mummyJune:

My 3yr old daughter does not like to speak English because before she went to childcare, she was looked after by her grandparents who speak Chinese to her. she always speaks to us in Chinese. my 5yr old son speaks to us in English because he doesn't really like Chinese, and the way he speaks Chinese sounds like any mo speaking Chinese. He always speaks to his sister in English & she will answer him in singlish. When I tried to read story books to my daughter, she don't show interest, only flip the pages to see the pictures.


how to make my daughter show interest in English?

Hi mummyjune, I think in singapore, it is easier to pick up English when the child goes to school since that will be the dominate language. Try to let her watch English cartoon and listen to English nursery ryhmes. Read to her English story books as well. Give her time to pick it up since she is still young. I have the same problem with my DS who dislikes chinese initially. After attending chinese enrichment, he starts to show some interest in chinese now. His chinese sounds like ang mo speaking chinese too and I am hoping that he can speak proper chinese like the chinese or taiwanese. Headache... Though I am thankful he starts to speak chinese at times now...

1) Qualified native teachers (Children will learn to speak well. No need for damage recovery later).

2) Caring and engaging environment for children to inquire and express themselves. Don’t like those schools where teachers talk, children have to kwai kwai listen kind.
3) Distance, safe environment, cleanliness
4) Most importantly, my child must enjoy and love going to the school.
5) Curriculum

My DS does not speak Chinese at home despite the fact that we do speak mandarin at home. He will reply in English whenever we speak to him in chinese. The ultimate thing is he told us he doesn't like chinese. :faint:


This got me very worried and I signed him up for chinese enrichment to make him have interest. After a few lessons, now he tells me he likes chinese and starts to speak Chinese at times. However, his chinese accent sounds strange, like Ang Mo speaking chinese. Is there anyway to make him speak properly?

Beatrice_NoQ:

Your child does sound gifted! What's important is that you don't stifle his development. Always enable him. Include him in your daily conversations with your DH so he will be exposed to more topics instead of only kiddy babble at childcare centres, and you can also buy some educational TV programmes and CD roms that will help him develop!


Getting him lots of books is great too - you mentioned he can read by himself. Leverage on his ability to read independently and get him some early readers to develop his literary skills. If he's already reading Doctor Seuss, he should be able to handle Berenstain Bears: http://bit.ly/1c9FlNr, Ladybird Readers: http://bit.ly/1ijlUUT and even the easier Roald Dahl books, like the BFG, for example: http://bit.ly/1lKHf07

Thanks Beatrice for your recommendations. I will look out for the books you suggest. :thankyou:

I will ask DH to accompany me to stroll at the beach. Talk to him about my frustration. Somehow, looking at the borderless sea and big sky \"widen\" my heart and mind . Problem seems smaller after that. :celebrate:

Hi all,


Thank you for all your wise advices. U are right. It's unimportant to know if a child is gifted or not. We will support our children anyway. Regardless of their ability.

Glad I found this avenue to post my doubts and thoughts and seek advices from experienced mummy who have been there and done that. :rahrah:

lovekids22:

Hi Popcorn,


Saw your post, based on the milestones you have mentioned , you probably have a high ability child. The only one advice I can give you is- spend lots of time with him, reading to him is important.

When he goes to school (nursery, kindy), watch out for his social skills and check with the teachers if he is able to mingle well with kids of his age. This it's important.

Oh, btw, is there a difference between high ability and gifted?

lovekids22:

Hi Popcorn,


Saw your post, based on the milestones you have mentioned , you probably have a high ability child. The only one advice I can give you is- spend lots of time with him, reading to him is important.

When he goes to school (nursery, kindy), watch out for his social skills and check with the teachers if he is able to mingle well with kids of his age. This it's important.

Hi lovekids22,

Thanks for your post. I am trying to spend quality time with him such as going for excursions, bringing him to the parks, friends' parties, supermarkets, zoo etc etc over the weekends. That's why I need to outsource the teaching to others. But seems like for now, I can't really find any suitable external help as there is a big gap with his intellect and his physical development (writing). Thanks for the reminder. It's been such a long long while since I read to him. I think I need to start reading to him again. Seems like i cant outsource this also.

He goes to the nursery (3hours kind) at abt 2yo. Teacher feedbacks that he prefers to play by himself most of the time but he is starting to make a few friends recently. (I am extremely happy to hear this). Before he attends school, he likes to play with adults and much older children and always ask them questions. When comes to children his age, he don't play with them. He only observes the things they do and then he will talk about it. He is an observer. I just wish he can be like the other children who make friends easily. To me social skills is very important, that's why i send him to school early to learn this.

Haiz.. Being a mum is really not easy. Really pei fu all of u who have so much patience, going all out to support your children. I really have to learn from all of you. :salute: :salute: :salute:

Hi everyone,


I am a newbie here and I come across this thread. I am posting here as I hope all the experienced mummy can help me. I have been wondering for quite sometime if my boy (2 years plus) is gifted but I could not ask my friends with children of similar age as I am afraid they will think I am crazy. He is my 1st child and i do not know if he is considered gifted as i noticed alot of children are really bright nowadays. Is there a place where I can get him assessed? DH is not interested to know as he thinks that it is not important. I agree we shouldn't label our children at all, however, I am only concern that I maybe doing him a disfavour if he is and I didn't support him in his developments. Just to share some of the things he did:

6-9months old, he said his 1st words.
By 1 year old, he knows the alphabet and he can put A-Z in order. He can count 1-10, colors, animals, points to body parts etc
By 15-18 months old, he can read any storybooks for preschooler (read the words out) eg, dr seuss's 'cat in the hat' among others, 2d and 3d shapes, count to 100, tell time, ask lots of questions etc
By 2 years, he can do simple addition, spell, money, fraction, 48 pcs puzzles etc. He taught himself to spell. He cried unconsolably when hearing sad songs and watching sad TV program. Eg, Fundraising charity show for sick patients. (He can understand at this age meh???) :scratchhead:
He loves numbers and letters. He plays with them everyday (i don't know what's so interesting about this)

Recently, he went for a free diagnostic assessment conducted by a \"premium\" English enrichment centre, he was put in the level with children 5-6 years old. The children can take instructions well whereas my boy was uncooperative and busy running around in class, but the funny thing is when the teacher asks him questions on what was taught earlier, he can answer and in fact he also reads better than the rest of the children. The teachers commented they were impressed.

I am a working mum and I have another baby to take care of, I have no time to teach him so I hope I can just outsource this. I would rather spend my time playing and having fun with him.

Your advices are greatly appreciated. Thank you.