Shopping for childcare

From Feb to June 2012, we made some trips to the respective childcare centres, here are some of them:

Bethel Day Care Centre
12 Jalan Lateh. With transport.
$370 after subsidy
Tel: 62885078/62823121
We quite like this area and like the idea that Imm can be exposed to a Christian environment.


Bright Juniors @ SC Pte Ltd
Blk 255 Serangoon Central Drive
Tel: 62811173
$420 after subsidy
This place is very convenient as it is near to our parents place. Our parents can drop by to sneak a peep at Imm anytime :P


My First Skoolhouse at Serangoon Ave 3 (NTUC)
Waiting for their reply. Also a convenient area and the place looked nice and clean.


Bethany Child Care Centre
Blk 127 Serangoon North Ave 1.

Not really what we wanted and there was no transport.

School house By The Garden
12 Phillips Ave
Tel: 62808562
$580 after subsidy
It is situated in a terrace house, place is very bright and nice but a little cramped.

Preschool by the park @ Li Hwan
2 Li Hwan View
$850 after subsidy, no transport

Nurturing Confidence in your Child (talk) - Fiona Walker

SMART PARENTING CONGRESS 2012 - Raise a Little Thinker

Learning Snippets from Fiona Walker, Principal of Schools, Julia Gabriel Education

Self esteem is about knowing oneself and being confident about the strengths and limitations ones have.

Confidence recipe - ingredients

- Attachment bonds (don't threaten the baby about isolation)

- Individuality

- Time to build mastery

- Establish routines

- Opportunities to build social skills

- Exposure to new experiences

- Emphathetic listening (be present) 

- A loving family (be an example as well)

- Consistency

Do celebrate any small progress made by the child even though it might not be what you have expected.

Feeding Your Child's Brain for Success: Multiple Micronutrients or A Magic Bullet - Dr Low Kah Tzay

SMART PARENTING CONGRESS 2012 - Raise a Little Thinker
Dr Low Kah Tzay, Paediatrician Mt Elizabeth Hospital


Baby has greatest density of brain cells by age 3

Breast feed for at least 6 months

Repeat offer for good food 20 times in 20 different ways

Always give breakfast

Snacks are important as children have smaller stomachs

Give low GI foods so that they will have a constant level of energy

Show by example for good eating habits

Understanding Early Brain Development (talk) - Dr Phuah Huan Kee

SMART PARENTING CONGRESS 2012 - Raise a Little Thinker
Learning Snippets from Dr Phuah Huan Kee, Paediatrician, Mt Elizabeth Hospital

Babies's brain are not fully developed at birth.

Early brain development is simply a wiring process - synapses formation and myeline formation (protection). From 3 - 26 years, pruning happens rapidly to weed out unnecessary connections and strengthening important ones.

Important to reinforce via frequency and emphasis so that the pruning is optimized. Ensure that the process is enjoyable.The key is exposure, not hothousing.

Developmental milestones highlighted (discrepancies of 3 months are ok). 3 main domains to note:
- motor skillls
- speech and language
- social and emotional interaction

Developmental delay - Isolated or Grouped (austism or brain disorder)

Autism - diagnose it at 18 months (for social and emotional interaction). Check developmental milestones

Dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder) - check for clumsiness after 3 years of age

To optimize brain development
- healthy diet (breast milk especially)
- healthy body (vaccinations)
- healthy and nurturing environment

How to Multiply your Child's Intelligence (talk) - Janet Doman

SMART PARENTING CONGRESS 2012 - Raise a Little Thinker
Learning Snippets from Janet Doman, Director of Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential

Children learns more in the first 6 years than the rest of their lives.

Let children use all their 5 senses to maximize their learning experience. Often than not, we are stumbling blocks to that.

We are our child's greatest teacher because of the love we have for them, not because of our knowledge.

We have to enjoy our time together as a family because children learn most when they enjoy what they are doing. Social interaction (family) multiplies that. Singaporeans have to learn how to slow down.

Singaporeans tend to oursource the learning of our child. We have to get involved and insource this as much as possible.

5 Steps to Learning

Children have very short attention span so our way of teaching (long periods of time) may not be catered for them. We can teach in short spurts and small amounts of time.

We do not need to test the children to see if they learn. They will create problems to solve themselves. They play.

You can differentiate between an intellectually starved child and an intellectually stimulated child. The latter always asks and wants to know more. The former wants to do the same thing over and over again and not do anything else.

TV is not good for children.

Ipad/Iphones are great but beware of the radiation. Expose them only after 3 years old if possible.

Phonetics is just a means to learn language. The focus is to be natural and the child will learn naturally.

This Squidoo Lens is fantastic and also touches on some of the above.