A NUMBER of challenges face the child transiting primary school to secondary school. Secondary school academic work is rather different from primary school experience. A secondary one child is beginning to enjoy a greater independence. Along with this comes a greater responsibility in getting their work done on their own. Another challenge is the possible adjustment from being a senior in primary school to being a junior in secondary.

IN the wake of the 12 January earthquake in Haiti, we have been inundated with perhaps disturbing pictures of the dead and the surviving injured. How does one react appropriately to such events and images of them? Can we use such instances to teach our children the need for and value of compassion for the less fortunate in our society and explore ways of constructive responses, and in so doing strengthen positive family values? The Centre for Fathering (CFF) gives some pointers.

"IT just makes me feel that I have done my best to prepare my children for stressful examinations", says a parent. No matter whether it is mathematics or Mother Tongue or perhaps every other subject, parents want the best for their children, especially when it comes to' education. This feature story brings together perspectives on tuition from education stakeholders like the Ministry of Education, parents and tutors, why parents hire tutors, and what makes a good tutor. See also story on Tutor hunt: What can you do first as a parent.

IS your child blogging? Maybe on a community site? If one were to browse through the many social networking sites (like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, hi5 and Orkut, to name a top few reviewed by the Social Networking Websites Review), the expressive capacity of our children is quite apparent. Aside from ensuring such engaging of the online space is done in a safe way (see this story), knowledge of such involvement presents an opportunity to guide the development of writing skills. Of course there are other non-online settings in which we can promote expression through writing.

In this part of the Expressions series, we describe a few simple ways in which we can engage our child to explore his or her creativity through writing and related activities, and find joy in it.