Any Mommies in mid-late 30s or over 40 with small children?

Hi Helen,

I save even on specs now. Rather than spend over 300 a pair, I get 2 pairs of those S$60 (frames + lens) sort. My son is rough when he plays so I always have a spare pair. Same-same with contact lenses. My eyes are as fussy as my feet, can't wear contact lenses for more than 3 hours at a stretch. Plus I take forever to put the lenses on! I only miss the larger spending power I had when working but otherwise, I'm spending very little on myself.

Hi Tam,

I used to enjoy buying and using pens too, especially fountain pens but I have a tendency to break nibs because I write fast and hard. I went on a super springcleaning a few years ago and got rid of alot of personal items at the Cash Converters 'cos I really didn't know what else to do with DVDs, pens, bags, dining sets and luggage. Didn't know about this forum at that time and I don't like to keep things I don't need.

Took us 5 trips and an hour each of queueing to clear all the items. Fortunately DVDs were worth about S$5 then so I managed to clear off all our old discs for a few hundred dollars. These days, I only want everything neat and sufficient. In fact, we were so tempted to leave the emac downstairs or give to the karang guni but likely they'll prefer lightweight items so hb turned it into my son's personal DVD player. http://mumusings.blogspot.com/2011/10/home-mumusings-70-reviving-our-emac.html
 


tam.... sorry to sound so suaku.. but what occupations are ur colleagues in?

yesterday was reading the ST..about pp who earn > $2K but yet are in debt (not due to gambling etc) but simply bcos they have medical needs and are not eligible for subsidies. Very sad.
 
Hi Bloom,

Mid Nov even better....nice weather.

If you have the time, do make a cable trip (Nongping 360 deg) to on Lantau Island. Its nice too
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Hi Tam,

We need to have an account on peeka http://buy4u.peeka.sg/ to make online purchases?

Hi Mumusings - I also have tons of VCDs/ CDs to sell.....I can go queue as Cash Converter. Thanks for the tip
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Hi Snowball,

Wait a minute! I don't know how much they will pay for VCD/DVD now. Maybe just 50 cents or 1 buck. We sold ours in 2007/2008 when they were more generous at S$1-S$6.

You could try the Want To Sell Section first by bundling the dics into themes/pricing.
 
Tam

I went to the peeka website but could not make head or tail out of the whole thing. heehee no patience to read through everything. Can u give me a rough idea of how to go abt? i have registered an account but have not started my shopping spree. need your expertise on this. thank u in advance!

Thanks for the app for ipad! i went to buy Ziio from Creative. my elder gal enjoys writing but not my younger one, she will just scribble one or two characters and then skip skip skip haiz.... her concentration will be an issue or should i say IS a issue. any tips on this?
 
aly_nat, bloom

We will be going hongkong for 6D5N. Should have time for Macau, Lantau Island +Disney and Ocean Park, each one day. Dont know where to go for the rest of the days. Any suggestions?

I have booked Lnina hotel,(next to hong kong convention center) about $200per day. Its near the train station but need to transfer line if going to town. But I think as long as hotel is near train station its ok.
 
Bloom

Few months back I have made an enquiry about subsidies in a particular organisation. The person in charge told me that the standard guide is household income must not exceed $2000 for each child. Which means you will only be eligible for your child subsidy if each of the husband and wife earns avg $1000. I wanted to tell her that if I earn $1000 I wouldnt want to have a child at the first place.

Out of the $2000 household income, how much is already spent on necessity like housing, electrical/water/gas, medical, food, milk powder? To survive on $2000 for 2 adults and 1 child is not easy....
 
pantone,
I read from some website about this place called Noah's Ark. Not sure if it is any good.
Will you be going to the Peak?
Don't know HK as this is my first time there. very suaku.
 
Aly_nat
Yes. we will be going the Peak. Probably on the last day since our flight is at night. will check out Noah's Ark. thanks
 
Hi Tamarind! Nice to meet you.
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Wow I didn't know this site was so active...didn't check it for a few days and there are so many messages.

No actually I am an ex-Hwa Chong economics teacher...I left the school a few months ago because I wanted to concentrate on setting up a website, which is www.idiscipulus.com. It's not a tuition centre at all, it's a purely online tool to help parents ask academic questions on behalf of their children. I thought it would be useful because students only pay a few dollars per question asked. Also, the website is intended to break barriers because it gives kids access to the best teachers from all over singapore...being an ex-teacher I have a lot of contacts with other teachers.

I guess it was a big step resigning from my job to focus on my business, but I hope it'll work out in the end. If you have any feedback on my website/whether its business model is feasible I would be most happy to hear your suggestions.
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Yes I am so happy that you found out that "discipulus" means learner in latin! Some people tell me the name is hard to pronounce and hence I should change the name of my website but I thought it had good meaning. What do you think?

Intro, anyone? I feel a bit out-of-place on the forum at the moment, heh.
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Dawn
 
mumusings
i am not very gd at this thing, so will try my best to let u knw how Ziio works. basically there is this penmanship function which enables the learner to write the character and be rewarded certain points. after writing each character, he/she needs to read out the word which seems to me like a "enter" key. i find it quite useful for the learner to remember the pronunciation of the character. after finishing writing all 48 or so characters(need not finis at one go), we can actually submit online to "compete" with other learners(have not gone into this area yet so can't really give u much info)
this tablet also serves as a ebook n u can download foc ebooks. however, compared to my ipad, it does not have as many "children" ebooks, or should i say very limited? hence for reading, i still let my gals use ipad. now this Ziio only serves as a platform for basic word recognition
 
snowball, yep, will be going to big buddha cos hb wants to go. Keep telling him about the cable car and he keep telling me he used to take a bus there last time... ahahahah

pantone, think there are families that have kids despite having income of < $2000. Or maybe pp who lost their jobs after having some kids...

re HK... actually they do have beaches and mountains for hiking and even parks (on HK island or new terriotries) so those interested can try.. just go and pick up one of the travel guide books from the library. Found quite alot of info on it.

There are also some buildings (eg, bank of china) which have viewing platform high up so can go up and see (if u r into bird's eyes view).

Those who don't mind spending abit more can try the half day dolphin trip (dolphins not guaranteed)
 
Hi Pantone,

If you are covering the Peak, think your itinerary is more than enough to cover 6D5N. Actually, I feel that 1D for Lantau Island and Disney is abit rush. We stayed 2N there and feel that its just right.

U can spend sometime at Tsim Sha Tsui. Its a whole stretch of shopping centres linked by underground walkways.
 
mommies, got something to ask...

yesterday my gal complain that the soles of her feet (not leg) is painful again. This is after we did some walking (went for mcD's open doors then abit of shopping) during daytime. Happens once in a while for her. Last night it was so bad that she could not sleep at night (sometimes she got a low threshold of pain). Is this common for kids? Makes me wonder if she got flat foot or if its something else.
 
bloom
my bro has flat foot so his soles do hurt if he excerts too much. u may want to seek professional help and get some remedies since she is still young. I heard it can be "corrected" to certain extend.
 
Hi Bloom,

We made a day trip to 南Y Island when we were there ealier this year. Nice seafood there and they have beautiful beaches. Lotsa walking on the island but my kids did not complain...think it was the nice weather that did the trick. They also enjoyed playing on the ice-cold sandy beach there.

On our shopping day, we dropped by Kowloon Park - A nice park right in the central of Tsim Sha Tsui.

It could be flat foot that makes your gal's feet hurt. Agree with Helen, should bring her to seek professional help while she is still young and can be corrected easily if the problem is not too serious.
 
Hi Bloom,
I am now in the education industry. Before that I was in the manufacturing industry, female engineers are even more chin chye. I knew a female manager who wore the same old clothes (not branded) for almost 10 years.


snowball,
Yes you need to create an account in peeka, it is free. Their shipping rates include delivery to your home.


helen,
Basically you just paste the link and peeka will order it for you. For dangdang books, you also need to enter the price, quantity, etc. Then you need to transfer money to their bank account and they will order for you at dangdang.com.


aly_nat,
Noah's Ark location is very remote. It is best to choose a hotel beside the MTR since it is your first time there.



Hi Dawn,
OIC thank for explaining. We are all mothers who have children in primary school, some are not even in primary school yet. I am a full time working mother with 2 kids, P1 and P2.

Your website is interesting. I think that the name is great, very suitable. I suggest that you post in this forum :
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum

That forum is full of very kiasu parents who are very concerned with their kids' studies and will stop at nothing to push their kids into the top secondary schools. I admit I am also kiasu lah but I am mild compared to some others who make their kids memorize model compositions for 7 hours a day.

Actually there are many people from tuition centers offering free consultation service there. There are also other experts who claim that they are not trying to promote their business, just trying to help others by giving free consultation
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BTW, what are you opinions about making kids memorize model compositions ? Do you think it works ?
 
re flat foot, where to seek professional help? Or anyway to differentiate between flat foot vs normal foot for layman like me (else later go there and professional laugh at me :p)
 
Hi Bloom,
I also have flat feet. From my research, the only way is to wear shoes with good arch support. Doctors cannot do anything.

You can wet your feet, then put a foot print on the floor. A person with normal feet, should show a curve inwards. A person with flat feet will be just straight on the sides.

My girl also has flat feet but no complains about painful feet. It is best to bring your girl to see a doctor if the pain is prolonged.
 
thanks re flat foot.. did a google and found that polyclinic do have such services.. will continue to monitor for a while (cos yesterday she happens to be wearing one of those buy-from-market kind which might not be very comfortable for long walks...
 
snowball, how to go to this 南Y Island ? Sounds good (I borrow the books but did not read all the outlying parts cos was thinking no time..but this sounds nice!)


Edited : silly me. Googled. Its Lamma island...
 
Tam
how do peeka charge for shipping? it is so wordy..... for dangdang, i know i just need to add 50% on top of the total.

ooo...now u r in the education industry? so u have better idea wat is going on now in there. pretty challenging eh?
 
Hi Helen,
Peeka charged by volume.
For example, my parcel of 35 books was 39cmx22cmx27cm, shipping was $21.27. You would not know the size of your parcel so you cannot estimate the shipping. If you order less than 30 books, your shipping should be less than mine.

I teach at a level higher than O levels. My students are those who did not make it to JCs. Thank goodness I did not go and teach at primary and secondary schools, I don't like the MOE syllabus :p I have the freedom to develop my own module and decide what to teach.
 
Hi Tamarind,

For me, I used to give a kid in primary school tuition in English. I got her to remember lists of adjectives. What markers don't like are run-off-the-mill descriptions in children's compositions. They like originality. So if the composition topic requires the child to describe his/her feelings, and he/she keeps using the word "frightened", the marker would probably give a very average mark for expression/grammar. You could encourage your children to use more interesting expressions, for example (depending on the context), instead of "frightened" she could say "petrified", "transfixed in fear", "stupefied", etc etc. Or instead of using the word "happy", she could say "elated", "overjoyed", "ebullient" or something like that, as usual, depending on the context.

I wouldn't get him/her to memorise an essay wholesale, partly because I think children don't really like to memorise things, and partly because it could kill their love for the subject. Instead I'd get them to remember lists of adjectives. I think it helps greatly. My tuition kid used to fail her essays, but after a month or so she began to pass pretty well.

Anyway, I have an article coming up on the Singaporemotherhood website that the editor asked me to write; the topic is on exam tips...do take a look at it.
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I talk about composition techniques.

Thanks for the advice regarding the Kiasuparents website.
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Hee, when I become a mum, will probably need everyone's advice as well!
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Dawn
 
Hi Dawn,
Thanks for sharing. I share the same thoughts as you about making children memorize entire essays. Many parents are killing the child's interest in learning this way.
 
Hi all,

I am soooo glad to have found this thread. I was beginning to feel old around here
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I am a relatively new member of the forum. Many years ago (ahem!) I was with another forum board (can't remember the name), but when we moved to CA 6 years ago, I kind of forgot about it and my account was terminated.

I recently started going online to search for forums in SG to connect with SG mums again and found this! I wanted to stay in touch with what's going on in SG from a parent point of view. The news websites always only tell one perspective.

I am a SAHM with a 7yo and 3yo. In between driving them to school &amp; classes, groceries and all, I manage an online shopping &amp; shipping service (facebook.com/shophubusa) for US products for SG.....just my way of earning my keep around the house
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Hi Dawn/ Redvelvet,

Welcome to this forum
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Hi Tam,

Thanks for sharing about peeka.com. I will probably use then the next time I need to buy books from dang dang. Let my DD1 finish the 四五快读 first.
 
Hi redvelvet,
Welcome and feel free to chat about anything. Do you mean that you are not staying in SG now ?

snowball,
You are welcome.
 
Tam
Thank u. Will have to give it a try as I do not like to keep troubling my friend to order books for me. she only charges me 20% on top of the total for shipping.

wow teaching at tertiary level is not ez. i am contemplating whether i shld go back to teach. wil be meeting the P tmrw.... dilemma....
 
Hi Bloom,

Yes, its lamma island. We have actually planned a day for outlaying islands in our last trip to HK. U need to take a 45-min ferry from HK island to get to the island. I find the island very peaceful and soothing to visit....something nice away from the busy HK mainland. When u do go there, do remember to take their cold beancurd （冻豆花) there...very smooth and nice
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We actually wanted to go another fishing island (Dai "O") on a corner of Lantau Island but my 2 kids were too tired to go after spending the morning at Disneyland.
 
Hi snowball and Tamarind,

thanks very much.

Yes, I'm not living in SG now. We've been in CA for almost 7 years and have a few trips back to SG. But somehow, every time we've been back, we've found so many familiar things gone...the food, the places...and it just gets more populated
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Perhaps the only things tying us back to SG are our friends and family.

With our kids getting to school age, I decided to start my online shopping &amp; shipping service sometime back. In the beginning, I wasn't familiar with the 'working world' as it were
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I had horrible experiences with vpost and decided I had enough of them, so I started doing everything by myself..shopping, packing, repacking, mailing. It's kind of like taking my love for shopping one step further
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Hi helen,
You teach primary or secondary school ? I think it is most difficult to teach primary school mainly because of discipline issues.

I find it very easy to teach my students, because most of them are not academically inclined and only aim to pass. I actually enjoy teaching them because I don't need to face kiasu parents who only know how to complain about the education system.

BTW I heard that some kiasu parents of primary school kids are using secondary school science books to prepare them for PSLE, and these parents blame the education system.
 
"BTW I heard that some kiasu parents of primary school kids are using secondary school science books to prepare them for PSLE, and these parents blame the education system."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! u r kidding!!!!!!!

redvelvet, saw ur website.. do u do only certain websites or all? Shipping (ie, not air post) too? Cos at one point I was eyeing some bulky stuff (a few kgs) but air posting was so expensive
 
Hi Tam
I used to teach in primary for abt 10 yrs den took no pay leave till now since No. 2 comes along.

Oooo..using secondary text? tat's something really beyond! but my gal in K1 came back telling me abt oesophagus etc cos they were taught digestive system...wow i only learnt this when I was in secondary school taking Biology! hahaha if only they let kids use the text becos of the love for sci, it is a difft story eh?

Hi redvelvet
u came to the right thread! haha i love online shopping too! guess who intro me to this? MY HUBBY! heeheehee dunno if he regretted telling me abt this, cos i have been shopping since then hahaha
 
Hello everyone,

Greetings from grand canyon.

Tam and Snowball
Thanks for info on weather.com.Greatly appreciate it.Weather here is super cold.

Dawn
Welcome onboard.

Sci and compo memorising
Having finished PSLE exam with dd this year, feel that its not necessary to use secondary school text to gather info.What psle is testing, is still using the basic knowledge in pri and applied to a bigger context.
For Eng compo, dd just remember some phrases that she got it from the story book,For chinese, she has many good phrases.But, towards the end, she has some time, she managed to memorise some good compos of her own and very lucky, she spot on this year psle chinese compo.So, luck does play a part in the exam.

Have a great weekend all.

Cheers,
Joy
 
bloom, helen,
Those are very kiasu parents who want to push their kids to learn as much as possible, in the hope that they can get into the top secondary schools. It does not make sense for them to blame the education system, because if they are not so kiasu, they don't have to make their kids study secondary school science textbooks and their kids can still score A*. Nowadays getting A* is not enough for some parents, because even if a child gets A* for all 4 subjects, his PSLE score may still be lower than 260 and cannot get into RI/RGS/HCI/NYGS etc. If parents want their kids to get into these top schools, they must be prepared to work hard themselves (or pay a lot of money for tuition). They cannot blame the education system for not helping their kids achieve that. No education system in the world can ensure that all children get into the top schools and universities.

Something even more shocking. Some of the students who are among the top 15 PSLE scholars last year have already completed A level maths and scored A when they were in P6 ! I believe that some of these kids may be really gifted and love maths. But I think there are many parents who are pushing their kids to do O and A level maths, thinking that they will do better in PSLE. Kids will definitely be very stressed when they are pushed to do far beyond their ability and this is their parents' fault.

I am resigned to the fact that my younger boy will go to an average secondary school and may even go to poly. He loves to read and he loves to learn a very wide range of general knowledge. But he is totally not exam smart. I am just going to let him progress at his own pace and I am not going to kill his love for learning.
 
Hi Tamarind,Bloom &amp; helen chng,

We are enjoying life in CA. The kids love it here too. I guess life here is really all that they know. When we came, our daughter was only 8mths old, so she practically grew up here. Our son was born here, so I guess that makes him a 'local'!

Ha ha...like any kiasu SG parent...of cos our kids attend enrichment classes! Gym, swimming &amp; mandarin classes!! I'm also getting my girl to do SG exam papers as well!! Typical right?

thanks for visiting my website and FB page
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We can order from ANY website! ANYTHING!! ANYTIME!!...legal of course
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clothes, shoes, books, baking stuff, men's stuff, beauty, vitamins, ...whatever...Because we live here, so there is no problem with US credit card, no international shipping etc. By 'shipping', I mean by airmail. But because of my previous experience with vpost and SG local courier, I don't use them anymore. I spent 3 weeks trying to clear a billing problem with vpost and engaged in email ping-pong with at least 5 different customer service officers!! It was infuriating!! So I decided to do everything by myself.

I LOVE online shopping! I've bought everything from clothes, shoes, books, camping tent, airbed, even a wok!! ha ha ha!!

I can see from the forum that there are alot of members here participating in sprees. Mine is different because I handle everything personally..from purchasing to packing to mailing. I can also hold your items from different websites, get rid of excess packaging, repack into a more optimum size, so as to reduce shipping cost.

We are also going to introduce a gift service soon for the holidays
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So you can order a gift from any online shop and we will gift wrap it and mail it directly to your recipient....saves you the trouble of having to gift wrap and resending it right? Let me know if any of you are interested
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Bloom : if you don't mind letting me know what it was that you wanted to purchase and what the shipping cost was. I can help check it out for you. No obligation. Don't worry
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You can send me a PM.
 
Tam
yup my younger gal is not the exam smart type too. unlike the elder sis. so i am going to send both to the same neighborhood pri sch and let them "grow" naturally. As parents, we will try our best to nurture them, i grew up not having tuitions until i needed help in A math. Enjoyed my childhood playing with my neighbors n my siblings, hope my gals can enjoy too. very often, i see parents so busy sending kids for enrichment, i ponder: am i doing the "right" thing not sending my gals to classes? am i alien or wat? i feel so sad when kids have to go for these classes not becos they wan it but mummies n daddies said it is "good" for them... mayb not working and having lesser $ "saved" my kids from attending these classes.
now they only go for inline skating as they wanted to skate like Barbie in the show....geez....tot it will be a good form of excercise since they dun swim

just came back from meeting the P. and she tot i am going back as a FULL time tr! no way man! at least not now, when my gals need me.

yah! more shopping! thanks redvelvet! hahaha
 
btw Tam
parents aim to send to top schs but the other day i just witnessed 3 NYGH girls sitting in the train and not giving up their seats for an elderly lady1 i was so angry. 2 of them were playing handphone! n 1 was busy studying Chinese! Wat is top sch with low moral kids?
did u read abt the toddler who died becos no one stopped to lend a helping hand when she was knocked down by a van? is our society becoming like tat too?

I want my gals to grow up with good moral values academic is secondary. told my P(used to teach in "branded" sch) my A* do not show now. my A* show up many years down the road..... but she did not buy it and wanted me to "model after my colleague" who is an "excellent" tr in her view. Result: I have more pupils who scored A* in their PSLE and this colleague suffered depression and left service..... geezz...wat does it say??? glad i still keep my sanity
 
Hello mummies!

NSW English proficiency test- wonder how many schools actually got the students to sit for this test? Is it most schools or only very few?? My P2 gal got her results, but I was thinking, the cohort will certainly not be all P2 students in S'pore- mayb only selected schools??

Primary school education should be broad level and less exam-focused....but we have evolved to focus so much on results....I wonder how to reverse that???
 
Fairy, Yawn,
My gut feel is NSW test not commonly introduced in neighborhood schools. My dd's school also don't have.

Dawn, redvelvet,
Welcomed!!

Tam,
I think some kids are just more suited for the Poly route. And they will still make it in life. Just that everyone has a different yard stick to measure what is "make it".

Joy,
Luck aside, I think your dd is one of those with "potential" to do well. Did she apply for any sec school through DSA?
 
Hi ladies,

Can someone enlighten me please? What is this NSW test?

And one more exciting thing for us shopping-lovers!! KATE SPADE is having a 30% sitewide sale for 3 days. Go and check out the deals! Running out fast....a handbag i was eyeing just ran out
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We are offering special international shipping rates. You can check them out at www.facebook.com/shophubusa or http://shophubusa.blogspot.com

I need to shop now!!!
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aly nat

You can feedback to principal to sign up then. It's only a few dollars, cheap cheap. Not the standard moe syllabus kind of stuff. I find the test interesting leh, good exposure for the kids, not just revolve around moe syllabus. kids of similar age in other countries taking the same paper


fairy

your dd did well for the test?
 


Hi Aly_nat,

Yes, she has already dsa into one girl school but she still prefers to another girl;s school.So, really has to dep on psle results.She really worked very hard for the psle, pity her, cos I walked the entire journey with her.

Cheers,Joy
 
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