Nat_Potato:

Does anybody have (english) books to recommend for P3 and P5? have been searching but stuck!

What about classics? Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, the Brontes, Thomas Hardy, J. R. R. Tolkien, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Daphne du Maurier etc. The first classic I read was Pride and Prejudice because of a short except in the secondary literary textbook. I've become rather obsessed with classics ever since.
My favourites right now are probably Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, a beautiful book on insecurity, and Daddy-long-legs by Jean Webster (not sure if one would count this a classic but I did since Everyman's Library also published it), a witty and hilarious coming of age book.
However, I hate to admit it but I've only read a very small amount of classics (I haven't even read Virginia Woolf or J. K. K. Tolkien). Thanks a lot, television shows which make reading classics seem like a very bookworm, ignorant and uncool thing. I obviously mean it.
Great starters would probably be Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Daddy-Long-legs by Jean Webster and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (although I personally disliked this book). These are more 'girly' books though and I'm not sure what books boys/tomboys would like. Lord of the Rings by J. K. K. Tolkien maybe?

Saw some people mentioning Beijing and Shanghai earlier on… I agree F&E for these huge cities are better.


Nowadays they have a lot of day tours (at least in Beijing, dk about Shanghai). The day tours (we chose English as it was likely to be less crowded and it sure was) do include shopping stops but we were not pressurized at all. The shops were state-run shops and they were focused on educating visitors about Chinese Culture.

The metro was also great (at least in Shanghai… dk about Beijing), just avoid peak hour if not you will be squashed. Taxis were not expensive either but you may get stuck in a jam.

Headache2010:

iceywind88:

[quote=\"iluvcruising2\"]China during the June holidays. End of year, going to UK.

Planning on UK end of the year as well. But won't it be too cold in the winter?

Cold or not I feel it's subjective. The bad thing about winter time is the day is so short. 4pm onwards is like night time.[/quote]It would be cold but just wear sensibly and it will be fine. I love Europe in winter actually because there's such a melancholy feel in the air. Plus there will be lesser people.

There's also a plus side to the day being short. Sunrises and Sunsets can be easily seen!

ilovelaksa:

Kopitiam:

Happy Lunar New Year to all! Many thanks for the replies and information. Sorry, i only managed to check the thread now. All along, I thought Kheng Cheng doesn't offer higher mother tongue (HMT). Though i may not ultimately let my son study HMT, may I just confirm that the kids at Kheng Cheng can have the option to take HMT in P5, if they are good? Thanks.

The kids used to hv HMT textbks but they stop this practice around 2010/2011 (I cant remember). Now all the kids use MT texts fm P1-P4. If you do well in P4, you are offered HMT in P5. Also if you do v v well in MT at P4 and reasonably well in other subjs, you can appeal to do HMT in P5.
I wld not recommend HMT if yr child is an average student in other subjs. The wkload for HMT is extremely heavy, even more than EMS. And it is not true that the HMT students do better in MT than non-HMT students.
My eldest is an above-average student in all subjs at P4. His English AND Chinese really suffered when he did HMT in P5. In fact, he got way higher results in HMT than MT. So I decided to opt out of HMT in P6. After that, his EL and MT began improving and he did well enough to offer HMT in sec school.

Actually, not exactly. They give you a suggested choice in a form at p4, yet it’s up to yourself to choose. I had a friend who didn’t get Higher Mother Tongue. Yet she choose that choice and got it. I wouldn’t call that appeal at all.

In addition, the workload for HMT is ironically not always very heavy. During my year(I was in Higher Chinese), our teacher gave less homework than the teacher who taught the best Normal chinese class. (P.S. Although my teacher gave lesser, there was still sufficient homework. My class liked her a lot. So no, I’m not saying bad things about any of the teachers. In fact, I liked my teachers a lot!)

phtthp:

kabochaneko:

Hi, may I know is there any school bus for the girls in the morning?

We live in Kallang but my daughter wants to go st nick very much...

You may contact school bus operator below, for more detail.

Note that both St Nick (primary and Secondary) schools' section, share the same school bus operator :-

http://chijstnicholasgirls.moe.edu.sg/primary/primary-info-hub/bus-services


Be mentally prepared !
Even if have school bus go to your house in Kallang, can u and your daughter \"tahan\", take it in the long run, for the next 4 years, ahead ?

Example

If every morning your daughter have to wake up around 5.15 am, to brush teeth, eat breakfast quickly, board school bus around 5.45 am, when the sky is still very dark and many people still sleeping, would you still want to consider IJ (St Nick ), or prefer to choose other Secondary schools, nearer your house ?

Distance travelling, is a very important factor to consider.

However, I would like to point out that many of my classmates live all over Singapore. From what I can remember clearly, there's one who lives in Newton, one at Seletar and one at Yishun. The scholars have to live in the HCI boarding school dormitories (They have school bus in the money but not for going back).

I agree that not everyone can stand it however still. From Braddel MRT it takes about 30-40mins to reach the school (god knows why) and in the past when I stayed there while my mother was on business trips, I hated it so much. School bus will probably make it much more bearable though.

OETI:

Why i ask this because under MOE website (Posting Process ) : \"Student with a better aggregate score will be considered for admission first subject to the availability of vacancies in the selected school.\" So Student A (tscore 245.1) got the place.
BUT under (Bonus Points for Admission to Special Assistance Plan (SAP) Schools) : \" Students in the top 30% of the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) cohort who take Higher Chinese at the PSLE will be given bonus points for admission to SAP schools according to the following table\" So Student C (Tscore 242.3 + 3) got the place.

Very confusing.......

Quite sure the 'aggregate score' includes the bonus points, if not it's obviously useless. I may have remembered inaccurately, but I would like to relate what I call from my PSLE year. In my school, everyone in the low 250+ range mostly put School A as the first choice(out of coincidence). I had a schoolmate who did not take higher chinese and I recall that she was another one of the bunch of us who missed School A by decimals. Due to this, I believe she had a T-score of 253. After I had successfully appealed to School A, our T scores were all shown and a current classmate of mine, who I know to have made it in without appeal (it was where she was posted to) had a T-score of 251. Therefore, she must have had 251+2 or 251+3 (the cop that year was 253). From this, I believe that the bonus score is included in the 'aggregate score' when they do the posting. However, I may have remembered wrongly since this was a few years back. For my primary school classmate's case, I simply recall that her name was in a list of the bunch of us who missed the school by decimals which I made in my mind since I was so free (Plus, only 2 made it in through posting, in comparison to about 3-5 of us who missed by decimals, quite funny it was).

To be honest, it's no use caring about this. It's not like it would make much difference knowing.

Saw that some commented that bookstores can’t really sustain in Singapore. I think one important aspect is that the books in Singapore are just generally too expensive. The prices you see online like on bookdepository is much more similar to the prices overseas. That’s a good reason why the ones overseas can sustain but it’s much harder in Singapore. The reason for the price is because of shipping. The books are mainly from overseas and books are very heavy. In HK for example since it has already been mentioned, it’s really close to China and near to cities like Shenzhen. Therefore the shipping will not add much to the price of the book. In places which produce books, there is also no tax for importing, unlike Singapore. The choice of books in most Singapore bookstores are not even good, even Kinokunya. The last I checked, Kinokunya didn’t even have Persuasion, one of Jane Austen’s few novels. I don’t recall seeing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall or Tess of the d’Urbervilles either. There was only one copy of Gone with the wind which I could find, and it was behind this desk (I think it was the customer service?) while there was no one there. Popular was obviously no different.

jetsetter:

ScaredyMum:

I like to plan my long trip early and impromptu short trips in between.
We always travel with DC so for long trips, have to add on activities and stuff that will keep them entertained. Tired and bored teenagers = grouchiness and will result in stress for everyone

I am also quite particular in accommodation, so must be \"kiasu\" and book in advance for the places I like. Short trips I can compromise.

Haha like what Dnls_mum said, why didn't your hubby think of Iceland after watching \"Kungfu Yoga\"? I watched that movie just for the Iceland scenes
So you are not going to catch NL anymore?

Anyway, my plans for this year:

- Taiwan (10 days) in June
- Norway + Lapland (3+ weeks) in Dec
- maybe Thailand or Malaysia for a short \"ladies only\" trip with my besties

Thanks, Dnls_mum & ScaredyM: I hardly remember the parts filmed in Iceland; obviously the scenes failed to leave an indelible mark!! Just rem Jackie Chan and the Indian actress fighting with other bounty hunters in the ice hole, which appears to be the JC studio!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=091kPuwvex4][/youtube]

I've not ruled out the NL entirely, but would prefer to watch NL in Norway Tromso instead of Iceland/Finland. DC didn't seem too enthused when I showed him the ice-breaker photos.

Your 2017 plans are similar to last year's You like to stopover in Taiwan I notice!

I think I'll narrow down to the Middle East this Dec. I'm half-hearted on the Balkans.

Balkans is really beautiful. The pictures travel agencies show do no justice to the place. Went there 2 years back during Late Nov/Early Dec 2015,

https://s28.postimg.org/o80rgf69p/Unknown.jpg\">

This was at Mostar, Bosnia, near the old town. If my memories do not fail me it was not filtered(except for simple cropping and such). When I had gone there it was not as popular a travel destination as it is right now, which is my only worry. I'd recommend winter too since it'll be easy to see the sunset which really adds to the view. The sky at those timings are beautiful and the sunlight makes for great photo-taking. (Stole the picture from my sister so I thought it'd be reasonable to add a watermark...) The quality of the original picture was much better but it would not load on here :sad:

tamarind:

Brenda10:

Hi joconde, tamarind and mathsparks,


Thank you for your recommendation.

I would look out for all these books. BTW, DD had read the 还珠格格 part 1 - book 2 (水深火热) while watching the VCD during March. Now she is waiting to see the 还珠格格 part 2 after the examination. All these Chinese shows came with only Chinese Sub title and she has no choice but to see the words if she can’t understand sometime what they were saying.

I had a series of 卫斯理 science fiction by 倪匡; she has chosen the book 老猫 for a try. As for 金庸, may start with the 倚天屠龙记（苏有朋主演）since she likes 五阿哥. Then slowly follow by 射鵰英雄傳 shows and their books etc. I hope she can enjoy all these interesting shows/books and her CL standard can be even better than today.

Hi Brenda,
IMHO for girls, 亦舒 books are better than 琼瑶 (author of 还珠格格) Though I also read all of 琼瑶 books, she is a good writer, but her female characters are too weak (dependent on men).

I have read over 200+ books written by 亦舒. I love her style, plain, simple and straightforward. Her female characters are modern, strong and independent. She wrote quite a few novels which are not love stories, suitable for kids in early teens.

I hope all parents teach their kids (10 years and above) to read 金庸 novels, these books are transformational.

琼瑶's books mostly have a lot of problems when it comes to morals. I still can remember that really horrible line saying that: You merely lost a leg! She lost her romance. (I translated it) So, I personally hate her books.

tamarind:

porcupine12trade:

As i continue to read this thread... i almost fall from my chair... oh gosh, children are reading chinese novels like Jing Yong, I only watched the HK TV production hahah. Even mummies here read these novels, I have nvr picked up any chinese novels in my whole life, so paiseh to admit...and I am hoping my kids to pick them up 1 day ... :oops:


btw, my kids like books alot, #1 reads on her own and #2/#3 enjoy reading time (they will request for reading time thru'out the day but i am guilty of rejecting their request though i will read at least once a day). I attribute that to no computer and no gaming. They are not exposed to using computer or play games (computer, xbox, etc). if they play any kind of games, usually uno, board games. Any one of you think the same? or am I too paranoid abt such electronic stimulation?

Hi porcupine12trade,
I am also strongly against computer games, PSP, etc. I am teaching hundreds of students now, age 17-19 years old, and I have seen so many smart students who are doing badly because they would rather spend their time playing computer games. They could have gone into university, but now they have lost any chances of doing so. It is really sad to see them wasting their youth on computer games.
Many parents like to give PSP, or even iphones to their kids to play games, because these keep them occupied and the kids will not bother them. However, parents do not realize what kind of harm they are doing to their kids.

As for Jin Yong novels, I read them when I was in Sec 2, and after I finished reading all of his works, I scored high marks in Chinese effortlessly. Many primary school kids in China have read his novels before 10 years old, but I haven't heard of any in Singapore who have done so yet. The standards of Chinese in our schools are so low nowadays, our primary school kids cannot possibly read and understand these books unless their parents have been teaching them at home (or they are kids from mainland China).

For your P2, try the books in my blog, in the age 6 to 10 group :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-raise-bilingual-child.html

My girl especially loves these books :
露露和拉拉（4册）
什么都行魔女商店（全四册）

These are the books that made her love Chinese. She has read these books many times. Her current favourite is 笑猫日记. The standards of these books may be too tough for most of our lower primary kids, but read with your child (not to her) and she will learn very quickly.

I am glad that you find my http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/ blog helpful.

Depends on who it is to be honest. Although I did not read Jing Yong Novels whatsoever when I was 10, I had already read long chunks of Ancient China History in Chinese on Wikipedia then.