@Musicstar

Phonics can help in spelling but spelling is a harder process compared to reading. Spelling requires many similar concepts as reading, including sound (phonological) and written language (orthographic). In spelling, the child must be able to use his phonological awareness skill to break up the words into their sounds and then recall which letter or letters match the sounds. And because the same sounds can be spelled in different ways, the sound to spelling matching is not always straightforward.

I had a child who was able to spell ‘we’ after some practice but when I introduced the vowel team ‘ee’, she spelt ‘we’ as ‘wee’. I praised her for her effort and explained the meaning of “wee” and then asked her which one made sense in the context of the sentence. ‘We’ is also an open syllable and the vowel ‘e’ is a long e.

@Twinkerbell

There is a difference between sight words and high frequency words.

Sight words are words that you recognise by sight and it differs for each one of us. A 5 years old child’s first sight word is likely to be his or her name. A cardiologist’s sight words are likely to be troponin, atrial fibrillation, Wolfe Parkinson White etc.

High frequency words are words that researchers have agreed that occur very frequently in most text eg the, is, you etc.

Hence, a child’s sight word (her name) may not be a high frequency word. A high frequency word may or may not be this child’s sight word.

Many high frequency words are decodable eg me, the (th is a digraph and ‘e’ is the schwa sound). However, if the child has not learnt the rules yet, it is “undecodable” at that point in time until he or she has learned the rule. For eg, the word ‘me’. The ‘e’ in me is a long vowel sound because this word is an open syllable. An open syllable rule states that there is no other consonant after the vowel.

Help the child to see patterns. For example, when teaching the word me, teach other words with the same rule: be, he, she (if digraph sh has been taught) and we.

Hope this helps. Phonics teacher here.

Well, the cream didn’t work. Dermatologist said the next step was to do a skin biopsy. Results came back. The one on my face was inconclusive. Around this period, a few of my female siblings and nieces were diagnosed with autoimmune diseases and it struck me I may have it too. Told my dermatologist and she ordered a blood test and bingo!


I am glad I consulted her. I went to see another dermatologist 2 years earlier but he was more keen to sell his laser services to me. I am glad I trusted my instincts and stopped seeing him after the first consultation.

Thanks, found out my pigmentation is due to an autoimmune disease and nothing can be done to remove the pigmentation.

Anyone has a good dermatologist to recommend for removal of pigmentation on face? Thanks!

$120 per hour is for one-to-one tuition at JC level, I believe. My friend, who is a swimming coach, charges $150 for a 45- minute lesson. For tuition, the teacher has to prepare the lesson before hand and mark the student’s work after lesson (especially for humanities subjects at JC level), so the time taken is more than the two hours the teacher charges for each lesson. Swimming lessons, on the other hand, are different. There isn’t anything to prepare pre-lesson, or anything to mark post-lesson.

Hi parents,


Any idea what is the market rate for home based phonics class for preschool children aged 5 and 6 years old? How much are you willing to pay per hour, for one-to-one session, at the child’s home. What is the minimum qualification and experience you expect the tutor to have?

Any comments are much appreciated.

Thank you!

So it seems like the majority here don’t ask the electrician to show his certs.

I mean to say that when we bought the tap from the shop, they recommend this young chap to us. He changed the tap for us and he told us he can also do electrical stuff. So we have not used him for any electrical works yet.

Hi All,


Do you guys ask to see your electrician’s certificate aka make sure he has the necessary qualifications in this field?

I have used an elderly electrician for many years and had never thought of asking to see his certs. So far so good, I really don’t know if he has certification in this field. Recently, we decided to try out a new one recommend by the shop we had bought a tap from. He did the job well.

Now my ceiling fan is wobbly and I have three power sockets which had become loose so I thought of asking him to do it for me again. So I asked him for his certs and he said he doesn’t have any. However, he can recommende his friend who has the certs but he charges three times the price.

The elderly electrician whom I had used before charged me twice the rate for the same job the moment we moved to a condo and I felt it is a rip off and come to think of it, I had never asked to see his certs all these years I had used his service.

This young electrician quotes me $60 for fan installation and $20 labour fee to change each loose power socket so it is $20 x 3.

Do you guys check your electrician’s qualification before you engage his services?