Some recipes I shared in KSP

I couldn't find my beloved bread book!!!

But thankfully, I do have copies of some of the recipes I often use:

Good Old Plain White Bread
500g sifted bread flour
5g dry yeast
50g castor sugar
10g fine salt
260ml cold water
65g butter

Sweet Dough for Buns!


260m cold water
1 egg
50g butter
500g sifted bread flour
15g fresh yeast (cubed form)
100g castor sugar
5g salt

Do not use the bake function. Take the dough out and shape it into buns!
Can add cheese, sausage, etc etc! Your creativity is the limit

Super MultiGrainy Bread


20g castor sugar
20g salt
350g sifted bread flour
150g sifted whole grain flour
20g fresh yeast
260ml water

To add on the surface before baking: 120g rolled oats & nuts

Doe Doe Donuts!

140g sifted bread flour
60g sifted cake flour
30g butter
8g fresh yeast
70ml cold water
1 egg
15g castor sugar
5g salt

Use the quick function for this (only need to let it rise for 30 minutes).
Cut the dough into shape and leave for another 20 minutes before frying. YUM YUM!!

Chinese Buns
200g sifted plain flour
5g instant yeast (dry yeast)
50g castor sugar
2 tbsp corn oil
150ml warm water

Us the quick knead function.
Shape and put fillings as desired.
Steam for 10 minutes.

Wondering & Pondering

Recently I had some time to go back into forums and share...

But as I read, I realised that, it seems like the forum is starting to be an 'exclusive club' where there are personal attacks and a lot of informal groups that have formed.

This is seen in many forums, but I least expected it in this forum. Quite sad to see how people only 'take' but never contribute. And when someone contributes something they don't like, they start a personal attack instead of provide their side of the story.

And now I start to understand why some of my friends refuse to go into such forums. Maybe this is a signal, to cut back on the forum.

Another Maths Question...

$260 is to be divided among a certain number of people. If half of the people receive $3 each, one-eighth of the people receive $2 each and the rest $4 each, how many people are there altogether?

Divide the people into 8 units (based on 1/8 of the people):
1/2 => 4 units (recieved $3 each) x $3 = $12u
1/8 => 1 unit (recieved $2 each) x $2 = $2u
Remaining => 8 - 4 - 1 = 3u (received $4 each) x $4 = $12u

Total amount of money = $260 => $12u + $2u + $12u = $26u

$26 u -> 260
$1 u -> 260/6 = 10

Altogether there were 8 units of people

8 u -> 80 people

A P6 Maths Question from Workbook

Adam and Rahmad shared some beads. If Adam gave 1/3 of his share to Rahmad, Rahmad would have 70 more than Adam. If Adam gave 1/5 of his share to Rahmad, Rahmad would have 10 more than Adam. How many beads does Adam have at first?


If Adam gave 1/3 of his share to Rahmad...

A [----][----]
R [----][----][ 70 ]

Which means that Adam will have 2 units left while Rahmad will have 2 units plus 70 more.
Adam would have a total of 3 units at first.

If Adam gave 1/5 of his share to Rahmad....

A [--][--][--][--]
R [--][--][--][--][ 10]

Which means that Adam will have 4 units (different from the first model) left while Rahmad will have 4 units plus 10 more.
Adam would have a total of 5 units at first.

BASED ON SAME TOTAL for Adam (3 x 5 = total 15 units),
We can change the units into....

If Adam gave 1/3 of his share to Rahmad...
All units multiply by 5 to get a total of 15 units at first:

A [-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
R [-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][ 70 ]

If Adam gave 1/5 of his share to Rahmad....
All units multiply by 3 to get a total of 15 units at first:

A [-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
R [-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][ 10]

Comparing the above 2 models, we can see that 4 units = 70 - 10 = 60

1 unit = 60/4 = 15
15 units = 15 x 15 = 225 


From: http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=280&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=2320


The school teacher's answer is 450 which many parents have debated to be wrong.

Pushing Your P6 to PSLE

In response to this thread: http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=346466&highlight=#346466

I've posted the following:

or T1 in P6, it's good to focus on the new topics: algebra, speed, circles.

What I'm doing with my students now: Going through the above topics and revisiting percentage, ratio and fraction.

They are starting off with CA1 papers from top schools (1 paper a week).

By end term 1, I would have completed teaching all the topics and we will start more intensive work by starting on challenging problem sums for P6 topics.

By June holidays, it will be intensive Q&A. They try, they ask, I clarify.
Usually by end July, my students will finish their stash of past year exam papers and I'll dig out different challenging questions or revisit certain 'techniques' or 'topics' which they have problems with.

After that, it will just be enough work to keep momentum going.


***
I encourage students to PLAN THEIR TIME WELL.

For my students, I normally encourage this:
Weekdays: Focus on school homework. Once complete, try to do exam papers (if can't finish the whole paper, at least 1 section of the paper).

Weekends: Set aside 2-3 hours a day to finish up the exam papers.

Tuition should comprise of practice papers -> Your kid's tutors don't give them papers to practise? Or they give them in other forms (compiled worksheets)?

My students normally finish the other work (trying new questions/techniques) during lesson, so most of their homework is exam paper (1 per week) and probably around 5 pages of homework per subject.

On top of that, they have to write a compo a week and finish compre OE, compre cloze, S&T, etc.

So far my students all managed to manage their time well with guidance.

You have to teach them to manage their time. And also teach them to plan/spread out their work.

When I assign homework, I normally will show them how to split up the
work so it becomse manageable.


If your child's time is totally occupied by enrichments/tuition, then it's time to rethink your strategy. I personally believe in only have 1 enrichment/tuition class PER DAY. Nothing more (they can't absorb).

With 1 enrichment/tuition class per day, it is definitely manageable. Even my lazy students managed to finish their schoolwork on top of tuition work. And sometimes, they give me a nice surprise by finishing more work than I expected. & she still have piano classes and Chinese tuition. She comes to me 4 times a week!

***

 

The jump from P4 to P5

Key things to note in helping P5 kids cope with increased volume in questions in P5 English Exam Format:

1. Read Read Read. Instill the habit of reading at least 1 news article a day. If you don't subscribe, read online news and print out 1 or 2 interesting articles a day to get your child interested. Choose an article which is in hot discussion or may interest your child. Draw a word mindmap (using the main topic, branch out related words) to increase vocab and also to understand that certain words will be used in certain scenarios.

2. Have a dictionary ready within easy reach. If budget permits, get an electronic one which can store a word list which you can upload onto the computer and print out. If using the hardcopy, make sure your child knows how to use it.

3. When reading, highlight phrases that always go together (phrasal verbs). E.g. He was taking down the poster when he fell off the ladder.
They will need phrasal verbs for Compre Cloze.

4. Make it a habit to underline/circle/highlight KEY WORDS/CLUE WORDS.
This is what I teach in class for Compre OE/MCQ: Take note of the QUESTION WORD, the clue word (tenses) and the key word (what are they referring to in the question). And if need, make simply annotations. E.g. *circle* "WHY" *write8 " --> REASON" Which means that the question is look for a REASON (not anything else).

5. For S&T, there's a few good books which give good examples and also re-explain the grammar rules. I think it's called "Synthesis & Transformation P6" by Marshall Cavendish. However, for practise purposes, I still prefer Teachers @ Work, Conquer S&T. Use the one from MC to 'teach', then use the exercises in Conquer for more practise.

Hope this helps!!

A Busy Start to the New Year

This year will be a rather busy year.

1. Recruiting more tutors to join the Home-Based network. Spending time to interview the tutors, have to set aside time to train them.

2. Training of tutors at a partner studentcare centre in Pasir Ris. Fulfilling sessions - going through the syllabus, key techniques the students must know, etc.

3. Preparation for opening of our studentcare/tuition centre in AMK. This is really a blessing in disguise as the shop unit we were eyeing was only suppose to be available next April. However, the current tenant found a new place faster than we anticipated and now, we have a shop space! This will be our first centre and we hope that we will be met with overwhelming response!

4. Working hard with my existing students to ensure that they understand the concepts/topics taught and that they do well in examinations!


Looking forward to a busy but fulfilling year ahead. :D

While we teach our children to be kind...

... does it really pay to be kind?

Reading through KSP forum, I realised that there are many parents who instead of act by example to teach their children to be kind, they go around questioning people's intentions when they are kind.

Because of such people, it makes me think again: Why am I being kind?

1. It's better to give than to receive.
2. I genuinely want to share.
3. I have been taught since young, through observing my parents, to be kind.
4. I am also setting an example for my son.

Seems like very little reasons but it makes me wonder... Why are there people who put down others' kindness?

I don't have the answer to that. I can only tell myself that what I'm doing is right, and many parents have shown their support by emailing kind words to me.

Hopefully, their children will be able to learn the right values from their classmates and school teachers.
If they learn from their parents, I will really start to worry for Singapore's future.

Training at Student Care

I've been invited by a student care principal to train her teachers in the pedagogy/academic aspects to allow them to be able to help the children with the schoolwork.

I'm very impressed with the student care:
1. Principal bothers to spend money to train the teachers.
2. The teachers are all qualified (at least dip holders with teaching/tutoring experience).
3. The place is cosy and secure (students not allowed to run out of the premises).
4. The focus is a lot on academics. After their school work, they have guided 'tuition time'.
5. Reasonably priced.
6. In-house school bus which services Punggol, Seng Kang and Hougang area.

During the training, I love how the teachers are so keen to know more and learn more.
They are really dedicated and hearing the way they talk about their students, they really bother to get to know each of them and hope to guide them well.

I also shared with them classroom management tips and study strategies they can teach the students.

Well done Ms Dawn from MRC Student Care at Pasir Ris! http://rightbrainteaching.com