When helping your child to choose a tertiary institution for higher education, it is important to do your homework before you and your child commits on the university and course of study. Here are some suggestions on what to look out for if your child has just completed “A” levels or Poly diploma and wish to consider higher education.

1. Ensure that the local service provider (or private institution) is established
I know this can be difficult to determine, but visit their websites and their offices/ local campuses to have an idea on how big the campuses are. It helps if the service provider is an established brand name in Singapore and has been around for some time. You don’t want to sign up and they run away with your money.

However, having said that, nothing is guaranteed. A few years ago, even an established service provider closed down due to mismanagement.

When my child was in P4, I was clueless about what a DSA portfolio is. There was the Social Studies portfolio, the creative writing one but nothing about this dsa portfolio.

To have a better idea, we attended the dsa briefings while my boy was in P5 and P6, and looked at the ones prepared by former students who were invited back to the school. (Thank you, particularly Claire-NUSH, for sharing yours. )

The one I’m sharing below is suitable for academic and GEP DSA applicants. I'm not saying it's compulsory to have a portfolio; please check and the decision's yours whether you wanna prepare anot. It’s definitely not recommended for applying for music/sports/sota/sst/sss etc. I’ve seen a kid submit a scrapbook which really stands out from the plain ones like my son’s and I’ve seen those who couldn’t be bothered and handed in only a measly portfolio of a few pages.

Hi, my son is in GEP and enjoying the program. This week, the MOE folks are telling me that he is of a different level, and he will be going to join one level higher for certain subjects as recommended by the school. He will also be doing some advanced subjects at 3-4 years ahead.

Thing is, being #4, I had no time for him. He did not attend K2, just sat around the house, because he was so bored. No enrichment class, no flash cards, no nothing. But, he reads at 3, spoke at 6 months, and could do most things earlier. I believe he learnt to read through the comics at 3, and he learnt secondary school maths by reading his siblings text books. I still have not figured out how he learnt negative numbers and simultaneous equations when he was 7.

Now, a proud mother? No. There are just so many other issues a mother has to handle with such kids. Jealousy from his classmates, expectation of him since he has the brains, his immatured behavior due to his other disabilities and sensitivities.

My sons have a memory like a sieve. Ask them to recall things and they flop at it. What did they do in school? What did they wear this morning? What did Grandma say when she called earlier? All these draw a blank – all I get is a sort of glazed look.

Friends say this could be a “boy thing” or is it because the school-day always passes by in a blur? It worries me somewhat, especially when they have tonnes of facts to remember and regurgitate in exams. It would be a bad idea to forget, for example, that spiders come under arachnids (not insects!) and salamanders are amphibians (not reptiles!).

Experts say that a good memory is linked to good school performance and that is not hard to believe. As a way to improve my children’s memory, what I do is play memory games with them. These are fun, help the boys focus and are good on long-ish car trips.

Here is one game we love playing:

Name of game:
I pack my bag... 

Players:
Two or more players (kids must have some inkling about spelling and general knowledge)

How to making reading interesting and becomes a lifetime habit?  Why not start a book club?  It's really simple -- a reading group or a book club is just a bunch of friends who decide to read the same book and then get together to talk about it.  It's easy, and it's lots of fun! Here are some tips on how to get a club started.

The following has inspired me greatly and I hope it will do the same for others too.

A Note to the Home Educating Parent

Recently, I have had several opportunities to speak to local homeschool groups on the
topic ‘Keeping the Joy in the Homeschool Journey’. I offer the following excerpt from
that talk as an encouragement and an exhortation to you.

“Richer than I you can never be-
I had a Mother who read to me.”
~ Strickland Gillilan

Read, read, read to your child. I cannot emphasize this strongly enough.
Take it from a mom of grown children - this is a fleeting opportunity,
so treasure the time reading with your child. And keep reading to your
child even as he reaches the teen and young adult years. The ideas,
characters, and language in the books you read together will become part
of the ‘language’ of your family, and give you countless opportunities for
discussion.

There is no one method that can work magic and teach all young kids to read. In fact, it's more than just one method that will start a child to take interest in reading. Aside from parents sharing their own experience, many experts have also shared their part. In KSP, we have buds to share on phonics. Years ago, another early childhood educator has also kindly shared her views on reading. Here's the link http://www.baybsupplies.biz/forum/topic.asp?topic_id=7910 .

And in another forum a few years ago, I participated in an interesting discussion with other mommies on phonics http://www.singaporemotherhood.com/forumboard/messages/36738/1161065.html?1196044030 .

Leaning Chinese will never be boring. The simple flashcards are not only use for recognition of chinese character, but also can use in different way, such as
reviewing words learnt, making words & sentence, practice child's math skill (multiplication, addition, substration).

I am using "Zi Bao Bao" flashcard. Normally the lower primary students will be required to purchase.

1. I ask my child to lay the cards on the table in rows. She has to read the card when she display it.

2. once she has done, she needs to calculate how many cards in each row and how many rows. e.g. 7 cards in each row, there were 3 rows.
so she will use multiplication to calculate the total. 7x3=21cards

3. We start to play game. Each person can collect the cards whenever she/he can match two cards or more card to create words or sentence or idoms. Whoever has the more cards gathered wins the game. (addition, substraction will be needed in this case).

My girl loves to play this game with me. In the meantime, I also temporarily put down my serious/fierce face during study time, and enjoy my bonding time with her too.