Resources: Teaching Your Kids Piano

My girl is currently playing and learning piano by herself without attending formal lesson. I do not send her for piano lesson as I think formal lessons might kill her interest, while fun and interesting lessons might not yield the results in short term thus require more capital in the investment (no, it is not a waste of money just that you'll need to spend more).

Will I send her to proper lessons in future? My answer would be "Yes" if she really has the interest but "No" if she doesn't.

This post includes the resources I printed for her from the Internet, you may refer to it if they are useful to you:

1) Printable manuscript:
http://www.zpu.cc/pr/
You may print the manuscript according to your setting, example resize the staff (i.e. the lines), add in treble or bass clef, add in bar and etc.
For those who just want to print the manuscript in blank, treble clef or bass clef  without the trouble of doing the setting, you may refer here:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_manuscript.htm
This is useful for the kid to practice writing the notes and symbols.


2) Free download of music scores with an application for PC or Apple users:
http://www.77music.com
This is a Chinese website, sorry for those who cannot read Chinese.
There are many free music scores can be downloaded here. What I like the most is the free application which you can open any music scores and the app will show you how is it played on piano. Excellent website.

3) Free piano sheet from easy to difficult levels:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_piano_sheet_music_index.htm
Another excellent website, I can't believe all these are free for download, many easy to play music scores for the kids which they are familiar with.

4) Theory games for the kid that I find useful and interesting:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_manuscript.htm
Other theory worksheets or games:
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/printit_notename.htm

I'll update this post as and when I found new website with useful resources.

If you like this post, do like my FaceBook page "learn the fun way" for more updates :)

Catching Longkang fish at Bottle Tree Yishun, so much fun!

We have done Longkang fishing before at Mainland Tropical Fishfarm in Pasir Ris, and last week we did that again at Bottle Tree of Yishun, it was so much more fun! I personally enjoyed it very much, and here I'm going to tell you why :)

First of all, the place is called 'Bottle Tree' because of the below tree imported from Australia. You can see this tree in the park, I did not take a picture of the tree as it is slightly further away from the fish pond.

I have been to the Chinese restaurant before, the food is ok and at reasonable price.

Other than this Chinese restaurant, there are also a bar and a Japanese restaurant there. The snacks selling at the bar are slightly expensive but it is very convenient as you can order the food to the fishing pond and enjoy the food while watching over your kids.

This is where the Longkang fishing area. I like the design of it as kids get to step on the stones and walking in the pond, it really looked like the fishing pond we had during our childhood.

For $10, you get a net (to be returned to the counter after fishing) and a fish tank (you can bring home). You can catch unlimited fish at unlimited time! It is so much fun when you could catch the fish without keeping to the time given. I remember Mainland was charging us $4 for half an hour or so and we were chasing the fish like mad in the short time given!

I caught a few fish by using my bare hands! This reminds me of how I caught the Longkang fish when I was a kid. Haha, I think I had more fun than my kids!

This is how much fish we had caught! The staff there just didn't care how many fish we had caught and how other people were catching their fish (I saw some catching using a big handkerchief!), and the staff kept putting in more fish for the kids to catch.

Chloe was able to catch a few fish as well!

The park is just beside the MRT track nearer to Yishun MRT. It is about 15 mins walk from Yishun MRT to the side gate opposite the Yishun Stadium. If you're driving there, the entrance is from Lorong Chencharu, which is at the other side and not  this MRT track. Do take a look of the map to find this Lorong Chencharu first.

Other than Longkang fishing, you can also do prawn fishing there, there are many adults fishing prawn there while the kids are catching the fish beside the prawning area.

You can also grill the prawns on the spot! Not sure if a fee is needed but I'll definitely check it out on my next trip there.

There are a few big fishing ponds there. This pond is full of lotus, I think it'll be very beautiful when all lotus blossoming.

My kids were very excited to see so many fish in the pond.

While walking beside the fish ponds, saw a guy catching this big fish.

There are also vegetable farms, paintball, car racing and swam paddling there which we have not explored yet. Bottle Tree Park is definitely a great place to go for all the fun activities!

You may refer to their website here and their address is here:

81 Lorong Chencharu (Yishun) Click here for Google Maps
Singapore 769198
Restaurant : 65 6759-7077(For all restaurant reservations, Exclusive Venues and recreational activities)