Looking for something to do this weekend?

Check out the Light Catcher creation workshop as they recycle everyday items into  instruments that can catch light.

Situated within the Breeze Shelter which is near the Marina Promontory, this event will appeal  to young participants, and it will last for approx 45mins ($6 per pax)

Stay tuned for more exciting events happening this weekend!

If you still have not been down to the Marina Bay area, you really have to make your way there!  

Yes! The Marina Bay area is not going to be the same for the next 3 weeks (up to 1 April 2012), as it has been transformed into a lighted magical wonderland.

And if you are wondering if there is anything to do for the kids…Well! Yes! there is!!!  

We started our journey last weekend at the Marina Promenade area (Outside Stand Chart Building and next to NTUC Building).

Besides the food stall that lined the Marina Bay, there was a FREE Light Painting booth.

Basically, the crew will give you light torches, and standing against the Marina Backdrop,the cameraman will take a picture with a shutter delay.

This will  create a picture with light streaks, which they will email to every participant at the end of the day.

As you can see, we need some practise in this!

Another must-see attraction for the kids is the “Light of Merlion”. With hidden projection units, light is projected onto the Merlion, resulting in a multi-coloured Merlion, set against the picturesque bay area.

To make the project even more interactive, there is a touch screen panel, which dictates the colours of the Merlion.

The kids had great fun, as they saw their creations come to life. As expected, Nadine who loves the colour Pink, made a totally Pink Merlion!

Stay  tuned, as I blog more about the Marina Bay area in the coming weeks. But if you going down on the weekends, you can register for guided tours or take a look  at map of the bay over here.

This year, Nicole just started with Mind Champs on a program  called “Sparks of a Champion!” (For Primary 1 and 2 kids)

I guess most parents have heard of MindChamps and the good thing about them is that they have a Free trial Class, for the kids to try out the class for themselves. Basically, if you are looking for more than a tuition program, MindChamps seems to fit the bill!  

Centrally located at places like Toa Payoh and City Square, Mindchamps aims to educate kids on how to have a Champion mindset and train students on the Art of learning. The Program aims to nurture kids in having good emotional intelligence, application of learning techniques towards the school curriculum and thinking creatively when faced with problems.

It sounds like a real exciting program, and I can’t wait to see how much  Nicole has absorbed from the program…If you guys have any experience with the program, do let me know as well!

Last week, I had a really “WOW” experience with Standard Chartered.

First, they brought me to iFly where I had the chance to explore the sport of body flying in the World’s largest themed wind tunnel for Indoor skydiving.

With no jumping and plunging and no aeroplanes, this sky dive experience was going to be mind blowing for me!

However, my “WOW” experience did not stop at iFLY, as Standard Chartered also gave me go “WOW”  with their new Savings program!

Yes! Singaporeans are used to a less than 1% Savings rate, with local banks like POSB and DBS offering rates, which cannot even deal with an inflation of 1%.

StanChart’s latest saving account offers a High Savings Rate of 1.88% for depositing your money in their savings account (Up to 1st $25,000).

And all you need to do is to charge a minimum of $500 to your linked credit card or debit card. This will also definitely be very easy to maintain for any family, as the amount spent can be due to your petrol, groceries or anything else that you will need to spend on.

These facts definitely made me go WOW, as it seems like a Win-Win scenario for any consumer.

Coupled with iFly, the WOW experience lingered on. Check out the bloggers as we went flying with Standard Chartered.

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience at iFly, and I even saw some kids doing it. They were totally agile and beaming all over as they came out! Hopefully, I can bring the kids there some day.

The StanChart Savings Plan is also totally rocking, and I am looking forward to opening my 1st account with them soon. Do click here for more details.

And before I go, here’s a message to my Mum!

Just the other day, my wife highlighted a Parenting Approach to me…

In Singapore, we always praise our kids for being “So Smart” “So Clever”, or just simply saying “Good Job!” However, studies have shown that we should praise kids for making the effort rather than just their intelligence.

Children who don’t attempt things they won’t be successful at, may come from misguided praise. In fact, giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from under-performing. It might actually be causing it!

Psychologist have found that “When we praise children for their intelligence,”  “we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don’t risk making mistakes.” And that’s what the fifth-graders had done: They’d chosen to look smart and avoid the risk of being embarrassed.

A few years ago Carol Dweck, a top psychologist, took 400 students and gave them a simple puzzle.

Afterwards, the students were given six words of praise.

Half were Praised for intelligence: "Wow, you must be really smart!"

The other half were Praised for effort: "Wow, you must be hard working!"

Dweck was testing whether these simple words could alter the students’ mindsets. The results were remarkable.

After the first test, the students were given a choice of whether to take a hard or an easy test.

Two thirds of the students praised for intelligence chose the easy task – they did not want to risk losing their "smart" label.

But 90 per cent of the effort-praised group chose the tough test – they wanted to prove how hard-working they were. Then, the experiment came full circle, giving students a chance to take a test of equal difficulty to the first.

The group praised for intelligence dropped 20 per cent compared with the first test, though it was no harder. But the effort-praised group improved by 30 per cent. Failure had actually spurred them on.

"These were some of the clearest findings I’ve seen," Dweck said.

"Praising children’s intelligence harms motivation and it harms performance."

The reason is simple: Praising intelligence nudges children towards the fixed mindset – it suggests that intelligence is of primary importance rather than the effort through which intelligence can be transformed.

This reveals a radical new approach – we should praise effort, not talent and we should teach kids to see challenges as learning opportunities rather than threats.

When parents and teachers adopt this approach, and stick to it, the results are remarkable. Kids will just keep trying and trying…till the task is complete. I would love that more than ‘so clever’ kids, don’t you?