Monday, April 6, 2009
Enrichment Class 1
Yeah! After a yr of long wait, ah boy finally started his 1st class at enrichment school on Sunday.
He was sick on sat, had slight fever & cough. So I was pretty worry if his fever persists, he is not allowed into the classroom. Early sun morning, I fed him with cough syrup, and thus he cough lesser during the day. And as it cause a bit of drowsiness, he was very obedient in the train ride to Tpy.
We arrived early as we need to collect the starter kit bag which consists of a few items:
- Child Observation Book (Where the teacher & parents can comment after each class)
- Introduction book
- Some letters to inform parents’ course, home guidance kits, etc.
- School T-shirt (not compulsory to wear, juz to promote the school if wear the shirt)
When we reached ah boy’s class, he almost cried and refused to enter the classroom. I told him that mummy is attending the class with him. And I slowly guided him in, and tt’s wen he calm down. I noticed another kid was also struggling to get into the class. His mummy has to close the door, so as to stopped him from running out of the class. Haha! Ah boy was a bit hyperactive in class. As class has not started while waiting for other students, he moved ard the class and wanted to open the drawers at the side of the class.
The class is small, consists of 6 kids, which I believed is ard the same age group. As 2 mummies were discussing abt their mth of birth, which is jan & feb. So I believed the kids are all ard 26mths old. Class consists of mixture of 3 boys & 3 girls. All are accompanied by mummies except 1 daddy in the class.
The class begins with a song of welcoming or good morning. It’s actually sung in Japanese, therefore I can’t really rmbr what the song is abt. But in the starter kit, there are the song lyrics and I was told that they will learn how to sing the songs in Japanese as days passed by. Wow!
Deep breathing session. Everyone was given a plastic watermelon with a fly above it. All the kids are told to blow at the fly to make it flip backward. Haha~ I don’t know why need a deep breathing session to begin with.
The lesson consists of a lot of parts, and I try to recall as much as possible:
- Introduction of today date: 5th April 2009, Sunday
- Weather: Sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy
- Flashcards with animals pic shown on the LCD TV, words are read in Italian language, and flash at a speed of 1sec. I cant really rmbr the pics in the flashcards coz it too fast for my old brain. Haha~
- Another Flashcards abt ice-cream. Den role play whereby the kids get to scope ice-cream (“cotton wood”) into ice-cream cone using spoon. Ah boy did a good job as he can handle the spoon well and scope the ice-cream into the cone easily.
- Memory games: Teacher shows a card abt a ‘big-mac’ type of burger for 1 sec. Next she shows up the card with another card that is of similar pic, but different by a bit. The kids has to point to the card that they have 1st seen. Well, I cant even tell which cards is the 1st one being shown. So do ah boy.
- Memory games: Teacher shows another card abt a train with 3 different colour window curtains for 5 sec. Den we are given a set of card with the 3 coloured curtains, and to place the coloured curtains as per the main picture. Again, my old brainy cannot even rmbr the coloured sequence although I did try and rmbr earlier. Ah boy could not focus and placed the curtains outside of the train. He was playing ard, not really listening to our instructions.
- Linking Memory: a set of flashcards whereby the cards shown, tells a story behind it. Eg: A PARROT, wearing a CROWN, is watching a TELEVISION, in a HOTEL. Suddenly a CRAB crawls out of the television, and run out of the DOOR. So each of us is given a set of flashcards and we are supposed to arrange the picture cards in sequence. As usual, ah boy play and messed up the cards although I rmbr the sequence well.
- 4 pcs puzzle: Each of us are given a picture and a 4pcs puzzle to fix. Ah boy easily complete the 4pcs puzzle by himself. I din even give him any hint. So proud of him. Even the teacher praised him in the observation book.
- Songs: lot of songs being played. Ah boy will shake his head fr left to right to immerse himself in the music. He will clap with the music. He’s the only kid who claps in class. Haha~
- More Flashcards shown at a fast speed…
- Learning letter “M”. Given a cardboard with lot of items beginning with letter “M”. Eg: Mug, Mangoes, Monkey, Man, Mat, Mountain, etc. We are supposed to identify the words and paste the words next to the items in the cardboard. Ah boy made a mess of everything.
- Vehicles. We were given another cardboard with lot of vehicles: Car, Motorbike, Airplane, Helicopter, Lorry, Yacht, Boat, and Bicycle. This time ah boy can identify all except the Yacht and the Boat. He proudly paste and match all the words to the correct objects after I read to him what the words mean.
- Worksheet with Stickers: Ah boy is given a worksheet with a dog. He is supposed to place 5 stickers all over the body of the dog.
- Teacher took a big abacus and counted the numbers 1 to 10. Then everyone is to touch & roll the abacus beads once.
- Learn to write the number “7” & “8”. Given a white board marker and a plastic sheet. He is to follow the plastic sheet and write the word 7 & 8. I don’t understand why begin with 7 only, but I never asked. Will see what numbers they will learn next class.
- Sayonara Song in Japanese to mark the end of the class. Ah boy is so happy that he claps as the song is played. Haha~
- At the end of class, everyone is reward with a sticker each. Either a doremon sticker or spongebob sticker. Ah boy is so happy the class has ended.
The above is the most I can recalled. Look like a lot of activities all done in 75mins. The course that costs ard S$1 per min.
We need to attend 2 classes before we have to attend a parent course whereby the principal will explained what is being taught in class. And followed by how we can help to further train our kids back at home.
After class and lunch, I reward ah boy with a toy car purchased from Kiddy palace. Poor ah boy is filled with lots of classes to attend from Sunday to Friday. Hope he really enjoy it. As he may not be able to attend from term 2 onwards, I’m still trying hard to see who want to volunteer and accompany him for class in future. Although it’s an expensive course, but I hope it does him good to be a brighter kid and a fast learner. I don’t need him to be a president or lawyer or doctor when he grown up. But I want him to fully utilized his talent. So even if he become a singer like Jay Chou, I’m also happy to be a Xin-ma (famous star’s mum)!
Wahahaha~
