Tuition...

In this part of the world, private tuition are very popular.  Just like many other parents, when kids need help in certain subjects, the remedy will be "Tuition Classes". 

Let me share my son's experience.  We did not pay much attention to the academic when he was in kindergarten.  We used "Hooked On Phonics", and we thought that he should have a head start. Compared to me, he can read and spell so many words. However, it turned out that I was completely wrong.  So, we sent him to tuition class. 

Did that solve the problem? No. 

Let me share my experience and my views.  My son went to Just Education. At the beginning, the experience was good. The teacher in charge was young, but really passionate and good in delivering her job. I really salute "Just Education" as their teaching materials are well prepared. However, the experience turned bad after the teacher in class quit. The new teacher, and the other new teacher clearly did not meet our expectation. So, we switch him to another center, "Jac Learning Center".  The teacher in charge was much more experienced. However, the teaching material is something available from bookstore, not custom made and not well prepared compared to Just Education. But did that solve the problem? No. 

After speaking to my son, I know what went wrong. The problem is that he lacks interest in language subjects, as he loves Science and Math more. So, the tuition fee we paid ends up only with 2 additional hours that he will sit in class to do something about English. But I can see that he just simply do the exercise, without really attempting the questions. He went there because he was supposed to be there for 2 hours, not because he wants to learn. 

His results improved only after I spent time coaching him myself, guiding him patiently to do his comprehension etc. But honestly speaking, as I am not a teacher, I failed to draw his interest. My command of English and Chinese is not adequate. 

My younger daughter had similar problems. The English teaching in the kindergarten (that my daughter attended) is practically hopeless and not adequate to prepare her for primary 1. We tried "L-Central". The teachers are mostly native speakers. However, I quit after one full course because I find the contents too difficult and not suitable for my daughter. Certainly I understand how my daughter feels dealing with the task to read passages that she does not understand. I regret not forking out more money to send my daughter to British Council at that time.  Their focus is a lot more on interest. They do not stretch students very much and that's the reason they are less popular for primary school students. 

So, at the end of the day, who is the best tuition teacher for my kids? I guess the answer is very clear, ME!  I may be unqualified or may not have adequate knowledge, but I will do my best.  I believe the same will be applicable to most of you too. 

P/S: Please do not join or don't join any of the tuition centers quoted above based on this post. Each tuition center has their strength and weaknesses. They may be suitable/unsuitable for me but may be unsuitable/suitable for you. 

Book Review, "I am Gifted So are you" by Adam Khoo

I bought this book 2 years ago from a local bookstore (where else? Popular Bookstore). The book practically teaches how to have mindset, how to study smart, and layout few good study techniques.    What's interesting to me is that unlike other book, this book is very colourful, full of graphics and should be interesting to read for kids. 

I gave this book to my son last week during the long holidays. I told him some story about Adam illustrated in the book, how Adam was expelled and was ranked among the last in one new school where were among the least popular school in Singapore. I told my kids that I saw Adam in his red Sports Car (looks like Lambogini, but I was told it's Lotus), and how successful Adam is now helping people. I also told my kids about the story I heard from Adam about how passionate he was selling his books in front of bookstore shouting on top of his voice.   I recommended the book to my son and encouraged him to read. 

You know what? Since then, my son kept sharing with me what he learned from the book. The techniques to study, left brain, right brain, mind map, how to memorised numbers.... wow! He also shared what he learned with his classmates and the classmates wants to borrow this book from him for 1 day! I just listened to him, and gave further encouragement. 

I have to admit that I start to hands off now about my son's academic... I believe doing less is better. 

I am sure my son will reap the benefits from Adam's teaching in the book. And the beauty is I spent less than SGD30.00, and just one evening bed time story about Adam.. It would be much more effective this way then I teach him those things myself after I read the book.

I would say Adam is very passionate to help people and his book has lots of interesting ideas.  Thanks Adam for writing the book. If your child can read on his own, give it a try.  

Now, how to buy:

  

If you want to buy from Amazon... check the price.  Somehow, the price in Amazon today is USD155.80 (5X usual price). For those in Singapore, you can buy this book at any local bookstore. If you like to know, PopularBookStore Online has this too. Check the link here. Price as of today is between SGD25-30.

I know that this book has been translated into few other local languages.  If you want more reviews of the contents of the book, read the review on Amazon, especially the review by Mr Lee Say Keng.

Another book by Adam for parent?  

  

Slow Juicer

We all know that taking fruits is good for health. But how to make a habit to take more fruits?  My children are very picky on fruits. Buying orange is always a challenge. If the orange is not good, end up I have to eat everything.

The solution is juicing.  We had one from Philips. We happily used that, until I found out recently that the technology has improved so much that the juicer nowadays has much better efficiency. One major break through is the availability of "vertical slow juicer".  Hurom has a good product, and I know most of the information from their website.  As you can see the prices in Amazon, not too much higher compared to conventional fast speed juicer. At least the price is not 2X nor 3X.

   






As of today, it's USD350.  But to buy that in Singapore, it's about SGD600+ and for Malaysia RM1500+.  Again, I always wonder why over here in Asia we have to pay more.

The good news is I found an alternative good product made in Singapore. The dealer's website is here. I bought one under the Great Singapore Sales with a free gift of 3 ceramic knives, plus a 30% discount at a price of SGD242.50. Not the best well known brand, but I saw the demo which clear all my doubts about this new product.

Here are the pictures of our usual juicing session. Usually this ends up slightly more than 4 glasses of juice. 

I don't follow any recipe, and just use whatever I like. Usually I like to have lots of fresh vegetables. My favorites are celery, tomatoes, carrot, beet root, grape fruits, green apples, red apples, oranges, and star fruits.  I think more than 50% of my ingredients are vegetables (celery, tomatoes and carrots).

The trick I learned from the sales girl is that you have to cut the fruits smaller. Cleaning is also quite easy as the "waste" comes out separately without having to remove any portions of the juicer. You can also see my juicer in action below. As you can see, it takes less than 5 minutes to extract juice.

Actually there are also many other brands available.  You can compare their prices here if you are located in US:

 

A bad purchase... I won't buy ACER after this.

Computer is an essential tool for kid's education.  We bought an Acer laptop last year for children.

Two weeks ago,  all the USB ports of the Acer laptop were not functioning. We thought that it was probably caused by software.  So, we waited and took our own sweet time to troubleshoot it.  Failing to resolve the issue, I called up the service center last week.  To my disappointment, I found out that this may be something required sending back for repairs. One possibility is that the faulty part might be the mother board, that needs replacement. To add to the frustration, the warranty just expired 8 days ago!!!! 

Acer offered me free labour charges after I explained the situation.   I had to pay for the cost of replacement parts.  The mother board may cause me $321 inclusive of GST.  On top of that, I have to make 2 trips to go over the service center.  The offer did not make practical sense to me because a new computer probably cost the same.  I asked them to charge me at cost, but they said at best 10% discount.  I could not understand why Acer chose not to provide free repair and replacement for reported defects just because it's 8 days after the warranty period.  I could not understand why they could not sell me at cost per my request, still trying to make a profit replacing the mother board which should have been designed to last for at least 3 years. Where was the moral duty to provide good quality products to consumers?

What made my decision very clear was that I might not get a brand new mother board for the repair.  How did I find out? When I asked about this, the reply was they use certified usable service parts. When I asked further whether the part is new, they repeated the same answer, unwilling to confirm that I would get a new part.  So, I checked about warranty. Acer said that the warranty was 180days on similar fault.  So, the part I purchased for $321 would have very limited warranty.  I was thinking that if I got a refurbish part, and Acer only guaranteed one small portion of the mother board, the risk for me was high.

Unwilling to give up, I tried to reinstall the computer on my own since this was the last resort. First, I followed the instruction to reinstall from the hard disk. It was not successful and the computer coould not boot at all as the installation stuck somewhere.  I managed to reinstall using another version of Windows and it worked. I called up Acer again telling them the good news, and asked for an installation disk so that I could reinstall every applications and proper version of operating system.

You know what, the person who claimed that she had the highest level of authority told me that I had to pay SGD60 for reimaging! My blood boiled. Did she not say that workman ship was free? Did she not say that the worst case scenario was that I have to pay for the hardware mother board of $321 few days ago? I told her that calling Acer was a complete waste of my time. Indeed I got nothing solved calling them. If the head of department is like that, what can you expect from Acer, or their after sales service?

Brand name is very important.  It's unfortunate enough that the computer broke down just after 1 year warranty. Acer fails not only for not providing a reliable parts, and fails more miserably in their customer service. Instead of goodwill help, they imposed charges instead of providing real help.  I will never buy Acer again. .

LEGO Mindstorm NXT 2.0 ~~ Our experience ~~

My son's close friend invited him to join a robotic holiday course based on LEGO Mindstorm. The course was a whopping SGD240 for a six days' program. Instead of joining the class, we decided to buy a set of LEGO Mindstorm. We believed that having a robot to play will be more effective.

In Singapore, you can buy from any LEGO store at SGD499 (without discount).  Alternatively, buying online from Amazon.com at USD279.99 plus the postage to Singapore of SGD25!!!  Do your maths and you will find SGD100+ of savings.


    

LEGO Mindstorm has a lot of electronic components. So, I was concerned about warranty. You may want to check on this if you are not buying in US...  To my surprise, most stores in Singapore do not provide warranty as well.  They said that they can help me to claim faulty parts from LEGO official website.  

OK, now about the outcome. My son managed to build the LEGO pretty fast. Here's the first "Shooter-Bot" that my son constructed within 1-2 days.  There are four robots that you can build from the Mindstorm. One of them is guided well in a printout. The others are shown from the computer screen.  I find the guide on the screen too small and hard to follow. 

Once the hardware is built and connected, the next challenge is programming.  The software does not work under my Mac OS X computer, but requires a Windows based machine with Bluetooth.  Here's a screenshot. The Graphic User Interface is simple. As you can see, the whole programming is graphic based. I am surprised that my ten-year-old who has no programming background can manage this on his own. However, I will not say it's easy. I expect a step-by-step guide but to my surprise, there is none!  

How did we overcome this? Thankfully, my son learned and did most of the programming by himself. He experienced, tried many times until he knew how to make it work. He showed me his progress, and asked me questions from time to time.  What I did was to support, and to find him a better guide.  

The following guide book is very helpful. Examples and illustrations given are more complete. For example, my son could not perform the shooting from his "Shooter-Bot" at the beginning. This book helped  him to overcome this problem.  There are more suggestions, ideas and hints offered in this book too. 

    

This guide book looks relevant too. Check this out. 

  

Here's my son with his gadgets. His exam is just around the corner, but he will find time for this gadget by completing school work first as usual.  

Update on Sep 2013:
Many people asked me about NXT 3 and that they can no longer buy NXT 2.  Yes, most stores stopped selling NXT 3. In Singapore, the price just went up 20%+ to SGD630 from SGD500 previously.  You can buy from US through Amazon, but I heard that free Shipping to Singapore is not applicable to this item.  Here's the link to NXT3..

  

I read that NXT3 has an additional sensor a better ARM processor.

LEGO Star Wars

Recently I watched all the Star Wars movie with my kids. They enjoyed the game. They become interested in Star War characters.  Indeed, they are now Star Wars fan.

Initially, I bumped into this.


  

I read the review here. Very impressive with so many mini figures. Some people said that this set will be good for investment (I can't believe this).  In Singapore, it's SGD750++  Even one mini-figure of Darth Vader is SGD35 and more!!!!   In Amazon, it was USD350-USD450. 

I came across this Millennium Falcon set, which is available in Singapore, but at SGD320!  Even with 20% discount, it's much more expensive.  Price at Amazon is USD138. More reasonable, and I believe it new star wars movies will make this set more popular. 

    

The review looks great. The problem with this set is that you have only all the good guys!  How about other characters? The following sets seems to be a reasonable mix, ending up half the price of the Death Star set. 

  

  

  

  

However,  Other than the Death Star set and the Millennium Falcon set, all other LEGO sets are not available in Singapore.  Perhaps this will be a lesson that my kids should learn in life, you won't get everything you want in life!   

Study Desk

When I was a kid, a study table was a luxurious item to have.  I did not have a study table, but only a small cabinet. It was not very comfortable but that was my darling at that time.

Both of my kids have their own study tables. In fact, there are many places where my kids can do homework at home.  However, I know something is missing.  They don't have a place where each one of them can monopolise. "My own desk! Mine!"....   Also, another issue was that we did not have a centralised place to store their books. Very often, the table was very untidy. 

Voila! Here are the new desks! One for each kid.  

Why this?  

(1) Enough space to store school bag, plus bags for tuition class.  All in one location! 

(Actually, the compartments were designed for desktop computers and printers)

(2) Extendable writing space

(3) All their books can be stored in front of them! 

    

Certainly, both of them are very happy.  Additional $$$ has been spent on the lighting... Plus comfortable chairs.  One condition own these desk for each of them is that they have to keep the table top clean, and study hard. 

Indeed, both of them studied very very hard. They spent 3-4 hours at their desks each day over the last 2 weeks!  Actually, my son  has been very hardworking starting this  year. However, with the table, he planned almost twice as many things in one day, and gosh, he got all that done!  I have a lot to catch up to mark his work.  I hope they will continue to work hard. 

Well, I am glad that I have improved further the study environment. I think now both of the kids have very excellent place to study. I pray that this investment will pay off. 

P/S  :  Where to get this? I bought this from Novena Furniture in Singapore but I have seen this at other furniture shops too.