Category Archives: Kids Articles

Choosing a Preschool

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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)

Respect your Parents

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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”.

Book Review – The Diary of Amos Lee

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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.

Advice or Advise?

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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 …

http://www.learnenglish.de/mistakes/CommonMistakes.htm

http://www.grammarbook.com/default.asp

I Passed My Driving Test!

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I passed my driving test few days ago at my first attempt.  The whole test was not smooth sailing, I had a strict tester.  I googled his name when I reached home and  found that he was rather infamous and failed most of his students.  He is named the “No. 1 killer tester”.   His name – Poh Ah Soon.

Anyway, that’s not the purpose of my blog today.  My purpose of today’s blog is to share with you some “exam techniques” that I shared with my son after the test. 

My son was very proud of me and commented that  I’ve never once failed a test.  I told him that I was actually very nervous before the test and asked if he would like to know my “tricks” on how I managed to pass the test.  He eagerly replied with a “yes!” and this is what I shared with him:

  • Be well-prepared for the D day.  Practice makes perfect! 
  • Have a bottle of water with you on the exam day.  Before the exam, sip some water (not too much, else you might have to go to toilet).  This is a trick my lecturer taught us in school.  Thirst+ nervous = lack of oxygen to brain. 
  • Though it’s common to be nervous before any exam.  It is important to stay calm.  Take a deep breath before the start of exam.  
  • During the exam, if you do not know the answers to some of the questions, don’t panic – move on to the next questions, highlight those questions you have yet attempted and go back to those questions you do not know later (for my driving test, I made some mistakes at the circuit, but I just moved on and not think about the mistakes that I’ve made earlier.)
  • Check your work if you have the time.
  • After the exam, accept whatever outcome it may be as long as you have tried your best.  If you failed or didn’t do well, try again the next time.

Good Luck to all taking exams (whatever type it is)!

Opening of a Composition (A parent view)

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I am writing this article from a parent view and what I’ve learnt from my son’s teachers.

How important is a good opening of a composition?  Well, imagine you go for a movie, the opening is so dull that you nearly fall asleep, would you be keen to finish watching the movie?  What if the opening of the story book immediately caught your attention, would you be interested to finish reading the book as soon as you can?  Do you know why the story books by Geronimo Stilton are so popular amongst school students?  The answer, the opening of the story book is always so catchy and fun to read.  My son can’t wait to complete the book once he starts reading it. 

Here’s an extract of I’m Too Fond of My Fur by G. Stilton:

When my old friend Professor von Squeaker called to ask for help, I agreed immediately – even though it meant trekking halfway around the world to Mouse Everest! The trip was long and dangerous. I almost froze my tail off along the way. And then I was kidnapped by a yeti! Yes, it was truly an extraordinary adventure…

Like a good movie or good book, a good opening of a composition gains the interest of the reader right away.     Here are examples of a few ways you can catch your readers’ attention when writing your opening paragraph (Topic – An Unlucky Day):

Using a question

How would you feel if everything you do goes wrong on the same day? …..

Using Dialogue

“How was your day today, John?” Mom asked.

“It cannot get any worse, Mom!” I exclaimed.

Create a climax

“What’s going on, nothing seems to be going right today!” I uttered to myself as tears keep flowing down my cheeks.

Flashback (extracted from Towards Better Composition Writing Primary 4 by EPH)

Standing at the edge of the drain, I stared at my notes and worksheets floating on the filthy water.  There was no way I could retrieve them.  What was I going to tell my teacher?

The day had started fine.  I woke at my usual time …

Oh yes, besides having a good opening, be sure that the opening paragraph is relevant to the essay you are writing.

What, Wait and Later

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I’m sure all parents find their kids adorable and are fascinated by the things they say.  Remember when we were their age, we would just do what our parents asked us to do and no question would be asked.  Today’s kids are so different and they are oh so smart.  They always amazed us by the things they do and the words they say.   In the past, if our parents asked us to go to bed, we would obediently do so.  Today, if you ask your kids to go to bed and they are not willing to, you would most likely be engaged in a “words battle”.  Sound all so familiar, right?

My “battle” is not just with my 9 years old son but also my 2½ years old girl.   I realized that the 3 words that she commonly used nowadays are “What”, “Wait” and “Later”. 

 If I am talking to her elder brother or her daddy, she would poke her cutie face in front of me and asked “what”?  When I asked her something she didn’t understand and pretend not to understand, she would also say “what”? This time, with a blur look on her face.

When I asked her to do something which she doesn’t want to, her standard answer is “wait, later.”  Shower time when she was watching tv is a “wait, later.”, sleeping time when she was playing with her brother is also a “wait, later.”   

Guess what would immediately catch her attention and her answer would be “yes”?  The answer? “Do you want ice cream.” ;-p

Banding in Primary School

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After streaming in primary school has been scraped, primary schools band their students based on their abilities and results at year end.  For my son’s school, there’s no banding in Primary 1 & 2. Banding starts when they are promoted to Primary 3. What the school does was to place the best 40 students in 1 class and the next 40 in the 2nd class.  Rest of students will be of mix caliber.    From then on, students would be “classified” based on their final year results.   As such, for example, if you are in the 1st class in Primary 3 but your overall position is no. 90 in school, you would be demoted to a “mix ability” class.  I can’t help but question “would the child’s confidence level and morale be affected?”

Frankly, I’m not sure if this is a good way of “classifying” the students. The teacher also pre-warned the parents before the school reopens that because the children are the “best” in their level, they would be “drilled” to do better.  My son commented that his class was too competitive and some of his classmates are very proud because they think they are the best.  Some of these students even called those who didn’t score more than 90 marks for their test / exams “stupid”.  Is that what the school aim to achieve? In addition, I felt that the students in the top two classes are placed with lots of unnecessary stress and pressure.  Is the school concentrating too much on their best students and “ignore” the rest?

While I understand that every school wishes to produce good results students especially top students in PSLE, shouldn’t we remember what is the main purpose of educating these children?

Before You Depart for Holiday …

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A lesson I’ve learnt from my recent 5 day holiday to Hong Kong is that no matter how prepared you are, you can never tell when you will be facing an unforeseen situation.

Before departing Singapore, I done as much preparation work such as checking the weather in Hong Kong, have the embassy information ready just in case, draw up an itinerary, have some drawing materials, games, toys to keep the kids occupy while on plane, medication, etc.  I thought I was well prepared, but when my 2 years old Genzkid was down with gastric flu upon reaching Hong Kong, I was helpless.  She was vomiting furiously and as I did not have any anti-vomiting medication and we reached the hotel around evening time on Sunday, we decided to wait till the next day to see if she gets any better.  Unfortunately, she was still vomiting and we decided not to wait further and to bring her to see a doctor.  As we are unfamiliar with Hong Kong, we visited a doctor recommended by the hotel manager.  I must say I was lucky to have met a good doctor.  He was very patient and thorough when examining my girl.  Finally, he decided to give her a jab to stop the vomiting.  After injecting her, he kept us in his clinic for at least half an hour and came out of his consultation room at least 3 times to check on her.  Before leaving his clinic, he gave us the information of a hospital nearest to our hotel and told us to send her to the hospital if her vomiting did not improve by the next day.  Thereafter, we returned to hotel for her to rest.  I was relieved that she stopped vomiting that very night and was better the next day.  Our holiday actually start only on day 3.  

I guess one of the important information we need to prepare when visiting another country, especially if it’s one you are not familiar with is to get ready some medical information such as a clinic and/or hospital nearby your hotel.  

If you are visiting Hong Kong, I would strongly recommend that you keep this doctor information handy just in case (you really won’t know when you need it) – Dr Lee Ka Ling at Room 1610, Argyle Centre Phase 1, 688 Nathan Road.  Tel: 852-2396 0023.  The clinic is near  Mongkok MTR Station.

Thank you Dr Lee Ka Ling!

To Cane or not to Cane?

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I have never once, not even now, use a cane on my 9 years old Genz Kid.  When he misbehaves, I would just have to raise my voice slightly and he would be know it’s “time out” and behave himself.  

However, with my 2½ years old Genz Kid, it’s hard to discipline her and she is always testing my limit.  I tried talking to her nicely, raising my voice, scolding her, using my hand to beat her palm… but none of these seem to work on her.  She is very cheeky and she would inch a little every time to “test the water” and see how far she can go before the limit is reached.

Let me share with you an example, she was jumping down the sofa when I told her to stop.  I told her it was dangerous and she might hurt herself.  She paused, looked at me, smiled, climbed up the sofa and jumped again.  I raised my voice; she paused, looked at me, smiled, climbed up the sofa and jumped again.  I get my cane, and she feels that I’m not serious and did what she have done again … this went on until I caned her once on her leg.  She stopped the act (mind you, she didn’t cry at all) and told me, “Mommy, stop it.  It’s painful!”  I told her I would not have caned her if she had listened to me earlier.   Since she stopped the act, I kept my cane.  Guess her next move, she went to the fridge and asked for “Yakult”.   The best part was when daddy reached home from work; she went to “complain” to her daddy that Mummy caned her because she was naughty!  Nothing can stop her mischief act except for the cane.  Having the sight of it won’t work; she needs to “feel” it before she stops.  

I am not an advocate of using cane but I am really at a loss.  I’m not sure what else I can do to discipline her.  Sigh !!!!