StudyingWithKids

My son had his wallet confiscated by his school principal once. I only asked him why it was confiscated but didn't go to the extend of calling the school to get his wallet return, let alone thinking of suing the school.  However, a parent in a well known school in Singapore got wind of his son's iPhone being confiscated, as a result of using it during school hours, decided to sue the school after a call to the principle's office to "jail break" the phone was unsuccessful.  The lawyer for the parent argued that not returning the iPhone to the student "amounted to the tort of conversion" which in layman terms means "involves denying a person's rights to his property". Th Singapore courts decided that the case was "frivolous and vexatious". Lawyer argued that student did not enter a contract with the school but judge said that the school rules were well explained and if the parent had issues with the rules, should have...

I was going through my son's maths homework today and the number bonds thingy came back again in counting money. I find number bonds to be rather unbearable and unproductive. It is like you have to do additional steps to get the answer when a simple subtraction will provide the answer. Wouldn't the method below be more efficient? To explain the number bonds method of subtracting money, I had to explain to my son why - x - is positive and - x + is a negative - this is something out of concept for a primary 3. Take the number bond above as example. From the number bond, the equation looks like this 22.65+3 -(3+0.25), if you break open the brackets and you have explain multiplication of positive and negative to a primary 3 kid. As such,  I had to stick to a simple routine to get him to under how this works. You start first by taking the subtrahend ($3.25) and break it into two - one part whole dollar ($3) and the other part cents  ($0.25). From the minuend ($...

If you hear the Generation X parents, like me, complaining why today's primary school maths was so different then, or we were never such methods or asked such questions, the answer is very simple. While doing some research on Birds and Sheeps problem, I found out that today's primary school maths is based on the maths modelling/heuristics approach that started in 1990s. So it make sense, Generation X parents were born from  1961 – 1981. Even for those born in 1981, they would be seven and in Primary 1 by 1988, meant that they were not even introduced to the modelling heuristics method.  However, Generation X parents today have the luxury of the Internet. Just google and practically someone has done a video or written in layman terms on how to solve these primary school maths question.  On the other hand, for some, the Internet is still an alien technology and looking for answers on Google isn't an option. When Parents can't teach their children, what to th...

Channel NewsAsia featured a story about a local Singapore Secondary that started school 45 minutes later to give them more sleep. It started off as an experiment in the first semester and the teachers saw a big improvement in the students' attitudes and alertness in the morning. As a parent of a child studying in Primary school that starts at 730am, he was to wake up at 6am to prepare to take the school bus at 630am. If the school starts at 815am, he could wake up at 645am and take the bus at 715am.As he has a strict sleep time at night, that additional 45 mins would help stay more alert in school. Given that school ends much later on Tuesdays for CCA and Thursdays for extra classes, that extra 45 minutes of sleep would contribute to his well being in school. There are some on the Channel NewsAsia video post who highlighted that the change in timing will cause jams in public transport. I totally disagree on this. To be in school in 815am, the student should be already ...