Mindstretcher - Discussion

[cleo]

Anyone can give feedback on the Toa Payoh branch?


TIA

[pokemon]

Any1 can feedback on their creative writing classes - writing toolbox class?

[24hr-mum]

my #1 under writer toolbox (p2), under ms chan, bishan br.

she’s gd. will go thru the vocab.
my gal pick up a lot of gd phrases from there. which she does apply to her sch work.

but got to copy out the model compo, and 2nd draft of her own compo every week.

other than that, they picked up a lot of vocab

[pokemon]

24hr-mum:

my #1 under writer toolbox (p2), under ms chan, bishan br.

she's gd. will go thru the vocab.
my gal pick up a lot of gd phrases from there. which she does apply to her sch work.

but got to copy out the model compo, and 2nd draft of her own compo every week.

other than that, they picked up a lot of vocab

24hr-mum,

i shd hv read this before answering your pm. So now how i kn mindstretchr carry out their creative writing. Bt after copying a model compo, when the kids draft their own, wont they tend to follow the model compo or eithr cut and paste some part?

[24hr-mum]

sorry, miscomm here.

wat i meant was:

in class the mindstretcher teacher will discuss the topic, go thru the vocab related to the compo, sometimees give vocab spellg, then the kids write the compo n finish it in class. each sessn 2hr

next week, the teacher rtn their compo n go thru a model compo.
after that class the child must redo their own compo and copy out the model compo as homewk n submit the followg wk. so the model compo is done AFTER their own compo, not the other way round
the writer toolbx is purely a compo class. do go n c their materials

i m still toyg whter shd try TAS cos my girl got just 6.5/10 - is this gd enuf? last yr p1 no exam. her problem isnt vocab but thinkg process - a bit immature and write unnec stimes. not sure is it due to immaturity

wonder shd try tas or not. she also lost all marks to compre. otherwise perfect score as all other sectns perfect score

[Shimmers]

This is for itskryptic and all the experienced mommies…

I need your advise,since u put ur child in tampines branch for 2 years now.

I went there alone twice with the intention to sign up my next year P1 boy. Each time I went, I was attented by 2 diff recep. The 1st one told me that I should think it over coz regstration fees incldg the course and deposit is not cheap. She said it all depends on the child, coz if he is an independant learner, it will not help by sending to MS as the teacher does not concentrate on individual child’s capabilities but to teach on the whole. No 1-1 help will be given during the class.
According to the 2nd recep who attended to me,(the class im looking at is a back to back class on weekend) so she said my son wont be able to sit thru the long 4 hrs. My son wasnt even there for her to be judgemental.What makes her think that way? I asked her and she said no parents ever sent their kids for back to back class. I told her well one needs to learn rite? My son will be attending P1 next year and has to be in school for 6 hrs but she rebut saying in school,kids have recess but not in MS.
Im so confused now. Doesnt her job require her to sell courses?

Can anyone advise me if its tough to send P1 to back-back class,means 4 hrs straight for 2 subjects?

[bebe]

For P1 kid, I think 4hrs straight with no break in between is very taxing. In fact, most enrichment classes for P1 last abt 1.5hr per session. You cannot make comparison to school hours, it is very different. The center prob "stretches" the kids’ mind more than the school does.


My gal who is in P2 often complained to me that she felt tired after the 2hrlesson. I had signed her up back to back 2 subjects for P3 n lessons will commence next month. I asked her to try out for 2 months and see if she can manage. I am prepared to stop one of the subjects if she finds it difficult to cope.

[itskryptic]

Shimmers:

This is for itskryptic and all the experienced mommies..

I need your advise,since u put ur child in tampines branch for 2 years now.

I went there alone twice with the intention to sign up my next year P1 boy. Each time I went, I was attented by 2 diff recep. The 1st one told me that I should think it over coz regstration fees incldg the course and deposit is not cheap. She said it all depends on the child, coz if he is an independant learner, it will not help by sending to MS as the teacher does not concentrate on individual child's capabilities but to teach on the whole. No 1-1 help will be given during the class.
According to the 2nd recep who attended to me,(the class im looking at is a back to back class on weekend) so she said my son wont be able to sit thru the long 4 hrs. My son wasnt even there for her to be judgemental.What makes her think that way? I asked her and she said no parents ever sent their kids for back to back class. I told her well one needs to learn rite? My son will be attending P1 next year and has to be in school for 6 hrs but she rebut saying in school,kids have recess but not in MS.
Im so confused now. Doesnt her job require her to sell courses?

Can anyone advise me if its tough to send P1 to back-back class,means 4 hrs straight for 2 subjects?

Hi Shimmers,

Sorry it took this long for a reply. Wasn't in SG for the past week. I think you're taking the receptionists' responses in the wrong light. Yes, I do agree that the primary role of these customer service staff is to sell the courses to the customers, I think they are going beyond the call of duty by giving you an alternative suggestion.

bebe:

For P1 kid, I think 4hrs straight with no break in between is very taxing. In fact, most enrichment classes for P1 last abt 1.5hr per session. You cannot make comparison to school hours, it is very different. The center prob \"stretches\" the kids' mind more than the school does.

My gal who is in P2 often complained to me that she felt tired after the 2hrlesson. I had signed her up back to back 2 subjects for P3 n lessons will commence next month. I asked her to try out for 2 months and see if she can manage. I am prepared to stop one of the subjects if she finds it difficult to cope.

I've to agree with bebe on this as it is important for you to understand that MS lessons and the lessons in school is very different and can get rather intensive. This might be a little too taxing for the little ones. My boy has been with MS for two years plus now and he's doing alright now cos he's in P5 going up to P6. His attention span is longer and I've to admit, in the initial stages in P4, he faced some problems focusing during the second lesson (3rd - 4th hour). In school, the teachers have the luxury of time to take things at a leisurely pace and to ensure that academic lessons are broken down into different group activities, hands-on exercises and they might even switch subjects. The longest lessons in schools span for 3 periods (or 1.5 hours) only before they switch to another or even go for recess.

I've seen how the staff in MS Tampines work and I can say that they do think about the students, not only about selling the courses to the parents. So, I think you can take it with a pinch of salt and see it as a suggestion. They were thinking about your son and his ability to see lessons at the centre as something less dreadful in smaller doses. Esp. at a young age , you wouldn't want to shock him to the idea of tuition and cause him to switch off to it altogether.

Then again, I'm just offering just one of many suggestions. Maybe you can consider breaking up the classes into two days so that the little one can leave the house on different days knowing that \"I just have Maths to focus on today for 2 hours then I can go home to rest my brain\" and vice versa. As he goes along, you can decide to merge the two classes on one day if you see him as being enthusiastic enough to go for the full load.

Have a good week ahead

[LuvMom]

Hi,


My reply might come a little late. I have 2 children in MindStretcher EL programme. They had been there for more than a year. From my personal evaluation, the progress is rather slow. In fact, the weaker areas eg. comprehension and composition still remains. 1 of my daughters is in the high achiever EL class. I’ve yet to see results too.

I’m intending to switch enrichment centres for them. The only factor holding me back is the cheaper fees compared to other centres. So, if you can afford more, my personal advice is to try others. Mindstretcher is okay as a safety net, so that your kids won’t fall far below average. But to see improvements for average kids, maybe it takes a while more.

Any other parents would like to comment?

[itskryptic]

LuvMom:

Hi,


My reply might come a little late. I have 2 children in MindStretcher EL programme. They had been there for more than a year. From my personal evaluation, the progress is rather slow. In fact, the weaker areas eg. comprehension and composition still remains. 1 of my daughters is in the high achiever EL class. I've yet to see results too.

I'm intending to switch enrichment centres for them. The only factor holding me back is the cheaper fees compared to other centres. So, if you can afford more, my personal advice is to try others. Mindstretcher is okay as a safety net, so that your kids won't fall far below average. But to see improvements for average kids, maybe it takes a while more.

Any other parents would like to comment?

i think it's dependent on the teacher, our involvement and how much our children apply what is being taught. my boy conscientiously uses what he has learnt for his school work and he tells me that it's about knowing that works and what doesn't with the teachers in his school. english is a very subjective subject and for me, ms works fine for my boy - for all three subjects. so, i guess i'm lucky in that sense.

as parents, we need to understand that we cannot send our kids for tuition and hope it magically turns our children smart. we need to gather their feedback and look through the materials ourselves if need be to see if it's working for them. only then can we decide if the arrangement is working for them. my wife and i both would spend time reading through the materials and finding out what is being taught and we also see what he is writing in school or how he is fairing in his school work. most of the time, we would do it during the weekends while the boy is busy with his games and we'd casually ask him what he has been learning. i'm glad to say that the model compositions, countless language exercises and comprehension drills have been working for him. once i see that he's actually using what he has learnt from ms on his school work and getting props from him school teacher for it, i know that he has done his part as a student to learn. money well spent.

if we base on results alone, we're not doing enough as parents to get to the root of the problem. if we don't do our part, no centre would work for them, no matter how expensive. just my two cents worth cos it's not being fair to the centre or our children if we keep switching them from one place to another just based on the results. it causes the kids to develop adjustment problems from the constant changes around him.

I'm sure LuvMum has her merits for deciding on switching to another centre but as a parent who has benefitted, i'm giving point of view so that others out there can have a balanced viewpoint.

btw LuvMum, if you don't mind me asking. which branch are your daughters at and what levels are they in?