Asian Parents Forum

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Asian Parents Forum

Sunday 27 May 2012

The Parents Forum offers opportunities for parents, teachers and other related professionals to get advice, support, and information on quality content and creative experiences. In so being empowered they become more confident and competent to manage the reading habits and learning needs of their children.

The Forum aims to help bridge the gap between theory and practice, and also to build close relationships between parents and their children. As children become more exposed to different digital media platforms, parents have to cope with this new trend to stay ahead of their children’s literacy needs.

10.00am – 10.15am

Chamber

Welcome

by Claire Chiang, Author and Senior Vice President, Banyan Tree Holdings, Singapore

10.15am – 11.00am

Chamber

Keynote: Read Me A Story, Sing Me To Sleep

by Leonard Marcus, Historian and Critic, USA

Practical advice from one of the world’s most respected critics on how to approach the daunting task of finding books that your children will love and remember.

11.00am – 1.00pm

Chamber

Workshop 1: Telling Stories, Building Bonds      (in English)

by Claire Chiang, Author and Senior Vice President, Banyan Tree Holdings, Singapore

Writing a memoir is one way of telling your children stories that help to build bonds and foster understanding between generations. Engage with Claire Chiang as she shares her reflections on the choices she has made in life, the path she has taken, and the relationships she has treasured along the way through writing her memoir, and be inspired to explore your own life story.

11.00am – 1.00pm

Screening Room

Workshop 2: Creative Writing for Parents and Children

by Catherine Khoo, Managing Director, Janus Education Services,

Carlo Venson Pena, Creative Education Manager, Janus Education Services, Singapore

While children are a trove of ideas, parents also need avenues to express themselves. In this interactive workshop, both parent and child undergo creative avenues to write a short story. Under the mentorship of veteran author and editor Catherine Khoo, participants will learn that by encouraging children to write, may translate into content for a variety of platforms.

11.00am – 1.00pm

Living Room

Storytelling for Children

by Sheila Wee, Storyteller, Singapore

Join international storyteller Sheila Wee for two lively sessions of storytelling for the whole family.  Suitable for children above the age of six.

11.00am to 11.45am:  Animal Antics

12.15pm to 1.00pm:  A Forest Full of Stories

11.00am – 1.00pm

Blue Room

Reading Assessment

by Mindchamps Team

The MindChamps Reading Assessment is based on the Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement created by Marie M. Clay, a distinguished researcher in global educational literacy. In this method, a child’s competency profile is assessed based on six tasks. This helps in making informed decisions on the future development of the child’s literacy skills.

11.00am – 12.00pm

Play Den

CANCELLED – Communicating with Your Child

by Brian Caswell, Dean of Research and Programme Development, Mindchamps, Australia

As parents and teachers, we have to radically lift our game. In a world as demanding as the one we have created for our children, they need us to be strong leaders and great communicators by understanding their mindset. It means harnessing the tools and the skills to engage with our children and empower them to achieve their full potential.

12.00pm – 1.00pm

Play Den

Cyber Wellness & Technology: Considerations for Parents

by Stanley Han, Founder, Koobits, Singapore

Children today are exposed to various digital media platforms and this has a profound impact on education and learning. This talk will cover topics such as: How can parents, largely digital immigrants, engage today’s students, born digital natives, in effective use of technology?  How digital media can improve their grades and build essential life skills? Other issues include cyber-bullying, game addiction and privacy.

2.00pm – 5.00pm

Blue Room

Reading Assessment

by Mindchamps Team

2.00pm – 3.30pm

Chamber

Workshop 3: Telling Stories Building Bonds       (in Mandarin)

by Claire Chiang, Author and Senior Vice President, Banyan Tree Holdings, Singapore

Writing a memoir is one way of telling your children stories that help to build bonds and foster understanding between generations. Engage with Claire Chiang as she shares her reflections on the choices she has made in life, the path she has taken, and the relationships she has treasured along the way through writing her memoir and be inspired to explore your own life story.

3.30pm – 4.40pm

Chamber

Trends in Chinese Children’s Literature (in Mandarin)

by Tang Sulan, Author

For more information, click here.

2.00pm – 3.30pm

Play Den

The World of Difference—Using Multicultural Books to Teach Your Child About the World We Live In

by Uma Krishnaswami and  Cynthea Liu, Authors, USA and Rukhsana Khan, Author, Canada

The three authors will share their thoughts on using multicultural books as a way to teach and expand children’s horizon of the world they are living in.

2.00pm – 3.00pm

Living Room

Motivating Your Child to Read and Write

by Roselind Wee, Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

This speaker will share effective tips and techniques that she and her husband had successfully used to train their daughter to read at two. This reading interest prompted their child to write and publish at nine. A nurturing home environment developed their child’s reading and writing abilities from young. The speaker also shares how they guided their child to create intriguing plots and interesting characters in her children’s stories.

3.00pm – 4.00pm

Living Room

Happy Students, Happy Kids

by Daniel Wong and Jenni Ho-Huan, Authors, Singapore

Parents envisage laughter, energy and lots of wholesome happiness with their children but they are often stressed, wearied and worried. In the blind pursuit of academic success, students miss out on the joy of the journey. Jenni and Daniel will share their insights on the importance of happiness and the path towards being self-motivated as students.

3.30pm – 5.00pm

Play Den

Workshop 5: Drama From Picture Books: At Play with Parents and Children

by ACT 3 Drama Academy

Taking the story from the book, The Frog Who Could Not Jump, ACT 3 Drama Academy will weave together a series of drama activities and exercises in a participatory setting to engage both the child and parent. This workshop will encourage shared participation in storytelling, role playing, and improvisation to realise a piece to SHOW AND TELL at the end of the session.

4.00pm – 5.00pm

Living Room

Foldabots—Fun with Paper Folding

by Jomike Tejido, Artist & Architect, Philippines

As a child, Jomike Tejido loved to watch Transformers and played with toys like Roadblasters and Dinoriders. Instead of asking his parents to buy the toys, he made his own with cardboard by drawing patterns onto paper folders. As an adult, he rediscovered an old elementary notebook and saw his penciled patterns, which inspired him to revive his craft and share it with children across the Philippines.

4.00pm – 5.00pm

Screening Room

Passing on Your Values to Your Child

by Jimmy Teo, Author, Singapore

The true wealth of all good parents is in the well-being of their children, not the digits in their bank accounts.  These are simple rules to acquire, step-by- step over time, based on the golden pillars of simplicity and honesty. Children today are intelligent and highly informed. They need respectable guidance from those who live by example. Hence communication is the key to their contentment.

5.00pm – 6.30pm

Chamber

Young Author Awards

by Janus Education

Born in 2007, the Young Author Awards (YAA) is an annual regional writing competition for the under-18s. It provides a variety of platforms to laud the novel concept that Kids Can Write. This year, 50 finalists were shortlisted from over 450 entries from Singapore schools and beyond and they will vie for the three coveted top prizes and 20 merit awards.  Winners of the awards are included in an anthology series, and are converted into e-books or featured in a magazine, both in print and online, through SingTel’s Skoob and Delite platforms on the iPhone, iPad and Android.

 

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