G starts Preschooler I at Heguru!

Time really flies! It’s been one and half years since G started classes at Heguru. I know I’ve not been updating much on his progress on this blog, but yes, we have been continuing classes at Heguru. 

G has been attending the toddler class since Jan 2013, and last weekend, he finally moved on the the preschooler class! I don’t know about him, but I’m definitely excited about him progressing to the next stage. 

Transition from toddler to preschooler

In order to better prepare the children for the change from parents-accompanied class to attending class by themselves, the school had arranged for a transition period for the children. For the first half of the toddler class, parents would sit with their children as usual. However, during the second half of the class, parents and children were separated for the activities. The usual activities like mandala coloring, iroita, tangrams and number memory were done independently by the children. 

During the first session when the parents sat away from the children, I could sense some insecurity (from both adults and children!) However, our minds were set at ease when we saw how well our children were managing without our help. I was so proud to see G coloring his mandala and doing all the activities with minimal help from the teachers! 

After a few transition classes, G was ready to go in independently for the Toddler class. I met up with his teacher to review his progress, and was pleased to note that he was paying attention in class and did well in his activities. He even managed to draw the shapes in the colour mandala. 

More about Heguru Preschooler

The preschooler class at Heguru is meant for 4-6 years. There are 2 stages – Preschool I (4-5 year olds) and Preschool II (5-6 year olds). 

The objective of the preschooler class is “to consolidate what the children has learnt during the Infant & Toddler class and connect it to the left brain”. Activities that are done help to prepare the children for Primary school. 

Compared to the Toddler class, there were quite a few changes to the class:

Longer duration:

At the preschooler stage, the children start to attend classes independently. Preschool I class duration is 70mins (vs 50mins for toddler class) , while Preschool II class will be 90mins (same as the Primary level).  

Environment:

To prepare for the primary school environment, chairs and tables are used in the preschooler classes. They are no longer seated on the floor throughout the class. 

Activities: 

<As the classes are not accompanied, the following information will be what I gleaned from G and the teacher>

First half will consist of right brain activities, similar to what was done in toddler class. Then, there will be physical activity, followed by desk work in the second half. 

In each class, the child will be handed 3 booklets of worksheets – C, R and H.

Booklet C is done in the class. Some examples of activities include tracing, puzzles (pelican, iroita, tangram, plate), mandala, craft work, dot bar, listening comprehension and matching. 

Puzzles : Plate (top left), Pelican (top middle),Tangram(top right), iroita(bottom)

Booklet R is the review booklet, to be done at home. It is essentially a duplicate of the activities done in class, meant for reinforcement of the concepts gone through in class. 

 

G working on booklet R

 
Booklet H is the homework (!) booklet. It includes extension activities based on what was done in class. For example, there could be a different set of matching, tracing etc. This is meant to be handed up the next week. 

Parents information session:

After every class, there will be a 10min session where the parents are invited into the class and the teacher will go through in detail the activities that the child has gone through that day. The objectives of each activity are also explained clearly so parents have a clear idea what to do. For example, the teacher explained how they taught the children to use scissors correctly, how much time was given in class for each activity, how to reinforce concepts at home. 

G’s reaction

I’m not able to observe him in class, but based on the teacher’s feedback, and the worksheet activities, he was able to complete most of the activities independently and on time. Some of the activities that I needed to reinforce are the Pelican puzzle and Mandala drawing. 

As usual, he is happy to go for Heguru and he loves doing the worksheets (he completed both Booklet R and H over the weekend in one sitting!). We are also doing the S2 worksheets and I had to persuade him to stop 😝

My thoughts

I had some reservations initially when I found out that the preschooler class was not parent-accompanied, as I would not know how to guide him at home. 

However, my concerns were addressed during the parents session, where the teacher explained each activity in detail, and we were provided with the booklets to continue with the reinforcement at home. 

In my opinion, the preschooler syllabus is well thought-out, covering aspects such as fine-motor skills training, mathematical concepts, logical reasoning and listening comprehension. As the activities are timed, and parents receive feedback via the timing written on the worksheets to see the areas where we can continue to work with the child at home. 

I’m definitely looking forward to see how G progresses in the preschooler course. 😊

Do stay tuned for more updates! 

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Book review: 布布爱上动物园 (Bubu loves going to the zoo)

In a previous post, I promised to introduce some books that piqued C’s interest in Chinese. Here is a recent series that she has read.

布布 series was introduced by C’s school as part of the recommended reading for Primary 1 students. Written by Singaporean author Lee Kow Fong, also known as Ah Guo (阿果), this series of books follow the life of a boy named Bubu (布布). In this review we will take a look at the first book in the series.

Book review: 可爱的鼠小弟

In a previous post(eons ago :p), I mentioned that I would be introducing some books and tools that helped C gain interest in Chinese. Here’s the first of a series of posts on this topic.

One of the first Chinese books that C really enjoyed was the 可爱的鼠小弟 series. This series is translated from a Japanese picture book collection by Yoshio Nakae, first published in the 1970s. The stories follow the exploits of Little Mouse (鼠小弟) and his animal friends. The story lines are easy to follow, and the charming illustrations hold their attention. Language used is simple and repetitive, like most early readers are.

Here’s a sneak peek into the contents. In the first book, Little Mouse shows off a new vest that his mother made for him.

Little Mouse’s Vest

This is the vest that my mum made for me, doesn’t it look good?

As the story progresses, each of his friends admire and compliment him on his beautiful new garment, and asks to try it on.

Your vest is so beautiful! May I try it on?

The problem is… his friends are all bigger than Little Mouse!

It’s a little tight, but doesn’t it look good on me?

I’ll leave you to guess the ending 😉

C’s review
C enjoyed the simple text and repetitive phrases in the book. She found the mouse really cute, and laughed along with Little Mouse’s experiences.

G’s review
I introduced this book to G recently. Like C, he was able to appreciate the humour in the book. Since C was already familiar with the book, she played the part of a big sister to read it to G. Win-win situation 🙂

My review
I enjoyed reading this picture book with the kids. The text was repetitive but not boring. The illustrations, while simple, did a lot to bring out the humour in the situation without being distracting. As I’ve mentioned earlier, C was really resistant to learning and speaking in Chinese, but she was willing to repeat the phrases after me, and learning to recognize some of the characters.

This is definitely a good book to start with young toddlers or even older reluctant readers like C 😉 Do try it!

For those who are residing in Singapore, this series is available at the National Library.

For those who are interested in the English version of the book, it can be found on Amazon.

Do you have any recommendations for Chinese books for kids?

Learning Chinese – the journey

Chinese? Difficult!

Chinese has always been a tough subject for C. When she was much younger, around 2 or 3, she used to ignore anyone who spoke to her in her mother tongue.

Who could blame her? To her, it was a totally foreign language.

Although we are ethnic Chinese, 99% of our conversations with her were held in English. We read English books, she watched cartoons and DVDs in English, even the punishments were meted out in English.

Our initial attempts at introducing Chinese were half-hearted at most. Truth be told, I had assumed (or maybe, hoped) that she would be able to pick up the language sooner or later. After all, she was Chinese, wasn’t she? Her grandmother watched Chinese shows, and she was exposed to the language at school. We had also enrolled her in a weekly 2-hour Chinese enrichment class. I never remembered any difficulty picking up the language myself, so I thought it would be the same for her.

How wrong (and deluded) I was. At 5 years old, she was barely able to conduct a conversation in Chinese. She could read some Chinese sentences, but understood little.

Alarm bells started ringing for us when we attended the Primary One Preparation Seminar conducted by the enrichment centre in May last year. In the seminar, the speaker covered the syllabus for primary school Chinese, in which the oral component played a major part (gasp!). We were shown sample test papers, and I found myself shaking my head… C had a loooong way to go, and it was all uphill.

We set to work trying to get her interested in Chinese. In a previous post, I posted about doing a lapbook on China. I had a reward chart marking each day that we managed a short conversation in Chinese. It was difficult to stay consistent, and I lapsed back to speaking in English from time to time. I started reading more Chinese books to her.

Fast forward one year later. I’m pleased to report that some progress has been made, and in her first term show and tell, she scored 19 out of 20 points. She is now able to conduct a fairly decent conversation, and picking up more vocabulary from reading Chinese books.

Although the push to start picking up Chinese was academic, I hope that in time, she will be able to appreciate the beauty of the language, and not treat it as another subject to study for.

The journey has just begun.

Do you face difficulties introducing a second language to your child?

p/s: I’ll be introducing some books and tools that helped C learn Chinese. Do stay tuned!

Winter comes to Singapore! 2Degree Ice Art

Who says winter does not come to Singapore?

Two weeks ago, over the weekend, we brought the kids to the 2Degree Ice Art Exhibition. Held inside a thermal-insulated hall kept at -15°C, it was the best way to beat the sweltering heat in Singapore!

The kids (especially C) were really excited about being able to experience winter for the first time. Ok, it’s not really winter, but it’s close enough. There were thick coats for rent ($5 each, including gloves), and C was really pleased to get one with pink flower buttons. We brought G’s fleece jacket, and he was relatively warmly bundled up with the fleece inside his rented winter coat.

Tip: If possible, bring ear muffs or hooded jackets for the little ones. It really does get very cold inside.

All wrapped up and ready to go!

I was amused to see that the entrance to the hall was literally a door into a freezer container. Once they ascertained that we were appropriately bundled up, they opened the door to let us enter. As we stepped into the hall, we were hit by a blast of cold air. The kids were thrilled to see their breath in puffs of steam (“Just like they described in books!” according to C).

Coloured ice-carvings were scattered around the hall, and the first to greet us was Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of Singapore.

Sir Stamford Raffles

My favourite was the ‘icicle forest’ (I’m not sure if there was an actual name for this exhibit). Pretty!!!

My favourite exhibit

There were also ice-sculptures depicting various landmarks from around the world, lit by coloured LED lights.

Famous landmarks – in ice!

Recognise any of these ice sculptures?

If you asked C, the best part of the entire exhibition were the ice-slides located at the children play area. There was a big slide where we slid down sitting on a tube (which we had to lug up from the bottom of the slide) and a little one on the right. C didn’t need any encouragement – she literally ran up the steps to take the smaller slide down before we could give any instructions.

Note: It can be slippery at the top of the slide. I slipped and landed on my butt while attempting to sit down. It’s been ages since I last sat on a slide, and I think this fact was glaringly apparent, as evidenced by my clumsy descent down (video has been censored). 

Whee!

Getting ready to slide down on a tube

There was a small area on the left of the slides, where there was real snow (instead of the usual foam that we find in tropical Singapore). The kids did not get to play there as there was a large crowd in the area, and G was too tiny to squeeze in with the adults and older kids.

After C came down the slide for the nth time, we decided to move on as G was complaining of not being able to feel his fingers (he had taken his gloves off as he couldn’t see his hand :/)

Note: It would be a good idea to bring your own pair of gloves, as the snow would make the complimentary gloves wet. Wet fingers = frozen numb fingers = no fun

More ice!

Although the hall was rather small, there was enough to see and do for us to stay there for an hour. The ice-sculptures were not that spectacular, so I thought that the tickets were a tad expensive without discounts (I got them at a discounted corporate rate). It was a good experience though, especially for the kids. I think they took to the cold pretty well, though G did complain a little towards the end. Time to plan for a ski trip!

Do you and your children enjoy the cold weather?

More Information:
2Degree Ice Art will be on till 15th May 2014.
Opening hours from 10am to 10pm
Adults – $32.00 (10% discount for MasterCard holders, and also discounted entry on weekdays)
Child – $26.00
Children below 1.2 metres or less than 9 years old get free entry with purchase of adult ticket
Winter coat rental – $5.00 each (complimentary gloves with coat rental)
Located at the Junction of Bayfront Ave and Sheares Link; Standalone building beside the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and opposite the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre.
Parking is available onsite, but places are limited.

 

 

We survived Term 1!

Yay! We made it through term 1 of school, and it’s time to take a break. I’ve been looking forward to this week, when I can finally wake up at 7am, instead of the usual 5am routine.

I’m happy to report that all is going well in school, despite my initial worries. From waking up every morning at 5.30am, to completing her school work, to making new friends, C has coped marvellously well so far. In class, each of the students are given responsibilities, and she was proud to report that she was made the English rep of her class. I was amused to see her eyes shining as she told me how she helped to collect and carry the books during English class, and she wore the English rep badge with pride (I’m reminded that she has to wear the badge everyday and it must be in the correct place just above her name tag).

Of course, not everything was perfect. C had to learn how to stand-up for herself against bullies, taking responsibility when she forgot to hand in her work, handling disputes among friends. It was part of growing up, when she learnt that mummy will not always be around to handle unpleasant events.

To be truthful, I was very concerned about bullying, and was shocked to hear her saying that “someone was mean to her in school and threatened to throw her water-bottle away”. It took me a lot of self-restraint not to overreact, and to stay calm while we talked the incident through. It ended happily though, and she was able to resolve it by herself (the girls are best friends now!). That first incident gave her the courage to stand up against bullies on the school bus, to defend herself and a friend against the older girl (proud mum moment :)) It was certainly a reminder to myself to step aside and let her learn, instead of taking matters into my own hands.

Now that we’ve survived term one, it’s time to celebrate 😉 We will be bringing the kids out to have some fun. Have a great week ahead everyone!

G at Heguru – 2nd year update

Time flies, and I’ve realized that my last update on Heguru was from March last year (!)

G has been attending Heguru classes for a year now. Since Heguru groups the children born in the year 2012 and 2011 together in the same class, he is still doing pretty much the same activities compared to last year.

Course contents
With the new management taking over last September, there were some improvements made to the contents, for example, introduction of Chinese word flash cards. The physical exercises were also fine-tuned so that they were more age-appropriate (last year G was asked to hop on one leg at 1yo… )

Peg memory numbers 1-100 had been fully covered last year. With the start of the new year, we are starting with numbers 1 to 10 again.

The topics covered during the flashcards are not duplicated though, and new sets of cards are introduced every 4 weeks. I’m constantly inspired by the topics presented in class – ranging from guitar chords to types of whales to sources of calcium.

I’ve also purchased a set of 24 booklets recommended by Heguru (12 books for intellectual development, 12 books for number concept). They contain simple exercises to be done with G on a daily basis (a page from each booklet a day). An example of the contents in the intellectual development booklets include identification of parts of the body (vol. 1) to identifying collective nouns (vol. 12). For number concepts, they start with simple counting (vol. 1) to counting number of blocks in 3-D shapes (vol.12).

Heguru booklets

G’s progress
G is turning 3 this May. In right brain training, this is the age when the children start to give “output”. (Previously, when they were younger, below 2 years old, the focus concentrated on “input”, where information was presented to the child). Since the end of last year, I’ve seen G responding to ESP exercises verbally, sometimes shouting out the answers before teacher finished the question. I’ve mentioned previously that I was surprised that G could do the ESP exercises, and I continue to be impressed by his output in this area.

Previously I had concerns that the introduction to colour mandala was not age appropriate. Now that G is a year older, he is able to do the colouring by himself. He is now less distracted by the box of crayons, and able to focus on the image. On some occasions, he is also able to start drawing the shapes on the mandala (but most times, I’m still the one drawing).

He has also grasped the concept of linking memory. Last December, on a whim I decided to try it with G using a set of cards. To my surprise, he was able to name all 10 cards I placed and could recite bits of the story that I told. Currently he is able to do about 15-20 cards (depending on his mood).

One of the areas that he has not made progress, though, is during self-introduction. The cheeky boy happily goes to the front of the class when called, but refuses to say his name or answer questions (he happily chatters on when he is out of the spotlight). Hopefully this stage passes soon…

I’m happy to see that G continues to enjoy his classes, and look forward to more pleasant surprises this year 🙂

Which of your kids’ recent developments have surprised you most?

Chinese New Year 2014 – 守岁

Today is the eve of the Chinese new year (除夕), when families gather for the customary reunion dinner. This year is no exception – I have just spent a few pleasant hours chatting with my family, over a sumptuous dinner prepared by my mum.

Now that dinner is over, I’m back at home, and the kids are fast asleep. I’m trying my best to stay awake past midnight (I’ve been up since 5am, so it’s quite a bit of a challenge keeping my eyes open).

Why am I not in bed? Well, I’m upholding a Chinese new year custom called “守岁” (shŏu suì) , which entails staying up on the eve of the new year. Literally translated, 守 means “to watch”, while 岁 means “year” or “age”. The origins are not very clear, but most versions involve the mythical beast called “年” (nián), which appeared at the stroke of midnight on the Chinese New Year to hunt. In order to stay alive, people stayed awake to watch for the creature, and ward off its attacks by letting off firecrackers.  年 and 岁 both mean “year” in Chinese, so the practice of watching for the beast also came to be known as “守岁”.

Of course, I’m not staying up because I think that a monster is going to attack at the stroke of midnight. Rather, the Chinese believe that when children “守岁”, it will increase the longevity of our parents. With the arrival of the Year of the Horse, I hope that my parents will be blessed with health and happiness in the coming year.

As I come to the end of this post, it has just passed midnight. I hear the fireworks going off, and it’s time for me to go to bed.  Before I go, let me wish everyone health, happiness and peace in the Year of the Horse. Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Do you follow traditional customs?

Right brain training with G – Peg memory 81-100 (Printable)

This is the final instalment of the peg memory series. Over the past year, I’ve covered peg memory from 1 to 100 🙂 With regular practice, the peg memory system will be a useful tool to help with activities requiring memorization. For an example of how to use it, you can refer to my previous post here. Do try it!

Download it here ==> Peg memory 81-90

Download it here ==> Peg memory 91-100

Just a note:
Peg memory material for 1-100 can also be accessed here => Home practice material

Have you tried peg memory already?

Right brain training with G – Peg memory 71-80 (Printable)

Sorry about the late updates on peg memory. I’ll be updating the peg memory material for 80-100 in the next few days 🙂

Download it here ==> Peg memory 71-80

Just a note:
Peg memory material for 1-60 can be accessed here => Home practice material

Have you tried peg memory already?