(2006/02) Feb 2006 MTB

Vonvon: My Parent in law also kinda spoilt my son. Haiz...wat to do, we r in need of their help so no choice cant tell them right in the face how we want the kid to behave and things to be done.

Our kids are turning 2 yrs soon and at this stage they are curious and testing how we will response if they did this or that. I hope this pharse will zoom by very soon. My MIL says age 2 is like that 'buay si tiam', age 3 they will behave better. Let's hope for the best!!
 


Bulma,
The age gap of my 2 older ones are like yours, about 1 and a 1/2 yrs diff. Actually, I cannot recall how it was like back then, I just know I was very tired most of the time, and weekends were equally tired fr taking care of the 2. Now, my eldest is already 9yo. My hb still has to be told what to do when it comes to the kids. Men are like that, cannot auto one. You will feel better if you have no expectation fr them!
 
Etelle

alternative is to bake a cake yourself.
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Or order cupcakes from a Malay baker.
 
mashy
haha that's tough....i cannot bake....oooh cupcakes from malay baker sounds good. Thanks for this idea!!!!

restaurant le? any gd recommendation? i want those got private room one...hee thanks all in advance...
 
mashy - r u talking about cupcakemomma? i'm considering that too.

etelle - primadeli got barney cakes.
http://www.primadeli.com/shopatprimadeli/category.asp?CaID=30
alternatively, u can try asking ecreative.com.sg to customise for you.

usually i would let my hb finish first cos i believe a hungry man is an angry man.. when he has his fill, he can bring both of them walk walk or whatever and i can SLOWLY makan...anyway i also xiao nu ren de... hee
 
Ya now Primadeli is the safest to eat after that incident =P

Etelle: Jumbo seafood resturant at Clark Quay? Turf club Ah yat Bao Yu. Can sing n eat in the pte room inside got KTV. Hahahaha.
 
i_bless_you
jumbo at clarke quay got pte rm with ktv???

wendy
thanks, will go ask if got delivery on 2nd day CNY.
 
Etelle: How abt u ask ecreative..then see whether can collect at their factory in woodland anot. Last yr i collect on 3rd day of CNY. Otherwise guess u hav to settle for swenson or maybe coffeebean? Coffebean should open.
 
Hi Etelle,

me also looking for cake for my elie...beganwan solo's last day of collection is 5 Feb, too early liao so ended up i odered the swensen ice-cream cake lor, cos' it can collect on the 8 Feb itself...i chose the mickey mouse design..

as for restaurant recommendation, jumbo seafood is gd...citibank credit card got 10% disc but not sure it applies on CNY..their private room spending is min. $350 for one table, it's ok if after the 10% disc it's less than $350. I usually go to the Serangoon Garden Country Club cos' their parking is free..when carpark is full u juz need to velvet park. But rem need to book early, their private room always full.
 
Sunshinekid,

yes, swensens is opened thru out the CNY period, i juz went to order the cake for my elie..abit too early but i scare wait they are full with orders liao, then will b more headache on where to get the cakes...
 
siewlng

i doubt so. But in spore, everything also have to license leh. Like what one of the replies said, even licensing can't prevent food poisoning else the prima deli thing would not have happened.

it's kind of discouraging entrepreneurship coz in spore, any form of cooking food in a home to sell is forbidden. U need to set up a shop to do that.

It's true that some unscrupulous pp cook their food in unhygienic places. But even proper restaurants also are guilty of that. Don't ever step into the kitchen of a restaurant or zi cha store else u won't ever wanna eat there again.

I've a friend who was a waiter before and told me how they would spit into the food of diff customers. So think twice before u complain to the manager.
 
mashy, in order to obtain license, ppl who is venturing into food biz must go thru some form of basic food hygiene training and the food handler must take typhoid injection .
With such control measures, it cannot ensure 100% food safety but at least the risk is lowered.

Do a search on " Typhoid Mary" and you will understand better
 
hi mummies
pai sei... side track. i'm looking for weekend classes for my girl. Besides Growing up Gifted and Julia Gabriels, any others. Or aanyone attended GUG or JG... any reviews?
 
summer

i went GUG and JG before. Didn't like GUG. And if your gals hasn't attended GUG before, she'll have to start from the youngest class for the zoophonics, i.e. she'll be with very young kids. If u want zoophonics, can try the zoophonics school, it's cheaper and lesser children. I went to the one at Thomson, but my boy is not ready for it. So i rather send him to Kinderland and let the teachers supervise him.

As for JG, love it. but very expensive. And there's a long waiting list for the bilinggual class if that's what u want.

U can try Pat's Sch house D Story Club. Haven't tried it before though.
 
mashy..of cos the regulation is more than what i have mentioned..u want me to list all ? LOL..then i have to charge consultation fee liao haha.

I am not sending my gal for any classes but she will be going CC soon in march. Think this stage i just wanna let her play as much as possible. Why the kids nowaday have to go thru so much training?
 
summer,
It really depends on what you are looking for. I think for gym activities, you can try another popular one My gym or JWT gym, which recently incorporated storytelling and craft projects. For music, kindermusik is fine.

VS,
With parents more educated nowadays, we understand the value all these enhancement programmes can do to our kids. Better to let them learn n play then loiter around the house doing nothing or watching tv whole day. Besides, we have to be a bit more kiasu so as not to disadvantage our kids when they enter formal pri school.
 
Vs

Ai yah, no need lah. hahaha. just that the restrictions placed here means u can only sell your food if you have enough money to buy over/lease a factory/shop.

going classes also playing lah. Learning is fun, it shouldn't be seen as just loading with information. Kids like to be challenged, to learn new things everyday. They are naturally inquisitive, curious abt life and wanting to learn more. Curbing such natural inclination is detrimental to their future development. Whether it's in a classroom setting or at home, so long as there's learning taking place then it should be fine. School is definitely better than loitering at home and watching tv whole day long. Beware coz parents' attitude towards learning will also be passed on to the kids.

If there's active learning at home with siblings/friends & active teaching on the parents' part, then there's no real need to start school early. Like some parents let their kids do homeschooling. Teaching doesn't have to be abt alphabets etc, but it has to be there to pass on knowledge like opening bottles, basic counting, stacking, etc.

Since your gal is already going to CC in Mar, then no need to any classes since she'll be taught in the CC.

Actually, to ans your question on why kids need to go thru so much training is very simple. Coz now the families are small compared to last time. We used to have big families, or extended families. We mix with our cousins frequently and we learn from each other. Now, we have very small families, with very few cousins, so lesser knowledge is passed on that way.

And of course, graduates were a rarity last time. Now it's so common everywhere. If u don't catch up, u just get chucked away. Now pri 1 kids are expected to know their alphabets when they enter school. If they don't know by then, they will be the ones to suffer. Now that they've so many years ahead to learn, why not start early? rather than play catch up later.
 
hi mashy
what zoophonics school at Thomson... you mean Thomson Plaza?

I sent my girl for the trial class at GUG and find the chinese teacher not good. I can speak better Mandarin than her. Anyway, i can only send her for weekend classes but GUG weekend class only available in English. Yes, am looking at bilingual classes for JG. I find GUG and JG abt the same?

Vs
actually is more of playing and interaction with the new kids, also i find it would be less daunting on them when they enter proper school.
 
jasmine
i tried Kindermusik when she was much younger, din really like it. thanks, maybe i'll check out the gym classes. Is it expensive?
 
Summer
Here is another course u can consider...
http://www.shichidamethod.com

I have not tried, so dunno good or not? hehe!

For kindermusik, realli depend on which branch n teacher de... like some of the mums here still attending with their kids leh... they went to Tanglin Mall one
 
summer

http://www.zoophonics.com.sg/page3.html
The school is opposite Lakeview.

If u wanna go JG, then have to book now, there's a long waiting list.

If u wanna try gym classes, can try JWT Kids. My boy went there for 2 terms. He loved it there. But I stop now coz he has started attending daily playgroup, so no need to go for gym classes.

Some mummies from Jan thread sent kids to the shichida school. Expensive but seemed quite good. Their kids all can speak quite well already.

U might wanna look into the Jan 06 thread. A lot of the mummies have started their kids on playgroup and many of gone for weekend classes before. A bunch of them attended the JG bilinggual classes together last year. Now some of them are joining a class by Lavinia (forgot the sch's name) next to Serene Centre. I went for a trial class before but my boy wasn't interested.
 
hi siewlng/mashy
any idea how expensive is Shichida method? more ex than JG?

I most prob registering my gal for JG first to be put on waiting list. Can share more why you like JG and dun quite like GUG?

SO many choices...
 
summer

when i went to GUG & JG, my boy was still very young. So may not be relevant to u anymore. However, remember what i said abt your gal probably having to join the younger class since she hasn't been in their sch before? The younger class will be gumming the toys, crawling at this point so not sure whether your gal will enjoy being there or not.

Anyway, one of the major reasons why i didn't sign up at GUG was the service staff were very rude, totally unhelpful, very stuck up. I had every intention to sign up before i went for the trial. But after the trial, i told myself forget it. The room was also rather dirty.

I liked the clean environment in JG. The teachers cleaned up the place before class. And my boy really enjoyed their music class and waterplay.
 
hi
Just curious, when did Singapore education started to implement P1 need to do composition, know mulitplication n division? Correct me if i got the wrong idea about the current education requirement...

Why is it necessary to learn such so early? And idea?
 
siewlng

dunno leh, got such thing? wah, then it's so advance!

I remember reading somewhere though that they are expected to know the multiplication table by P1. Not sure how reliable that is though.
 
BC..cos SG is a nation of super kiasuism..government KS..parents KS..then kids also become KS..we are rearing a generation of KS kids LOL..
 
bc,
think that's the what they will learn in P1, not 'must know' by the time they enter P1.

I asked my frens whose kids in P1 they say the composition is only learning to make simple sentenses from the pics provided. They say is very easy de.

Anyway even with this I also feel that the kids seems to have too much to learn.
 
HI Mummies,
One thing that the kids now learn way much earlier than us is... Han Yu Pin Yin. I rem we only learnt tat in P3 or P4? But now the kids are learning in K2. However, they are learning in a very fun manner.

And.. kids now are learning words like January, February, March, April.. seems v chim hor.
 
Writing alphabets in P1 ah...? Kids now can recite all 26 by 3YO, well, at most 4YO. And by 5YO, they can read and write all liao. Fast hor.

But last time we dun have materials like Letterland to help us remember leh, now they have. And.. I find Leapfrog's Letter Factory very good for kids. They learn so much faster, as it's interesting and rhythmic, so catchy.
 
Siewlng,
My boy started P1 last year. They learned how to write 5 simple sentences descibing a picture with helping words. My boy also got exam for show and tell, where they are given topics beforehand like 'your hobby', 'favourite fruit', etc...then need to present to the whole class leh. Wow, I see liao also scared. As for multiplication tables, not yet lah. Mayb different schs have different pace for the syllabus.
 
Thanks for the replies on syllabus...
Jus wonder y MOE wan our kids start to know all these so early? beside KS? hehe!
Teachers here can gimme any light?
 
siewlng

think the teachers probably won't know either. They just teach whatever is given to them. Should ask the pp at the MOE who set the syllabus.

Maybe coz the kindergarten started teaching the basics? Then the teachers realise that most kids already know their alphabets, so can move on to more diff things?

Then will have to ask why the kindergartens teach the basics so early. But if the kindergartens don't teach the basics, then why go to kindergartens? Think parents will send kids to kindergartens that actually teach them stuff. I remember my mother withdrew me from a kindergarten becoz there wasn't any homework! haha, and that was in the late 70s.

Oops, it just ends back at the parents.
 
sunshinekid

my boy loves the leapfrog talking words factory. He kept watching and watching it. We got it free when we bought the word whammer.

Where can get the letter factory? think i'll get one for him.
 
wow so much talk about education, enrichment classes and all...haha...stressful le...haha

sunshinekid
i also keen in leapad stuff le. Bought a first leapad for Ethan and he seem interested in it as from time to time will pick it up to play.

Personally i feel that if parents are relax kids be relax is parents are KS then kids be KS so think its what we want for our kids lor...
 
Mashy
I feel is opposite way...
I went to visit a few CC le, most of them told me, my kid will be able to meet P1 syllabus. They set their std/ syllabus based on P1 standard loh...

In fact, i bery scare the CC tell me got assignment papers to do de... i siam those CC loh... i have chosen a more "playful" look CC for yj le... i prefer she has positive mood/ thinking towards CC, more for playing... if she happen to pick up something there is a bonus loh.

Aiyo i tot the teachers tat teach will know the MOE objective mah? Jus like we work, our boss/ COE will tell us the "big" picture/ objective mah. If the teachers just teach blindly then is a sad thing leh...
 
Hey ladies,

maybe i can help enlighten on the p1 part cuz I used to be a teacher till 2007 when i started no pay leave and shake leg at home. hahaha

Compo - They are only required to write 5-6 sentences based on a pic with some helping words. We grade them according to the way they write it.

Eg 1 - There is a boy under the tree. (we will give say 7 out of 10 if there is no spelling mistakes, grammar or vocab.)
Eg 2 - There is a tall boy standing under the bushy tree. (This child will be awarded a higher score as she is able to describe the tree and the boy)
However, this will be the case till maybe Term 3. After term 3, they will be taught to write in one paragraph.

By the time they go to p2, they will be taught to write in say 2 or 3 paragraphs thus forming the story. I used to have p2 students writing a 2 full page composition which is really unnecessary.

Multiplication
- They are not so called taught Multiplication in P1 instead are exposed to what we called repeated addition. Of course they all start out to learn simple addition and subtraction. Slowly in Term 3 or Term 4, the teachers might start them on simple repeated addition. This helps alot as they progress from P1 to p2. By end of p2, they would most likely know what is multiplication table of 1 and maybe 2. By the time they reached p3, multiplication are factored into their textbooks as topics. By P4 they will know all their timetable.

So parents fret not. They are really taught things slowly in p1 but as they progress it's a different story lah. Syllabuses are still changing. Now p6 students can use calculator for their math paper. during our time, we can only start using it in sec school.
 


Stella
That's not the one. The one I am talking about is the DVD set. See here:

http://www.amazon.com/Leap-Frog-Letter-Factory/dp/B0000INU6S/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1200391752&sr=1-1

It has 5 DVDs in 1 set, or u can choose to buy individually. My 2 kids love the Letter Factory to bits, even though Gareth oredi knows his 26 letters and the sounds they make.

Can u imagine, we put that DVD in the car DVD player, and they watched it for nearly 1 month, 5 days a week. The journey from Punggol to my mum's house is about 45 mins. Yet they are not bored at all, very captivated by the characters. It's really a good buy.
happy.gif
 

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