[Hougang/Punggol/Sengkang] Preschools
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Also, I hope to receive some feedback and comments on Blossom Educare in Hougang from parents here. Any insider info. to share, please?
I trust most parents reside in this area, I would like to know how the teachers and care-takers are, not the curriculum. Please?? My ds2 is currently attending one whom he hates, although his gor-gor loves it. He would cry everyday and even have nightmares but the teachers told me nothing unusual happened in school. I noticed however that some of their teachers are not very kids friendly – they don’t look warm and they don’t express themselves as you would when talking to a kid, you know more exaggerated in speech and facial expressions.
I didnt see these teachers when I scouted and I don’t want to transfer him only to face the same problems. TIA! -
Yes and no, it’s not difficult to write if you know how to break it up. "fei-lai-fei-qu" is different in meaning so maybe they want to teach the meaning of breaking out? For my boy, except the two words you mentioned, he already knows how to write the rest, so he only need to learn "po-yong" which he would remember as stone+skin and then worm+something else. And perhap revise "hu-die" a little. All these so-called skills and u/standing from an education without writing assignments – just thru’ reading and reciting (memorizing texts verbally).
This is contrary to the perhaps misguided belief that the learning of han-zi is best thru’ writing it?
From nursery, they are taught 4-phrases from "san-zi-jing" everyweek firstly thru’ listening only, as they move up to K1, kids were shown the words which has even more "cheem" han-zi but they are NOT expected to know how to write them, which is what ting-xie is about. They only have to recognise the word and u/stand its meaning. At first, I bought some accessment books from Singapore and thot I should give ds1 a headstart by letting him practice han-zi writing at home when he was about 3yrs. He hated it and I have thrown them away now untouched, when I see that he actually didnt need it. He would peek at our Chinese newspaper when we were reading it, confirm the meaning with us and then write it from memory on his drawings as captions.
Same for English – plenty of reading assignments and word games taught by American or Australian expat teachers, but no spelling. Sometimes they have plays and kids have to memorize short scripts, that’s all.
The only writing is for Math – weekly homework with 10-15 questions on addition, subtraction etc. -
mum2jj:
We have just returned from China which is more academically focused than us and the dire consequences have only just begun to surface. A/W, the main thing I want to share is my boy attended 3yrs of CC in China operated by a taiwanese franchise adopting U.S., Japanese, Chinese and taiwanese curriculum and the way they taught Chinese is through lotsa flashcards, but no ting-xie! But parents are asked to reinforce what their child learnt every week thru' certain parent & child activities at home and I am very impressed with the results. My boy's ability to recognise Han-zi is superb and now that he is attending Singapore K2, he breezes thru' ting-xie everyweek even though he has never done any ting-xie before.
This is interesting. Do they adopt the same method in teaching English? -
insider:
Really? I didn’know that, it was the next best alternative as there weren’t any Singapore international school in the city I was working in. But their quality of child care is not as good – their class size is bigger with 24 pupils in nursery! And mine was already the smallest I could find, another one run by the local government had up to 30 pupils! I heard Shanghai Singapore International School’s similar level was usually bet. 10-15 only. And their teachers don’t follow requests/instructions as well. My boy is prone to febrile seizures and our request to have his temperature taken and recorded everyday fell on deaf ears even though the enrolment officer confirmed it will be arranged. It was not done despite several reminders and complaints until we had to take it to the principal. Even then, there were still lapses whenever the designated person in charge is not around. Really cannot compare with my experience in Singapore -- my boy's current K2 teacher would even take the initiative to request for a thermometer in his bag whenever he has outings so that she can continue to do it on field trips -- this is the Singapore standard man! She really takes it seriously. :love:
Your child is very lucky to have a few years of preschool experience in China coz I feel China has one of the best ccs in Asia and those bigger ones, even 'non-branded' ones in cities are overall much better than what is available here coz their facilities and teachers are generally more superior than us.
Still, education is a long road and there are too many factors involved so you do not know how they will turn out or even out in the long run. But like you said, it’s important to make INFORMED choices.artsy:
Yes, as I have later posted above. For chinese, it's more in terms of volume but method is the same. Here's an example of his K2 weekly assignments to better illustrate:-This is interesting. Do they adopt the same method in teaching English?
1. Revise flash-card no. 1-30 (han-zi)
2. Revise Tang peotry of the week.
3. Revise 8-phrases of San-zi-jing.
4. Story-telling in chinese: kids have to think up a story line based on pictures or a given theme and tell their parents verbally, and specifically request the parents to write it.
5. Math worksheets of 10-15 questions - the kid writes the answer.
6. Chinese reading assignment, i.e. kid read the story to parents at home.
7. English reading assignment (same method).
8. English vocabulary assignment -- it's a picture book where parents are supposed to ask their kid to first point out the picture and then the English word from a list of given vocabulary of the week. There is also a page where kids have to connect an object to a word with a line.
9. English song of the week - kids sing to their parents.
My MIL even commented how come parents are asked to do the teacher's job. It's actually a lot of homework and takes several hours, usually a whole afternoon to go thru' the list. But as you can see, minimal writing. -
Thanks for elaborating, mum2jj!
Temperature-taking - guess Singaporeans are more kiasi
Sounds like the school gets parents more directly involve in learning on a daily basis, encouraging parent-child bonding time. Singaporeans undergo a lot of stress on a daily basis. Parents would expect the child to know all these when they come home, especially if they are attending full-day childcare instead of having to spend time doing all these. It is worse if the child would be assessed on these homework... -
No artsy, it’s on weekly basis only. Cannot be daily lah, can die man. Actually, workers in China work longer hours and generally suffer more work stress than Singaporeans. One of the reasons I returned home is because Singapore is more pro-family than China.
Our stress comes from kiasu-ism, how can a child remember everything automatically, it is not practical nor reasonable. That’s our problem we want everything to be done quickly and education is not something you can rush. Yes, the child will be assessed at the end of each term, and my boy is only average. Why are we stressed if we see low marks, at least it reflects the truth. You get what you see. Education is a journey.
Just yesterday, I see my SIL fret over my nephew’s homework, that he had copied a word wrongly when doing his chinese "zao-ju" taught by my mum and only got 3stars instead of 4. But the thing is, he is only K2 it’s natural and normal not to know how to write that word. So what if he copied correctly and got great assessment at the end of the term, he actually doesnt know how to write most of those words in the first place, who are we kidding? -
Can’t agree more…
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Is MMI SK really that bad? I jsut started my boy on 2 weeks trial this week. I can’t exactly trust what he says because he prefers his old school which we can’t go back to due to geographical reasons. Today is the first day that he cried before we left the house. Sigh…
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Planning to send my kid to the above ctr and would greatly aprreciate any feedback. Thanks
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well said, mum2jj!
I also think we’re often so focused on marks/grades that we miss the whole point of education. It’s more important for our kids to learn and to enjoy the process of learning. Education shldn’t be just abt memorising, copying words correctly and getting gd grades.
Of course as a parent, i want my kid to get gd grades so that he can get into a gd school, have better chance at getting a gd job in future, etc. But i keep reminding myself that what’s most important is for him to learn, enjoy learning, and to grow in knowledge, develop gd thinking skills, communication skills etc. At the end of the day, these will help him in life alot more than fantastic grades.
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