Kids geniuses develop apps for adult

iPhone apps - home
Worryfather was googling and found this article.

The article is about 4 internet whizz-kids who have successful developed iPhone applications, online games and server management software. 1 of them, a 10 year old boy has published numerous iPhone applications. His first application, Doodle Kids has been downloaded for more than 680,000. Another at 13, has developed 33 online games. All these kids are very impressive and their parents are very proud of them.

We have known many internet prodigies like Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress. Both are 26 only, but their applications have been used by millions of people worldwide.

What do these four teenagers have in common? - They all started to use computer at young age.

According to the 10-year-old boy's father, Ding Wen knew how to boot a PC, use mouse and run software since he was 2. He had learnt 9 programming language since he was 7. Very impressive for a young kid. Most kids at this age, still learning spoken languages, simple maths and science.

Couple of weeks ago, Worryfather published a post on most parents were not aware of what their kids doing online and some children intimidating sexual poses after exposure to online pornography. The current article definitely has a huge contrast with the previous one. Those exposed to online pornography, violence, drugs or gambling will bring the negative side of the children, while those make good use of the internet and computer will help them shine!

But what is the difference?

The parents of these kids are aware of what their kids are doing online or using the computer. They UNDERSTAND how their kids spent their time. This will help the parents to guide their interest, and advice them if they misuse it. The parents dissuaded their kids from playing too much computer games and to focus on learning.

One of the teenager's father even took back the PlayStation Portable gave to his son.


Ryan's father, Mr Lee, said: 'Too many kids today just consume. In this case, we instil in him a sense of wanting to be part of the creative process, to be more involved in production and creation,' he said.
He added that he dissuaded his son from just spending his time playing computer games.
'I even made his brother return a PlayStation Portable he received as a gift,' joked Mr Lee, referring to Sony's hand-held game console.

    Not everyone will become genius, but it is definitely on the parents' hand what they want to their kids to be. I am not asking you to immediately remove your kids' Facebook account or to ban them from playing computer games. No, doing this will be even worse! What I am suggesting is to understand them, guide them and communicate with them. This will help to bring the best out of them, for their own good.


This is more stressing than your Work!

Students of Nan Hua High School gathering in t...

Every parents in Singapore will go through this stressful period at least once.
For some, this period might be much more stressful than work!

I am talking about Primary 1 (P1) registration.

Education is very important. No doubt about it. For parents, their children education is one of their major concern.
They want their children to get the best education so that they can do well in the society in the future. They want good teaching method which will not be too taxing for the kids and yet not too relax. They want good teachers who can teach, attract the students and cultivate the children learning desire.
And more importantly, a good and safe school environment with no or less bullying.

Not easy, right?

Singapore has developed good education system with many good neighbourhood schools. But to get into the good neighbourhood school is no easy task either.

Currently is the period for parents to register their kid for Primary 1. Parents are getting stressed. Some of the parents I know, who has been posted to oversea, will take leave and come back for the registration of their kid. For worryfather, I have been started to gather information about the process since my daughter is 18 months old.

Now, let me brief a bit on the process. It is complicated and not for the faint hearted.
There are 3 phases for the registration as according to Singapore Ministry of Education

Phase 1
For a child who has a sibling studying in the school of choice.

Phase 2A1
For a child whose parent is a former student of the school and who has joined the alumni association as a member not later than 30 Jun 2009; or whose parent is a member of the School Advisory/Management Committee. 

Phase 2A2
For a child whose parent or sibling has studied in the school of choice; or whose parent is a staff member of the school of choice.

Phase 2B2 
For a child whose parent has joined the school as a parent volunteer not later than 1 July 2009 and has given at least 40 hours of voluntary service to the school by 30 June 2010; or whose parent is a member endorsed by the church/clan directly connected with the school; or whose parent is endorsed as an active community leader.

Phase 2C
For a child who is ineligible for or unsuccessful in earlier phases. If there is more children than the seats available, there will be ballot which will be divided into 3 categories.
Children staying less than 1km from the school, between 1km to 2km and more than 2km.

Phase 2C Supplementary
For a child who is unsuccessful in gaining a place in a school of choice at Phase 2C. Those schools with vacancy will be those less popular or in a more secluded place.

Phase 3
For a child who is neither a Singapore Citizen nor a Singapore Permanent Resident. 

Each school has certain amount of vacancy. Going through each phase, the seat will be taken. If in either of the phase, the number of registrants is more than the vacancy, ballot will be held.
Most popular schools will have enough students at Phase 2B2!


This mean that parents has to stay near the school (forgot about your dream house outside of the city), do some volunteer work at the school in order to have a chance to get your children into good school.
As of 16 July 2010, here is the school vacancies by phases.

So, parents, if you plan to send your children to Singapore primary school, please get a map and start planning now! But not to worry, every children will have a place for Primary 1, it is just a matter of which school.
Maybe you would like to share how's the process for your country too.


Is your kid in danger?

Internet Cafe СозополImage by uros velickovic via Flickr
Recently there are a slew of reports on internet safety for kids.

     Firstly, there is such report on children intimating sexual poses. It was exposed by some netizens on a Chinese forum. I believe for any parents out there to see such photos, they certainly feel angry about it. Worryfather also saddened for what's happening to our kids.
No doubt as reported that the photographer should stop such poses by the kids, but what's the cause for the kids to intimate such poses should be our main concern.

Kids exposure to pornography should be one of the main concern, if not all. Pornography can be accessed anywhere, anytime with the availability of internet. Compare to last time, pornography was available through magazine only. Through internet, pornography is available just a few clicks and it is on for 24 hours a day. Though most pornography sites only allow 18 and above, but it doesn't really able to tell how old is their reader. This is very disturbing!

According to another survey conducted at 14 nations, 25 percents of the parents worldwide were not aware of what their kids doing online. 6 in 10 parents in Singapore were ignorant about their child's online activity. This is very scary but yet understandable as most parents were 'busy' with work, lack of tools to help them as among the reasons.

For the fact that the children spent about 16 hours per week online as what most parents thought of 14 hours, this is something to be taken seriously. This means that parents underestimated their kids online time, and thus do not understand what their kids online activities. Internet is full of seduction. If any of the 16 hours spent online, chanced upon pornography and go unaware, the consequences might be regrettable.

Hence, I think it is important for the parents to monitor and understand their kids online time and online activities. Is it against kids privacy? You might argue so, but as the kids' guardian, you have the utmost responsibility to make sure they grow healthy physically and mentally.

If you don't understand your kids, who will?







Learning ABC

Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever! Today I want to introduce a marvellous educational DVD.
It is Richard Scarry's Best ABC Video Ever.

     This educational program has been in the market for very long time. I first heard about it when my niece was 2 years old, she is now 18 years old. I believe some of you has heard about it.
This animation video is surely a fun and attracting way for kids to learn ABC.

    The video is put into an interesting story. The teacher was teaching 26 cute animal students ABC. Each of the student has a letter card, which they will need to give a word starting with the alphabet. The students were able to make a nice story with each of the alphabet. The students were able to come out with a story on how banana gorilla, the main character, stole banana, how he escaped and finally been caught. The story was simple but interesting.

     On top of the simple "A" for "apple" kind of words, the video also introduces human names that start with the letter. Adjectives and adverbs were used too for some of the alphabets like "Excellent", "Silly", "Sickening".Of course, there is ABC song too.

     My daughter has been watching this video weekly for 1 year. It is still her no. 1 video. We always play this video for her, and she will sit there and watch until the end. She will even laugh when she sees those characters she likes.

     I think this is a good and interesting education video. If you are looking for one to teach your kids ABC, I do recommend this video to you.