What can we do during the school holidays ?

Fret no more... here are some suggestions on what you could do with your kids during the upcoming holidays... I am considering going for some of these with my kiddos : ). Anybody who have been or tried any of the following can give your comments.


1. Nature and outdoors

• Forest and Tree top adventure - a place to rough it out through obstacle course. Venue at Bedok Reservoir. Kid min height must be 1.1m

http://www.forestadventure.com.sg/

• Visits to the Singapore Botanic Gardens - Jacob Ballas for kids or the Hort Park

http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=parks&id=17&Itemid=73

• Kids' skating classes - did a trial once with Skate with Us..not too bad..just that didn't sign on the course due to other commitments on weekends. They have holiday program for inline skating and ice skating..cool idea right ?

http://www.skate-with-us.com/

• Join the Singapore Sport Council - Sport on kids club for regular sporting activities for kids. Activities fees are much much cheaper if you are a member.

http://www.sportonkidsclub.com.sg/

2. Indoor Activities

• Clay Cove - get your hands busy with clay making into all sorts of stuff

http://www.claycove.com/

• Baking classes

- Genius R Us - they hv baking and other classe. Located in Tg Pagar

http://www.geniusrus.com/

- The famous bakerzin

http://www.bakerzin.com/schedules.asp at UE Sq. My ex-colleague recently brought her two kids there (11,6), they enjoyed the fun while the mum is having tea with her girlfriends...her comment was is fun though pretty expensive. Each kid cost $42.

• Surf the local PA website for holiday programs in the CCs.

http://www.pa.gov.sg/

• Art Classes

http://www.globalart.com.sg/

• Dance classes

http://www.crestar.com.sg/ - several locations. My daughter is currently learning classical ballet. Pretty good and they offer Royal Academy Dance (UK) curriculum and exams.

http://www.jitterbugs.com/ - Millenia Walk

• Speech and Drama

- Julia Gabriel's

http://www.juliagabriel.com/

- Act 3 International

http://www.act3international.com.sg/

- Tien Hsia

http://www.tienhsia.com/

3. Educational and Farm Tours

1. Hay's Diaries - Highly Recommended !

If is a large group, pre-booking is required and they will conduct a tour for you. There is an admission fee for this farm but they will give you a free bottle of fresh goat's milk.

http://www.haydairies.com.sg/


2. Farmart - I find it quite commercial. Small shops selling quail eggs, acquarium etc..is like visiting different shops but all confined at a big Mart.


http://www.farmart.com.sg/farmtours.html


3. Bolloywood vegetables farm - haven't been there myself but heard from friends it is interesting

http://www.bollywoodveggies.com/



4. Pasir Ris Kids Kampong - My kids went with their Kindergarten last year and enjoyed themselves very much. They liked the farm tour plus the long kang fishing.. they were thrilled to be able to bring the fishes home.

http://www.prkidskampong.com/

Enjoy !!

Chinese websites for kids

Some of the parents have asked if I have any good recommended sites for Chinese learning. These are the ones that I know and find it quite good. Any parents out there have any sites to share ? Pls feel free to email me so that I can post it here.

http://www.zbcomma.sg/friday/tu.html

MOE site for chinese learning for both primary and secondary levels (based on MOE curriculum and text) - recommended !

http://www1.moe.edu.sg/dir/cl/

Toys R Us May Day Toys Bazzar

More info can be found at the website :

http://www.toysrus.com.sg/newsletter/ToysBazaar0904/en.html

June Holiday Program - Children's Season 2009 at the Museum

Time flies really and we are going into the 5th mth of the year. With exams just round the corner for my eldest daughter who is in Primary 1, I am just very excited with the upcoming June Holidays ! I just feel the need for a break too from all the rigors of revision, preparing for oral, exams, homework.... unlike last year.

I always like to bring my kids for fun and hands-on activities or exhibitions where they will learn through play. Last year, we went to the children's mozart exhibitions and they enjoyed v. much !

If you are not travelling or just thinking where to bring your kids this holiday, do consider the National Museum.

http://www.nationalmuseum.sg/nms/nms_html/nms_content_6d.asp?content_template=4&content_id=4&tab_id=4&cine_id=1288&fest_id=2

Happy bonding and fun time !

Primary 1 english oral exam tips

My primary 1 daughter will be having her Primary 1 oral exam from 21/4 to 23/4. Many of my friends are surprised that she still has SA1 as many schools in Singapore have already scrap CAs and SA1.

Anyway, it seems that she is not stress about it ..which is good. Thought it will be a good exposure for her to experience how a oral exam is conducted and what she needs to do. Hopefully the feedback and pointers from the teacher after the exam will help her to be more ready when it comes to SA2.

I have scanned and attached some pointers of what they need to do and what not to do during oral exams and how parents can help their kids. Guessit will benefit those parents of pre-schooling kids (going P1) and those P1 parents whose kids will be having it at the end of the year.

Open the link below :

http://parentslobang.bravehost.com/Oral%20exam%20tips%20_P1_april09.pdf

Singapore Maths

While we are all complaining how difficult learning maths is now as compared to those times when we learnt our 1, 2, 3 ..other countries found that our Singapore method of learning to be best and most effective. So take heart, our efforts of teaching our kids the modeling way will pay off : )

See video :

Lost Generation - let's pray that our kids will be a generation that rise up and not lost !

First heard about this "Lost Generation" poem in church...my sister just send me this you tube video and I listened to it again..the person who wrote this is really igenious...reading forward and backwards gives a totally different meaning altogether.

Get more discounts in Borders (better than 10% for members !)

These discount coupons have saved me much $$ and because of the good discounts I have been getting books for my kids and friends' kids for their birthday, christmas etc.. I believe that books are the best pressies : )

This is a well kept secret but some of you may have know about this lobang from your friends already. You don't have to be a member to get this discount..sometimes up to 35% (plus 10% if u are a member). Yes , is a near 45% discount off the prices and is applicable to BARGAIN books as well.

So you must be thinking how to get the discounts now rite ???

Simply go to http://borders.com.sg/(choose the tab "Borders Mail" ) to sign up as an online member.. they will send you the newsletter each fortnight with different promotions. So wait for the 30% or the 35% coupon. You'll need to print out the coupon.

Enjoy shopping and most important inculcate the love for reading in your child

Sites for teaching reading to kids

I couldn't emphasize the importance of reading even more until now when my eldest child is in Primary 1 this year. She has been a good reader since young and I thank God that she is able to read even before she enters Pri 1. She is now reading junior novels like Enid Blyton, Geronimo Stilton, Rainbow Magic etc. With the level of standard and the type of work that they are expected to do, I wonder what will happen to the poor kid who enters P1 without knowing how to read or write in English. Just for info to those parents whose kids are still preschoolers - P1 students are expected to write composition in 5 sentences based on a picture (wonders how some kids can manage if they enter P1 not knowing how to read), grammer, vocabulary, matching pictures to what the teacher says "eg Mother is talking to a grocer", match pictures based on similar sounds eg match a picture of a tyre with the sound of tie (teacher reading aloud the word "tie")




For those with preschooling kids, do get them ready for Primary 1 especially in the area of reading...it is really a gift of a lifetime and not a kiasu act.


Some recommended sites are -

1. http://www.starfall.com/ - highly interactive and fun


2. http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/books/step/ - recommended books for each reading levels. You can search for these books at our public libraries


3. http://resources.kaboose.com/games/read1.html - they have reading games



I also recommended the Leapfrog DVD phonic series..these are the ones that boost up my kids' interest in phonics and help them to read earlier ( i truly believe). There is one for maths - maths circus..my kids loved to watch over and over again. You can buy them at amazon.com or in ebay (US)

HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY - GOD LOVES YOU !

Exam papers for free download

With this impending gloomy economic crisis , who will not welcome something that is FOC (Free-of-charge) ? (esp for SAHMs like me)

Here are the links to the downloadable exam papers. Tks to some of my friends who pointed me the rest of the sites that offers 2008 papers : )

Pts to note : There are far too many pages to be printed, so it will be best if you choose what you would like to print first..anyway your poor kid cant finish everything rite ? For me, I choose to print those questions that is applicable for her level at this moment (eg print all the Han Yu Pin Yin portion ), just to reinforce some concepts and to do it as a revision for her upcoming tests. Be kind to the trees too, BE GREEN, use recycled papers or print them as double pages.

1) http://www.misskoh.info/08primary1.html

2) http://www.universaltuitionlink.com/download.php (this one has 2008 papers !)

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PSLE Oral exam tips

Time flies and we are already into the 1st month of the 2nd term. For parents with kids taking the PSLE this year, I hope you are still keeping your sanity - try not to get too stressful and edgy now... Is about 5 more mths to the BIG day so try to pace your child in his revision. Set a home timetable, if you haven't - otherwise it will be very stressful for both your and your child when it comes to last minute revisions. PSLE will be testing on concepts from Pri 3 - Pri 6 and not just Pri 6 work only...so there's really alot of revision to do !

To help you relieve some PSLE fever & stress, below is a very humourous 5 mins video (produced by Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' primary school) of how to help your PSLE kid prepare for his oral exam. In fact, this video is so light-hearted and funny, it is suitable for kids for any levels to take a look and get some useful tips of what to do and what not to do during oral exams. Enjoy and let me know if you like it ok ?

http://www.evideo.edu.sg/vat_programme.asp?id=4&cat=1&level=Primary

Happy revision !!

Welcome to Parents' Lobang - a High 10 to all of u !!

Having been proscratinating for a long time..finally get down to do a parents' resources blog for all my friends, ex-colleagues relatives etc.

U see, I am informally labelled as the "lobang queen" (for non-singaporean it means resource queen) by some of my ex-colleagues and church friends especially in the area of parenting and/or children related stuff. How is this idea started ? I used to email them about this lobang and that, this newspaper article, the different holiday programs available at the malls etc. Some of them used to tell me "Gerri, can you put all these fantastic information on the web so that we can refer to it frequently and know where to get it when we need it..we simply can't keep track of the emails that are sent to us"....so here it is !! The idea of parents' lobang is finally conceived !

Having being a SAHM for 2 over years, I must confess that I have slightly more time to surf the web for parents' resources to help my kids in different areas. Besides being a SAHM, I am also a Family educator giving parenting talks, workshops to pre-schools and primary schools as well as a Education coach in a local pte institution that teaches students how to excel both in their studies and in life. Phew !! Sounds like a mummy of all trades isn't it but definitely NOT a master of none hee hee..


I hope that this blog will serve as a common area for parents to drop by to check out the available resources that are found on the web, the latest buzz happening for parents and children and almost anything or everything that revolves around parenting, kids etc.

Most of all I hope that all of you, parents are there can contribute and share your thoughts, lobangs etc !!

See u on this blog ,
Gerri