.

The conversation topic is about an activity you have participated. As the picture consist of some charity drive..my DS had came up with only 1 idea...he said that school had hosted a charity drive :slapshead: Not sure if the examiners might think he has ran out of ideas..

Today's tamil Oral picture was on Road that shows a signboard showing a busstop, people getting into the bus, vechicles and overhead bridge. My DS said it was difficult. He forgot the name of overhead bridge in tamil. And Oral conversation was about school rules. He talked about bringing handphone to school etc. How did your children find the Oral today? :xedfingers:

What are the possible chances that my DS can get into the normal academic stream instead of express for YTSS?

Mychildren:

May I know what are the good secondary schools nearby Hougang? Is it Nan Chiau, Xinmin and Anderson? Any others that I have miss out?

Got a question to ask. Lets say my son is interested in getting into Anderson. But however he can only get into the Normal Academic Stream but not the Express Stream with high aggregate. Will he still be able to go into Anderson with the score eligible for the Normal Academic Stream? Or is it based by the school Criteria?

AnotherKiasu:

smartmummy:

Hi AnotherKiasu!

May I know how did u teach ur son tamil. My son's problem is he hates Tamil. Still he didn't talk in tamil with us but he can.he doesn't want to read aloud. In the dec holiday my DH read for him, then he repeat the story in English.I talked to him many times but not working. Now in p4 need to write compo.
Last few weeks very busy didn't teach properly. I follow the tamiloli book and write down the words for oliverupadu and asked him.tense also I did like that. Chorporul,haven't yet start. Today my son brought a list from school for book fair, I noticed that a book for oliverupadu, chorporul. Is it useful? May I know what books and story books are useful for p4?thanks

First thing is, eventhough your son may not like Tamil (I hate to use the word \"Hate\"), for examination purposes, he MUST master it. Remember, in PSLE, MT carries equal weightage like other subjects. There are many cases in my DS school, the children very good in Eng, Mat and Sci got poor PSLE scoring because the MT score pulled them down (like A* for all and B for MT). This not only applies for Tamil, but for other MTL also. In PSLE, the compo is supposed to be in high standard to score good marks. The sentences must be creative and normal usage of words, will not help.
So, your DS must realise this point.

Slowly (but painfully), you need to cultivate the habit of speaking in Tamil.

Below pointers may help you. All these worked for my sons.

1. During dinner, take some interesting topic from newspaper (For eg. a fire at neighbourhood, man drowned in bedok reservoir etc) and start to discuss in Tamil. The children may say in English, no problem, then you ask them to translate in Tamil. You can see, they'll struggle for correct words. Then you chip in... say the correct work and also how it can be improved, polished. Since it's a fun way, they'll learn it easily.

2. Prepare a list of Tamil words from their Tamil book and/or any equivalent tamil books. Write meaning in TAMIL and English. (For example Thee - Neruppu, Anal - Fire). Ask them to memorise and write 5-10 words every day. Most schools will give list of Tamil words necessary to learn at P4/P5/P6 level. You can use such list also.

3. For compo, prepare sentences for them to use. For example, how to describe early morning poetically. Most schools will give this list of useful Tamil sentences to use in Compo. Ask them to memorise and rewrite a few times so that they don't forget. Revisit this every 3 months. Also, how these sentences can be used in Compo also need to be drilled. For example, in every compo, atleast at one place, the children need to describe morning/afternoon/evening/night. So atleast 2 sentences must remember for each of the timings. The same goes for feelings - sad, very sad, happy, very happy, laugh, tear, fight, play etc.

4. You can get past year/current year question papers for various schools. You can try at Raj publications at Dalhousie lane, adjacent to Tekka mall (The Verge) in Little India. They also sell Tamil books. I found this resource as useful.

5. Buy \"Tamil Murasu\" every monday. They publish sample Q papers from P1 to P6 in \"Maanavar Murasu\". Also the articles and stories are quite helpful.

6. Borrow simple story books (like Thenaliraman Kathaigal, Birbaul Kathaigal) from Library and ask them to read.

7. Maintain an exercise note separately (Sol Valam) and cultivate a habit of writing any new Tamil word they learn with equivalent Tamil and English meaning. Eventually this note will grow bigger and serve as a good resource. You don't write for them; ask them to write in their own handwriting.

8. Watch Vasantham Central Tamil news at 8:30 regularly with your child. The news readers tamil is just fantastic. You can watch some good Tamil program/movies also with them to improve their spoken Tamil.

Hope this helps.

Do kids these days even have time to do the above? My 2 boys has supplementary classes 4 times a week, plus CCA and enrichment classes held in school. They reach home by 6pm, Wash up, have a quick dinner cum lunch (as they skip their lunch in school), and start their school homework around 7pm. By 9pm they become super tired and sometimes dozes off while doing their school work. Then when weekend is finally here, they make sure they get their freedom as they have suffered the whole week. How to cope like that??? :mad:

smartmummy:

sssdarlings:

oh, my ex-colleague used to send her daughters to Queenstown CC for Tamil tuition. Recently I also saw nearby CC holding such classes. Maybe can check with nearby CCs.


Not sure whether its SINDA or UPTC but I have seen a banner o/s SINDA building for Tamil classes, starting from Kindy level if I remember correctly.

Hi sssdarlings!
Thanks.I'll check.

Thank you for this info. We can at least check. For my 2 boys P3 and P5 no tamil tution as couldn't find a proper centre. Honestly, these days the tamil teachers are charging a high fee to teach tamil. My nephew has got one current sch teacher who teachers tamil once a week, 4 times a month with a fee of $320/- Not every indian parent can afford such high cost.

sssdarlings:

sharmila:

I have seen the same site before too. Not sure if the tutor comes home to teach or the child has to go to the centre. I guess this is the only tution where our Indian children can go to for tamil.

not really. SINDA or is it Umar Pulavar TC (?) conducts weekend classes. Can call to find out more.

Umar Pularvar has classes mainly for sec sch students for those taking higher mother tongue and tamil literature.

I have seen the same site before too. Not sure if the tutor comes home to teach or the child has to go to the centre. I guess this is the only tution where our Indian children can go to for tamil.

jtoh:

sharmila:

[quote=\"starlight1968sg\"]
Yes, the ans is \"an honest girl\".
We say an hour, a university etc.

so we can use \"an\" for an hour, an honest which means words that begins with \"ho\" and all the vowels.? Sorry my english is not that good and also not sure of the rules.

If the word sounds like it is pronounced with a vowel, we use 'an'. 'Hour' and 'Honest' are pronounced like 'Our' and 'Onest', ie the 'h' is silent. Hence we use 'an'.

Take for eg 'Holocaust'. It's pronounced with an 'h' sound. In this case we use 'a'. The use of 'a' and 'an' depends on the SOUND of the word and not the alphabet per se.[/quote]Thanks jtoh for your explanation. This will help me to explain to my DS. Would you know of any book that has explanations and rules like the above? Might be a useful tool for a guide.