Mathematic --- Maths Olympiad

I had shared this Maths Olympiad book by Terry Chew to many friends. Most of them like this. Almost all of them bought the book after checking the book out. The author has a facebook page on the new book that I am going to get soon. For complete list of the Math book by the author, please refer to the publisher's link here.

I had bought the following 2 books from the author.


I am sure later I will buy more for the upper primary levels when my son reaches that stage. There are samples in the publisher's link . However, let me share 3 pages from the Junior 1 book (Primary 1-2) for reporting purpose to illustrate better about the quality of those questions provided in the book.

Sample 1:

Most children at age 7-8 can tell the time, but they need to think to calculate hours and minutes. Yes, they can do it!

Sample 2 :

Another problem question.. I was surprised that my son can do this.. without using algebra or the "standard" method that I learned in secondary school. He "drew" 110 circles and divide them to get the answer!


Sample 3 :

A systematic approach for 7-8 years old to count..the kids need to "visualize" those hidden cube!

I believe the above questions shows the "true color" of the book. Those questions may be more challenging questions, I admit, but manageable.

My intention is not to prepare my son for any competition. Rather, I use this book to encourage him to think, to analyze and to solve the questions. During my school time, I practiced mathematics like robot.. My teachers always said, "practice makes perfect".. yeah, I practiced up to hundred over equations per day (many students at that time did that). But I would say, I memorized the trick, rather than to think and understand the skill. I suffered in university. Well, some people still feel proud of those "traditional Chinese school" method. For me, I prefer something different. I don't want my son to lose interest solving hundreds of questions per day. This book is the solution to my problem!

In fact, my son loves solving those questions. Some times he may get frustrated when he does not know the answer. But with a little bit of coaching and encouragement, he is on his way... If you think that you are not good in math, don't worry, answer is given at the back of the book!

Electronic Dictionary

My son's latest darling: Besta Electronic Dictionary!





Checkout the website from Besta. I think the model that you need depends on which country are you from. For my 7 year old studying in Singapore, I think CD 668 S is a good buy. It's very powerful tool! I came across this in Popular bookstore. For those of you oversea, it's available through Amazon.
But not CD 668 S (that's customize to Singapore's need).



Ok.. now, why I am impressed by this gadget?

1) Perfect tools to learn Chinese. Can write the Kanji on the screen
2) It shows usage example with complete sentence
3) Pronunciation by native speaker.. comes with a function for user to record user's pronunciation to compare with native speakers
4) Cross references to Chinese dictionary or English dictionary
5) Other contents like Grammar
6) Localized contents, explained "local" English words
7) Big screen!

Nowadays, my son only know han yu pin yin and he does not know Kanji. The cross references enables him to look out for meaning and ping yin in one touch. The pronunciation function is really perfect for him. I find (1) above useful but for my son who knows ping yin, that's not so handy.

I have seen my son looking up the words he could not understand when reading stories book. Now the learning is all by himself. I am glad with this investment. I selected the biggest one because of the screen size. We adjusted the font size to the biggest to make the words easier to read. I always concern about kids eye sight.

The bad point? The English user interface is not nice at all. The Chinese user interface is perfect but both my son and I are not familiar with those Chinese term. The menu can be changed to Japanese, Korean, Spanish by pushing the same button. This is a little bit irritating because one careless touch, the menu will turn into a language that we cannot read. Either I don't know how to use it, or may be the Taiwanese maker just do not know how to make it simple and user friendly enough. Other than this, it's a perfect tool. But I would say if you do not intend to learn Mandarin, don't buy from Besta.


Look at the font.. quite big isn't it?


My son really enjoy the new toy.

There are cheaper model starting form SGD45 ranging to the most expensive model selling at SGD550. I heard that the price in Malaysia is RM1700 for equivalent model. Unless you get discount, it seems to me it's cheaper here in Singapore but do not forget, those sold in Malaysia will have the local contents like Malay language.

Children Educational DVD and Books (2)... Dora, Diego, Little Einstein

My daughter's favorite DVD is Dora The Explorer.




and Dora's cousin, Diego who always rescue animals.


Dora The Explorer is about Dora and usually Boots (the monkey) going to find someone for somebody. Dora's cousin, Diego works for an animal rescue center. The shows requires the children to count, to identify shapes and cultivate loves for animals. Quite a good one.

I admit, these goodies punch a hole in my pocket. But compared to those usual coloring books, stories books or DVD, I find my investment paid off. The reason is very simple, these goodies are done by marketing professional targeting the needs of the young one. Ask any kids, any one not interested in those characters? But this will definitely helps to cultivate their interest in reading books. Many parents bought encyclopedia, expensive stories books sold in sets usually in a range of SGD1K-2K or RM2K-4K.. If you are considering that, please allow me to be frank: Don't waste your money! I felt lucky that I did not buy those!

Oh.. there is one recommendation for those whose kids are 1-2 years old. Check out the brainy babies DVD below. I think the show is very innovative. Both my kids love these shows.




Please do not think that the shipment is very expensive. If the book is directly sold from Amazon, the shipment can be at a fix rate. I bought many books with a fix rate of USD6 shipment cost many years ago.

If you believe in early child education starting form toddler's stage, Baby Einstein is a must have item. It has all the ingredients to attract attention of toddlers and the contents to stimulate their left brain, right brain ....

I have not seen the brainy baby program in the cable TV. But most of these are available from cable TV network. My provider lease to me a setup box in which I can record all these show. So, practically, I have access to most of these shows now with minimum charge.