Thank you 25hourmaid. This is very useful and much appreciated.

Look at the Amazon website for most of the books available for Kindle. There are free books available for Kindle on Amazon, but they may not be to your liking--some romances, religious fiction, and a few popular authors trying to get new readers.


For classic stuff, look at http://manybooks.net . All of the books on this website are free. When you download them, you have the option of downloading them in kindle format.

In fact, you can download the Kindle software for your computer for free. It's on the Amazon website in the \"Kindle Store.\" Then you can download the free books from Amazon and manybooks.net and read them on your computer. On a real kindle there is less glare and you get more of a real book experience, but using the kindle software on your computer will give you a good idea of what it's like.

If you had a real kindle, you could download books from manybooks.net, plug your kindle into your computer, and move them to your kindle in two seconds. It's an easy process.

At the parents talk the principal said it was the Higher Abilities Selection Test. See the following:


http://www.acer.edu.au/tests/hast-primary/participating-schools5

Singapore Chinese Girls’ School Open House

22 May
10am - 4pm

Singapore Chinese Girls’ School Open House

22 May
10am - 4pm

3Boys:

Jocelyn Wong is a nice genteel lady. Mary Rauff has a really strong following but super-packed clinic.


My gynae (well, my wife's) was Yeo Swee Choo. A super smart lady, very very sound, but can be a little intimidating. At Mt E.

My gynae is also Dr Yeoh Swee Choo. I agree that she is extremely smart. I was suffering from infertility for more than two years. I had seen three or four doctors--none of them helped. I went to Dr Yeoh out of desperation. She did one set of blood tests, figured out what the problem was, put me on medication to correct my hormone levels, and I got pregnant within two months.

Also, right before dd1 was born, my placenta started to detach. I could have bled to death. Dr Yeoh did an emergency cesarian. Both my dd1 and I recovered well.

She delivered both my girls. She's thoughtful and careful. Highly recommended.

She's at Mt E.
Office is tel: 6235 2500.

aisukurimu1, I am so very sorry. Please find strength in your friends, your family, and your memories of your dear child. My thoughts are with you.

Hi ExpatMom,


I’m American and my husband is local. Both my girls are in the local schools. Mandarin has been the biggest problem. We speak only English at home. My P6 girl is very studious. She’s managed to do okay in Chinese–but there has been a high cost. She studies A LOT. We’ve had a tutor come to our house twice a week since she was in Kindergarten. She was in Chinese Activity Club in school. I sent her to NAFA for ballet because I knew many of the children and teachers would be primarily Mandarin speaking. A year ago during school holidays I put her in a local school in China for three weeks. I could go on and on. My point is that if you really want your son to succeed in Chinese, you will need to be proactive, and more so than most people because your son is starting late.

As far as I know, Mandarin as a second language is not offered at the primary level, and your son will have the same tests and exams as a local student. You can’t assume local students have been speaking Mandarin at home. More than 50% of them speak English at home, and they are in the same situation we are in. The only difference is your son hasn’t had Mandarin in preschool or Kindergarten.

An alternative to Mandarin would be to have him study Malay. I’ve taken classes in both Mandarin and Malay, and I think Malay is much easier for native English speakers. Malay doesn’t have tones and it uses the alphabet rather than characters. But even with Malay, if you want him to do well, you would probably need to seek out opportunities for him to use Malay outside of school.

I have an American friend whose daughter is in P3. Her daughter is a very bright girl who has done well in every subject except Chinese. She hates Chinese. My friend recently had her "exempted" from mother tongue. I’m not sure what getting an exemption involves or how it will impact her daughter if she wants to attend secondary school in Singapore, but you could look into this.

I don’t think you have to worry about the other subjects. Singapore’s math curriculum is world class, and the science curriculum isn’t bad either. The English curriculum is a bit old fashioned, but it’s okay. Overall, I’ve been really happy with the local schools.

As for diversity, the most diverse schools will be the ones that offer Chinese, Malay and Tamil as mother tongue languages. There are some schools that offer only Chinese, and these will be less diverse. You can use MOE’s website to check which mother tongue languages are offered at a particular school.

We’ve been to open houses at secondary schools, but I don’t know whether primary schools have them. We chose our daughters’ school based on word of mouth.

Campuses in Singapore tend to be closed. They have fences and the gates are locked during the weekend. You’ll need to contact the school if you want to have a look around.

Good luck. I hope you find a school that you are happy with. And welcome to the forum!

markfch:

ksi:

I am surprised that other than Markfch and I, no other parents have a view that a better curriculum has been re-designed to help our children understand sex education with the major issues listed above put in perspective? :? :?


Or there are many young parents where their kids are too young to touch on this topic so soon?

It's a sensitive topic and most people don't like to open a can of worms :oops:

Yes. It's a can of worms. Especially since some of us support Aware.

Hui:

Hi


Can anyone advise me on Great Beginnings Montesorri? My gal is turning 3 next year and would like to start looking for schools for her.

Thanks
Hui

My DD2, who is now P3, had a very good experience at Great Beginnings. The teachers are warm and caring, but also serious about making sure the children are ready for primary. The directress was trained in London, and you can feel her dedication to children and to montessori methods.

Honestly, I can't think of anything negative to say about the school. If you are looking for a smaller school that offers a lot of individualized attention, I'd say give them a try.