Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[maisy]

Hi Busymom

Actually i hv views to share too ... but not so much as to counter your views...perhaps more so abt tapping your views further on Berries and also sharing my own views abt Molin.. Apart from your description of the role of the asst teacher, how do u like the curriculum and teaching structure of Berries? Also , which Berries are you with?

From your description of your asst teacher in Berries, it seems to sound like the assist teacher in Molin too.

My little boy started his N2 chinese enrichment at molin and i must say i was a little disappointed w the course structure....as Molin doesn't hv trial, i simply signed up thinking since most people think it is good, it should be \"safe\" to go along. honestly, the class was pretty boring and i wonder how would the young kids be \"motivated to learn the language\" when all the teacher did was to make students repeat after her. As my intention is not to slam the centre, i will stop my comments here i guess i was \"lucky\" as my kid didn't allow me to leave ... so i get to \"sit in\" and witness the class..if not, i would never have found out otherwise

Of course, surely there must be something positive and right abt the centre that makes it so popular today...but my guess is maybe it is better suited for older children, u know , the primary school-going age-group perhaps. Definitely not the tiny tots

Also, the assistant teacher was doing nothing...just sitting there like a fixture. She didn't look interested too. By stroke of luck (for the parents-with-vested-interest), the principal dropped in w a parent who was enquiring, and saw the asst teacher sitting on a chair in a corner (while rest of class including main teacher was seated on the floor) & told her to be \"more involved\" and help out the main teacher.

So now i m thinking of pulling my child out after 1 term...stop loss. Haha... and will start to look around, with berries possibly in mind...but this time round, i will insist on a trial

so , busymom & all other parents, would u kindly help me by sharing w me a little more abt berries & its structure ? i heard standard of berries varies in different centres as they are mostly franchise outlets... or any parents who sat in in tien hsia & saw how the class was conducted - care to share what went on in the class ? Cheers parents!

[titank]

Hi Maisy,


I had dropped you a PM. Guess maybe we can exchange some info regarding Molin as my child is currently in N2 class.

[tamarind]

[quote]
so , busymom & all other parents, would u kindly help me by sharing w me a little more abt berries & its structure ? i heard standard of berries varies in different centres as they are mostly franchise outlets... or any parents who sat in in tien hsia & saw how the class was conducted - care to share what went on in the class ? Cheers parents![/quote]I don't think that Berries is a franchise. Their program is definitely very good for pre-school kids. Both my kids have developed an interest in Chinese which I think is most important. The quality of the teacher does vary, and the maximum class size of around 12 to 15 is too big. But their standard is definitely the same for every centre because my kids have attended classes at Bukit Batok, Woodlands and West Coast, they all teach using the same methods and the same materials.

I highly recommend Woodlands. My boy just changed to West Coast. His teacher is OK, but the assistants seem to be inexperienced. There was a crying girl in his class and the assistants did not seem to know what to do.

Anyway, the center head told me that parents are allowed to sit in with kids if they keep crying.

My son has also attended one N2 trial class at Tien Hsia, he looked so bored and refused to go back. I have looked through the materials of Tien Hsia for K1 and K2, I feel that they are not as good as Berries. Berries enable kids to read in sentences from N2, at K1 they are already able to read short stories. I think this is much better than trying to learn as many words as possible without knowing how to link them together.

Berries use fun and games to teach Chinese, every child (that I know) enjoys going to Berries classes. They emphasize on reading much more than writing. This is correct because we should try to teach kids to be able to read independently by the age of 6 years old, writing can come later. If we try to make young kids write too many Chinese words, it will turn off their interest in Chinese.

Also, Berries teach Hanyu Pinyin only at K2, which I think is the correct method of teaching Chinese. Parents should avoid any enrichment classes that teach Hanyu Pinyin at K1. Kids must learn to read as many Chinese words as possible before they know hanyu pinyin. If they learn hanyu pinyin first, it will be very difficult to let them read Chinese books without hanyu pinyin later.

My girl has completed Berries K2 class. She is able to read Chinese books quite fluently. Check out my blog for the books she is reading now :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-picture-books-3.html

She can read more than 90% of the words in these books.

For more information about the standard of Berries, read these pages in my blog :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/reading-chinese-books.html

This is my boy's Chinese test at Berries when he was in K1 :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/jeromes-chinese-test-at-berries.html

Of course, attending Berries class once a week is not enough. Parents are advised to revise the lessons with kids at home everyday. When kids have completed K2, they must read as many Chinese story books as possible to build up their vocabulary. Chinese does not have a very structured grammar, the only way to know how to write good Chinese essays is by reading many books.

[ooptimizer]

Hi,

Any comments from parents about Berries or Eduplus for secondary school students?

[meeyah]

tamarind:

I don't think that Berries is a franchise....

I did check and ask. They said Berries is a franchise for all outlets.

[Busymom]

meeyah:

tamarind:

I don't think that Berries is a franchise....

I did check and ask. They said Berries is a franchise for all outlets.

That's true. Even when I am at the Orchard branch, the lady there seems to imply that the Orchard branch is a franchise (I would have thought Orchard branch would not be as it has been the flagship branch for Berries).

If you go to Berries website, you would be able to see franchise opportunities on one of the tabs.

[Busymom]

maisy:

Hi Busymom

Actually i hv views to share too ... but not so much as to counter your views...perhaps more so abt tapping your views further on Berries and also sharing my own views abt Molin.. Apart from your description of the role of the asst teacher, how do u like the curriculum and teaching structure of Berries? Also , which Berries are you with?

Hi maisy

As I have only sat in for one class with DS, and so far, we had had just 2 lessons this term, it is premature for me to draw any conclusion about the curriculum. Lesson 1: they were taught the chinese words for hand and leg. Lesson 2: they were taught eyes and nose. Are these words too elementary? Some parents I know would definitely think so (these were what Hua taught last year in term 3 for 2yo). For me, I am fine, even if DS already knows these words. What I do like about Berries which I don't see in others, is that they have suggestions for parents to do certain reinforcements at home. With some passive parents like me (like in my elder DD's case, I did zero reinforcement at home because there isn't such a reminder from her centre. But she has turned out fine, thank goodness for that!), this is certainly a plus point for Berries. Materials wise, other than the word cards being bigger in Berries as compared to those in Tien Hsia, I see little difference between Hua, Tien Hsia and Berries (I think Hua does not provide word cards for the students). Also, for N1 level, there isn't any textbook (whereas the older children in Berries have quite a nice textbook but note you need to pay extra $$ for them). One other difference that I have noticed, is that Berries do not use nursery rhymes, while both Hua and Tien Hsia would have one nursery rhyme per lesson. I'm not sure if students in Hua read them during the class, but Tien Hsia certainly does and these are repeated each week. In fact, the last lesson of the term is always a showcase time for the kids and they would recite some of these rhymes for the audience.

As I have never sat in a TH's class, I can't comment much on their lesson structure other than deducing it from the materials. They usually do not encourage parents to sit in the class, which may not be a bad thing for the kids. In DS' case in Berries, the classroom was quite small and imagine with all parents sitting in there! DH was there last week and I asked him to sit in so that he could give me his opinion (as he has attended Hua and some other Chinese enrichment programs from elsewhere). His SMS came soon after: Too many students! Contents and style about the same as “xxx”. DS hardly had any chance to speak!

And we had this conversation thereafter:

DH: Better get our maid to sit in with DS at the next lesson.
Me: Why? He’ll be fine without her.
DH: All the other parents are sitting in and prompting their children to go up and do some activities and say certain things. I don’t want our DS to end up just sitting there.
Me: :faint: (we send DS for enrichment but we need another person to make sure he gets enriched during the class...)
Me: But I thought every one of them get a chance to say the words to the teacher and do the action/activity right?
DH: Not all the time… we should consider changing timing.

maisy:

My little boy started his N2 chinese enrichment at molin and i must say i was a little disappointed w the course structure....as Molin doesn't hv trial, i simply signed up thinking since most people think it is good, it should be \"safe\" to go along. honestly, the class was pretty boring and i wonder how would the young kids be \"motivated to learn the language\" when all the teacher did was to make students repeat after her. As my intention is not to slam the centre, i will stop my comments here i guess i was \"lucky\" as my kid didn't allow me to leave ... so i get to \"sit in\" and witness the class..if not, i would never have found out otherwise

Of course, surely there must be something positive and right abt the centre that makes it so popular today...but my guess is maybe it is better suited for older children, u know , the primary school-going age-group perhaps. Definitely not the tiny tots

In my opinion, the “fun” part could be a double-edged sword. I’m not sure which do I feel more comfortable with, that my kid is having a lot of fun now but will have to adapt to the more mundane style when he starts P1; or learning Chinese in albeit less fun manner now, but will have no issue with adapting when he starts school? Ultimately, it depends on the kid and it’s different strokes for different kid. I recall someone posting earlier in this thread that her DS has no issue leaving Berries for another enrichment centre as the “fun” element is getting lesser once you are at primary school level.

[jedamum]

my N2 berries has a booklet with the words for each lesson. very convenient for me and hardy unlike loose worksheets.

i like berries hands-on fun approach cos ds2 has his fair share of sit-down lessons in his weekday preschool.

[titank]

Hi All,


Just to share a bit where my DS in Yuquan Lang (P1) & my DD in Molin (Nursery 2). For the case of Yuquan, my DS just started only 2 lessons. I would said a fair bit of hanyu pinyin is in the program. Maybe a god time to analyse is after 3-6 months. As for my DD in Molin where we had tried 3 lessons, the teacher is relating to repeating the words with certain flash character.

From this forum, certain parents send their kids to Molin, Yuquan, Eduplus, Berries , Tien Hsia, Hua lang. I guessed more or less maybe the same just have to see your child have “fate (Yuan)” with the teacher.

[znzyzyzx]

tamarind:

[quote]
so , busymom & all other parents, would u kindly help me by sharing w me a little more abt berries & its structure ? i heard standard of berries varies in different centres as they are mostly franchise outlets... or any parents who sat in in tien hsia & saw how the class was conducted - care to share what went on in the class ? Cheers parents!

I don't think that Berries is a franchise. Their program is definitely very good for pre-school kids. Both my kids have developed an interest in Chinese which I think is most important. The quality of the teacher does vary, and the maximum class size of around 12 to 15 is too big. But their standard is definitely the same for every centre because my kids have attended classes at Bukit Batok, Woodlands and West Coast, they all teach using the same methods and the same materials.

I highly recommend Woodlands. My boy just changed to West Coast. His teacher is OK, but the assistants seem to be inexperienced. There was a crying girl in his class and the assistants did not seem to know what to do.

Anyway, the center head told me that parents are allowed to sit in with kids if they keep crying.

My son has also attended one N2 trial class at Tien Hsia, he looked so bored and refused to go back. I have looked through the materials of Tien Hsia for K1 and K2, I feel that they are not as good as Berries. Berries enable kids to read in sentences from N2, at K1 they are already able to read short stories. I think this is much better than trying to learn as many words as possible without knowing how to link them together.

Berries use fun and games to teach Chinese, every child (that I know) enjoys going to Berries classes. They emphasize on reading much more than writing. This is correct because we should try to teach kids to be able to read independently by the age of 6 years old, writing can come later. If we try to make young kids write too many Chinese words, it will turn off their interest in Chinese.

Also, Berries teach Hanyu Pinyin only at K2, which I think is the correct method of teaching Chinese. Parents should avoid any enrichment classes that teach Hanyu Pinyin at K1. Kids must learn to read as many Chinese words as possible before they know hanyu pinyin. If they learn hanyu pinyin first, it will be very difficult to let them read Chinese books without hanyu pinyin later.

My girl has completed Berries K2 class. She is able to read Chinese books quite fluently. Check out my blog for the books she is reading now :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/chinese-picture-books-3.html

She can read more than 90% of the words in these books.

For more information about the standard of Berries, read these pages in my blog :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/reading-chinese-books.html

This is my boy's Chinese test at Berries when he was in K1 :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/jeromes-chinese-test-at-berries.html

Of course, attending Berries class once a week is not enough. Parents are advised to revise the lessons with kids at home everyday. When kids have completed K2, they must read as many Chinese story books as possible to build up their vocabulary. Chinese does not have a very structured grammar, the only way to know how to write good Chinese essays is by reading many books.[/quote]Any comments on Berries in Tanglin ?