every day, enquiry vs inquiry, I vs me, me vs my, who vs whom, and the list goes on and on..
Here are some useful resources on Common Mistakes and Confusing Words in English. They are easy to understand so very suitable for students too. Happy reading …