Comparing English Enrichment Programmes

[24hr-mum]

hi ccgoh


how long hv ur kids been wif them?

my child was wif mindstretcher writer toolbox for compo only. its quite ok cos the vocab is great. but i thinkg of switchg to tas cos my girl still get only 6.5/10 last yr for compo.

but i also hesitate whr to stop mindstretcher cos i scared tas write compo only once in a mth (right), scared not enuf, whereas mindstretcher is weekly writing.

what do u think?

[ccgoh]

Hi 24-hr mum,


My oldest been with them for about half a year and youngest just joined this year.

They do compo every week but every week is write a short paragraph or develop a certain part of composition. About once a month, they will write out whole compo. Once in about 2-3 months, they will test the child on several different compos-at least for the P4 level that my oldest attended last year. I find that when they go through one theme- eg: fire, drowning etc, it is very thorough and the child will know how to do most questions on that theme. So for example, if they do fire, they will have fire at home, fire in shopping centre etc.

I think if you feel that your child needs pure creative writing, why not stick with mindstretcher? Did you find out why your child got 6.5? Which part of the writing was not good? Can you child write better (from your opinion) after attending mindstretcher? If so, then maybe the 6.5 marks was a one time thing?

[24hr-mum]

hi ccgoh


since p1, i hv sent my girl for compo at diff plcs - Joyhouse, Success Learning, then i found mindstretcher at p2.

both joyhse n succses is the typical class- every week write compo wf a few helping words. quite run of the mill.

mindstretcher’s is same methodology ie write compo weekly but their vocab is very powerful. got spelling too. provided the teacher does explain the meanings.

only minus is hv to copy the model compo and do 2nd draft ev wk. its quite a chore when they go to p3. quite a lot of hmwk and i dont see value in the copying. most kids like mine will just copy blindly. i only believe copying out certain phrases, not the entire copy.

i also begin to wonder whr such class is gd for me girl cos she may be just going thru the motion but the thinking is still lacking…
becos they dont categorise phrases by scenarios or eg types eg how to describe feelgs, how to describe actions, etc but its most theme based, my child may not remember the phrases or recall them easily when the exam scenario is different from wat she had learnt. know wat i mean?

re her last yr compo, the teacher commented she teds to write unnecesarily content, or long dialogue that is not interesting, tho the vocab is better than average.

its the same for chinese - where do u kids go for chinese? i m thinkg of tryg han lang cos they teach the writing techniques first for 1 term, and teach how to rewrite parts of a compo, not straightaway write entire compo…but i also worried if dont practise entire compo regularly, enuf or not …my dilemma on the mthdology…

[aaaaaa]

Thanks ccgoh


Btw, were your kids tested on the composition part of English when they sat for the evaluation test at TAS to test their abilities?

[pixiedust]

ccgoh, thank you for the detailed feedback.

To clarify, for each 2hrs lesson : 1hr is on writing and the other 1hr is drilling grammar rules ?

[ccgoh]

24hr-mum:

hi ccgoh


since p1, i hv sent my girl for compo at diff plcs - Joyhouse, Success Learning, then i found mindstretcher at p2.

both joyhse n succses is the typical class- every week write compo wf a few helping words. quite run of the mill.

mindstretcher's is same methodology ie write compo weekly but their vocab is very powerful. got spelling too. provided the teacher does explain the meanings.

only minus is hv to copy the model compo and do 2nd draft ev wk. its quite a chore when they go to p3. quite a lot of hmwk and i dont see value in the copying. most kids like mine will just copy blindly. i only believe copying out certain phrases, not the entire copy.

i also begin to wonder whr such class is gd for me girl cos she may be just going thru the motion but the thinking is still lacking....
becos they dont categorise phrases by scenarios or eg types eg how to describe feelgs, how to describe actions, etc but its most theme based, my child may not remember the phrases or recall them easily when the exam scenario is different from wat she had learnt. know wat i mean?

re her last yr compo, the teacher commented she teds to write unnecesarily content, or long dialogue that is not interesting, tho the vocab is better than average.

its the same for chinese - where do u kids go for chinese? i m thinkg of tryg han lang cos they teach the writing techniques first for 1 term, and teach how to rewrite parts of a compo, not straightaway write entire compo..but i also worried if dont practise entire compo regularly, enuf or not ...my dilemma on the mthdology...

Hi 24hr-mum,

I understand what you mean. If the child just learns for a certain theme, he may not know how to apply to other themes.

I was also afraid that my son would not know how to apply. So what I like about TAS is the way they teach the children how to apply. This is speaking from my perspective from my son's class last year (P4).

For example they were taught on the theme on accidents- the first composition was on 'bicycle accident'. The boy was riding his bicycle, he saw a tree branch in front, could not stop and went flying off his bicycle and got injured.

My son could remember key parts to describe the scene even after a long time as they use actions and sometimes even pictures to help the children to remember so it is much easier to learn. And my son has a lot of fun memorising these parts.

Then he learn techniques that he could use for all types of compos.
For eg:

- how to use different ways to start a sentence (i noticed his compositions were more natural after that)

- how to use this type of sentence- Realization hit me like a twenty pound sledgehammer- I was going to crash!
The teacher taught my son how to use this type of sentence for most types of compos where something bad is going to happen.

Then the next few compositions were all linked- bicycle accident (this time fly over a rock), bicycle accident (knock into a child), car accident (you get knocked down, you are in the car and it knocks down someone)

From here, my son learn how to use some of the same phrases for different compositions related to the theme. In this sense, he knew that he could not just blindly throw in phrases but he has to adapt and apply the phrases to suit the compo and he was shown how to do it.

So far I noticed TAS does not have phrases linked to type- feelings etc.
But what they are doing seems effective to help my son apply what he was learnt to school. But I think for younger kids like my daughter, it will take a longer time because they will take longer to pick up the skills.

For chinese, they used to go to a pte group tuition at Telok Blangah but I stopped as they could not cope with the amount of homework. I am putting them in TienHsia based on my friends' recommendations. (comparing between TienHsia, Berries, Han)

They said Berries was better for younger kids, Han was quite simple. TienHsia seemed better in terms of the materials.

[ccgoh]

aaaaaa:

Thanks ccgoh


Btw, were your kids tested on the composition part of English when they sat for the evaluation test at TAS to test their abilities?

Yes they were required to fill in the blanks to link certain parts of a compo together. Quite simple but they wanted to see the vocabulary and grammar of my kids through it

[ccgoh]

pixiedust:

ccgoh, thank you for the detailed feedback.

To clarify, for each 2hrs lesson : 1hr is on writing and the other 1hr is drilling grammar rules ?

Hi pixiedust,

1 hour on compo, and the other hr- they do grammar, comprehension, vocab, synthesis, spelling. I notice that they do a compre for almost every lesson but for the rest it is about once in 2 weeks, sometimes they want to drill more synthesis, it may be every week synthesis also.

[bumblebee35]

Hi ccgoh or anyone who has children at TAS,


How are the teachers like? What is their teaching style? Are they very strict? Are they like the Ang Mo kind (not strict but children love them) or like the more traditional teacher kind (strict but kids may not totally like them)?

My kids like the Ang Mo style but honestly sometimes I find they do not really take what the teacher says seriously and apply what they have learnt because they think everything is ‘fun’

[Herbie]

my son is in sec one thos year tt and i am wondering whether i shld send him to tian shia or han language… Any advise. Jiang is too chem for my son…