Comparing English Enrichment Programmes

[Monster Mummy]

awfullyKS:

Hi,


My youngest seems to have reading difficulties. In the past, I did not need to send my son to any enrichment before Pri school as I could coach him but my youngest still has problems reading. I am not too sure of which school or centre is the best?

What is the difference between LCentral and ICR? Anyone knows of other centres that are good.

My youngest is in K1 (5 years old)

Hi,

My gal also facing the same problem when she is young and she actually attended ICR. Maybe for your case, it would be advisable for you to call up the ICR and Lcentral and talk to the person in charge to gauge.

It would be ultimately also depend on the child's preference as well.

[HappyAvon]

Hi awfullyKS, based on my experience, my girl had benefitted alot from both ICR and Lcentral for the different programmes. In ICR, she do a lot of reading, words decoding. That was the initial stage and by the time she was in their reading class, she was already reading fluently with intonation. ICR had their ways to help the child in decoding words and they can easily do it once they knows the rules…In their advanced reading class, they are given a story book every week and is supposed to read and understand the story. Alot of writing in this class.


Due to time restriction, we have to withdraw her from ICR last August and placed her in Lcentral. She was in Lcentral since last September doing their PFS programme (preparatory for school). Alot of exposure on primary school english like vocab, word order, punctuation, grammar and grammar cloze, comprehension etc…they had examination practise and so far she had done 3. I can see from her test that she is getting better and better. This year she is still doing their PFS programme but different syllabus…My girl is in K2 this year.

Maybe u could visit both centres and ask to speak to the teacher…Let them know your objectives and look at their materials…From there u can gauge which is more suitable for your DS…I have seen some parents who sent their kids to Lcentral when they were in K1 last year and they are happy with the school. Good luck!

[briskcross]

Is Lorna Whiston the only place with native teachers? I’m keen to help my son improve on writing but I also want him to continue learning English the proper way, not just good enough for good grades but to be really good at the language. I’ve read some model essays locally that are filled with ‘chim’ vocab and sentences but as a whole they are so boring and lacking in style.

[ridcully]

briskcross:

Is Lorna Whiston the only place with native teachers? I'm keen to help my son improve on writing but I also want him to continue learning English the proper way, not just good enough for good grades but to be really good at the language. I've read some model essays locally that are filled with 'chim' vocab and sentences but as a whole they are so boring and lacking in style.

There are several centres with native teachers. The trend these days seems to be for centres to have both native and local teachers. There are some smart native teachers at Jan & Elly, Morris Allen and the British Council, to name a few.

[minnie]

HappyMum2,


Have just pm-ed you.

[awfullyKS]

Thank you for your detailed feedback! I went to try I Can Read and signed up with them. Will monitor and see how it is.

[awfullyKS]

OnlyGirl:

Dear Parent,


I am looking for tuition for P2 English in North area. Any recommendation? Thank you

Have you tried TAS-The Alternative Story? They are located at AMK and you can arrange for a free trial lesson. I sent my eldest there, the teacher is dedicated and their teaching is detailed and clear. They have their own in-house creative writing book, synthesis and grammar book and spelling booklet.

[gsychong]

My son’s English is quite good but needs help in creative writing. Any recommendations for Primary 1/2 level?

[tdemommy]

My DS is in K2 this year. He has been attending Mindstretcher for about 3 months now. He’s just begun bringing homework back to do after lesson. Horrors of horrors, I found that the English worskeet’s got grammatical errors. e.g. She is my classmates. And the best thing is… they didn’t realise it until I pointed it out. To think that spell check would have easily picked that up. So much for QC.

[blueblue]

My son has been attending BC for 8 months. He is in K1 and always looking forward to the class every week.


I am quite surprised to know that he has to learn spelling and is required to write sentences in k1. Something that even his kindergarten has not even start yet.

However spelling is done in class. They do not provide a list of spelling list. No stress for parents and kids.