Is Your Child Investing his Time in the Right Area?

Most people have the impression that everyone on earth is born to do what most of us excel do well in - academic studies, sports, financial management, parenting, driving, marketing and so on...

Myself included.

But in exact fact, no. Not everyone can become Michael Jordan, presidential scholars and top businessmen of the world and so on...

In Singapore, we have a pretty good education system to help filter out our child's inborn gifts and talents.

Primary school kids that do not fare well in their studies (for whatever reasons - lack of interest, poor memory, questionable family background etc) are filtered into classes of different grades in accordance to their academical performance. Those will special talents are drawing, singing, sports are singled out and special programs are tailored for them.

For example, if a particular child is poor in Mother Tongue language, he or she may get streamed into a Mother Tongue class that have students of similar grades.

And if he or she is strong in subjects like Maths and Science, the child will get assigned to higher grade Maths and Science classes where students share the same level of affinity towards those subjects.

It is actually NOT a bad thing if we consider the fact that teachers are better able to take care of ALL students that need help in a certain subject in one fell swoop. And students who are already faring well in certain subjects get to learn more advanced topics in a different class.

My primary 4 kiddo is pretty weak in his Mother Tongue language - it can be painfully embarrassing to hear him speak Chinese at times. It is pretty obvious to me at this stage that his affinity towards the Chinese language is almost non-existent and I have decided not invest more of his time into leveling up his affinity towards it.

Since the starting of this year, he has been "investing" most of his time towards his strong subjects and I could see marked improvement across all other subjects.

As for Chinese, he got just a passing grade which is already a blessing in itself. :)

Honestly, such time arrangement and investment is perfect for me, at least my kiddo will waste his time flogging a dead horse.

My kiddo has strong talents Maths and Science and his ambition (for now) is to be either a scientist or astronaut.

Fortunately, his poor affinity towards the Chinese language will not hinder his ambition to become either one. I hope.

Taiwan Trip 2016 #1 - Itinerary Planning for My 2nd Trip to Taiwan in June

Yeah!! After visiting Taiwan more than a decade ago (12 years to be exact), B (my hubby) and I have decided to bring our kiddo there this coming June holidays.

B and I went on an eight days trip to Taipei 12 years ago and stupidly squandered away most of our precious time there visiting malls, eating at cafes, watching movies and what not - and did not think of visiting many far-flung places like 九分老街， 五分埔 etc which were so much more worthy of our time.

Anyway, this forthcoming trip which begrudgingly includes our hyperactive kiddo, could be one of the many more trips there as B and I were thinking of exploring the various parts of Taiwan (Tainan, Hualien, Yi Lan and the many isles) which have many exotic places that one may never get to see anywhere else.

My hubby was not keen in bringing our kiddo as most of his previous vacations time were usually spent watching out for him than having the chance to drink in and savor the scenery of many places that we may never visit again in our life.

For this trip, B and I plans to visit just Taipei and Taichung. We will spent 2 nights in Taipei followed by another 2 in Taichung and then return back to Taipei to spent another 2 nights there.

We have such an arrangement so that it will be easier for us to pack and cut-short our traveling time to the Tao Yuan Airport on the last day.

Below is a list of places* that we are planning to visit:

Taipei:

- 淡水
- 九分老街
- 五分埔
- 机隆夜市
- 饒河夜市
- 士林夜市
- 西門町
- 龙山寺
- 宁夏夜市
-  陽明山
- Taipei 101
- 臺北市立動物園 Taipei Zoo
- 台北海洋生活馆
- 野柳地质公园

Taichung:

- 南投温泉
- 六福村 (Leofoo Village Theme Park)
- 溪头妖怪村)
- 清境農場  + 小瑞士花園
- 中華路夜市
- Rainbow Village
- 逢甲夜市
- 高美湿地 (GaoMei Wetland)
- 新社古堡庄园
- 一中街夜市
- 第二市場
- 台灣香蕉新樂園
- 忠孝夜市
- 薰衣草森林

*subject to changes

I really hope our kiddo will not give us too much trouble this time and we want to also make use of this trip to familiarize ourselves with the various transportation systems (Public Bus, Travel Bus, Train, High Speed Rail and Metro [MRT]) over there so that our future trips there would be a breeze for us. :)

I will be updating this post as well as adding more Taiwan related posts as we progress towards the exact date of departure.

Stay tuned.