Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[jeanieg]

Hi Mommies


My DD1 is has been attending Berries since she was 4+ and now that she is going to P1 next year, I am wondering if:

1. Is Berries still relevant/good for P1 and above?
2. If not, would appreciate recommendations.

Thanks!

[ahxuan.031873ymail.031873com]

Foreverfriends,

Wanted to put my child there but too bad, timing not ideal.

Foreverfriends:

nz:

[quote=\"Foreverfriends\"]Thanks

My son's classmate is with Zhengfei Punggol RC. Her dad said good. R u looking at Zheng Fei as well?

Foreverfriends,
There's one near my place. wonder if it's good...

R u intending to send your child to the class?[/quote]

[Jworld]

nemofc:

I need advice. Not sure if this thread is for this age. My gal is 2.5yrs old, and am looking for Chinese enrichment program. Is it too early?

It's never too early as long as your kid likes the programme or dun mind attending. Chinese language is actually not easy. Some of us think it's easy cuz we are fortune enough to an environment that allows us so much exposure to the language (thru TV, news, etc).

If you sign her up in a programme and get her interested in the language or the programme, I believe it will benefit her in the long run. At least when she eventually enters P1, she won't complain the characters having too many strokes, the tingxie too diffiuclt.

[Jworld]

I know Berries do have classes for pre-nursery level (ie. 2+ yo).

Cuz when I enquired about 3yo level and said that my girl is 2+ yo now, they said that they still have vacancy for pre-nursery level at certain slots and showed me the time table.

But I think I will wait till Jan 2012 (registration starts Nov 2011) cuz my girl is currently still with JG. If I sign her up too soon for Berries, it may be too much for her. It’s burning a hole in my pocket and nobody in my family is free to keep bringing her to so many diff places for classes.

[autumnbronze]

I pulled my DS out of Mandarin play club in Jan 2010 and enrolled him in Berries because I felt that he wasn't learning much in the former. Too much time spent settling down, snack time, play time etc .... He was 2 and a half when he started at Berries.


Though it took him a while to attend classes at Berries independently (sans mummi), now he looks forward to his classes and has a good grasp of what he has picked up.

My 2 cents

[tamarind]

jeanieg:

Hi Mommies


My DD1 is has been attending Berries since she was 4+ and now that she is going to P1 next year, I am wondering if:

1. Is Berries still relevant/good for P1 and above?
2. If not, would appreciate recommendations.

Thanks!

I received this SMS from Berries (my son attended their classes) about last year's PSLE results :

93.9% scored A & A* in 2010 PSLE Chinese
83.6% got merit/dist. for higher Chinese

At Tien Hsia, I saw a long list of students scoring A/A*, including some students who are non-Chinese.

[tamarind]

Jworld:

nemofc:

I need advice. Not sure if this thread is for this age. My gal is 2.5yrs old, and am looking for Chinese enrichment program. Is it too early?

It's never too early as long as your kid likes the programme or dun mind attending. Chinese language is actually not easy. Some of us think it's easy cuz we are fortune enough to an environment that allows us so much exposure to the language (thru TV, news, etc).

If you sign her up in a programme and get her interested in the language or the programme, I believe it will benefit her in the long run. At least when she eventually enters P1, she won't complain the characters having too many strokes, the tingxie too diffiuclt.

Learning Chinese can be very easy for kids, if we understand the best way to teach it. Kids before the age of 7 are capable of learning enough Chinese words to be able to read 80% of Chinese newspapers. They have the ability to remember each word as a whole picture, there is no need to memorize the strokes. If a child reads Chinese story books regularly, he can write many words without the need to practice writing the words stroke by stroke.

Berries focus on character recognition from 3 to 6 years old, which is the correct way of learning Chinese. They aim to teach kids to read story books independently, which is the key to doing well in Chinese. However, when kids complete K2 at Berries, they will still not be able to read Chinese books independently, unless parents also teach kids at home using excellent resources like the 四五快读 series of books.

[smurf]

Hi Tamarind,


Your kids still attending berries? Berries called me to tell me that they have a slot for my boy now for higher Chinese, only 1 seat, but I hesitate to send him coz firstly, the fee is quite expensive and secondly, I dunno how it would help him. I'm using 四五快读 to teach him how to recognize words, and it's has been very effectively so far. I think what he needs is reading and reading. The thing is, he hates to read. He thinks as long as he can recognize the words mean it's enough. But when i ask him to read to me, so as to prepare him for oral exam (he is only in p1), he reads the words in 四五快读 very slowly, coz he did not have enough reading practice.

Do you think I should sign him up for berries? :?:

[jeanieg]

Hi Tamarind


Thank you for your feedback. I realised that even though my girls (5 & 6 year old) attended Berries for about 2 years now, their Chinese has improved but they keep forgetting the characters and cant write other wordsnexcept for their own name.

As we do not speak Chinese at home, I think even though I revise their homework once a week, unless I consciously read and revise more with them, their Chinese will not improve. My main problem is that my own Chinese is very bad. I can only read simple, common words and I can still manage simple conversations so even some of their books I do not even know how to read unless there is hanyupinyin! So pathetic hor?

[phankao]

jeanieg:

Hi Tamarind


Thank you for your feedback. I realised that even though my girls (5 & 6 year old) attended Berries for about 2 years now, their Chinese has improved but they keep forgetting the characters and cant write other wordsnexcept for their own name.

As we do not speak Chinese at home, I think even though I revise their homework once a week, unless I consciously read and revise more with them, their Chinese will not improve. My main problem is that my own Chinese is very bad. I can only read simple, common words and I can still manage simple conversations so even some of their books I do not even know how to read unless there is hanyupinyin! So pathetic hor?

Er...my Chinese was like that. I even failed my chinese oral exam last time - lucky doesn't show on my A-level cert.

But, if you start with the young kids, you too can improve. Yes, read, read, read. I usually go thru the book myself first, checking Nciku.com for the words using the handwriting recognition for word dictionary or the iphone app KT-dict which also has handwriting recognition.

If I hadn't made an effort to speak Chinese and read lots of Chinese books with mine, he wouldn't have progressed. Makes me more relaxed now since his reading ability is there.