Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)

[cimman]

karinchung:

I think sending kids to tuition centre is not very idea. I tried a few tuition centre like myhometuition & kumo but none is effective. I turn to private tutor for help as i think one to one is better for kids and frankly speaking, the cost is lower. my kid is learning from a male tutor and he charges $30 per hour. However, i think he has a way with kids & my kid math is improving.

totally agree. The quality of the teaching depends on the teacher and his chemistry with the student, not on the agency, no matter how popular the agency is.

However, not all personal tutors are good. There was a tutor who had more than 10 years experience in tutoring and teaching. Unfortunately, she was using the old teaching method which relied more on a very authoritarian way of teaching rather than trying to kindle the child's interest in the subject. Her mantra of \"child has to listen to me\" meant that it was a boring tutoring session for my child.

Parents should always be around to evaluate the teaching methods of the tutor than leave it alone till the exam grades are out to find out if the sessions were effective.

Tutors who goes through the assessment books and teaches, are a dime a dozen. The exceptional ones are the ones who injects their passion into the subject and makes it interesting for the child. I find that the tutors who are in the 40s to 50s age group, are out of touch with the students and there's little in common between the 2 of them, thus a lack of chemistry.

[Fuzz]

tamarind:

You mean the 四五快读 books ? Check out my blog :

http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html

You can try to look for them at Maha Yu Yi bookshop at Bras Basah level 3.

I bought it direct from http://www.dangdang.com. Thanks to these books, my girl is able to read long Chinese novels (each over 70000 words) since she was in P1. Some of the books that she has read are used by Berries in their P4 to P6 classes.

However, parents need to be good in Chinese in order to use these books. The instructions written for parents are not easy for those adults who cannot reading Chinese newspapers comfortably. Click the following link to read a page :
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w1nyHWTEh94/SzQMM0_2kGI/AAAAAAAABas/fiu6YIcA5gk/s1600-h/b2.JPG

You can try this series of books :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/basic-chinese-500.html

There is Hanyu Pinyin, and they are easier to use, just point and read. The Basic Chinese books are available at Popular.

Hi thanks for sharing this info! Both me and hubby are quite bad in Chinese so this will come in useful. I'm always worried I will teach my son the wrong pronunciation for Chinese words!

[cloubhappy.05320live.05320com]

Hi Tamarind,


May I know when did u get the MOE vocabularly list? May I have a copy?

Thanks!

[Lingbel]

Less than 2 or 2 plus? My son born in yr 08. That’s consider n1. I know Tien xia accept kids from n1 onwards

[laughingcat]

On the contrary. Berries accept children who are 3yrs in the calendar year.

[tamarind]

I have given private tuition to many students before, from P1 to JC, for English, Maths and Chinese. So I know how easy it is to tell lies about my experiences and credentials. Parents normally do not ask to see my certificates, and even if they do, getting an A in all subjects does not mean that I am a good tutor. Also, a tutor can tell you that he has taught many students and all of them improve from grades D to A, but how are you going to verify that ? Are you going to ask for letters of recommendations from him ?


Of course, I was very honest when I was giving private tuition. I did help a JC girl improve from D to A. So employing a good tutor to give one to one tuition will definitely help, but only if you can find a good tutor. The problem is that, it is very difficult to find a good tutor.

Especially for Chinese, many parents think that if a tutor is from mainland China, then she must be an expert in teaching Chinese. This is a very big mistake. Most kids in Singapore grow up in English speaking families, they cannot be taught in the same way as kids in China who grow up speaking mandarin. China tutors may cause kids to hate Chinese. Of course, I don’t mean to generalize, but you need to find a tutor who is very experienced in teaching Singaporean kids, not mainland China kids. Most local tutors will only know how to teach using the text book and assessment books. The fact is that the kid can memorize textbooks and model compositions, and complete all the Chinese assessment books you can find in Popular for her level, and she is still not able to get perfect scores in Chinese from P3 onwards (P1 and P2 standards are low, so it is still possible to do well in Chinese).

Personally I think that it is better to send to well established Chinese enrichment classes, especially those that have been around for many years. If they are not good, they will not survive for so long.

Of course, if you are aiming for 95+ marks in Chinese for PSLE, no tuition center or private tutor can guarantee that. The only way to guarantee that, is by reading Chinese novels extensively, and writing essays regularly.

[micollh]

anyone has comments for Han language centre ?

[tamarind]

XK:

Hi Tamarind,


May I know when did u get the MOE vocabularly list? May I have a copy?

Thanks!

Here are the lists :

Higher Chinese
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/languages-and-literature/files/character-list-primary-higher-chinese-2007.pdf

Chinese
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/languages-and-literature/files/character-list-primary-chinese-2007.pdf

[cloubhappy.05320live.05320com]

tamarind:

XK:

Hi Tamarind,


May I know when did u get the MOE vocabularly list? May I have a copy?

Thanks!

Here are the lists :

Higher Chinese
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/languages-and-literature/files/character-list-primary-higher-chinese-2007.pdf

Chinese
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/languages-and-literature/files/character-list-primary-chinese-2007.pdf

Hi Tamarind,

Thanks! I followed your blog and it is very informative in both teaching english and chinese to our children. Thanks!!

Side track a bit. May i ask which level should our children preferably complete the peter and jane series before they enter p1?

For chinese, i remembered that u mentioned book 4. My gal is now at book 2. Am consistently revising with her a few days per week.

[tamarind]

Hi XK,

For the Peter and Jane series (also known as the Key Word series), you can refer to the chart in my blog :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-to-expect-in-primary-one.html

Scroll down to look for the chart. Kids at 5 to 6 years old should be reading levels 3 and 4, those at 6 to 7 years old should be reading levels 5 to 7.

For Chinese, you mean the Si Wu Kuai Du series right ? If a child can complete books 3 or 4, she should be well prepared for P1 Chinese, provided she can remember all the words in the 4 books. It is important to revise and read Chinese story books regularly. Just to share, there is a new book of stories by the author of the Si Wu Kuai Du series :
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=21055950&ref=order-2-A