Test for Success Age 11 : Science and Math

The title reads "prepare for SATs at age 11"...

SATs? Age 11?

That was my first reaction. But the price was SGD5, and my son said he wanted to do this. He said that he will do this during school holiday. So, I let him tried.

It turned out to be a good buy because my son completed the contents in almost 3 weeks.

As my son did the lessons all by himself, I do not exactly know the contents. But I saw my son learned how to calculate circumference, angles of triangle etc in the Math program. In the Science program, he learns to identify parts of flowers, parts of heart, properties of magnet and circuit diagram. Surprisingly he can cope with these contents which apparently meant for upper primary or even lower secondary school. I can see that he enjoyed the lessons because he was happy to find out how our "heart" works to circulate blood, and he explained that to me!

I always avoid something meant for older kids. Now I understand how and why some 8 years old kids can do algebra, 10 years old can do calculus.. As parent, I will not expect him to do those, but if he is interested, I should not have too much concern and stop him from learning.

Are my kids reading too much?

While I like my children to cultivate reading habits, one concern is their eyesight. It's not uncommon nowadays to see 5-6 years old wearing glasses. Thanks to Glenn Doman's book that I read below, I understand that children at different ages have different eyesight capability. Basically, young children should read books using larger print.

(The book is on how to make flash cards.. nothing to do with children older than 2 years old)

For example, at 6 months old, the text size should be 3", and gradually reduced to 2" and eventually 1.5" approaching 2 years old. By 3 years old, the print can be 7/8" print of the book, but if the child is less than 2 years old, the suitable size is 1" or 2".

I tried to find some research data on text size suitable for children between 3 to 8 years old from internet but not successful. Using the data above, I plotted a graph. From the graph, it seems to me at the age of 4-5, the size of the print has no significant difference. However, from my observation, I believe eyesight of a child will be affected not by font size, but how long do they read per day without rest, how far they hold the book, whether there are enough light, etc.



I think the fact that kids watching too much TV have higher tendency to wear spectacles demonstrates to us that we should watch out and not let our children reading continuously too long without rest. However, how long should each reading session should be? Without parental control, I am sure my kids can play with iPad, watch TV or read his favorite books non stop. That's not good. The fact that books tends to have lesser effect then TV is because it's less likely they can read non stop compared to TV, iPad or computers. But that does not mean they should be encouraged to read too extensively.

Another important thing is outdoor activities. When we bring our kids outside, they will tend to focus further and look further. I believe that helps. But how much? I don't know!

I do not have the answer on what's extensive enough to have impact on their eye sights. If you know any data, please share with me! But I would encourage my children to rest, look far from window after reading or using computer for 30 minutes. And if possible, bring them to play outdoor at least few times per week.

Teaching Hooked on Phonics

This is another post about teaching the Hooked On Phonics.

Below is a video clip taken during one of her revision lessons.


Here are a few guidelines that I follow. I am sure there are better techniques, if you know one, please let me know.

1) Conduct short lessons. In my case, I will stop when my daughter get bored, usually about 10-15 minutes.

2) Praise a lot... I know, I lose patient too, as you can see in video clip. And I did not praise as much as I am supposed to do.

3) Play games.. Hide and Seek Word Game. She finds a word from one page, sometimes, compete with her brothers.

4) Hint my daughter the phonetic sound of the first letter..

5) A bit unusual, but I played spelling game.

6) Practice often.. I print out one copy and let her revised whenever she feels like to do.

I am thankful that my son benefited from this course. I hope that I can repeat this with my daughter. I am encouraged that many friends use this too after I show them the products, I hope that they will be successful too.

My daughter is glad that I shared this with her friends. She seems motivated to read because her friends are reading the same thing!

Socratic Approach for Kids?

My learning in US and Japan particularly after Master course is largely based on Socratic Approach. Wikipedia explains that this is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. To young children, I think this may be called "proactive learning". To me, in the context of training people at work place is "I teach you one thing, you have to teach me back ten in return".

One major contrast to this approach is our commonly seen spoon feed teaching method. In this method, teachers or parents tell kids everything on what they should know. Notes are prepared, and students are expected to do well in exams after reading the notes, period! I have gone through this and I have seen how spoon feeding type of education limits and slows down learning process (**see my comment). Just ask ourselves how can one teach in the limited hours of lesson per week? Compared to another students who keen learning by himself, I would think the later learns better.

The question for me is how do we encourage proactive learning? How do we teach young kids to learn by themselves? Call me lazy or whatever, I dislike taking care of my kids's spelling test. I made it clear that it's his responsibility and he managed that very well. Whenever he asked me meaning of a new words, I seldom give him the answer and asking him to check dictionary. Sometimes, I tell him to "google" the answer. I think all these are part of proactive learning education from me to him! Socratic approach requires more than that, students are supposed to critically think about what they learned. In contrast, some teachers told me that if they asked students to look up dictionary, they are wasting lesson time! The expectation of parents is no dictionary in classroom! Wow! I am surprised.

I have a friend whose daughters were both pursuing medicine under scholarships. I asked him how did he do that.. His answer to me was, "do nothing!". Interesting answer... but I think that answer has a lot of wisdom in it. It's not easy to do nothing, especially if you see your kids get bad marks from one exam, right?

What else can I do better on this? I don't know. Perhaps following my classmate's way is the best! What do you think? Please share.

Teaching My Girl - Hooked on Phonics -- using spelling approach.

This is about the Hooked On Phonics that I introduced quite some time ago. I am glad that I used this set for my son because without my supervision, he managed to get 100% almost all the time in his spelling test. I have started this for my daughter 6 months ago.. We make some progress, but we also see some challenges.

My son's characteristic is different from my daughter. My son, from the very beginning, learned how to pronounce by looking at the phonetic sound of each letter. My daughter, on the other hand, memorized the phonetic sound very quickly. She tends to memorize pronunciation of each words without looking at phonetic sound at all. She just read without really looking at the words.

This gave us a hard time because there's always a limit, and she can't pronounce new words that she never learns. By right, using the Hooked on Phonic Material, she should be able to read new wordslike "Magic". For your information, the Hooked on Phonics material teaches basic phonetic sounds, and put words together that children can read words in stories book by on their own.

Her progress slowed down... In order to encourage her to look at each phonetic sounds, I play "spelling game" with her. She likes to write on white board. So, when we installed a new book cabinet, I added in "my designs" having white boards for her to write on. (Actually copied from a blogger friend cum colleague).

Here you go... see her happy face and the confidence in her! She can spell many words. Like many other kids, she tends to write in mirror... for example, mixing up "b" and "d", "p" and "q" etc. But overall she does very well. Whenever she can't spell a word, I guided her. And she tried to guess the phonetic sounds.

1st half...

2nd half...

Note : Although I corrected her, I never emphasis on what she did wrong, only on what she did right. Again, the power of singing praises.

After few rounds of this spelling game. Now, she can read new words... "Daddy, I never learn this word but I can read!" I am very glad. "Different strokes for different folks".. This is another management technique learned at work applied in parenting.

The only obstacles now is discipline. Right now, I only conduct the lessons as and when both of us feel like to do so, and sometimes, I realized that the last lesson was actually 3 weeks ago!

I will improve on that and I hope my daughter can read and be ready for school by 7 years old. Wish me luck, OK?

Wii, iPad, iPhone and e-games

This post is slightly different as I don't want to particular share any e-games here. There are so many of them. Rather, I would like to write down my reasoning for promoting e-games to my kids.

In fact, I choose to expose both my child to eGames at young age. I think it's easier to teach younger kids than older kids. Both my kids love iPad and iPhone games. Sometimes, I play a game together with them. From time to time, I also listen to my son's about how he scores in a game, how his friend did in those games... but I always make it clear that e-game is something that they can put aside any time! I allow them to play with my iPhone while waiting for foods to be served in restaurant. However, this is on the condition that when the food is served, they must stop and eat. Thanks to my wife's help, both of us now seldom do texting, chat etc at meal time.

There's another one rule that I strictly enforce. They can only play games after they have completed certain tasks or homework. I call this "Empower Kids" concept. If they want to decide what they like to do, i.e. play computer games, they have to earn it. It's not easy to enforce this simple concept... My children find all ways to persuade me to break the rules. I rarely did and they gave up. They know that they are better off doing something in order to earn the time to play.

Many parents do not even buy iPad, iPhone, and not to mention Wii, because they do not want their kids to be addicted to the e-Games. A friend of mine even sold her Wii console because the daughter is too addicted to the games. I respect these opinions. However, I have a different view.

Like it or now, I am sure our children will know what's "Angry Bird" when they interact with other kids. When I was in Form 2, the top boy in my class dropped from the top spot merely because he started playing computer games. I had a friend in University who always sat in front row, and always get good results. He did not turn up for classes suddenly for 2 months. I asked him about it. His answer was that he was playing with computer games day and night. He was so indulged and addicted that it took 2 additional years to get the degree. At one point of time, I was addicted to games too. I played "Command and Conquer" day and night too. I really understand how fun the game can be. But can young children resist the temptation? Or can we shunt the e-games from our kids forever?

Back to the question of whether e-games are good or bad. I think there's no answer to this. For me, I chose to use my "Empower Kids" concept, and I choose to expose my children to those games. I also persuade them to play those games that have educational value. With that, I hope that I can educate them and make them see those e-games the way I want them to see. I know that if I don't do this, I will be leaving them to the exposure at much later stage by their friends who may be a bad kid. Also, much later stage means more difficult to teach, isn't it?

So, which league do you belong? Non e-game gang or e-game gang?

Mighty Mind.

This is another award winning educational toy. I bought this US but I saw this commonly sold in many toy shops in Singapore. The concept is pretty simple. It has many small pieces of square, rectangle, triangle etc.. in which children will use and build into other objects such as cars, human etc. Look at the pictures below and you will understand what I meant.

My children enjoyed the games very much. Through the activities, the children will learn to focus, exercise their motor skill and to imagine what they are building.

A picture is better than a thousand words. Look at my daughter's happy face and you would understand the money is well spent. Do not forget that her brother had fully utilized this few years ago.


Check out the latest product from Amazon below too if you are interested.

Flash Card (2)... The Alternative Way

If flash card is not your cup of tea, perhaps you can try the following CD or DVD from Dr. Titzer. My wife received the VCDs from a close friend. She bought the disc in Singapore. I notice that the VCD or DVD are very popular in Singapore and available in major department store, book shops, and even toy shops. Certainly, you can buy from the following website. For those in US, below is a link to Amazon. I suspect that the product sold in US is different from those sold in Singapore and Australia because the US version is specially made for US following US's pronunciation and spelling. I think it's safer to buy from the region where you are from. I am not sure about this and it's best to check before you make your purchase. (P/S: I read that Dr Titzer is from California. )

I am not sure whether the DVD is same as what I bought but the author, the title, and contents look exactly the same.

From the experience of many people, including myself, the problem with this DVD/VCD is that children tend to watch TV and not interested in flash cards. So, you would probably have to choose either the DVD or flash cards. Perhaps start with flash cards first if you are not sure. I would say the product from Dr Titzer is quite good, it shows the words, the correct pronunciations and talks about many facts about the words. This is exactly what Dr Glenn Doman recommended from what I read. Except that it's not few second per session. Both my kids love the VCDs from Dr. Titzer

I have to admit that I do not have the discipline to flash the cards 3 times a day, 5 seconds per session. Many of the cards are lying there in the store room untouched. I confess that I did not make full use of the cards that I bought. I used the cards with my son, but gave up after 1 year, and I did not really use it on my daughter. One main reason is that my daughter dislike English flash cards. She likes Chinese flash cards. She can read many words now. I did not really flash but instead teaching her to read at the age of two. I think this has to do with a lot of praises and encouragement.




The following are video clips showing my daughter enjoying reading words. One taken in 2009 and another one taken recently. I would think she enjoys reading those cards, right?


2009 Video Clip - 2 years old


Please note that in 2011 clip, I am playing "Pile Up" game with her. The "Pile Up" game is what I learned from the Hooked on Phonic material. If she knows the word, she can keep it, else I will keep the card. Also, at the end of the clip, I was teaching her new words. Shameful to say, I stopped quite a while in 2010... :-( If I continued to have the discipline, she would know much more words today.

2011 Video Clip - 4 years old

In Penang, I saw a "tuition center" (located in Island Glades) teaching those flash cards. In my opinion, this is very wrong. Having read the book, I know that the concept of "tuition classes" using flash cards is wrong to begin with. The idea is to flash, 3 times a day, less than one second per card. How on earth one uses these flash cards for 1 hour per week and charged parents for money? Dr Glenn Doman said that one should flash the cards 3 times and each sessions should be at least 2 hours apart. If you are considering them, check out the point I mentioned above with them. Even using VCDs might be better.

Lastly, please allow me to share few common mistakes in using flash cards from my experience and from my reading from the book.

(1) Flash cards are to be flashed. So, please do not put beside baby cot for baby to stare at.

(2) If you start at young age, please do not have expectation. If parents have high expectation it will kill the interest to learn.

(3) Must have strong determination and discipline to do every day...

(4) Pay attention to the size of wordings, color and pictures. Should be 2-3 inches with red color.... if you purchase from "wet market" or low cost item... then make sure the size is suitable for your child.

Flash Cards

When my wife asked me to listen to a salesman selling flash cards, my first reaction was... "Gosh..Are these people crazy?" I sat in the presentation for 1 hour, nothing went into my head, except that I memorized the title of the following book.

It took me 4 days to finish reading the book...(plus night). The book basically introduced Dr Glenn Doman's research i.e. how baby brain develops, and how stimulus helps. I am convinced. I shared with my friends and 7 of us bought the product in group to get a group discount. Due to this, the salesman recruited me as his agent. Each of the following books is teaching a different topic, but the main concept remains the same.

Other than words, one can flash a picture of a dog, and tell 10 things about the dog. Never simplify to say "wow-wow" but use a precise words such as "puppy", "Alsation", "Boxer", "Bull Dog" etc. The main concept thought by Dr. Glenn Doman is that baby wants to learn. So, it's adult's duty to stimulate learning by giving facts and explanations.

The other topics is the dots (Maths)... Baby will not have concept of "1", "2"... but one can flash dots representing the number. At one point, I played a game with my son to race towards one of the "11 dots" and "twelve dots". Even adult, one needs to count but my son could memorize (I guess) and he got it right twice in a row.

Why am I convinced? Dr Glenn Doman's gave good explanation in his book. For example, the book discussed about the experiment results on the number of brain cells comparison between two group of mice. First group is put on a huge rotating disc opened to stimulus. And the other group is enclosed in a black box. The group having exposed to stimulus has more brain cell in average. Another example is from observation about a kidnapped child who was left growing up in a confined dark room. The poor child could not grow although the child received enough food and water. This shows that "stimulus" is needed. And finally, Dr Glenn Doman's method was used to treat brain injured child and to some extend, the results has been shown.

Now, where can you buy those cards? The salesman who sold me the card is no longer in business. However, I found out that the following site in Singapore offers similar product.
Other site from US is The Gentle Revolution

Other alternative is to use DVD...(to be shared later)

Spelling -- Hooked on Phonics Material Revisit!

This morning, my son showed me his spelling test results. Other than one time he misspelled one word, he scored full marks in his spelling tests this year. Certainly he deserved my praises. To be honest, I did not even supervise him anymore since almost a year ago. He managed his spelling test almost all by himself.

My son told me that learning "Spelling" is quite fun and easy. I can see that he has very strong foundation in spelling, thanks to the Hooked on Phonics and Hooked on Spelling.

For your convenience, I will paste the link to the product from Amazon website:

Hooked on Phonics




Hooked on Spelling






However, to be honest, I know some of my friends are not successful in using the same material. Here are some tips from them that might benefit you:

[1] Don't start too early... The recommended age is 4 years old. My son started at 3.5 years old, and we were having a hard time as the first few pages took us more than 3 months. I do not see this problem with my daughter now.

[2] Don't start too late... a friend of mine started the material at the age of 3... but his daughter found it too difficult. When he used it again at the age of 5.5, she found it too easy and somehow, my friend could not raise the interest.

[3] Make full use of the games and stickers... and remember to praise. For some reasons, some of my friends did not use the stickers.. or perhaps not giving enough praises... They were not successful in using the material.

[4] Never kill interest... Stop when the child is bored. Every child is different. I notice that my daughter can concentrate less compared to the brother. So, I have to adjust the teaching time accordingly.

[5] Don't start Hooked on Spelling until you are about to start level 2! I have a friend who starts Hooked on Spelling at the age of 5-6, and I heard that she is not doing well either.

Regarding primary school spelling test, my observation is that I am taking the right approach to empower my son to learn spelling all by himself. I can see that he is taking a lot of pride in his good work, and he is motivated to continue to do well. Without supervision, he can enjoy the spelling test better!

I would like to thank all my friends who feedback to me about their findings. And also to thank the author, and to thank God that I was lucky to start at the right timing. I hope I can repeat the same success story for my daughter!

Please share your experience with us too by leaving a comment below!

Update 2015: This product is now available in SG. I prefer the older version better though...

The Young Scientist Magazine

I came across this at Popular Bookstore in Singapore. With discount, I purchased this at SGD50 after checking on the contents. I was impressed because my son was very interested in the magazine. After reading about nutrition of cucumber in chicken rice, he ate the cucumber as recommended in the magazine.

The magazine is for children age 6-12, and being sold in different levels. I believe the magazine is written according to Singapore's syllabus. I cannot find the official website of this magazine. However, the following website provides very good sample and information. I believe the key point is that the magazine delivers the teaching of science in comics form.

In case the website link becomes broken, here's a sample I downloaded from the Google image search for reporting purpose to let you have a feel how well the job was done.

This picture saves a thousand words... There is no need for me to say more.

Now, on how to purchase this magazine. In Singapore, you can find this in major book stores. However, I found out that I can buy this much cheaper in Malaysia through this website if you can deliver this to an address in Malaysia. The website of Leebook indicates that they can ship overseas too (not Singapore). For example, I bought this at RM60 for 10 issues with free delivery and free gifts. In Singapore the selling price was SGD50 (in 2010)! I suspect the magazine sold in Malaysia and Singapore is the same thing but I cannot prove that. At least, from the websites, the magazine's covers look very similar!

If you are from India, check out this website.

Spending Quality Time.

I always spend time with my children. But I don't think I am spending enough quality time with them. Worse, most of the time I do my work in front of PC, while having my son to do his homework beside me. When he talked to me, I told him to keep quiet and concentrate on his work, so that I could concentrate on my work too. I have no choice, especially when I need to rush my work or when I need to study.

I know some people, for the whole day, punching her iphone either sms or email while spending time with kids... Guiding them to do homework should not be considered as spending quality time together too...the same can be said if we just spend time watching a movie together.... Spending quality time means be there, to give them full concentration and to do something they like..

Yesterday, I decided to spend quality time with my son. We started by cycling around the park ...



Then we played "paper aeroplane" together.... It was just a simple game to see who could throw the plane longest distance..



Finally we ended up playing football.. I wished my daughter is there but she was having a nap.






All in all, that was an enjoyable hour well spent. If you want to spent quality time with your kids, I recommend that you put aside your iphone, ipad, galaxy pad, etc.... With those gadget and distraction, no way we can spend quality time. I can tell that kids just want my simple attention and that simple 50 min brings a lot of happiness to him.

I wish that I can continue to do this at least once every week.... preferably with my daughter and their mum next week!

Slyvan School Success - Level 1

Update 2015 : This product has been discontinued, unfortunately



Inspired by the success of using "Hooked on Phonic - Learn to Read" product, I was trying to look at other advance level material for my child. I found, "Hooked on Phonic - Master Reader" and "Sylvan School Success".

To be honest I know nothing about the product when I made the purchase. I guess the best description for this product is as written in this website :

"Sylvan School Success is a comprehensive four-level program that is designed to prepare kids ages 8 to 12 for success in school. Using fun lessons on the CD-ROM and an assortment of customized school tools, kids will learn essential reading and organizational skills and test-taking strategies that can be applied to homework, book reports, and tests."

The program has 4 levels. Level one is regarding skills for reading fiction. My son has completed lessons on Level 1 in less than 2 weeks. He requested to do this whenever he is free. In Level 1, children learn the following:

Fiction
====
Predict and Confirm
Predict and Revise
Visualize
Problem and Solution
Story Plan

I like the concept here because I believe that those techniques listed above are essential in reading. For instant, the program gave a few titles and requires the students to predict.. then confirm their prediction by looking at title and drawings on front page of a story book. I am sure in real life, this skill to "predict and confirm' and "predict and revise" will help them to get a better understanding even before reading the book.

The program also helps students to be organized by identifying the story-line, to visualize the story. For example, after reading a story, the program has a game to ensure students understand the "problem" of the story, and the "solution". It's true that every story has a "problem" and that problem is later overcome - "solution". The program also trains the children to write down story plan. The program has worksheet that children have to fill up some forms, quite tedious. I will not force my son to use all these in every story book he reads, but I will apply this from time to time by having conversation with him. I know that this is just a start and I need him to practice what he has learned.

I do not have a quantitative measure on the results. But I think the battle is half won as my son is interested in this. However, I think one key point is that we need to start this at the right time. Actually we started last year but this program was too difficult for him and we almost wanted to give up.

I believe this product is not in production any more. The disk can only be installed on Windows XP machine. Check out Amazon through the link if you are interested. From what I see today, Amazon offers the best price as of today. Some other website may even offer this close to original price of USD200. I bought this at USD60 many years ago.