Weekend Reflection: An Enduring Friendship

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Weekend Reflections Relationships, weekend reflections

Birthday cake

The birthday cake that we picked out for RK

Last weekend we had a rare visitor to our house. R’s best friend RK was in town to visit his relatives and to spend some time with us. It has been a long time since he has visited us with his last trip to Singapore being 4 years ago. The kids do meet up with RK when we go back to Hong Kong to visit the family and were thrilled to have him come over this time.

RK and R’s friendship goes back to their school boy days. Both of them were acquainted in their high school years and have know each other for more then two decades. RK was our best man at our wedding and our wedding photos were all taken in his studio back in Hong Kong. The two best friends have always kept in contact even though they haven’t been staying in the same country for the past 15 years. They can talk about anything under the sun and truly enjoy each other’s company.

I hope that my kids too will be able to forge such strong friendships like their dad has. Friendship that spans past more then two decades and stand the test of time.

Do you wish for the same thing for your kids too?

September 22, 2012

Weekend Reflections: Bilingualism and Education in Singapore

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Parenting Views, Weekend Reflections

Study Materials

Educating kids and education in Singapore has always be heavily emphasized on. Billingualism is the norm here as it’s compulsory to learn English and your mother tongue (which is Mandarin for my kids).

From Kindergarten, they are taught both English and Mandarin with the majority of lessons in English. Maths, Science , Art & Crafts and other subjects are all thought using the English medium. Exposure to Mandarin has been limited to the 1 hour Chinese lesson which they have in school.

I personally feel that it doesn’t give them enough exposure to Mandarin as they are not using the language to communicate most of the time while they are in school. English is still the dominant language which is used in teaching.

To get my kids ready for school I have been teaching them in both English and Mandarin since they were born. I have been collecting and using flashcards and other related teaching material to practice with them. We do reading of storybooks in both English and Mandarin before bedtime.

I feel that they should be most comfortable expressing themselves in both English and Mandarin and be able to switch effortlessly from one language to another. For them to do so I need to ground them in their vocabulary and written and spoken ability in Mandarin more then English. The limited exposure that they have in school shouldn’t be carried on into the home and I give the kids maximum opportunity to converse in Mandarin when they are at home.

Once they are very fluent in these two languages we will be moving onto Japanese and French.

How do you foster Bilingualism with your kids?