encyclopedia

Recently I nearly wanted to buy an encyclopedia which cost 6K. It looks good when the sales person showed me. If it cost 3K buy it without questions. I know Zofie would sometimes come to me with a book and asked me to read to her. I came back and did some researched; with 6K we can buy a lot of things, there will be time when she does not want to read, some books will be tare by Jana at this stage. I have some friends who told me not to buy because most time the time the books will be on the shelf collecting dust. Scientific information keep changing therefore after a few years the books will be useless. I have my own set of Encyclopedia and I do remember I seldom read them. I only like the book about Arts but this book don’t talk about Van Gog or Shakespeare; neither had they wrote about realism and new age. Asia’s musical instrument was not mention which some influenced the west and NOT they influenced us. I had a hard time doing one of these researches the last time. A doctor told me 2 days ago, Encyclopedia has outdated, I can print everything out from internet.

I have been doing a lot educational activities with my children especially Zofie. Zofie has been doing Glann Doman flash cards. She can now read some words but if ask me if zofie is smart I will tell you ‘No’. Although the flash cards works on her but that was only being pushed into early literacy. I wanted to stop this long time ago but she kept asking for flash cards therefore I flash them to her. Sometimes when I asked her certain cards she could not remember at all but she still wants more. She could get all the memory game wrong but again she wants to play more. Gifted children no need to be pushed. I have seen children at Zofie’s age very talented and intelligent because the parent have to talking to the child. A lot of Singaporean parents were proud that the child can read at age 2 or 3 but how about play? Play is so important till 4 years old. How much do they learn to play? Every morning when I bring my 2 little ones to the playground I don’t see children there. When I asked the mothers, some told me they prefer to sleep a little longer in the morning. Wow! They can force the child to sleep longer in the MORNING. That will be a pity if the child doesn’t know how to play. How can a child be happy if she doesn’t know how to play and where is the childhood memory? Don’t tell me the parent will regret when the child turn 12 for not playing enough during the toddler’s age.

My two children love to recite stories from the pictures of the books. The sales lady was unhappy with it. So what is wrong with looking at pictures when we talk about ‘right brain’ education? Autistics children are into ‘right brain’… you get what I mean.

I meet some overseas student during in the Child Psychology class. The mentality of Singaporean parents was raised in the class. They felt we were too naive to train an academic child which I fell into these traps before. The lecturer agreed with them. When a school sells a programme they mainly sell to the parents ONLY. Many times parent have problems reading encyclopedia to little children because they are not ready. The only successful part here is the sales person convinced the parent to buy.


The child will loves books if the parent love to read but I don’t read much so how can I educate them to read? Think again what made me more excited when I spend the time with the children. Yes! Going to the theater, I was more excited bringing zofie to the theater than me going to with good friends. I love to see different shows being performed in different empty spaces. Although I loves to watch performance but that does not mean I hope my children will become an artist one day. Those that are very close to me you will know why, unless they are able to make business out of it.

Yesterday I went to the booth and the sales lady was not there. I picked the books on my own and I flipped them. I find it too difficult to teach. I read hard, I think I can get better ones in Times bookshop and a lot cheaper.

Lucky I came back and reflect a bit longer if not I would have bought them.