St James Church Kindergarten

[Joseng]

Hi Empressplace and Caynelle…


Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me. I am torn between the 2 views.

DD can read simple readers now (and relatively more difficult passages from the Lcentral text though less fluently) after attending L central. But she finds it tough and doesn’t exactly enjoy reading nor spelling. Which I feel defeats the purpose of sending her for classes. In the longer term, love for reading and writing is more important than actually reading and spelling. By forcing her to read and write now may be putting the cart before the wheel and counterproductive in the long run.

That’s why I dont know whether i am doing the right thing. If SJCK does adequately prepare them, then maybe I should just let matters take their naturally course and see how she copes in P1, which hopefully won’t be too late.

Strong phonics skills whilst important is not the most important and only skill required in gaining literary. And SJCK spends 3-4 years just teaching phonics. I’m not convinced that is really the best curriculum for our children. I do feel daughter and I wouldn’t be in this predicament if SJCK had a better reading program in school.

[empressplace]

I think you don’t have to worry too much. I recommend you continue with your reading program until your child reaches a level of proficiency you are comfortable with. If a child is not yet fluent enough, it’s not easy to enjoy reading. Once she’s fluent enough, then it’s up to her to choose the reading material that interests her. Most likely, K2 kids have wider interests than simple readers can provide. Just accept SJCK for what it is strong for, I suppose.

[chien6]

HI Joseng,


My apologies for late reply…

I think empressplace and Caynelle had given very adequate replies thus I won’t repeat what they had already covered…

I can only share my experience… My first, is NOT an academic achiever (just like myself)… He attended 3 other Pre schools (not SJCK) and by 1st quarter in K2, he still couldn’t read… We sent him for some simple reading classes with his then K2 teacher… And he was ok when he went P1.

The other 2 girls had no other reading classes, nor enrichment classes when they were in SJCK. And they are doing well too… Yes, I remembered I was very worried, when the girls’ spelling lists in K2 were "and the an of"… Hahahaha… But, her spelling lists in P1 NYPS weren’t very much more difficult too…

I feel it is very much a subjective measurement of your kid’s reading ability… There are many parents who send their kids to the enrichment classes in SJCK, and I must say they are good… Partly also cos the kids are very bored at home, parents feel that these classes in a way could help to relieve some boredom…

Honestly Joseng, after having 4 and the eldest in P6 now, what matters most to me, is they are healthy, happy, hungry, and have good Christian characters… Once all these are present, the rest will in place… And to me, SJCK fulfills these requirements…

My 4th is still 4yo. I’m glad he is always looking forward to going school, talks about his friends and teachers and all the things they do in class, the plants he planted, and the "Show & Tell" he has been preparing for the week… Hahaha…

Have fun !

[Han Seo]

Hi,

I am not vested in St James nor do I have any children there. Just like to share some thoughts on spelling, from my knowledge as a trainer of preschool teachers.

What is the purpose of spelling? If you think about it, it is for the purpose of ease of communication (in written form), isn’t it? We learn to spell so that we can write down our thoughts, right? Say, to write a message to someone or to write a report to our boss etc. And how often do we use long words, such as "photosynthesis" or "alligator" in our message? Unless we are a botanist or a wildlife expert aka the late Steve Irwin, we do not use such words often. Instead, most of the words we use in daily writing are sight words, such as ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘and’ etc. Hence, it is more effective for children to learn to spell sight words because these are the words that he will use in his daily communication.

In addition to phonics, there are a few other ways to learn spelling:

1. Word families or onset/rime. Example:

c-at
b-at
f-at
h-at
m-at

or

s-ing
w-ing
k-ing
r-ing

This is effective as the child has to replace the beginning letter only and voila, he can make so many new words!

2. Mnemonics
Example:
To remember how to spelling family:
F - father
A - and
M - mother
I - I
L- love
Y - You

So, there are many strategies to spelling. Having a wide repertoire of strategies can only benefit the child. And of course, we learn to spell in order to use the words to communicate. Learning to spell a word for the sake of spelling it serves no purpose. In time, the child will soon forget the word if he does not use the words in his reading and writing often enough.

So yes, spelling and reading and writing should go hand in hand. The child must have many opportunities to read and use the words he has learnt to spell in his daily life, such as writing a thank you card to someone, writing a note for mum, helping mum to write the grocery list, writing a note to remind Dad to bring his laptop to work etc. The more opportunities he has to use the words he has learnt to spell in his daily life, in diverse contexts, the more he will be able to remember it.

[Han Seo]

And still on the topic of reading and writing…


Let’s talk about reading. We have learnt to read as an adult that we have forgotten the processes involved in it. Let’s try and "deconstruct" the process. Take a look at the following passage. Can you read it? I bet all of you can. But how many of you can understand the meaning? I bet only those in the aerospace industry can!

"Surface pressure data from the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory’s ‘Unsteady Aerodynamics
Experiment’ were analysed to characterize the impact
of three dimensionality, unsteadiness, and flow
separation effects observed to occur downwind
horizontal axis wind turbines. Surface pressure
and strain gage data were collected from two
rectangular planform blades with S809 airfoil cross-
sections, one flat and one twisted. Both blades were
characterized by the maximum leading edge suction
pressure and by the azimuth, velocity and yaw at
which it occurred. The occurrence of dynamic stall at
all but the inboard station shows good quantitative
agreement with the theoretical limits on inflow
velocity and yaw that should yield dynamic
stall events."

We do have an inkling about what the passage is based on some of the words, such as "pressure", "velocity" etc. So, what processes are involved here?

1. Vocabulary
2. Prior Knowledge (yes, if you do not have prior knowledge about the topic, it is not going to make much sense, isn’t it?)
3. Inferences (yes, we can make some meaning out of the passage by using inferences).

Now, how about the following message?

Dear Mary,

You should have seen the cancer under that
roach that mooch brought in for trade. The
guts were frayed and the skins were bald. I
told him to buzz.

Brent.

How many of you understand the message that Brent wrote to Mary? Why? It is the style of the language used, isn’t it?

So, you see, reading is a very complex process that requires:

1. decoding
2. vocabulary & comprehension
3. prior knowledge
4. inferences (we bring our prior knowledge to reading and make inferences about what the author means based on what we know and what we read)
5. style of the language used (narrative or expository)

So, what does all this mean to a child learning to read?

1. As prior knowledge is important in reading, the more experiences a child has, the better it is
2. Prediction and inferences: In reading with your child, get him to predict or infer from the pictures or words in the text. Example: Look at the book cover? What do you see? What do you think this story is about? Have you seen something like this before?
3. Expose your child to different genres of reading; both fiction and non-fiction.
4. Enjoy the reading process and do not turn it into a test-taking session!

Hope this helps!

[prettymomma]

Dear all,

I was on wait list #20+ and was not offered a place in both Harding/Leedon Campus. Should have applied for the PM session as the wait list was only 10+.


My child is born on 2nd half of 2011.

Congrats to all those who got in! Any idea what are my chances like?

Cos i believe its pretty slim. How can 20 over parents pull their kids out for whatever reasons?

Anyway will be registering for St Joseph.. is it true that their approach are not as academically inclined as St James?

Will also know if i managed to secure a place in NYK via waiting list this June..

[Caynelle]

hello Han Seo, thanks for your tips & strategies, we sure could all use them!

[Joseng]

Hi everyone. Thanks for taking the time to share your insights and experiences with me, having taken the path before…


For now, (whether I send DD to enrichment class or not), I have decided to take chien6 advice to just relax and let my children have as carefree, happy and meaningful childhood as possible. Take Han Seo’s advice and expose my children to as much life experiences and types of reading materials as possible. Take Caynelle and Empressplace’s advice and not worry too much.

[su27]

Hi prettymomma,


Are you sure the wait list for both campuses either session, is only 10s to 20s?

I was told in the range of 90s to 100+.

Not sure about St Joseph, but I feel NYK is too over-hyped, and getting too commercialised. IMHO.

[Han Seo]

Caynelle:

hello Han Seo, thanks for your tips & strategies, we sure could all use them!

My pleasure. I have been training preschool teachers for the past 6 years and ALL of them have told me of their frustrations in trying their best to apply what they have learnt in their training in their work with young children but are thwarted in their attempts by \"kancheong\" parents. Some parents even resorted to pulling their children out of the centres when the teachers don't do what the parents what them to do e.g. add difficult words to the spelling list.

I hope what I've said can ease some of the parents' anxiety here. Reading and writing are highly complex processes; reading is interacting with the text and writing is \"thinking with a pencil\". Many strategies are required. Phonics is but one strategy in the whole repertoire of strategies available. In fact, it is not recommended to start phonics if the child has a limited range of vocabulary. Should build up the child's oral language first so that the child can make sense of the word he decodes. Another important skill is metacognitive skill. It is the ability to monitor your own understanding as you read. Is what I am reading make sense? How do I know? Which words or pictures in the passage can provide me the clue? As a parent, you can help to build up your child's metacognitive skills by modelling to him how you read and make sense of what you are reading. You describe your thinking processes ALOUD to your child.

I have some good reading materials on reading and writing. Send me a private message if you want the materials.

Hopefully, my contribution will help ameliorate some of the frustrations that my students face in working with parents. I believe we all have the best interest of our children at heart.