Comparing Pre-school English Reading and Phonics Enrichment

[buds]

Heyya ricvon,


Great age to start your child on phonics!
Good if your son already knows all the 26
letter alphabets prior to the phonics class.
It’ll assist very well with spelling. He’ll be
able to write what he reads or he will be
trying to write the letters he hears in
phonetic words.

Since you do not drive, distance will be of
great factor to you. Go for the nearest
available one and speak to the person in
charge. Request to sit in for a few minutes
in an on-going class so you can gauge if
the teacher handling the class speaks well,
without Singlish, patient with the students
and with creative teaching skills.

When shopping for a phonics class…
You may wish to look out for the following…

Does the phonics teacher engage the class
with her learning materials that they all sit
down attentively and eagerly anticipating their
turn to touch the materials?

Does the phonics teacher only use flashcards,
and pieces of paper when she teaches?

Do the children run around the class and the
teacher has a hard time getting the children to
sit around her?

What is the ratio of students per teacher in class
and the age range of the students?

How long is the class?
How long will the whole phonics pgrm take?

Which phonics methodology do they adopt in the
centre? You can google up more information on
the said methodology to help your child with revision.

Tumble Tots offer Letterland Phonics.
Montessori Centres offer Montessori Phonics.
A few may offer Jolly Phonics or Zoo Phonics.

Hope this helps.

[J2mum]

BTW, any parents sent their kids to British Council for the English class?


I am quite interested in their K1 English programme, althot expansive but many told me kid really benefit from it.

[Lucky]

Hi all


For myself, I swear by I Can Read program. My daughter started with PRP (pre reading program) and proceeded to ICR level 1 and 2. I think the program is great cos it's step by step. For eg, they are itonations (something similar to Chinese Han Yu Pin Yin) on top of the english words.

From there, the child will be able to pronounce the words and slowly begin to read. My daughter is now in K2 and is quite a proficient reader already, reading words like 'imagination', 'miscellaneous' etc.

So for me, I will defintely recommend ICR !

[Lucky]

hi


Has anybody heard of Seeds D’Learning centre at Katong Mall ? Their principal mentioned that they have proven track records in English and mathematics and any child that attends their pre-school program would not need to attend any other enrichment classes.

[buds]

Heyya all,


Just to share...

A friend of mine put her girl up for the \"I Can Read\"
programme. She finds that her girl is progressing
too slow. I've since hitched her on a private phonics
instructor and she picked up wonders.

As a general rule, not every child can adapt well and
be able to produce results the same way another child
managed to. Yes, the programme may be track-proven
amongst other things but the teacher will still be the
main provider of the interest to that subject introduction.

I personally went to an ICR outlet in the North and i had
a bad first impression of the place. The person at the desk
was talking to another staff i presume and parents were
scattered all around the small reception area.

When i asked if the person behind desk cud help me, she
or he ( i wasn't sure - cos had girl voice but looked manly
and wore man-clothes similar to my hausband's office wear )
shoved the brochures in my face and told me to go through
them. I replied that i had taken them and read everything
the minute i came in. Then, the person replied.... Oh, i see.
Didn notice. Tot you were one of the parents waiting to fetch
your child for the current class. Well, its a phonics prgm and
taught by an angmoh, see! A class is coming out right now and
you can see for yourself.

I intercepted the person's reply with...
Errrm... i was hoping you cud tell me more about the pgrm and
since my daughter is xxx yrs old how will the class be conducted?
How many children in the class and such... Think you cud share
your centre's method of teaching to me so i can understand the
programme better..

The person gave her last reply before entirely leaving me there..
He/She said.... I already told you. You can see for yourself...
Its angmoh teacher and she's the best person to assess your
child and explain the method used by the centre. Niwae, i gotta
go help with the dismissal...

I was like whhhhuh? :shock:

Niwae, what i saw next just made it worse.
I saw the said golden-haired teacher unable to attend to her 10 or 11
( couldn make good head count while all the baby chicks were
scrambling out of the class virtually talking loudly - all at the same
time too... ) The dismissal was messy and due to the crowding the
main door was wide open. Any one of the kids cud have gone out
unnoticed. The teacher was heard delivering instructions to the children
and parents, at the same time and i couldnt hear the rest of the review.
Parents all rushed in to her to ask questions - all at the same time and
heck, i saw enough.

Soooo... that was my experience with ICR.
Maybe only that branch operated in that fashion, i dunno.
But i couldn be bothered to check out others. First impression
is everything they say...

I personally do not mind if the teachers are local or they can
speak in Queens.. Grammatically correct. Good diction. Fair
introduction of new words for their vocabulary bank. Systematic
method of teaching and assessment of programme. And teacher
is kind to children in her care... thats quite okay already.. for me.

I have been approached by parents that my kiddies seem to speak
English with an accent. I just replied, not accented but just proper.

> Heyya Lucky,
since your child doing very well at ICR, may i know why you're
looking around...?

[Lucky]

hi Buds


The reason I am looking around is cos my gal will be completing her ICR very soon and I heard that ICR is only good at enabling the child to read well.

For me, since she can already read independently, my next step is to prepare her for PI so I will concentrate more on compo, comprehension and grammar…hence the search.

[Picolo]

Talk about ICR's attitude...


I happen to come across this blog on this mummy's experience at ICR
http://hedgehogcomms.blogspot.com/2008/08/tuition-centre-teachers-and-one.html

[buds]

Heyya Lucky,


Ok. Roger that, and great that you're already sourcing out
now. Hope you find one soon.. No worries, your child is on track.

Cheers.
:celebrate:

Heyya Picolo,

Thank you very much for sharing that.
At least, in my exasperation i now know i am not alone...
I especially like the part where the parent in total bravery
black listed the centre - \"avoid this centre like the plague...\"
statement. A true blue parent indeed... We care for our children
so much so we seek the professional's help but if at the expense
of such audacity at first impression ( already!!! ), i wouldn't give
two hoots about it even if it WERE so called track proven.
No thanks.

I've since taught my kiddies how to read and write on my own.
Yes, i suppose in Primary schools the teachers don't really
go into detail the categorisation of words, we call parts of speech...

I'm glad i did TEACH my kiddies that.
At least now i know my kiddies will
not be tested as if they were idiots.

I can picture the angmoh person's face when he said...
\"...this is a P1 word...\"

A child is still a child, no matter the calibre.
And the least is to care and be compassionate.
Being high and mighty as a so called professional curriculum
developer... i don't think will help children learn better.
Obviously, the \"obnoxious\" being ever was HIM!

Perhaps he cud only churn the curriculum...
BUT, he couldn TEACH the curriculum...

Hope that parent's blog-posting relieved her of all that
stress. I'm sure that's gonna cause teeth grinding for
quite a while....

[ChiefKiasu]

Thanks Picolo for the interest post.


If "obnoxious" is a P1 word, then I suppose by P6, the kids would have completed Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and debating with one another about the scientific basis of String Theory as the unifying theory that explains everything in the universe. But parents still have to clean up after their mess and make sure they drink their cod liver oil.

[buds]

Heyya Chief,


Wah lau… so cheem!
But nicely cut funny…
Sarcastic funny, typically your style…

I loike!

So, suppose you oso wan dis golden-haired angmoh?
( Understand your fascination with golden package… )