▎ Hi all, ▎ I’m a dad with a P6 daughter this year. Like many of you, I’ve been stressing about PSLE prep — especially Maths and Science. She goes for tuition but I wanted something she could use at home for daily practice that actually helps her understand her mistakes, not just drill more questions. ▎ I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I built one myself. I’m a software engineer and I spent the last few months putting together an app called PSLE Tutor (https://psle.itutorsg.com). My daughter has been using it as my “beta tester” and it’s been helpful enough that I thought I’d share it here. ▎ What it does: ▎ The main thing that makes it different is the AI coaching. When my daughter gets a Maths question wrong, instead of just showing the answer, the app analyses where she likely went wrong and gives her step-by-step hints to work through it herself. It also tracks which topics she’s weak in and automatically gives her more practice in those areas. ▎ Right now it’s strongest in Maths and Science, which are the two subjects my daughter needed the most help with. There’s English practice too (grammar, vocabulary, cloze) but that’s still a work in progress. ▎ What it’s NOT: ▎ - It’s not KooBits. KooBits has 100,000+ questions and has been around for years. My question bank is around 4,300+ questions. It’s smaller, but the AI generates additional practice questions based on your child’s weak areas, so it doesn’t run out easily. ▎ - It’s not a replacement for tuition or school work. It’s meant as a daily supplement — 15-20 minutes a day kind of thing. ▎ - It’s not made by a big company. It’s just me, a dad who codes. So the app doesn’t have fancy gamification or class leaderboards like the bigger platforms. ▎ What it costs: ▎ - There’s a free tier so you can try without paying anything ▎ - Basic plan is S$9.90/month (2 subjects, AI coaching, past year papers) ▎ - Premium is S$14.90/month (adds priority AI grading and detailed analytics) ▎ - Cancel anytime, no lock-in ▎ I’m sharing this here because I genuinely want feedback from other PSLE parents. If your child tries it and something doesn’t work well, or you think a feature is missing, I’d really like to hear it. I’m actively developing the app and parent feedback is the most useful input I can get. ▎ If you have any questions about how it works, happy to answer here. ▎ Link: https://psle.itutorsg.com ▎ Thanks for reading!

Hey everyone I’m researching screen time challenges for young kids and would love 5 minutes of your honest input. Would mean a lot if you could fill this in. It’s anonymous and takes about 3 minutes. https://sjlmethod2.netlify.app/

@LaserEye I like that you laid it out for her that way; it’s very clear. My husband is a teacher, so we get to hear his stories too. In fact recently something happened at one of his school camps, which was similar to what you recounted. Just musing on this: Sometimes, it can be very surprising/hurtful/jarring when we’re on the receiving end of negative behaviours. And we might feel that if we had caused any pain, even accidentally, we would have displayed much more care. In most instances, how we handle these situations says a lot about our personality and values, and our ability to manage our own emotions. At the same time, some parents could be facing multiple stressors, e.g. financial/caregiving pressures or marital breakdowns/personal issues, which might lead to the avoidance patterns that you described…

@rinsider said: Besides tuition, how do parents nowadays try to incorporate Chinese into their kids’ lives actively? Especially if you were weak in the language yourself? My son (now Sec 3) has a millennial tutor, but he’s more of a friend/mentor, so these sessions are enjoyable. In the past, we had asked our tutor to take my son and his friends on outings, like to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. Apart from that, I had hired my friend’s daughter (early 20s) for a small fee, to have conversations and play games with my son. But ultimately I think if we don’t speak the language in our daily life, it’s quite hard to improve!

@rinsider said: @sharonkhoo my daughter is 20. Nearly a legal adult! 🤭 My kids have closed their doors for years, but in recent months, she has been locking her door. She’s had a phone since 16. So I can’t understand this recent behaviour. She said she wants to “isolate” herself. Have been feeling bad and At 20, you can’t really dictate her behaviour without a strong reason. On the other hand, if this is a recent change, I think you should try to find out more. Try to find out why she’s changed? Why the need to isolate? Has something happened in school/uni/whatever she’s doing at the moment outside the home? You probably need to find a good time to ask gently. It could be something to do with friends/boy friend, or studies/work etc. A reason you could give for not wanting internal doors locked for long periods is for safety reasons. Privacy can be assured if everyone knocks and waits when the door is closed; in emergencies, a locked door makes response time longer. This is a perfectly reasonable request as you are ultimately responsible for safety of all the residents. You could start with this and see if it opens up more info about why she wants to lock her door.

@genghis25 I used to subscribe to Geniebook. You can consider subscribing to it.

Do let us know more about the situations that you’re facing Sometimes explosions will just happen, despite our best intentions… We’re only human too! Haha I will close the windows so that the neighbours can’t hear as much. For me, I like to recover quickly — I have usually approached my kids after about 30mins to an hour, to hug and make up. Not everything has a clear “solution,” but hopefully everyone can feel loved.

My kid was using ChatGPT to copy full answers for maths/science homework, they weren’t learning anything. So as a software guy, I purposely built a hint mode into an AI app I made called Acepal.net It provides hints that guide thinking without directly giving the answer. My kids are actually learning now instead of cheating! Feel free to try it

My kid was using ChatGPT to copy full answers for maths/science homework, they weren’t learning anything. So as a software guy, I purposely built a hint mode into an AI app I made called Acepal.net It provides hints that guide thinking without directly giving the answer. My kids are actually learning now instead of cheating! Feel free to try it

@SgtSnooze who are the “we” running the survey? At least disclose your training company name la.