JooLeo

The investment holding website is up and running.

2011-09-28T08:37:00.003+08:00

After picking up the skills PHP5 and the Codeigniter framework, the JooLeo Investment Holding website is finally up and running. It is not a fancy website, as it is not suppose to be, all the functions are there for all the investment operation to execute. The time is taking longer than expected, including the learning time. I thought I just need two weeks to complete it, where I took about 1 month to complete it. Anyway, I think it is quite stable and we are good to continue the real business behind it.

Something is wrong with capitalism?

2011-07-28T17:22:00.003+08:00

Having working for over ten years, I have a feeling that the capitalism has some bad implication. It seems that every one is trying to work hard through out the life just to pay off the mortgage, this is especially obvious in the city, where housing is more expensive than suburban.
In Singapore, the situation is worsening. The inflation is pushing up so high that it is difficult for a normal citizen to buy even the government flat. For a rough calculation, a person will need to pay the sum of more than 600 thousands Singapore Dollars easily for a three bedroom house including interest. That would take a person who earns $2,000 monthly to pay off the mortgage in 25 years' time without consider other living cost! Is this a problem of capitalism?

JooLeo Investment Holding, gogogo!

2011-07-22T10:09:00.003+08:00

After so many years of preparation and harvest, finally we manage to start our first investment holding company! This is not my first startup company, but I am pretty confident this company will slowly grow to its sky high potential :)

好久了

2010-04-27T23:12:00.002+08:00

原来上一封博客是写于去年的年底。

有了小孩，每天都是忙忙碌碌，忙着照顾小孩，忙着工作。晚上陪小孩睡，小孩睡着了，我也睡着了。当我清醒过来，潜意识告诉我起床做些自己的事儿，但眼皮就是不听话。

忙碌的日子特别快过，一转眼，她们已经八个月大了。从小老头到可爱天使模样，从需要哄睡到自行入睡，从只能挥舞手脚到爱爬爱站，从只懂哭闹到呀呀学语，原来他们是这样长大的。

这段期间，最累的不是我，是我妈。六十几岁了，身体也不是特别硬朗，为了让我无后顾之忧，毅然决定离开老伴，越过长堤，帮我照顾小孩。今天同事发了他写一篇文章给我，题目是《妈妈老了》。我看了觉的十分感慨。虽然是陈腔滥调，但是妈妈的确很伟大。

自认从小就不是个孝顺的孩子，惟有当了妈妈，才意识到孝顺是什么。对于我妈，我心存着感恩，感谢她无私的奉献，感谢她细心地照顾我的女儿们。。。老妈子，谢谢你！

2009-12-31T19:47:00.003+08:00

一年前的今天，是个特别的日子。那天的早上十点多，我和锵知道我们要做爸爸妈妈了！那天的晚上我们还在Sembawang的海边和其他人一起倒数。

一年后的今天，也是个特别的日子。特别的温馨。我面前的是，两个正在摇篮里睡觉的大小宝贝、牺牲和老伴共处而来帮我带小孩的伟大的妈妈，还有我那无法陪他去娱乐而必须在家看影集的老公。一眼望去，客厅尽是宝贝们的东西。以前的我应该早就看不下去；现在这些早已是生活的一部分了。

新年有什么愿望？那就是宝贝们快高长大、健建康康、有个快乐的童年。小小的愿望却是要用心经营才能达成。:)

2009-12-06T12:14:00.001+08:00

Our babies are growing. It is an excited process. Struggling to accommodate the new life in the beginning, we are slowly starting to love it. Life is never easy, especially after having a twins. All the focus are on the babies now. Mom is especially busy on that. You will never know how a mother is if you have never gone through such a process. As of me, beside giving support for the family, I am also slowly building up a framework of growing our passive incomes. We are on track to become a happy family :)

Lost!?

2009-09-22T18:05:00.004+08:00

Am I suitable to take care of babies myself? This is the question I have been asking myself these few weeks.

Having twins and without having immediate family members living nearby to take care of them is one of the issues we face now.

As the youngest child in the family and never take care of baby before (not even carry them!), I feel scared that I may not have the patience and may not do a good job. Taking care of one baby may not be so frightening, but two, is an issue.

Another option is to send them to nanny during day time. However, I'm also afraid that the nanny may not able to provide good care, especially after 6th month when they need stimulation and interaction to build their physical, mental, and cognitive development.

My mum said, it would be better for me to return to work, as I will be more happy. I would be very stressful if I stay at home all time. I really in the lost - can I cope with two babies myself, while managing the home? I need to think again.

Weight & Height

2009-09-22T17:55:00.004+08:00

Wen Wen -

Weight:
At birth: 2.51kg
Discharged from hospital:2.35kg
1st month (19.9.09): 3.69kg
3rd month (11.11.09): 5.25kg
4th month (16.12.09): 6.12kg

Height:
At birth: 47cm
1st month (19.9.09): 53cm
3rd month (11.11.09): 59cm

Ya Ya -

Weight:
At birth: 2.3kg
Discharged from hospital: 2.21 kg
1st month (19.9.09): 3.6kg
3rd month (11.11.09): 5.26kg
4th month (16.12.09): 6.12kg

Height:
At birth: 44cm
1st month (19.9.09): 53.5cm
3rd month (11.11.09): 58.5cm

Registration of child as a Malaysian Citizen - "Borang W"

2009-09-21T14:12:00.003+08:00

Since the government policy always change, I would like to share with you the experience of how I apply my twins' Borang W and Malaysia passport.

Child born in Singapore can be registered as a Malaysian Citizen provided he/she not born as a Citizen of Singapore.

Register the child within one year of birth at the High Commission (Consular Section), 301 Jervois Road, Singapore 249077. You can obtain a pass from the security guy telling them you want to apply the Borang W for your child. The office applying the Borang W is in your right hand side after you go through the main door. If you go straight, it is the passport department. For you information, there is a photo booth and photocopy service in the Immigration section, but for your child, advise you to take the photos before going there.

The child is to be present accompanied by either one of the parents during submission. For my case, I go with my twins and my sisters. The office hours is from Monday to Friday (B, 8.00am - 11.00 am bringing along the following documents:

(a) Baby’s Singapore Birth Certificate (Original & 2 copies)

(b) Two (2) passport size photographs with blue background of the baby
Note that you could take the child's photo yourself with any background, must be able to see eyes opened and ears, then ask the photo studio to process it for you. For you reference, I used a photo studio in second level Woodlands Mart, cost $4 for four photos.

(c) Parent’s Malaysian NRIC, Birth Certificate, Malaysian Marriage Certificate, Citizenship Certificate, if any (Original & 2 copies each)

(d) Parent’s passport

(e) A fee of S$15.00 is payable for the registration

* All documents are to be photocopied in A4 size.
Foreign documents are to be endorsed by the relevant foreign mission concerned before submission.

Original application forms are available at the Consular Section. You can collect and submit the applications on the same day. For my twins, I actually collected the Borang W application forms at around 7.30am and fill out four of them in 15 minutes (with my sister's help). The officer will keep your child's Singapore birth certificate, as well as your Malaysia identity card.

You will get your birth registration certificate (Borang W) seven (7) working days after submission of your application. Upon obtaining the Borang W, you should proceed to the Immigration Section at the High Commission to apply for a passport for your child. You can obtain the free passport application form from the Q & A counter. After filling up the passport application forms, submit the photos with the forms to the Q & A officer, then the office will sign on it so that you don't need to bring the children later when applying the passport for the child.

By the way, I drove to the high court. Many people complained that there is no parking facilities there, actually there is. You can park in the two Gas station nearby, either Esso or SPC. If you cannot get the car park there, across the Esso and SPC, there are HDB car parks, this is about five minutes walking distance to the high court.

By the day you collected the Borang W, you can proceed immediately to submit the passport applications. It costs you $62 for each passport. They will tell you to come back at 2PM. The things you need to bring to apply the passport includes the Borang W, Malaysia identity card for the parent, Singapore birth certificate, one photocopy for each.

After you go back to collect the passport, you need to tell the security there that you are going to collect the passport because the pass is also the queue number for collecting the passport. The process of collecting the passport is quite fast, so you don't need to queue there early to get the passport.

(Immigration Tel: 67328067 or email to singapore@imi.gov.my).

人生另一段旅程的开始

2009-09-11T14:38:00.001+08:00

生产的两天后终于和我们的宝贝见面了！那一刹那，我热泪盈眶，这是我始料不及的。生产及产后所经历的可怕经验，已经不算什么了，我们的两个小宝贝——玟玟和雅雅，健健康康地降临了这个世界。

今天是9月11日，是她们出生的一个月，虽然以农历计算，“满月”是在9月9日。09年9月9月是个很漂亮的数字哦，希望女儿们接下来健健康康、快快乐乐地成长。:)

一个月以来，经历了很多的第一次——抱软绵绵的初生婴儿、喂奶、换尿布、清理便便（哈！第一次还真是手忙脚乱！）等等。这些经验让我坚信母性是天性。虽然当中和家人有不少冲突，自己也曾经迷失，还有接下来照顾婴儿的问题等等，相信状况会越来越多。不过，我想，这就是人生吧。很多问题总是不如所料，无法计划，那就见招拆招吧！

Welcome, Sara & Kate

2009-08-26T12:50:00.004+08:00

Our daughters, Sara (2.5kg) & Kate born (2.3kg) on Aug 11, 2009. They are healthy and pretty :)

My wife, Coco, which I thought I almost lose her at the delivery night (she lost too much blood by accidentally breaking one of her blood vessel in the delivery process), is the world's greatest mother.

I never thought that the life is so fragile and you can lose it at any moment. But now, mother, Sara and Kate all become healthier day by day. God bless them all.

八月

2009-07-16T21:24:00.003+08:00

今天去做产检。33周了，再过四个星期就算安全，可以生产了。我希望尽可能采自然分娩，不用剖腹的方式，希望玟玟和雅雅会乖乖听话，坚持到底，和妈妈配合。

医生说玟玟和雅雅很健康，长得很好，体重是1.8 和 2.0kg，而且今天两个人的头都朝下了。如果一切顺利，生产时可能会到2.5kg。哇！我无法想象到时我肚子的重量。可以肯定地是，我应该走路蹒跚，像个企鹅吧（虽然现在已经象个企鹅了。）

一眨眼，我也怀孕八个月了。怀孕是个很特别的经验，只有怀孕过的人，才能体会崮中滋味、妈妈的伟大。和其他怀双生宝宝的妈妈比起来，我算是幸运的：两个宝宝在同一个胎盘上（医生说这是比较危险的！），但是我没有严重的害喜现象，吃喝正常，没有便秘和高血糖等病症，身形也没有变得很胖。比较恼人的，是双脚六、七个月就开始肿了。这个星期起，连小腿和大腿也“肿肿乐”，有时肿胀得走路一拐一拐的，挺可怕的。医生说接下来会更严重！！天啊。。难怪那个怀三胞胎的妈妈最后得坐轮椅了。

不过，这些痛苦都是小事，我都还能忍受。最重要的是，玟玟和雅雅长得建康，顺顺利利在37周之后才出生。玟玟和雅雅要乖哦，还要在妈妈的肚子里待上个一个月，千万不要想提早出来看世界啊~~

第一次要當爸爸的心情

2009-07-08T20:44:00.004+08:00

再多一個多月, 玟玟與雅雅就要到這個新的世界和我們見面了, 心情有點復雜. 從第一次知道要當爸開始, 心裡又是緊張, 又是興奋. 緊張的是, 要怎麼去教養他們呢? 興奋的是, 盼這一天的到來, 已經很久很久了. 迎接新生命的到來, 是一件很奇妙的事. 生命從無到有, 只有亲身體驗, 才能深深體會. 我想, 我就以輕松的心情, 去歡迎他們的到來吧!

Singapore SIBOR in historically low

2009-03-12T21:06:00.008+08:00

The chart above is the three months SIBOR for the past few years. As you can see, the SIBOR right now is only about 0.6% in historically low. The private property price in Singapore has come down to a more reasonable level from the peak between year 2007 and year 2008. It might be a good time to buy into properties if you have spare cash in the current global recession because mortgage rate is also in its historically low level due to the low SIBOR. The average SIBOR for the last 20 years is about 3%.

宝宝加油！

2009-02-20T18:54:00.005+08:00

今天去了医院做 OSCAR 检查，检测宝宝得唐氏综合症的几率。虽然我还不算高龄产妇，但是我和锵都觉得检查一下是比较安全的，尤其是我们有两个宝宝。

其实，如果，万一，很不幸，料想不到，真的发生了，我会怎么做？另一个怀孕的同事说她一定堕胎，因为对宝宝和父母来说是个折磨。理智告诉我，的确就只有这个选择。实际上，我真的能忍心这么做吗？我不敢继续想，尤其今天看到两个宝宝在里边快乐地挥舞它们的手脚后。

没有经历过的人，确实很难体会崮中乐趣。怀孕前，我只会想着痛苦、可怕的方面；怀孕后，感觉就不一样了。我一直觉的怀孕好神奇。两个宝宝在我的小小子宫里生活着，四肢五官慢慢地发展中，小小的心脏扑通扑通地跳动着，偶尔抱着头，偶尔用手遮脸，不久的将来，它们就可以听到声音，可以和我沟通了。从超音波画面看到这些情景时，快乐和感动油然而生。

接下来就等着检验报告了。我想，我现在只能在心底对和宝宝们说：你们要加油！要快快乐乐的，健健康康的。爸爸妈妈爱你们！

四人行

2009-01-20T21:57:00.003+08:00

这绝对是个奇迹。难道是一语成真？

前几天我才和锵说怀孕好辛苦，还是一次过生两个好了。话语犹在耳际，今天的产检竟然照出我怀了双胞胎！

医生告诉我们这个消息时，我还以为他在开玩笑。亲眼目睹两个小小的胚胎扑通扑通的心跳，才让我意识到这是千真万确的事实。我以为，我第一次看到心跳时会兴奋地大叫，我期待着第一次看到心跳时的欣喜万分，可是我没有，可是我被双胞胎的消息惊呆了？！或许吧，我觉得我们俩还蛮酷的。。呵呵。

无论如何，这是上天赐给我们的礼物。接下来要好好照顾我自己，吃得好，睡得好，心情要开朗轻松，运动不可少！虽然。。。我也很担心直线上升的数字，临盆时必定从梨子级升级到冬瓜级。：（　：（

2009年的新年礼物

2009-01-01T17:38:00.003+08:00

今天是2009年1月1日。昨天，2008年的最后一天，我收到了一件盼望已久的新年礼物。

上午10时18分，我接到了一通电话，医生打给我通知验血报告出来了。我的荷尔蒙指数说明我怀孕了！啊。。正在办公的我不能表现得太激动，只能问医生确定吗，几个星期了。我真得难以置信，我的子宫里有个五个星期左右的生命！太神奇了！

我第一时间告诉了锵、妈妈、爸爸、姐姐、哥哥。这对我们家来说是件大事，妈妈盼孙已经盼了很多年了。妈妈说她看到我的短信，喜极而泣。爸爸还是一样的酷，但是我知道他是高兴的，只是严父形象的他不擅于表达。兄姐们都很兴奋。锵说他感觉到有点紧张。我，兴奋吗？紧张吗？我不知道，感觉上反而是有点儿担忧。

怀孕了，生活习惯要改变，体态会变化（胖！肿！可怕！），九个月是否能平安度过，从此不再是二人行，责任感倍增。不过，我相信我们可以应付的！耶！

Amortization

2008-08-14T08:26:00.004+08:00

We had talked about how good the property investment could benefit our ROI. We will need some way to measure any particular real estate investment opportunity coming out at any point of time.

If your rental yield annually could cover all of the property expenses including the loan payment, it is a good investment. If it not only cover all the expenses, but also generate some passive side income for us, we see it as a attractive investment.

Bank is like our business partner because they are the big share holder in our property investment. To measure the yield of the real estate investment, the first thing we need to do is to calculate the annual installment that we need to pay the bank.

The common used formula for this which we always call it "Amortization" is the following:

R = P ( i / ( 1 - ( 1 + i ) ^ -n ))

R: the periodic payment
P: the loan
i: the interest rate
n: the period of the payment

北京奧運開鑼囉! 2008 Olympics!

2008-08-08T08:43:00.003+08:00

今天是二零零八年八月八日, 一個很特別的日子。北京奧運開鑼了!
Today is a very special day for China (8th, Aug 2008) the first time that the Olympics hosted in China!

"Rule #1, don't lose your money; Rule #2, see rule #1" - by Warren Buffett

2008-08-07T08:29:00.003+08:00

What is the most important thing to remember in the investing world? My experience for the last few years tells me that "don't lose your investment capital" is the most important thing to remember whenever you do a investment decision. That is also noted from Warren Buffett.

You may want to argue that, to not losing the investment capital, you will just put it in the bank. The truth is, the high inflation around global has put your money in a greatest risk now. Put Singapore as example, the expected inflation in year 2008 is around 5%-7%. That is higher than all the banks' fix deposit returns.

From that, you may try to invest your money in some other investment tools instead of just putting in a bank. However, investment takes disciplines and experience. As long as you are not fully understanding any investment tool, do not put your money into it. Always remember that the most important rule for doing investment is not losing your investment capital.

"The future of security prices are never predictable" - by Benjamin Graham

2008-08-06T08:37:00.003+08:00

I am in the process of reading a book from Benjamin Graham. From the current volatile market in US, it looks like there are many good opportunities out there. The Wall Street people are worry about the US economy trigger by sub prime mortgage crisis and high inflation.

I have been monitoring specially Bank of America for the last few years, the price has been fallen to around $30 dollars now. It even drop to around $18 a few weeks ago. If you buy it at around $20, it will give you a dividend yield of about 12% annually, which is very attractive compare to other investment tools, and you can potentially get a 100% capital gain a few years later.

The problem right now is that, you never know how US economy will go, will it recover? In this point of time, a value investor should always look at the foundation of investment. As Graham said, you never know where the market will go, and thus the price is not predictable in the short term.

Given the fundamental analysis of the bank, I can only say that some companies in US are put out on sales. Always remember "Buy when the market is down, Sell when the market is high". However, the fundamental analysis needs to be done in order to measure if the price is really 'low' to go in.

Given the current market condition, you can go in the market with a big margin of safety which reduce the risk of making wrong decision. So, go and do your homework and you should get good ROI a few years down the road from the US market.

[转载] 绘本阅读的指导方式

2008-06-17T22:03:00.003+08:00

我在网路上看到了这篇文章，与大家分享。文章有点长，但我觉得内容挺不错、挺实用的，你就耐着性子看完吧！保证你不会后悔。刚巧文章里也应用《蚯蚓的日记》为例子。:)

source: http://www.zidong.net.cn/Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=2012

******************

儿童在通向独立文字阅读的过程中，教师必须引导他们学会阅读，这会让他们终生受用。绘本阅读也需要教师的指导。其方式主要有以下几种：

1、参与式。
在绘本阅读的过程中应尊重每个孩子的不同感受，教师不要把故事情节一股脑儿全盘托出，要积极鼓励孩子边读边猜想后面将要发生的事，鼓励他们将自己比拟成故事中的角色让孩子也自然地融入到故事中去；鼓励他们参与到编写故事中，想出与作者不同的更有意思的情节或续编结尾。比如，指导阅读《猜猜我有多爱你》时，教师可以让孩子也来猜猜看，大兔子听到小兔子说自己对妈妈的爱有自己张开的手那么大，有自己跳得那么高时，兔妈妈会怎么回答；在读完故事后问问孩子，要是你，你想对谁说“猜猜我有多爱你”？你会用什么方式来表达自己对他的爱呢？通过角色替换，孩子很自然地以主人公的身份进入故事，感受故事，思考故事。　　

2、开放式。
⑴教学地点开放：阅读绘本也需讲究氛围和意境，可以根据需要在教室，在阅览室，在学校的花园或别的地方，不要固守教室，可以让孩子无拘无束地席地而坐，营造一种宽松的、积极的阅读氛围，拉近书与孩子的心之间的距离。
　　
⑵教学人员开放：授课者不必都是同一位教师，可以是不同班级教师的交流，或与学校图书教师、家长、图书管理员，有条件的话能邀请到一些小有名气的作家就更好了，和他们一起演绎故事，诠释故事，分享故事。　　

⑶阅读内容开放：不必都读作家所写，等孩子对绘本有一定了解后，也可以让他们以小组为单位创编绘本故事，到时就可以阅读孩子自己的优秀作品，可以是同校同学的作品或同班同学的作品。在阅读完《蚯蚓的日记》之后，老师就可以让孩子以自己的生活为原型以小组为单位创作《蚂蚁的日记》、《蝴蝶的日记》、《我的日记》……大家分工合作，有的负责文本，有的负责绘画，完工后把他们的作品张贴在教室里，举行一次阅读品评会，让孩子互相交流，评选最佳绘本，从而激发孩子的创作欲望。　　

3、互动式。
因为优秀的绘本价格相对就比较贵，要孩子购买很多也是不现实的，因此就需要在班里开展“绘本漂流”活动，大家可以把自己购买到的认为好的绘本互相传阅，用有限的资金看更多的绘本。
⑴班级同学间互动：同学间互相交流图书，交流读后感，有能力的甚至合作创作新书。　　

⑵师生间的互动：教师向学生推荐优秀绘本，轮流借给学生；学生把自己看到的优秀绘本推荐给老师，让老师来推广。

⑶亲子间互动：号召家长和孩子一起开展亲子阅读，在家和孩子共读绘本，或请家长来学校为孩子朗读绘本，和孩子一同走进图画书的世界。

4、拓展式。
结合阅读内容开展拓展延伸活动，可以为父母读故事、讲故事，可以和同学一起演故事、画故事、续编故事，可以在扉页处写前言。比如读《泰迪熊搬家记》，可以学画地图；读《别再亲来亲去》，可以续写故事；读《鳄鱼怕怕牙医怕怕》，可以表演故事；读《可爱的鼠小弟》系列，可以直接在绘本的留白处写写画画；读《嘟嘟与巴豆》，可以学习写信，介绍各地风土人情……
从头到尾读图画绘本是一张到处都隐藏着秘密的“神秘地图”，因为无论是扉页、封面还是环衬，都是绘本的有机组成部分，在这些地方作者都为读者献上了很多精美的图画。只有指导孩子从头到尾阅读图画，才能发现很多常常被读者忽视的小细节。读懂了这些细节，才会对文本的理解有进一步的理解。

１、从封面猜故事。无论什么书，封面都是最先映入读者眼帘的，而在阅读前让孩子对故事进行猜测会激起孩子强烈的阅读欲望。《猜猜我有多爱你》这本书的封面上画有一大一小两只兔子，小兔子抓住大兔子的耳朵，仿佛在说些什么。教师就可以引导孩子看图，猜猜他们对话的内容，从而引出故事的题目——猜猜我有多爱你。

２、不要漏过环衬。环衬是封面与书芯之间的一张衬纸，很多绘本的环衬上也画有图画，不过你可千万不要以为它们仅仅是起装饰作用的图案而马上一翻而过，实际上，绘本的环衬不但与正文的故事息息相关，有时还会提升主题。《我爸爸》这本幽默的绘本里，透过孩子夸张的幻想，塑造了一个让人笑破肚皮的爸爸形象：这个爸爸一天到晚穿着一件长长的睡衣，他不怕狼，一跳就可以跳过月亮，吃得像马一样多，游得像鱼一样灵活……《我爸爸》的环衬上的图案就是“我爸爸”身上那件棕黄色睡衣的一个小小的局部。而《蚯蚓的日记》的环衬竟然都是蚯蚓在不同时期所拍的照片，有自己第一天上学时的留影，有自己和家人、好朋友的合影，还有自己的考试成绩单和教师的评语，我们仿佛看到了小蚯蚓的成长记录，虽然还没有开始读故事，但已经被这些可爱的画面给吸引住了。

３、会讲故事的扉页。扉页就是环衬之后、书芯之前的一页，上面一般写着书名和作者的名字。扉页不仅仅只是通向正文故事的一扇门，不仅仅是告诉你谁是故事的主人公，它有时还会讲故事。《猜猜我有多爱你》这本书实际上有两个扉页，第一个是张单页，第二个是一个带版权页的跨页。请注意，在第一张扉页上，作者画了一只小兔子骑在一只大兔子的脖子上。你看，这时的大兔子是静止不动的，而且大兔子和小兔子的头都扭了过来，一双黑点似的眼睛望着书外，也就是故事之外的你，似乎在询问你：嗨，你准备好了吗？快和我们一起走进这个名叫《猜猜我有多爱你》的故事里吧！当翻过这一页，你会看到三幅充满了动感的小图——大兔子背着小兔子扬起了后腿、准备起跳、猛地往斜上方一蹿……这其实是一个连贯的起跳动作——这一跳，两只兔子就跳到了后面的正文里。于是，我们看到小兔子紧紧地抓住了大兔子的长耳朵，听到他问妈妈：“猜猜我有多爱你？”这富有动感的画面把读者的视线牢牢地锁住，想不看下去也难。

４、朗读正文毋庸质疑，正文一定是孩子精读的部分。可绘本的正文部分究竟是应该由教师读给孩子听，还是放手让认识了几个字的孩子自己去读呢？不管是日本最久负盛名的绘本阅读的推广者松居直，还是美国教育心理学家杰洛姆·布鲁纳，他们都一致认为：教师得先为儿童读故事。因为绘本是通过优美的语言和图画表现出来的，当教师把绘本所表现的最好的语言用自己的声音、用自己的感受来讲述时，这种快乐、喜悦和美感才会淋漓尽致地发挥出来，绘本的体验才会永远地留在孩子的记忆当中。考虑到绘本资源有限，教师可以翻拍书中的图片，制作成课件让孩子们一起来阅读。当孩子欣赏画面时，教师投入感情地朗读故事，并加上动作、神态辅助语言来“演”故事，用生动、夸张的手法来呈现故事，有时还可以用故意犯错来培养孩子读图的敏感度。教师在引导孩子阅读正文时，一定要注意不要急着说教，也不能不断地提问、说明，犹如应试教育一般，应该把看书、思考的空间留给孩子，让他们有足够的时间来品味故事，让他们的体验和感受经过时间沉淀，再慢慢地转化为自己知识和智能。在教师给孩子读图画书时，也一定要让孩子自己看图画。每一个孩子都是读图画的天才，只要故事在图画上表现出来，那么孩子的眼睛就会发现它们。他们能发现画家没有发现的破绽，能读出成人料想不到的意思。在听老师读《好饿的毛毛虫》时，就有孩子一边盯着那条因为贪吃而肚子痛的毛毛虫，一边做出了自己的诊断：“毛毛虫是因为妈妈不在身边才生病的。”因为孩子从毛毛虫身上联想到了自己，像他们这样的孩子肚子痛时，首先寻求的就是妈妈的安慰。

５、并未结束的封底。合上一本绘本时，绘本的故事就已经讲完了吗？答案当然是否定的。比如在日本几乎家喻户晓的绘本《第一次上街买东西》的封底，就没有重复书里的故事，而是把故事的结尾延续到了封底上。这本书讲的是一个小女孩第一次上街去买牛奶的经历：躲闪自行车、摔破了膝盖……故事的结尾，是小女孩的妈妈等在巷子口，然后和她一起朝家里走去的背影。小女孩回到家里的情形又是怎样的呢？仿佛为了回应读者的期待，画家林明子在封底上又添上了一幅温馨的画面：小女孩和婴儿在喝她新买来的牛奶，她的一条腿搁在妈妈的腿上，两个膝盖上都贴上了创口贴……可以说，作者一直把这个故事讲到了封底上。《蚯蚓日记》的封底粗看和封面没什么两样，可仔细一看，只见绘本的主人公小蚯蚓写的日记本上多了这么一句话——“我有一种被偷看的感觉”，让人不禁哑然失笑！孩子们和绘本中的小蚯蚓的距离更近了，通过画面，读者和文本又进行了一次对话。

<完>

New blog address: http://blog.jooleo.com

2008-06-15T11:00:00.003+08:00

We just registered a domain name "JooLeo.com" from Go Daddy which just costs about US $9.99 annually. Though we haven't decided what to do with that domain, but the main reason to do it is to let the http://blog.jooleo.com bind to the JooLeo blog instead of the original blogger's sub domain linking, http://jooleo.blogspot.com. This can increase the search engine visibility and it is easier for our friends to remember.

Blogger provides an easy way for you to do just that, all you need to do is just register a domain, and let Blogger do the blog hosting for you. For those bloggers who are interested to explore such approach, just follow the instruction from here.

《蚯蚓的日记》书评、应用与样本

2008-06-05T22:31:00.019+08:00

《蚯蚓的日记》 Diary of a Worm

Written by Doreen Cronin; Illustrated by Harry Bliss; Translated by 陈宏淑

Simplified Chinese edition is published by 少年儿童出版社

这本书在说什么？

凡是会在地上蠕动的动物或是昆虫都是我的克星，当然，蚯蚓也是我的头号敌人之一，虽然它们是农夫的最佳伙伴。我想世界上没几个人喜欢蚯蚓吧！因此，在书展中这本绘本马上吸引了我的目光——蚯蚓的日记会是怎么样呢？

诙谐幽默的文字，生动有趣的插画，缤纷鲜艳的色彩，天马行空的情节，我翻阅了几页后毫不考虑就决定把这本童书买下了。

通过日记的形式，作者把蚯蚓拟人化，让读者化身为蚯蚓，一同体验小小蚯蚓的生活。小小蚯蚓也和我们一样：上学、吃饭、作恶梦、交朋友、旅游、被老师罚写、参加舞会。它也爱恶作剧，作弄害怕它的小朋友。它也会幻想，幻想成为秘密情报员，认为保护总统是自己责无旁贷的事。阅读完这本绘本，我相信讨厌害怕蚯蚓的小朋友们（包括身为大人的我！）都会对蚯蚓改观。我也相信，这本绘本会让小朋友爱不释手，一再阅读。

我买的是简体翻译版，定价人民币27.80。相对一般中国书籍来说，挺贵的。但是书本的质量和装帧，以及内容的版面编排和印刷都能和台湾出版的绘本相提并论。另外，出版社并没有加入汉语拼音或增加其他无必要的功能，忠实的呈现原作。

如何应用这本书？

以下纯粹是个人意见，我以自己在图书馆讲故事以及从事教育出版的经验来思考。

对象：4~8岁的小朋友。

一、引起动机：和小朋友一起讨论封面，让他们说出对蚯蚓的看法，猜猜蚯蚓的生活是怎样的，大人解释什么是日记。

二、蝴蝶页（封面内页）有好几张的照片，可以先进行讨论，让小朋友（尤其是害怕蚯蚓的）卸下心房。

三、进入内文后，混合使用各种手段：读出故事，用图画说故事，提问，让小朋友说故事等等。

四、灌输小常识：本书也说明一些蚯蚓的特征，有必要强调，例如：

“我们钻地道的时候，也同时帮忙照顾了地球。”说明蚯蚓翻松土壤，让土地更肥沃。

“钓鱼季从今天开始。我们全都钻到更深的地方。”说明蚯蚓是好用的鱼饵。

蚯蚓没办法倒立走路”“不能吃口香糖”“永远不用看牙医”说明蚯蚓只会蠕动、没有牙齿。

五、后续活动一：参考其他书或网站资料，例如：

1）http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/index.html （英文网站，大人和小孩都可以参考，资料很丰富）

2）http://www.hoodong.com/wiki/%E8%9A%AF%E8%9A%93 （中文网站，给大人参考）

六、后续活动二：鼓励小朋友写日记。如果年纪太小，用录音也可以。

来看看一些样本吧！

Disclaimer: The text and illustrations excerpted from the above-mentioned title were used for the purpose of review. If you would like to use the text and illustrations in any form of work, please contact the copyright holders for copyright clearance.

A small step does help make the Earth greener

2008-06-03T22:22:00.008+08:00

There's two news articles about environmental protection today.

One is about the monthly Bring-You-Own-Bag program will be converted to weekly event, starting tomorrow 6 June. On Wednesdays, you will need to bring your own carriers when you go to supermarkets to buy groceries. Otherwise, you will need to pay 10 cents for a plastic bag. All the proceeds will go to Singapore Environment Council to fund environmental activities.

The other news is about the launch of Saving Gaia website. People can go to the website to pledge their support on environmental protection. You need to write a method you have adopted today to conserve natural resources when you take the pledge. Frist 3000 to make the pledge will receive a trendy eco-friendly shopping bag. Also, people can participate in a challenge which the winner will walk away S$10K cash.

I find it amusing that, again, money serves as the carrot to increase awareness of environmental protection. To me, caring for the environment is parts of the social responsibility. The global climate is changing, more natural disasters were occurred, fuel price is going up rapidly, cost of living is rising - all of these are caused by us, the human beings living on the Earth. Well, I must admit that cash rewards will definitely attract more people to notice this event, participate in the challenge, and ultimately increase more awareness. Sadly, it seems that this is probably the best strategy to promote social awareness in Singapore.

In fact, we can adopt many small steps to help preserve the environment, even during work:
1. Having lunch out more often
2. Use your own lunch box to buy back lunch (the bonus is, your lunch may be cheaper! At least it works for me. ;>)
3. Keep the office air-conditioning at 23-25 degree C.
4. Switch off all power points when you knock off.
5. Print double-sided, B/W, and when necessary.

A small step does help make the Earth greener. So what are you waiting for? :)

Sit back and relax from S&P 500 index fund investment

2008-05-31T11:36:00.006+08:00

Stock market goes up and down all the time. Is there a low risk investment in the stock market? If you are lazy to research on the company annual reports, but still want to make a profit from the stock market, there may have a easy way.

S&P 500 is a stock market index containing the stocks of 500 large capitalization corporations, mostly US companies. There are many index funds and exchanged-traded funds tracking the performance of the S&P 500, e.g. BARCLAYS's iShares S&P 500 Index Fund. If you look at the index trend below, you can see that the S&P 500 is always in the uptrend for the long run (e.g. 30 years). This is mostly caused by the inflation.

If we buy the index on 1978 (30 years ago) and sell it now, what will be our return like?

Year 1978 June, index ~ 100
Year 2008 June, index ~ 1400

Using the calculation from the financial calculator, the compound return is closed to 9%. Not a very bad investment consider that you just need to buy once and forget about it :)

Agriculture land investment ROI in Johor

2008-05-27T21:17:00.003+08:00

My dad is a plantation owner in Johor, Malaysia. He is always interested to buy lands. When I asked him how profitable is it to own a land, he just told me that the land price appreciate overtime. Beside that, the oil palm plantation is his major profit source.

I am very interested to know how the land ROI is, thus I tried to ask him the historical price of the land. He told me that the land was only about $8k sixteen years ago for one acre. The price has been appreciated a lot nowadays. It is about $60k right now. Using the financial calculator, the compound return from the investment for the 16 years is 12.7% from the capital gain not including the income generated from the plantation. If I could generate a conservative return of $200 per month from the plantation, the yield is estimated to be 200 * 12 / 60k = 4%. Thus the total return from the land investment is roughly 16.7%.

As you can see, although it is not a very good investment compare to investing in the properties, the risk involved in land investment is minimal.

Travelling tips to Phuket - for 1st timer or budget traveller

2008-05-20T21:17:00.016+08:00

We went to Phuket for a 4D3N trip in end April. It was our first trip to Phuket and we spent time on the island only (without going for any snorkelling tour). Below are some tips which I think may be useful:-

1. Online resources

I did research on activities/tours and book accommodation online after I booked air tickets. I find below websites are pretty useful:
* Phuket.com (comprehensive info about Phuket. You can book tours via this website too. The price of the tours *may* be cheaper. For example, Phi Phi Island Snorkling day tour costs THB1500 per pax on this website. However, the cheapest tour price I could get locally is THB1750.)
* kata-beach.com (everything about Kata and Karon beach; We stayed in Karon beach.)
* Phuket map (online free maps for major beaches and the Phuket town.)
* Jamie Monk's blog (hosted by an expat living in Phuket, a very interesting blog and provides insider's tips. He also hosts other blogs, one of which is the Phuket's weather blog.)
* Asiarooms (I found the cheapest room rate on this site after compared with other major hotel portals, such as zuji, tripadvisor, wotif, agoda. I don't dare to use unheard sites. The customer service agent of Asiarooms is helpful too though they doesn't speak English very well.)

According to the locals, end April - June is the low season (rainy days) where everything is cheaper and everywhere is less crowded.

2. Air ticket

Fly with a budget airline is sufficient as it takes 2 hour only to fly from SG to Phuket. Do book during promotional periods that you will only need to pay taxes and charges. We booked our tickets during $0 promotional period (Tiger Airways, in end February) and paid about S$300 for taxes and charges.

Tiger Airways: overall, the journey with the no-frills carrier was pleasant - width of the seat is OK for mid-size Asian, service is OK, plane take-off and land down smoothly, except the back of seat is kinda straight for me.

3. Food

We usually aim for local foods when travelling. Reasons are simple - special, authentic, and cheap. During our trip, we ate local Thai food at both expensive and cheap restaurant, and local Chinese chicken rice. No western food except the complimentary International breakfast buffet.

The Thai version of chicken rice is very interesting. We found this eatery among old shophouses when we wandered around for lunch in Phuket town. The rice and chicken tasted about the same as the Singapore style; the interesting part is that the food was served with a plate of vegetables, including lettuces, cucumbers, spring onions, and garlics. Yes, with few stalks of spring onions and few cloves of garlics!!! My husband tried both and said it's kinda weird.. haha.. :p Anyway, the diners in the easteries happily enjoyed their vege...

For Thai food, again, we explored the streets to look for authentic local food. A special note on this eatery which we went there twice! It runs by a family which the owner's job is to greet the customers and keep asking "OK?" We tried local dishes on our 1st visit and ate live seafood on the 2nd visit. The food was cheap, tasty, and authentic - 1st dinner costed us about 100 Baht for 3 dishes + rice + drinks, 2nd dinner costed us about 700 Baht for 1 vegetable + 4 huge tiger prawns + one 1-kg red snaper + drinks + rice (trust me, this is more than enough for two Asians!)

The eatery is located at Thai Na Road at Kata Beach but I can't remember its name. When you reach the junction of Patak Road and Kata Road, you will Smile Inn and Family Mart (convenience store) along Thai Na Road. You need to walk for 10-15 minutes before you pass by a small eatery selling live seafood. It's an old shop and look a bit dirty. The wall is filled up with photos of Thai royals, currency notes of different countries, and big poster featuring different ingredients.

According to the news cutting which featured this eatery, the owner used to do business in Patong beach but moved to Kata beach 13+ years ago due to exorbitant rental in Patong beach.

(Sorry that we didn't take picture on the food..)

4. Sight-seeing land tour

Do take the local bus (Songthaew)!

It is an experience. We took the local bus service between Phuket Town and Karon/Kata beach. It costs 40 Baht per person and about 45mins ~ 1 hr from Karon to Phuket Town. If you took Tuk-tuk (the local taxi), as told by the hotel staff, it costs 500 Baht for a half-an-hour ride. Few interesting parts are: 1) passengers sitting face to face and there's a bench in the center to take in more passengers; 2) the bus is actually a converted mini lorry; 3) the bus driver stops the bus at half way to collect bus fare. Honestly speaking, it's dangerous to take the bus especially for passengers sitting near the exit (see the picture above!) You don't have anything to hold on except window grill. However, it's an experiece! :)

When we reached Phuket Town, we were approached by an enthusiastic Thai man who turned out to tout business for city tour. He kept following us for a few streets (afraid that other tuk-tuk driver approached us). As the weather wasn't good we finally agreed to take his service at 400 Baht. He agreed to ferry us to the Rang Hill (the highest point in Phuket Town) for city view, tour around the city and interesting places, drop us at shopping district, drive us to Patong Beach, then back to the hotel at Karon Beach. Overall, the tour is OK BUT we felt cheated when we realized the "interesting places" are those tourist places - jewelry shop, cashew nut factory, tin factory, fruit stalls - where he can collect stamps to get free gasoline. Next time if a Tuk-tuk driver offers you a city tour, you better check the itinerary carefully! Anyway, I felt 400 Baht was worthwhile as the ride from Patong to Karon might likely cost 300 Baht.

We posted some photos on Flickr, do follow this link if you are interested to take a look. :)

How much does it cost to own a car in Singapore?

2008-05-19T17:11:00.003+08:00

After taking so many years of public transport in Singapore, I finally decided to buy a car in Singapore. I have no complains regarding Singapore's first class public transportation. It is very efficient and convenient, and it is very cheap compare to other countries. However, I have reached a point that the car could probably save me more time to earn more money. Thus I decided to go for it.

After doing some shopping in Leng Kee road, I bought the 2008 new Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6. Since I am always looking for values, I see the Altis provided good qualities with reasonable price tag $62,700. "Reasonable" in Singapore but expensive compare to USD15k in United States :)

As you may know, Singapore is probably the most expensive place to own a car. Based on the price above, I have done some calculation to see how this is true. Let's assume that we put $15k down payment and we take the loan with 2.5% from the bank for seven years. In Singapore, you can only own the car for 10 years. After that, if you would like to keep the car, you need to bid for the COE (Certificate of Entitlement is a program designed by Singapore government to limit the car ownership in Singapore) again. We will assume we only own the car for 10 years, drive 60km every day and the fuel efficiency of the car is 13km/L, oil price is $2.1/L.

Gas/oil price per month = 60/13 * $2.1 * 30 = $290
Parking fee = $90 * 2 + $60 = $240
(Note: assume two season parking $90/month and other parking fee as $60)

Car insurance per year = $1.7k
Road tax = $851

Total interest = $47,700 * 7 * 2.5% = $8.35k
Scrapping of vehicle value = $17k * 50% = $8.5k
Car depreciation per year = ($62.7k + 8.35k - 8.5k) / 10 = $6.25k
Car maintenance per year = $400

Thus the monthly cost that we need to maintain this car in Singapore is:

(6.25k + $1.7k + $850 + $400)/12 + ($290+$240)
~ $1.3k

Based on "the key household income trends, 2007" published by the Singapore government, the mean monthly household income from work is $4.87k in Singapore. The monthly cost per car is almost one third of the mean monthly house hold income. This explains why only 13.6% (2007) of people in Singapore own a car.

Creating digital watermarking for your photos

2008-05-14T22:27:00.008+08:00

I just took some pictures from Phuket using my new Canon 450D digital SLR. To let my wife to present the pictures online, I think it is better to create the digital watermarking for the pictures for copyright purpose.

There are many softwares available out there, but I was wondering if I could do it myself easily. After some research and goggling, I think I can just use Perl to process all my photos at once with the help of the ImageMagick since I have it installed in my Vista Premium already.

Here are the simple steps to produce the watermark photos:

Install Gimp or Photoshop or any image processing software to create your own digital watermark such as the following:
Install ActivePerl in your Windows OS. If you are using Linux/Unix, you may already have it installed.
Install ImageMagick.

Then copy the following perl script using a text editor to a file named "transfer.pl".


#!/usr/bin/perl -w

#Change your settings here
$targetFolder = "converted";
$targetFilePattern = "conv";
$watermark = "C:\\Temp\\watermark.png";
$imageExt = "JPG";


$i = 1;

opendir(DIR, ".");
@files = grep(/\.$imageExt$/,readdir(DIR));
closedir(DIR);

mkdir($targetFolder);
foreach $file (@files) {
$targetFile = "$targetFolder\\$targetFilePattern".($i++).".$imageExt";
$cmd = "composite -dissolve 50% -gravity SouthEast -geometry +5+5 $watermark $file $targetFile";
print "Converting $file to $targetFile\n";
system($cmd);
}

Change the setting in the script, e.g. target folder name, target file pattern, watermark picture file location and the source photo file type.
Copy the file to your folder which contains the photos to convert and execute it by "perl transfer.pl".

Here is the final result:

A costly buffet lunch at Grand Bluewave Hotel in Johor Bahru

2008-05-13T20:53:00.008+08:00

It was an unpleasant buffet lunch experience I ever had.

Bluewave used to offer good buffet lunches. My family celebrated few occasions there and we were satisfied with the food and the service. Although Bluewave's buffet is not the best in JB, but it's more valuable compared to other hotels. However, the last experience was a real disappointment and we doubt we will go back again.

It costed RM38++ per pax for "special" dishes for Mother's Day. It is RM25++ on usual weekends. However, I didn't see (or feel!) the differences. The variety of food was slightly more but food is being replenished slowly, the food weren't yummy, the cafe was warm and stuffy, the staff were smileless and impromptly... We even had to ask for water and they served the water more than 15 minutes later. We left the cafe about an hour later - a really short period for a buffet meal.

Apparently Bluewave's standard is going down, in term of food and service. Although my sister-in-law told me that buffet is not as popular in JB as before, the hotel still have to maintain their standard, or at least, get staff prepared well for special occasions, so as to match the self-claimed 5-star standard. Otherwise, how they can fight with other hotels such as Mutiara and Pan Pacific which offer better food?

I did a search on Internet to find reviews on buffet lunches in JB. Unfortunately, not much info can be found. I hope this piece of writing can serve as a reference for people who is looking for silmiar info and do think twice if they would like to go to Bluewave for a buffet!

How to get rich using property leverage

2008-05-06T22:58:00.003+08:00

I started investment since year 2004, but I only invest in stocks, unit trusts and treasury bills. Recently, I found property investment the other good option to make good ROI.

One of the theory that caught my attention is the property leverage. It helps the middle class people to get rich easier.

Let's see how the property leverage can help us grow. Assume we have 400k to invest in real estate now, and there is one good property with good location cost just 400k, how should we invest in it?

There are two options, either we pay a lump sum to sleep peacefully or just pay 20% down payment and get a loan from the bank.

To illustrate the difference, let us do some mathematic exercise:

Assumption:

Since the property is in the good location, we estimate that the property price will become double in 10 years, and we will just sell it after 10 years.
The renting yield of the property is 6% annually.
The mortgage interest rate is 6% annually.
The property price is 400k.

Case 1:

Renting return after 10 years = 400k x 6% x 10 = 240k
Profits after 10 years
= property value - original payment + rental yield
= 800k - 400k +240k = 640k
Annual compound return rate = 9.6%

Case 2:

Renting return after 10 years = 400k x 6% x 10 = 240k
Down payment = 400k x 20% = 80k
Loan amount for 25 years = 400k x 80% = 320k
Profits after 10 years
= property value - original payment + rental yield - total interest paid - loan balance
= 800k - 80k + 240k - 174.5k -254.5k = 531k
Annual compound return rate = 20.5%

As you can see from the calculation above, we can get double compound rate return over the lump sum payment. The most important thing is that you only need to pay 20% of the original property price. Thus the property is more affordable to the middle class.

How smart and rich people can get richer and richer by property leverage? It is very simple. The rich people just need to put the original 400k to 5 same properties and get the loan from the banks. Just see the bank as your shareholder. Then you could get the same 20.5% compound return, and it is five times as shown below:

Compound rate = 20.5%
Payment = 400k
Profit = 5 x 531k = 2,655k

If you look at the profit amount above, it is five times more than the profit without using the property leverage! Thus, we must enforce the property leverage whenever possible to get the best ROI.

How budget is the budget terminal?

2008-05-04T17:12:00.004+08:00

Just having a trip to Phuket via Tiger Air. Overall the airline is punctual and comfortable. For the Singapore budget terminal, it is pretty small, but I would say it is almost the same as or better than the Perth International Airport.

The budget terminal cannot be directly access via the local train service (MRT), but if you would like to go there via MRT, you could just take a free shuttle bus service from the terminals to the budget terminal. The frequency of the bus is about 10 minutes. For my case, I actually took a public bus 858 which can easily access from my place in Woodlands to terminal 2 and then transfered to the budget terminal.

My first impression of the budget terminal is very bad, it has nothing but a dining place, a children play ground, an ATM machine, a AXN machine, a terminal service counter, a small convenient retail shop and about 26 airline service counters. I had taken some photos from them as the following:

I also notice that you could get a piece of "My Paper", a free local published newspaper in the terminal. However, I think you can only get it in the early morning flights.

Actually, all of the good facilities available for the budget terminal are only available after you have gotten passed the custom checkpoint.

There are quite many facilities inside the budget terminal, here is the list:

A free Internet access point with quite a few computers available for travelers to access and a good cafe O'Briens to you to take a cup of coffee.
Two rest places that you could watch ChannelNewsAsia, a famous news channel in Asia.
A money changer which allows the travelers to change money in the very last minute.
A free laptop Internet access zone allows the travelers who has a laptop to access the free wireless network.
There are many tax free shops available for travelers to do last minute shopping.

Overall, the budget terminal is not that budget after all, it includes all the facilities that a traveler need to get on the budget air planes.

Joining the world of blogging

2008-05-01T16:09:00.006+08:00

Hi, everyone! Welcome to our blog.

We are a Malaysian couple leading a decent life in Singapore. Why we join the crowd and blog? We are common people but we believe that, in this info-sharing era, we can contribute by sharing our interests and thoughts concerning any aspect in our life. It would be good if our writings can benefit other Internet users; however, we think it's also a part of self-reflection and preparation, which will lead us to a more meaningful, comfortable, and happier life. Afterall, that's what everyone working hard on, isn't it? :)

OK, stop talking big. Let's blog!

Regards,

Leon & Coco