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Chinese Reading Pens and Robots for kids

Chinese reading pens have been essential for our non-native family in the journey to learning Chinese. My three daughters each a fluent in Mandarin, despite no parents or grandparents (or any other family member, nanny or au pair!) speaking the language. For me as their monolingual mother, this means I cannot understand the book sthey are reading, their homework, or even help with weekly spelling revision, or even bedtime fun reading.

Reading pens have been a godsend for the kids and for me. Here’s sharing a few tips on how we’ve been surviving, thanks to a few interesting Chinese reading pens and robots, all available in Singapore. Each of Chinese reading pens was purposefully chosen to fulfil a specific role in our house:

Le Le Reading Pen – for character learning and literacy (for my preschoolers)
Luka Reading Companion – for enjoying picture books from the library together (for whole family)
Habbi Habbi Reading Wand – as a durable and really fun pen for my toddler to use on board books (for baby/toddler), with great morals and uplifting content (I just love it when my kids repeat phrases from these books).
eTutorStar – for following the MOE Primary curriculum (for my primary schooler)
PenPal Whizz – for listening to broader Chinese literature (bought 5+ years ago now, prior to Luka’s arrival on the market!)
Youdao Dictionary Pen II – this is really my toy! It’s a Chinese Dictionary Pen which will translate any Chinese text, including whole paragraphs, and neat handwriting. [Update 2021: a better option to Youdao is the iFlyTek Alpha Egg Dictionary Pen which is a child-friendly optical scanning pen and dictionary]

1. Le Le Chinese Reading System and Pen

Le Le Chinese pen is an engaging picture book series of 300 books, which gradually get harder and harder, and by the end of the series it covers the 1000 most popular Chinese characters. The Chinese reading pen included with the set will read the individual characters, to assist a child in learning to read independently. The intention of the books is to “literacy through literature” – which is to say that by reading lots of books, the child will naturally pick up characters.

The highly unique aspect of this pen, is you can point it at any Chinese character, on any page, and it will each individual character. My daughter is able to use the pen independently to figure out new words, which means she doesn’t need to wait for my help to try and look at the character in Google Translate or the dictionary phone app. The concept is it allows a child to learn characters without the need for pinyin or zhuyin. I wrote a more detailed review of how our family uses Lele pen here.

The pen only retails from Taiwan (it sells online), so is much more expensive to source in Singapore than other options listed here, but the benefits are worth it. The unique aspect of this pen, is you can point it at any Chinese character, and it will read the individual character. So, my daughter is able to read most of a book herself, and then just get help with the harder parts. You might find a secondhand version on Carousell, as there is quite a tribe of Singaporean parents who swear by these readers.

2. Luka Reading Companion & Luka Hero

Luka is an amazing robot (not really a pen) which will read almost ANY children’s book. It read over 10,000 titles, which means that if my daughter borrows a book from NLB, she’s generally able to read it at home. This lets her explore new books which her friends are borrowing, which otherwise she’d be unable to read. You can turn the pages, and Luka recognises the specific page, meaning you can start from anywhere, at any time, or skip over bits. We’ve borrowed over 70 books, and all have been readable using Luka.

Look at my detailed review for more on how we use Luka as a reading companion for children’s books, and where to buy it from. I’ve also compared the original Luka versus Luka Hero in a separate post. It’s available locally in Singapore from Luka Reads. Please remember there is a SG$20 discount for readers of my blog if you quote “LahLah20” at checkout from Luka Reads, which is a very kind offer from the team at Luka Reads Singapore.

3. Habbi Habbi Reading Wand

Habbi Habbi is great as a “First Reading Pen”, for toddlers / younger children with its hardcover board books and fun durable design. It is bilingual Chinese-English (with a Spanish-English option too). I find the key features are the stunning design, the progressive / thoughtful content, and the play-based nature. The books are designed to enable kids to play and learn at the same time. Kids can tap anywhere and get feedback – because every inch in tappable (the text, illustrations and even the white space).

Habbi Habbi is especially great for less-native families, because it includes both English and pinyin, so it’s more accessible and approachable (especial for those who find Chinese-only resources intimidating). Habbi Habbi book content is also distinguishing – with themes of empathy, diversity, self reliance, global citizenship and more. They have a library of 20 matching board books (and counting!) – available in Simplified Chinese (within pinyin) or Spanish. I’ve written a detailed review here of Habbi Habbi at this link. You cannot go past Habbi Habbi for a great first start into learning Chinese. And when you kids repeat phrases from these books like “I feel worthy”, “I love my body”, “I admire my mommy. She is capable of anything”, it does tickle your heart.

4. eTutor Star

eTutor Education Star pen is a made-in-Singapore invention, and retails at Popular Bookshops among other places. Some of the international schools here (like Eton House) use this as part of their bilingual curriculums.

eTutor pen is actually very similar to the Pen Pal Whizz in most respects. The difference is that each pen is made by a different publisher, and thus has different books that it works with. Overall, the range between the JLB Penpal Whizz and the eTutor Education Star Pen are very similar, however we’d say the JLB range has higher quality books with better illustrations, which my younger kids prefer. The eTutor on the other hand can read some of the subscription fortnightly magazines which follow the Singapore MOE school syllabus (like “Zhi Shi Hua Bao” 知识画报, and “Hao Peng You” 好朋友 ) which is why we ended up buying it to support our studies. I have written a review of the eTutor Education Star pen at this link.

5. Scanning Dictionary Pens (Youdao Dictionary Pen II or Alpha Egg)

Youdao Smart Pen is a Chinese Dictionary Pen which translates any printed text effortlessly and fluently from Chinese into English and vice versa – and it does it miles better than Google translate or Pleco OCR function. It’s amazing! It will read aloud and translate from Chinese to English, including whole paragraphs. To me, this is the holy grail gadget for translating Chinese-English text! It’s not a child’s toy, but it’s my toy.

I mainly use it to “preread” our Chinese books before my kids read them, or to understand the instructions on our Chinese apps, or the notes to parents at the front of the school text books. But recently I also started letting my elder daughter use it for her wider reading, to fill in the gaps for characters she doesn’t know. It’s been encouraging to see her being able to challenge herself with more difficult books, knowing that there’s a tool to help her understand the new characters.

It retails locally in Singapore from Koala Mandarin in Novena. Full details, including a discount promo code are in my detailed review.

[ Note: As at May 2021, I’ve discovered a better pen to the Youdao, especially for a child! It’s called the iFlyTek Alpha Egg. Read about how iFlyTek compares to Youdao! ]

Youdao Chinese Reading Pen — Youdao Chinese Dictionary Pen effortlessly with translate whole paragraph or individual words from Chinese into English, on ANY text.

6. Pen Pal Whizz

Pen Pal Whizz is another Singapore-designed Chinese reading pen (like the eTutor Star). It can read selected picture books in English and Mandarin. We like it because it’s not too expensive (relatively) and the books are all easy to buy in Singapore. The range includes classic fairytales, Chinese idioms, and many simply primary reading books. (Here is a review I wrote on a compatible comic series which is similar to The Young Scientists series in English, but obviously in Chinese)

Le Le and PenPal Whizz Chinese Reading pen

We also have the iHuman Levelled Readers and Pen, although this won’t rank in the top 5.

Which Chinese Reading Pen is right for me?

I’ve tried to draw an image of how I see the schema landscape of reading pens fitting together, and try to make it less overwhelming to understand all the options.

Different Chinese reading pens and curriculums suit different learning stages, ages, family situations, and intended learning outcomes. I’ve put together a diagram showing how we see them all fitting together.

Head-to-Head comparison of Chinese reading pen options

The image below has a head-to-head comparison of five reading pens.

Note – I’ve not included the Youdao pen or Alpha Egg in the table above, because Chinese dictionary pens are in a different league (more of a translation/dictionary tool than an children’s educational product). Youdao or Alpha Egg are is like your google translate handy pocket-sized pal which will scan and read anything, provided the text/handwriting is less than 1.5cm in height. They retail for significantly less (about $160) and are a worthy addition for any family.

And that’s what we know about Chinese reading pens and robots in this house. So far, no tuition has been needed (admittedly we’re not doing PSLE yet either!). Whilst it sometimes feels like uphill battle, it’s like climbing to Mt Everest Base Camp: a big task takes preparation and practice, but the sense of achievement is huge and every step changes your view on the world. Moreover, with technology, it’s much easier to achieve.

What interesting technologies are helping your children to learn?

Where can I find out more?

My other more detailed posts on the topics of Chinese reading pens and robots which I’ve written:

I would love to hear from you, especially if you have experience with other similar pen. It’s only through meeting other wonderful parents virtually, that this shared language journey becomes a more valuable one. All comments welcomed!

Should I opt for Chinese as my child’s Mother Tongue at primary school?

It’s coming up for primary enrolment in Singapore, and for some mixed-race families, or foreign families, it creates the annual question “Should I enrol my child for Chinese as their Mother Tongue (MT) language”. As background, in Singapore, each child in a local school needs to study a compulsory mother tongue, which for most is related to their ethnicity – the Chinese take Mandarin; Malays and Eurasians take Bahasa; and Indians take Tamil or Hindi. For those who don’t fit into one of those categories (like us!), a MT language must be elected.

Given the importance of China in the global economy, many parents feel that learning Chinese would be the best use of their child’s time. Gosh, we thought the same too, especially given the Chinese heritage of our family. Additionally, our children had been exposed to Mandarin in kindergarten, and we were keen to continue on with this.

We’re glad we’ve gone down that route. But it’s worth doing it with your eyes wide open. A few tips:

Don’t feel alone or that the challenge is insurmountable because you don’t speak Chinese.

I’ve noticed that there are many Singaporean Chinese millennials who grew up using mostly English and Singlish, and now are also unable to proficiently teach their children Chinese. Yes, basic conversation is possible, but it’s hardly fluent nor going to pass Grade 3 Chinese composition. Conversely, there are other families who have sent their kids to tuition from the moment they start pre-school, and both parents and kids despise the language so much by the time they reach P1, that studying it formally is also difficult. So, if you’re effectively a non-Chinese speaker, and trying to raise a bilingual children in Singapore, don’t feel like you are that far behind!
Be supportive

A parents’ attitude is almost everything. Even if you don’t understand it, at least be there to sit with them as they attempt to read a simple picture book. Many times I’ve heard parents say in front of their child ‘Chinese is so difficult, I used to flunk it all the time’. ….. this doesn’t feel the right approach to encourage a child to succeed. Let’s be positive and involved, if we want to create a winning attitude in our children. We shouldn’t limit our children by our past challenges – little children love to learn and their brains are sponges; they think it’s fun and a natural. You’ll realise this when you see how fast your child takes up learning Chinese characters. They’ll leave you for dead!
Be ready to invest time and energy

Learning Chinese at primary school level is not the same as learning it in pre-school. It quickly goes from being a fun and immersive approach, into an academic structure with weekly spelling tests, and focus on character writing; and with 30 – 40 in the class, the individual time for learning in school is limited. This really means you need to be their quarter-back, and support your child’s learning outside of school.

I find there are lots of similarities, between what a parent who does speak Chinese should do and what a parent who does not speak Chinese should do. However, the limitation is that if a parent doesn’t speak basic Chinese, they often cannot understand the instruction of the learning materials (eg MOE text-book home activities, or Sage books) nor practice the weekly spelling lists in a traditional way. I remember madly going through the P1 book list and trying to work out the difference between each of the six mandarin books we’d bought, and which one had to be packed on each different day (thankfully – I realised that on the back cover of the MOE text books in tiny font is an English translation of the title). Read my post here on how we finally managed to understand our P1 text book and thrive in the subject.

It’s also hard to get access to supporting materials (ordering from Taobao using Google translate is an expensive nightmare!), and even the best Chinese learning apps (eg iHuman, Wukong Literacy, etc) have all the registration and payment pages in Chinese. So you really do need to put in the extra effort and be a little creative. But it’s not impossible.
Consider the school choice carefully

Some primary schools in Singapore teach standard level Chinese, and others offer the option for Higher Chinese. Some only do Higher Chinese. This can be the difference between sinking and swimming. Consider whether the school might have a high percentage of intake who are primarily mandarin speaking at home (is the school associated with a Chinese Clan society? What is the demographic of students?), and also whether the school has a good support network for struggling children. Some schools will offer remedial support classes, and other schools will expect the parents to pay for this outside of school! I’ve made a more detailed post comparing the number of characters / relative difference between Normal, Higher and Foundation Chinese options.
Set up a formal learning structure if needed

If you plan to start your child in P1 (aged 7) in local school with learning Chinese as a fresh start, with no prior exposure, it could be quite intimidating. The homework will be totally in Chinese; the letters to parents from the laoshi may be written only in Chinese with no translation. Finally with my Luka Hero I’ve been able to decipher how to read Chinese handwritten notes! It works equally well (if not better) with our Youdao pen too.

An older child may feel frustrated if he/she can’t understand what’s going on in the Chinese class, or gets negative feedback from teachers (which can unfortunately happen – I suppose some teachers view having a straggler in the class make a large class size even more unwieldy to teach). For us, we made a simple change of reading Chinese books for 10 minutes each evening, and it massively boosted reading confidence for my primary schooler. We started off with Le Le graded reader series, which I cannot recommend highly enough, and we use Skritter app for practising the weekly spelling.

I think it’s very important for all families to expose their Chinese learners to more fun Chinese media outside of school – immerse them in simple Chinese TV, games, and music. But potentially you may need to consider a more structured program to bring them up to speed with Chinese as their second language. I would recommend a one-on-one approach with a tutor, given that most of the enrichment centres in Singapore are based around kids being 2 terms ahead of where their class is, rather than coming from a low base! Be sure to read my top tips on how to increase Chinese exposure in the home, for families where Chinese language is not readily spoken.
You cannot have everything!

By devoting time to Chinese, this might mean less free time and money to spend on other aspects of childhood. As an example, we spend a lot of time reading Chinese books together in the evening, or doing character writing, so our piano practice takes a backseat. We also don’t do a lot of afterschool activities, although we did start ballet through a Chinese drama school which was a nice re-enforcing activity. Our choice of church also was influenced by availability of a Chinese-speaking Sunday school. It’s really become part of our lifestyle, deliberately.

It’s been rewarding for us ….. and we now have three children who can all fluently speak and read Chinese, and in fact for my youngest two, their Chinese reading and writing level is ahead of their English one! To find out more about how our family is faring, there’s another post here which may help.

This process of learning Chinese from scratch is certainly not for everybody, and you have to consider carefully whether the commitment and investment is worth it for your family. So in short, if you’re not up for the hands-on challenge (or reading this blog post in full), I would suggest if you have the choice, just choose to learn Malay!

If you want to learn the language yourself as an adult beginner, see my previous post on the subject here. I’ve also put loads of tips on how to support your child’s Mandarin mother tongue learning journey on an earlier page.

Enjoy the special opportunity to embrace a new language with your child!

Being an expat at local school in Singapore

The decision to go to local school as an expat in Singapore

Once people get to know our family, they generally end up asking “What it is like as an expat in a local school?” and “Why did you choose a neighbourhood school?”. I can tell it’s a question on people’s minds from the moment they meet us! There aren’t many Singapore expats in local school.

Deciding to send our non-Singaporean child to a local school in Singapore was a deliberate and well-researched choice. We thought long and hard on whether an international school or local school was best fit for our situation: we love Singapore, are actively involved in the local community, and knew we’d be here for a long time. We wanted an environment for stability of learning, empowering self-confidence and humility, and creating lifelong friendships. Being able to learn a foreign language – in our case we chose Mandarin Chinese – up to level of fluency (or so we thought) was certainly a lure.

Singapore’s education system is taught largely in English, and it is globally known have a strong academic focus. This was something else which attracted us, but also created a warning light. My first, and main question, was how pressurised is this system? I had heard stories from colleagues of children who are up until midnight with homework, and parents who ferry around their children to jam-packed schedules of tuition classes every weekend. So, I spent a good two years researching this, visiting schools, and talking to anyone I knew in the teaching profession, to determine whether this was an illusory myth, or a hard, brutal fact about the local school system.

Given that we:
(i) chose to enrol our first daughter, and
(ii) her siblings are following her in the system,

it is hopefully evidence enough to you that our experience (so far) has been a positive and enriching one. Ultimately, every child is different, and it won’t suit everyone, and there are also limited spaces for non-Singaporean in local schools. Parents need to make a choice that best suits their child’s temperament and learning needs, and then actively support that decision.

Has local school life been stressful?

For us, being in a local no-brand neighbourhood school, with little-to-no homework most days, and the school staff actively discouraging external tuition, we’ve largely had a stress-free and joyful experience. And when I say this, I mean stress free for both child and parent. I can see it turning out very differently, depending on school selection and location (for example …. Our neighbours’ son gets on a school bus each morning at 5.55am to go to an elite school on the other side of the island ….. it’s hard for me to envisage a more stressful start to the daily routine as a parent! ). Perhaps more experienced parents will read this and smile, because I don’t yet know what horrors lie in upper primary when the PSLE is upon us… watch out for an update!

The things which have brought us stress have been surprising – for me, I still find it mentally tough standing at the school gate for pick-up, and being the only ang moh in the crowd, and knowing absolutely everyone remembers me and I don’t recognise anyone! Or it’s the stress of trying to understand what-on-earth I’m signing when the Mother Tongue teacher asks me to put signature on the school report, fully hand-written Chinese characters, which cannot be translated on Google (that’s when my Youdao dictionary pen has become a saviour, by the way)!

Pros of Singapore local school

Focus on academics: Singapore local education system is known for being extremely rigorous in maths and science, and producing very high scores in the PISA tests (which is the Programme for International Student Assessment, a worldwide study by the OECD, so nothing to laugh at!). As an engineer myself, I value having a solid early understanding of numbers and science concepts. Surely the system has more rote-learning than an international school equivalent, but I think there’s a place for knowing off by heart your times tables, and getting the traditional ‘3 R’s (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic) down pat.
Structured environment: Yes, it’s highly structured environment, with fixed class scheduling every day, a huge backpack of books and sheets, and no space for non-sense. For us, I think this structure has helped to cultivate discipline and responsibility in our children: they learn to pack their own books, be on time for class, be a self-directed learner, etc. And, remember, they are only in school until 1.30pm, so for us, the rest of the afternoon is totally unstructured!
Cost: this is a hard one – yes it’s a certain benefit, as many expats pour out tens of thousands of dollars a year to enrol their children in international school. We would have gladly spent the money on the best school solution for our children. Local schools are not free either (in 2020 for a foreign student, it’s SG$9000 per year for primary school, and $16800 for secondary school), but they are notably cheaper than the cheapest international school options. We are well aware that with the money saved from not sending three children to an international school, we can use this for other fulfilling family activities, fun summer camps, holidays, oh and let’s not forget, the investment in learning Chinese!
Great facilities– most schools will be equipped with dental surgeries, dance studios, science laboratories, modern sports halls, canteens which look like hawker centres, wonderful technologies, and access to world-class curriculums and programmes. There’s after school learning support for those who need a little extra help, and some fun after school extra-curricular activities (environmental club, cooking club, robotic clubs, sports and drama) and overseas trips. There’s not the big grand spacious campus which some of the international schools boast, but it’s way beyond what we would expect if we were back in our home country.

Cons of local Singapore schools

Class size: At P1 & P2 there are 30 in a class. It’s big, but you’d get that at some government schools in Australia or UK. At P3 and beyond, it increases to 40! Overall, I think a child learns better in a smaller environment, so this is a constant bug bear. The teachers have good coping strategies and technologies on how to manage large class sizes, but this comes at the cost of individual attention or creativity. For example, the “creative writing”, be-it in English or Chinese, is really a highly structured process of rote learning how to make a sample opening paragraph, then template questions to tick off, with a penultimate paragraph, and a conclusion. It’s a great framework to build upon though!

For a family who wants the child to converse more in Chinese, a large class doesn’t allow the direct discourse with a teacher to practice speaking (or hearing) the language. Another aspect of large classes is that the children in upper primary are streamed by academic ability – to me this makes for better learning, but anther view, is that it is a stress factor and unnecessarily label on a young child.
Free play and socialising: There isn’t a “lunch hour” at local school – timing is generally 7.30am to 1.30pm, with a half hour recess break. So, there’s a whole aspect of playtime antics and friendship making which I feel is absent from the local school experience. We consciously make this up outside of school, by maintaining regular playdates with sets of friends, and encouraging bonding with school friends (believe me, this really does take encouragement!). Thankfully, mine have three siblings to joust with after-school, but I do really feel for the single-children in this respect.
Stress: I put this here, because I bet any reader was expecting to see that. Singapore Ministry of Education has actively been making changes to make the schooling experience less-stressful, including removing particular assessment and exams. We haven’t felt the academic pressure (yet……perhaps it’s still coming). I think this largely depends on the child’s attitude and aptitude, as well as parents’ expectations. I do feel it’s not conducive to a happy childhood for children to spend most of their free time after school taking private lessons and enrichment classes. We haven’t done this yet, and I hope never to be in that situation. From the class Whatsapp chats, I can tell that there are some children who already are experiencing this, and I’m sure it could be stressful.

I’ve read some awfully sad articles about the poor mental health of older primary school students and the pressure they feel to achieve well in their PSLE – equally so, I’ve heard such stories at brandname International Schools too. Particularly for a local Singaporean child, where university places are limited, which means scoring well in O-levels, hence needing to get into a good secondary school, etc etc, you work backwards, and the pressure to perform well hits at a young age. I feel as non-Singaporeans, we’re lucky to not have this burden, as there are other channels to get into university, should my kids wish to go down that route.
Catering for unique different learning needs: It’s hard in this environment. Thankfully I have girls, who are scientifically better suited at a younger age to classroom-based learning. And, we have no specific learning difficulties to cater for.

How you can find out more about what happens in local schools as a Singapore expat

Open Days: Most schools have open days, so we went to a lot of them to get a sense for the facilities, teaching staff and vibe from the school. They’re all really different, so it was well worth it. The other thing I did was to visit the schools around pick-up time, and get a sense for the parent/helper/bus crowd hanging around at the gates, and the looks on the children’s faces as they left the premises.

Visit the school: I don’t mean contact the school for a viewing, or attempting to go inside it ….. that’s a no no. However, why not walk around the outside of the school, and see what the vibe is like. Do you see any play equipment? A field? Hear sounds of joyful singing? See happy children running around? Visit the school at pick-up time, and just stand in the crowd of parents (and helpers, and grandparents!). See what they’re like, and what the children do as they run out of the school. Do they cross the roads politely? Greet their parents and road traffic assistant with a smile? Are they laden with text books and heavy bags?

Online Resources: The Ministry of Education (MOE) puts a lot of their syllabus online, which gives a great perspective.

Kiasu Parents Forum: I decided not to spend too much time here researching here-say online, because I didn’t want to waste time following threads and googling to find wrong answers written by bias anonymous parents to questions which are best solved in person. But that’s just me! Some people swear by online forums, and if that’s you, you’ll find plenty at Kiasu Parents!

Singapore Expats in Local Schools Facebook group: a good group to connect to, once you get into a local school as an expat.

How it feels day-to-day in local Singapore school

Our school runs from 7:45 to 1:30pm. It’s a 3 minute walk from our front door, which enables plenty of time for a good sleep and healthy breakfast beforehand. Every day we feel grateful that we avoid the 5.55AM school bus! From Primary 1, the day is fully timetabled and structured, with English, Mother Tongue, Maths, Social Science, PE, etc and corresponding books for each subject. There’s a 30 minutes recess break, for children to eat at the canteen, play, or borrow books from the library.

The school year runs from January through to mid-November, with a full month of school holidays in June and 6 weeks at year-end.

I recall my one lingering concern after enrolling our first daughter, which was would feel like the odd-on-out (I mean, curly brown hair amid a sea of black?). Well, thankfully no. I think all kids are naturally colour-blind. None of them would know the difference. She’s made good friends, become a class monitor, and is in a very happy learning environment. She is proud of how well she is doing, and we are proud too!

Words of advice as a Singapore expat in local school

Choosing a school: Not all foreigners have the option to choose which school they want to go to – it’s only Singapore Permanent Residents. If this is you, location and logistics is a large part of what I feel makes-or-break the experience. The ability to walk to school really is a pleasure – it’s avoided the need to research car rental, the cost of taxis, timing of school buses, etc. Given schools starts somewhere between 7.15am to 7.45am, often school buses arrive 6am. We were fortunate enough to be in a position of having the option to go to our closest local school, and it has really worked for us.

Pressure: Sometimes I wonder whether going to a neighbourhood school as opposed to a brand-name local school perhaps meant less homework and pressure? Not sure, but we’ve certainly had friends at different schools who have had underwhelming experiences (in so far as being overwhelmed by the entire system). Whilst Singapore has a motto “Every school a good school” (which I believe!), I have seen there are fundamentally different between approaches to homework and assessment across schools, and my hypothesis is that much of this could be parent cohort-driven too. It’s probably worth thinking about.

Mother tongue language: All students in Singapore’s local school system need to study a mother-tongue language. This is a great opportunity for a child to become bilingual, but the standards are high, as it’s assumed this language is also spoken at home. To understand whether you should consider choosing Chinese as a mother-tongue, please see my earlier post. Then, if you do choose Chinese, I would recommend that you start as soon as possible to ensure your child has a strong foundation in the language – there are simple things you can do to expose your child to Chinese, even as a non heritage Chinese family.

Ultimately. there is no such thing as a perfect school system, nor perfect solution for parenting. Much of it is what you make of it. I’m naturally an optimist, and hope my children will be like that too. I love the quote “If you believe you can, or if you believe you cannot, you are right”. A lot of the journey is the story or perspective you put around it. For us, we do love being part of the Singapore expats in local school tribe.

Is it the best option for learning Mandarin?

If you’re reading this, because you’re interested in your child learning Chinese, and therefore thinking a Singapore local school could be your best option….. I really don’t know if it’s best, as there are also amazing bilingual Chinese international school options available, which are fully immersive! However, I do have a few other blog posts on teaching children Chinese as a non-Chinese literate family, which may be of interest:

I would love to hear from you!

Part of the joy in blogging, is building up a community of like-minded parents who can support each other. So, I welcome you to comment below, email me, or join in discussions on Facebook or Instagram. Through supporting each other, and sharing tips, the load is lighter!