Another Drink "Remedy" for Cough - Mint Leaf Drink

Mint Leaf Drink is another drink that I learnt, which can help to relieve cough symptoms. This was taught by my mum. She called it Lemon Leaf Drink although from the look of the leaf, it looks more like Mint Leaf than Lemon Leaf; hence, I called it Mint Leaf Drink. Here's the simple recipe to share.

Recipe:
*Please vary the recipe accordingly if you're boiling a bigger pot of water with more mint leaves.

Ingredients:
1) ~12 Mint Leaves (size of leaves vary, so adjust accordingly)
2) Rock Sugar

Preparation:
1) Wash the mint leaves. Soak the leaves for about 5 minutes.

2) Fill the pot with water to half mark (half pot of water).
Tip: Some kids may not like the smell of the mint leaves; hence, you may wish to add more water or lesser leaves, to dilute the drink, if you're trying out this drink for the first time for your children.

3) Bring the pot of water with mint leaves to boil. After the water is boiled, turn to low fire and continue to boil for about 15 minutes (with the lid covered).

4) Add rock sugar according to your taste (or make it sweeter for your young children, especially if they don't like the smell of the leaves, or not so sweet for elderly folks). 

5) The following picture is what you get when the drink is done. 

Disclaimer: See a doctor if you don't get better!

Drink for Cough - Passion Fruit Drink

I had been coughing quite badly since I came back from China in end March, and my girl also coughing badly, so a friend suggested that I made Passion Fruit Drink, which is good for coughing. I'm sharing this recipe that my friend has kindly agreed for me to share on my blog, hopefully it can help others as well. I've added in additional tips of my own, see tips.

Recipe:
*Please vary the recipe accordingly if you're boiling a bigger pot of water with more passion fruits.

Ingredients:
1) 2 Passion Fruits (百香果)
2) Rock Sugar

Preparation:
1) Clean the passion fruits. 
Tip: As you need to put the skin to boil too, some may be concerned of the cleanliness of the skin. Hence, you can wash off the dirt, soak the fruits in water (add some baking soda if you wish) for about 10 minutes. As the fruits tend to float, you may wish to use a plate, invert it to cover and press down the fruits. After soaking for 10 minutes, you may use a knife to scrape the skin a bit.

2) Put the passion fruits into the pot, and cut them into quarters. By doing so, the juice that came out from the fruits when you cut them would be contained in the pot so that not a drop of the juice would be wasted!




3) If the fruit is riper type (more reddish), the pulp and seeds come out from the fruit easily when you cut it. 
Tip: If the fruit is not that ripe, you may scrape the pulp and seeds out from the skins.

4) Fill the pot with water to half mark (half pot of water).

5) Bring the pot of water with the passion fruits skin, pulp and seeds, to boil. After the water is boiled, turn to low fire and continue to boil for 30 minutes (with the lid covered).

6) Add rock sugar according to your taste (or make it sweeter for your young children or not so sweet for elderly folks). Note that the more reddish passion fruit is sweeter, and hence, may not need to add too much sugar; the greener passion fruit is more sour, and hence, may need to add more sugar.

7) The following picture is what you get when the drink is done. Sieve the seeds and serve the drink warm.

Direction:
Drink one cup a day, twice a day preferred. Drink for about 1-3 days depending on your condition. 
*Note: Cup size varies, so you have to judge for yourself. For example, when I make this drink for my 7yo boy who doesn't have cough (he likes the drink!), 2yo girl and myself, I would give myself a bigger portion, and smaller portion for my 2 children, especially for my boy.

If the cough is mild, one may potentially stop coughing after drinking it. If the cough is more serious, it helps to relieve the symptom. Disclaimer: See a doctor if you don't get better!

Learning from the Experts! Final Part!

The third and final session that I attended at MOE Excel Fest was on "Making Real World Connections in the Learning of Mathematics", conducted by Zhenghua Primary. This post is to share about the key points that the school shared with the audience, and hopefully, parents who didn't attend the sharing session can learn or find something useful from here. 

Objectives of the Sharing:

• To create awareness that Mathematics occurs in many aspects of everyday life.
• To discover the importance of Mathematics in the real-life situations.
• To reinforce that Mathematics is not just another subject that the students have to prepare for to pass the examinations.

The school also shared a research done by Paul Swan on "I Hate Mathematics", see the points in the following pictures.

The school went on to share how they introduced real life applications of Mathematics in their teaching, and also let the audience experienced the Maths Trails that they created and conducted for their students. For example, they introduced the concept of "Ordinal Number" by asking students what is the 3rd stall from the left in the canteen? 

Overall, it was a great learning experience for me. Looking at what my P1 boy has been tasked to complete in the "I Am A Champ" booklet that his school assigned to them, and when I worked with him to complete the tasks, I'm all the more convinced that they can relate better when it can be applied in real life. For example, the booklet asked the child to list down 10 different ways whereby number(s) is/are used in real life. Through this, he understands that he needs to know his numbers so that he can call home or call his parents, his weight, if he can eat the pack of tidbits by understanding what is expiry date, etc. 

What's my conclusion after attending the sharing sessions conducted at the MOE Excel Fest? Well, they are definitely useful for me to know and understand how I can teach my children for the various subjects, and I would encourage parents, especially if you have children who just started primary school education.

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school.

Learning from the Experts! Part 2 of 3

The second session that I attended at MOE Excel Fest was on "Making Chinese Characters Learning Fun and Enjoyable for Your Child", conducted by Guangyang Primary. The school developed a "汉字笔画操", which was created with lower primary students in mind. During the session, the school demonstrated to parents on how to use our body parts such as our hands and legs to illustrate the basic Chinese strokes.

For example, look at the picture below. Note that the sharing session was conducted in Mandarin, so I'm translating it into English to my best ability, pardon me for any misinterpretation.

1. Putting our hands in-front of us (see the action of 1st boy), it looks like we're surrounding (围) ourselves, so it represents the bigger mouth (大口) surrounding the other strokes within it. 
2. Putting our right arm horizontally in-front of us (see the action of 2nd boy), it represents the stroke "橫".
3. Putting our right arm horizontally and left arm flexed up vertically (see the action of 3rd boy), it represents the word "十".
4. Similar to point 2 as above, so it's the stroke "橫".
5. Punching our right fist out to the front, it represents the stroke "点".

With the above explanation, can you guess which is the word? Well, it's "国".

It was really a very fun learning experience for the parents present at the sharing session as we really learnt quite a number of the basic strokes, and were even asked to invent action for some of the strokes. An example, for my table, we were asked to invent an action for the 部首 "虫", so I did the wriggling worm action to represent it.

It would be quite interesting to teach the basic strokes to our children and have fun learning Chinese! Hence, if the school ever conducts such a sharing session again, do sign up for it! :)

Watch out for the next and last part in my next post...

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school.

Learning from the Experts! Part 1 of 3

I signed up 3 sharing sessions conducted by schools at the MOE Excel Fest this year. As this was my first year of attending such sharing sessions, I had chosen different area of focus for each sharing session. 

The first session was on "Nurturing Your Child into a Confident and Effective Communicator", conducted by CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace. The school shared about how they used Moo-O in school to hone their students' reading fluency skills so that they can eventually communicate confidently and effectively. The parents at the sharing session were given opportunity to try out a story, which was pretty fun and engaging!

Some primary schools are using Moo-O, which unfortunately my son's school is not one of them. The company has a special rate for schools, which unfortunately is not extended to consumers like us, parents! The reason given was that schools purchased a bundle of stories, and hence, the special rate. I suggested to the company that they could offer discount scheme such as buying 5 or 10 stories that would be cheaper than buying each story individually; hopefully they would really look into this and implement it soon!

You can go to http://www.moo-o.com/ to find out more information on Moo-O. The good news is that you can download a free story at http://www.moo-o.com/software/download/ to try it out! :)

Besides Moo-O, the school also shared some learning tips on how parents can help their children, as follows.

1. Choosing books that are:

• enjoyable to read (even for adults)
• packed with good phrases

2. Asking your child:

• literal questions
• inferential questions
• discussion questions

3. Role-modelling:

• read aloud expressively and fluently
• point at the words when reading
• eyes are focusing on the words
• active listening
• agree to disagree

4. Reaching out to reluctant readers:

• read comprehension passages
• identify difficult words and phrases with the child
• have the child retell after a few sentences
• use positive words of encouragement

Last but not least, here's a quote for you to takeaway if you don't remember all the above.

Watch out for the next part in my next post...

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing on Moo-O and learning tips. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school or Moo-O.