Comparing Chinese Enrichment (Primary/Preschool)
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Hi All,
Guess the more chinese lang centre I see, the more I'm getting blur. :oops:
Some asking me to sign up HYPY so that ready for next year in 2010.
Anyone put thier child in different centre?Eg DS in Molin or DD in Berries?
Now would consider the following centres:
Molin Tutorial Centre
Yuquan
Berries
Eduplus Lang
Xueni Lang
Han Lang
Hua Lang
Tien Hsia -
hi titank,
My process of elimination in the following order:
1. strike out those located at inconvenient/far out places;
2. strike out those that don’t have holidays (I think berries didn’t use to have holidays, played havoc when planning holidays);
3. visit the centre to view course content, charges and see if i’m comfy with the set up.
It’s really difficult to sieve out which is THE ONE for your child. My DS1 attended berries for 1 year and is now at SHHK (le le hua yu ban) - so far no adverse reactions to either. -
hquek:
hi titank,
My process of elimination in the following order:
1. strike out those located at inconvenient/far out places;
2. strike out those that don't have holidays (I think berries didn't use to have holidays, played havoc when planning holidays);
3. visit the centre to view course content, charges and see if i'm comfy with the set up.
It's really difficult to sieve out which is THE ONE for your child. My DS1 attended berries for 1 year and is now at SHHK (le le hua yu ban) - so far no adverse reactions to either.
How come switched from Berries to SHHK? Berries seem to be popular among the parents in here. I'm looking for more for those who had tried Eduplus,Xueni, Yuquan etc.
Ya I would be bring 2 kid so really need to do a good evaluation. I'm suprised that I need to pay 2 times registration fees. -
My advise is to bring your kids for trial classes if possible.
I brought my boy for a trial at Tien Hsia. He looked so bored and told me he did not like the class. But he always comes out of his Berries class looking happy.
At one time I actually seriously thought of changing my girl from Berries to Tien Hsia which is nearer to my place. I looked through the materials of Tien Hsia, and found that it is not possible because the standards at Tien Hsia is much lower than that of Berries.
A good Chinese enrichment class should place top priority on character recognition. A child must learn to read as many as Chinese characters as possible, and should be reading very well before he starts to learn hanyu pinyin. Otherwise if he learns hanyu pinyin first, he will become very dependent on it and may not want to read anything without hanyu pinyin.
At Berries, kids learn hanyu pinyin only at K2, after they can read Chinese very well. This is the correct method of teaching Chinese.
I will not go to any enrichment class that starts to teach hanyu pinyin at K1 or even earlier. Remember that your child still must know how to read and write Chinese characters, hanyu pinyin is only a learning tool and will never replace Chinese characters.
My boy had a Chinese test at his Berries K1 class in April this year, you can take a look at the test here :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/jeromes-chinese-test-at-berries.html
Parents can use this test to compare the standards of other Chinese enrichment class with Berries. -
Ok going to check which of them have trial class! Guess most expect me commit 1 term of 1 month as the minimum. I would update my report in here!
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Also remember to look at all the fine prints
At Berries, you don't have to worry that your child is on M.C., or if you have to bring him/her on holiday and miss lessons. You will definitely not lose money. Other enrichment schools may not have such good conditions. -
titank:
Some push/pull reasons:
How come switched from Berries to SHHK? Berries seem to be popular among the parents in here. I'm looking for more for those who had tried Eduplus,Xueni, Yuquan etc.
1. In berries, didn't like that the kids were sprawling around on the floor colouring/writing. Teacher said they use the small table thingy earlier on but I still don't see why they end up sprawling on the floor and the tables left unused.
2. At that time, there were no holidays in berries (not sure if that's the same now), so it was a nightmare when I planned long holidays (we go for long holidays at least once a year, and some short regional trips). SHHK has regular holidays so it's easy to plan.
3. SHHK started the le le hua yu ban for N1 - K1 last year, I spoke to the teacher in charge and found that the way classes structured was comparable to Berries. Also, I viewed the texts and it was pretty alright. There are 3 teachers in my DS1's K1 class currently - so no lack of attention.
4. Charges are very reasonable (note SHHK has 3 terms in 1 year, not 4); and I think is much cheaper than berries. -
BTW, I am evaluating Yuquan's zijing class based on good feedback from friends.
It's supposed to be very good (but very tough) in teaching kids to recognise 4000 words all in all. But when I went there, the lady kept selling me their chinese idioms class. A bit put off by her hardsell.
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tamarind:
I looked through the materials of Tien Hsia, and found that it is not possible because the standards at Tien Hsia is much lower than that of Berries.
My boy had a Chinese test at his Berries K1 class in April this year, you can take a look at the test here :
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/jeromes-chinese-test-at-berries.html
Parents can use this test to compare the standards of other Chinese enrichment class with Berries.
Interesting to hear that you find that Tien Hsia's standard is much lower than Berries. I have a 2.5 year-old son and I am contemplating whether to sign him up at Tien Hsia or Berries next year, since there is so much good review about Berries here. My DD has been with Tien Hsia from 3+ and she is K1 this year as well. Have decided to post her latest test here so that other parents could take a look and compare. I would have thought that the words in Tien Hsia's oral test are quite difficult too, but does that mean its standard is higher? Depending on what has been taught in class, students will learn accordingly. I understand that new words for the term are revised weekly, so naturally children will know those words at the end of the term. But I wonder how many words could still be retained after the term ends? Unfortunately, I haven't been revising with DD her work at Tien Hsia all this while and I don't have any answer to that.
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Busymom:
Hi tcdl
Hi tcdl
Just saw your message. So far, it has been DH who attends the class with DS. I haven't been going myself as I have another class to attend with DD. :oops: Will be going first time this Sat and will give you first hand account after the class, ok?
In case you are still interested to know my views on the playgroup class by Hua.
The plus points in my opinion:
- a lot more verbal exchanges between the teacher and each child individually. Some parents may favour group responses, but at this age and especially if the child is more reserved in nature or can't speak the language well, the individual time given to speak is good.
- there are hands-on activities for the children, like picking apples from apple trees pasted on the board (learning the word - apple), running around with balloons on their head (learning the word - head), etc.
- some art work, like for this term, the theme is about colours and the children will either paint their hands or fingers with the specific colour of that week, or colour, paste coloured paper, etc.
- scope of the lesson seems wider than what I expected. On the day when I was there, the teacher bought a box of cherry tomatoes for the children to try (to eat), as the topic for that day was about red. Naturally, the children were taught the chinese word for tomato. Hence, I do not think the lesson was restricted to learning just apple or red colour on that day.
- repetition of earlier lessons through songs. They seem to have a song each week for the word that was taught and these songs were sung at the start of the class, which serves as a revision. I think this is good as it reinforces what was learnt previously.
- story time. There was a short story time with the teacher reading from a large-sized story book. This is neither a plus or minus point, except that I realise that the story continues weekly.
The minus points in my opinion:
- understand from some parents that the teacher occasionally (during the last term) used English to explain the words / instructions to the children as she felt that some children would otherwise not have understood her. This did not happen when I was there that day.
- pace of the lesson is indeed a bit slow. On the other hand, as it is a 90-min lesson as compared to some others that I have been before, I personally think it is alright. Another reason is perhaps the small class size (only 3 students on the day that I was there). Naturally the teacher could be excused for being more relaxed in her pace.
- a short passage given in the worksheet was not read to each student. Maybe, the parent was expected to read to the child (or maybe it just happened to be so on the day when I was there). My problem is DH who accompanies DS for the lesson cannot read Chinese!
- sound quality of the songs played not that good.
- floor mats really quite old.
I must emphasize here that the above are strictly my personal opinion. I couldn't say that I was overly impressed (or perhaps my expectation was already set very low, afterall this is a class meant for 2yo), but overall, I believe it was a good exposure for DS at this age.
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