KidsStartsNow

We have been fretting over V's Chinese. The parents are bad at it, we don't enjoy singing at karaoke coz we don't understand most words.  *hehe Guess 20% of Singaporeans can understand this dilemma, so if you are in this 20% , please read on. I have been reading up a lot on the different Chinese enrichments that might be suitable for V. She has grown up to be a fuss when it comes to the teachers, regimental sort don't sit well with her. When I look at my husband and me, we too! The more you are strict the more rebellious we get, guess this DNA has passed down and now it has thrown in a curveball back into our face. That's life…

I was pretty much prepared to send her to Berries due to the positive feedback from some parents. We did a trial last year but she wasn't much keen on it and I sort of hesitated. It took me a while to convinced myself that that is the route to take. Until, I read a few bloggers review on the school that they attended. Now these fellow parent bloggers are nitpickers when it comes to what is the best for their children.  The key points that they picked up are very similar to our family structure when it comes to Chinese and I like the term "Specializes in helping English speaking kids" Now, I don't think V has bad command of Mandarin, it is the confidence that is preventing her from being fluent. Very much like me, I converse well but get stuck in selected terms that I predominantly use in English.

Now I am going to share why this course is great for English speaking kids.  This school focuses a lot on conversational skills using technology. The team has created characters for their school tools, in the characters they made it into e-books that the children can watch via Youtube when they are home. Besides that, they made the classroom backdrop according to the scene of the books with live props! OMG so fun!

V was able to go through her ebooks in her 4 days holiday camp. It ignited alot of passion of learning since she was armed with "ammo" for the next day. Preparation is key isn't it?

Each group had to role play what was taught. I love the little details like character hats they get to wear.

You will realized the child gets into the role with ease.

I could tell this helped V transit into her Show and Tell very quickly. Which means this helps her activate her short-term memory as it can be related real quick via emotions. V proudly shows me her rewards cards (stickers) daily and I was told of their digital rewards systems that is displayed in their class. Apparently they collect gold coins!

Very suitable for tech savvy children of this century

I found the tools in Kids Start Now to be very useful for parents like me who has become pretty clueless in introducing chinese in a fun way to her. (It is really just our fault coz we don't find chinese fun - Read: Boring, strict teachers of our time) It is a chore for us to pick chinese books. Books from China are aplenty but getting books of their age group have comprehension too heavy duty and getting book at a younger level bores them. Chinese books are very "cheem" and are a tongue twister. Chinese word gives me headache- Is a pile of strokes all bundled up.

With our lack of enthusiasm, it is great to finally find a gem like this. I learnt from Dan, the school director a few things which I find useful that you will benefit.

Primary 1 preparation tips:

Streaming: 3 level Bridging, Core, Enrichment.  Streaming is in that class, so it happens daily. The teacher gives them a more tailored environment according to their needs. Basically grouped them at 7 years old *wails.

Show and tell: The kids are required to act their characters after reading. This will help in their conversational skills and encourage them to express better.

Character recognition: Helps facilitate early reading and they will learn hanyu pinyin too.

Kids Starts Now helps the child build Vocabulary. You see that is what we English speaking parents don't have! Chinese is a flowery language and I so admire the Taiwanese's way to describe an emotions or an item! For me, I use a single word to describe each emotion. *rolls on the floor laughing So yes, that impedes us from FLUENCY! Due to the lack of fluency, confidence level for conversational skills is at its super low.  True?

This is the MAIN reason V said yes to the camp. Teacher Marissa took time to let V warm up to her environment and attended to her until V found a friend. V has grown to be very sensitive to her surroundings and the people that she is unsure of. I sort of felt it that V will enjoy the class mainly coz I saw her teacher explaining in detail to the parent what exactly was happening to the child and how she took time to allow the child to overcome his issues and her words she chose to use were very positive. It felt really great as it has become a rare sight to see teachers especially those in enrichments centers to be so passionate about this. I personally love to learn from teachers who use their heart to teach and we know that is far by far a rare commodity.

V was very positive about this camp and was keen on starting with them weekly in 2015. It got us so excited for she has rejected us up crazily too many times (and more honestly for her swim, music, tennis, golf lessons). Best of her, she started speaking simple words to me. That's by far is a great improvement from "I don't know"

Here I share her teacher Marissa feedback of her.

Victoria can understand and speak Chinese decently well, and the main area for oral improvement is growing her confidence in her own abilities (this is partly because she seems more reserved by nature).

A useful technique we use in class (and can be easily done at home) to build kids' confidence is to celebrate small victories and give kids a safe environment where trying is praised. This is very effective when learning a language.

For instance, if we ask a child a question and the child gets it wrong, we will first praise the child for trying (and give the child a coin via our encouragement system). We will then tell the child the correct answer and have the child repeat after us, and then praise the child again for trying.

We have found this method to be quite effective at helping kids build their self-confidence (especially since in P1, show and tell will be an important component in school), and a side benefit is this helps kids develop grit.

Some Information on Kids Start Now

We specialise in helping N2-P1 kids who speak predominantly English excel in school! We have been highly recommended by 11 mummy bloggers, and have also been featured by Young Parents’ as “Enrichment class that best nurtures your child’s interest in Chinese” (Jan 2014).

How your N2-P1 child will benefit:
- KidStartNow Reading Programme strengthens reading skills and vocabulary acquisition through animated storybooks
- Digital encouragement system builds interest in learning and motivates kids to keep trying
- Role-playing activities build oral confidence and prepare kids for Show and Tell in Primary school
- Home learning and quizzes reinforce vocabulary acquisition
- Free weekly K2 and P1 study sessions for additional practice

Special promotion:
Sign up your child for a trial ($10) before end 2014 and we will wave the $30 registration fee if they sign up for regular classes!

Contact details:
Please email (enquiry@kidstartnow.com) or sms/call (9820-7272)  for more information or to register for a trial.

Located at:CT HUB 2 Kallang Way #02-09 Singapore 339407

** Victoria was invited to attend the holiday camp and no monetary compensation was given. Opinions given was by V herself and she insisted on attending 2015 and we readily paid for her weekly classes.