The Alternative Story (TAS) - Discussion

[Atan]

firefly38:

CHC123:

Hi firefly 38, my child also in TTL P3 this year. Hearing of so many good reviews so tempted to consider TAS. But can anyone advise which branch is better?

hi CHC123, if we do sign up with TAS, it will be with AMK Branch as it is nearer to my house. your child is DS or DD? mine is DS and he is attending TLL on sat afternoons. maybe my DS and your DS/DD are classmates!

btw, any reason(s) why you are considering a change? for me, its the costs, distance and DS' progress, which is not much at this moment (but to be fair to TLL, my DS only joined in june this year).

Dear firefly38 and CHC123, my DS (P3 weekday class) joined TLL since Jan this yr and TAS creative writing class at Bt Timah (pure writing only) since July. I didn't sign him up for the full TAS Eng course bcos he is already with TLL. He had attended a TAS trial class so I could see the diff betw TLL and TAS. I think TLL is good for stretching students who are already quite good with the language whereas TAS is more adapted to MOE syllabus. So far, I find TAS' compo class good though I have not seen improvement in the sch compo marks yet .

[Atan]

Acc to TAS admin, the books will be sold at a cheaper price at Popular. I think the creative writing is more useful if one attends the TAS course, where the book is used as the main reference.

[Flowermonaster]

supermumto3:

I have also a new TAS creative writing book to sell... My son bought it and I bought it without knowing... lack of communication between mum and son...


SMS me at 98755673

Hi Supermumto3, was the book sold?

[coolit]

firefly38:

thanks 'cool it' (oops, i know how you get your nickname), once again! will go check on it now :siam:

Haha..yes, I just told my older boy to cool it just now. Hope you could find out
what you needed on the link.

[coolit]

Atan:

Acc to TAS admin, the books will be sold at a cheaper price at Popular. I think the creative writing is more useful if one attends the TAS course, where the book is used as the main reference.

I thought I heard that they were saying that it might be more expensive when it
is sold at Popular because of the GST and also Popular would take a cut. It will
remain cheaper for TAS parents. But maybe with Popular card, it may come to
same price as it was when it was sold to non TAS parents?

I did ask them about it last week and they said it could come out before
SA2 if everything works out, if not then later in the year.

[iFirefly]

coolit:

firefly38:

thanks 'cool it' (oops, i know how you get your nickname), once again! will go check on it now :siam:

Haha..yes, I just told my older boy to cool it just now. Hope you could find out
what you needed on the link.

ya, i got the info i wanted, thanks!

wow, why you asked your boy to 'cool it' again? is he very hot-tempered? how many children do you have and how old are they?

oops, i'm being 三八 (38) again!

[coolit]

Haha..yes, my boy can be quite hot-tempered but maybe its cos PSLE is nearing and he

is feeling the stress.

I have 3 kids, one is 12, one 9 and the other not 1 yet. Big gap..so now I know
why you call yourself firefly38

Btw, my son is at TLL for math too.

[iFirefly]

coolit:

Haha..yes, my boy can be quite hot-tempered but maybe its cos PSLE is nearing and he

is feeling the stress.

I have 3 kids, one is 12, one 9 and the other not 1 yet. Big gap..so now I know
why you call yourself firefly38

Btw, my son is at TLL for math too.

:hi5: my DS1 is 12 and taking PSLE this year too! he is with TLL for English though. do you visit the DSA thread or other PSLE-related threads? i am usually there 38ing around..

my DS2 is 9 (P3) too! :hi5:

[Flowermonaster]

firefly38:

coolit:

Haha..yes, my boy can be quite hot-tempered but maybe its cos PSLE is nearing and he

is feeling the stress.

I have 3 kids, one is 12, one 9 and the other not 1 yet. Big gap..so now I know
why you call yourself firefly38

Btw, my son is at TLL for math too.

:hi5: my DS1 is 12 and taking PSLE this year too! he is with TLL for English though. do you visit the DSA thread or other PSLE-related threads? i am usually there 38ing around..

my DS2 is 9 (P3) too! :hi5:

Firefly38, when TLL do oral with the kids, do they check when kids will take their oral exam? Got a bad experience with them yesterday! My DS attended their GEP English class on Mon night time only recently. Yesterday, they were given oral practice. I was very angry after my DS told me that he & another boy were left out due to class too noisy when conducting oral & hence lack of time for both of them. I feedback to the admin & she said my DS should inform the teacher if he is having his oral this week! Not all school conduct oral at the same time. I thought all GEPers taking oral this week right? Correct me if I am wrong. So what kind of excuse is that! They kept stressing that my DS should inform the teacher. But all the other kids also taking oral this week so is it right for them to miss out one or two kids?

[iFirefly]

Flowermonaster:

firefly38:

[quote=\"coolit\"]Haha..yes, my boy can be quite hot-tempered but maybe its cos PSLE is nearing and he

is feeling the stress.

I have 3 kids, one is 12, one 9 and the other not 1 yet. Big gap..so now I know
why you call yourself firefly38

Btw, my son is at TLL for math too.

:hi5: my DS1 is 12 and taking PSLE this year too! he is with TLL for English though. do you visit the DSA thread or other PSLE-related threads? i am usually there 38ing around..

my DS2 is 9 (P3) too! :hi5:

Firefly38, when TLL do oral with the kids, do they check when kids will take their oral exam? Got a bad experience with them yesterday! My DS attended their GEP English class on Mon night time only recently. Yesterday, they were given oral practice. I was very angry after my DS told me that he & another boy were left out due to class too noisy when conducting oral & hence lack of time for both of them. I feedback to the admin & she said my DS should inform the teacher if he is having his oral this week! Not all school conduct oral at the same time. I thought all GEPers taking oral this week right? Correct me if I am wrong. So what kind of excuse is that! They kept stressing that my DS should inform the teacher. But all the other kids also taking oral this week so is it right for them to miss out one or two kids?[/quote]hi flowermonaster, sorry to hear abour your DS' bad experience with TLL.

DS1 is from GEP (P6) but his class is quite small (7 or 8), as many pupils have withdrawn or changed to another timing, due to frequent change of teachers in the first half of the year. hence, the teacher usually is able to conduct oral practices/tests for all the pupils in the class, within the 2 hours of lesson time.

however, i noticed that TLL doesn't seem to bother to conduct their oral practices/exams on the same week as the school's oral exam, eg. on the week of psle oral exam, the teacher actually taught compo and grammar during the lesson, while a few weeks before psle oral exam, the teacher conducted mock oral exam!

DS1 only joined TLL this year, solely for peparation for psle, so we didn't want to pull him out half-way through the course, even though there was frequent change of teachers in the first half of the year. somehow, DS1 likes the lessons at TLL and his English results has improved quite significantly too.

anyway, DS1 will be in secondary school next year (he has received CO from RI) and we don't want him to be too reliant on tuition. also, he may not have much time for tuition, in view of the hectic schedule of IP in secondary school. hence, most likely, we will withdraw DS1 from TLL next year. just hoping DS1 has no objection to that! :xedfingers: