Finding a School-- Part 2

Going through all the changes for Alicia’s preschool education was tiring but when you see results coming from her. The effort becomes all worthwhile. I have a friend whose child is already Primary 6 (Currently is the A class) tells me, a child education starts from the very beginning. If you give her a good base or a good environment, she will nurture better if she chooses to. You cannot help her to study or learn but you can give her a good environment where opportunities will present to her. Then once you think you have gave her your very best, it is up to them to choose to learn as much as they can or neglect whatever it is going on. This is where self discipline comes in. If you observe Alicia now, you will see that she is very enthusiastic going to school participating the activities and if you are observant, you will see that she can grab the skills very fast through Multimedia learning and Learn thru Play. Currently is her prime time to absorb as much as possible thus if we can give as much as we can, she will learn more.

Within ½ year since she started at 3 years old, she starts to write ABCs, know all her 26 phonics letter sounds, spell her name, write her name, recognize around 10 Chinese characters, write 1,2,3 in Chinese, read out loud/sing Chinese poems all results coming from classes which I have very good impression on. Of course, we should never take for granted just throwing them into classes expecting them to do results. I make every effort or time whenever possible to revise with her and when she returns to classes, she has no problem remembering them.

There are people who tells me when we were young, not much emphasis was put on education, everybody goes to P*P and grows up well but now out there , there are so many better private ones which can educate and provide the children more. I am not against to P*P but my focus is on the curriculum which is very important to me and how the teacher’s can guide the children or show a good example. Having changes to so many schools and visiting almost all the childcare/preschool near my home allows me to see the differences and style how they handle children or if the teacher is out to wait for time to pass by or a eager passion to pass down her knowledge to children.

I shall state an example how I feel of a good teacher can give good results. I have experience coming from the same school 2 different personality teachers. In the first trial was taught by a bubbly happy teacher, dancing around with children, reading aloud, very caring, sweet, and while the children are doing the hands on paper, she will make every effort to see the teacher are doing it right. Just 1 lesson, she can remember Alicia’s name when she is not at school when we saw her somewhere else. However as the time was not very convenient, we choose to put her on another timing with a different teacher, this teacher is a very quiet teacher, not much dancing, read aloud was involved ( I like to peep at them how the teachers teach), the teacher was fidgeting at her nails waiting for children to finish the hands- on. The children were at their own doing the paper. Lesson was finish in less than the promised time and I was so pissed, the children were playing toys at the mid of the lesson. The teacher was walking in circles waiting for the time to pass. Seriously my head was fuming; I pay so much for you to accompany my daughter to play toys. I never employ a nanny for goodness sake! My house has dozens of toys to play. My first instinct was to change back to the other teacher. So far the bubbly happy teacher was the best teacher Alicia have encountered and she has so much good Aura around her that you will feel happy too talking to her. You can feel there is a passion to teach and you can see Alicia really enjoys her lesson when she is teaching jumping around, reading aloud. The end results in 3 months, she can memorize 2 poems from her school’s file, recognize 天，上，下，大，小，水，妈妈，爸爸，花，草 and etc.. When you read a simple Chinese book with this letter she can help you to read too. She understands Chinese better and we hope she can improve with more to come.

Next it’s a preschool for Alicia, attending the weekend Phonics class let us realize she can absorb very well in Multimedia learning, it attracts her full attention as she wishes to participate where they have a hands on pen to touch the screen. The software they used are very colorful and attracting and just Letterland itself has allow her to learn the essential alphabet, the phonic sound and how it is written. It basically covers English on what she needs to learn. Mainly the attractive point of this preschool is the multimedia learning and the constant updates and details what they will be teaching the children, they tried to make sure they speak proper English to the children and the curriculum is very enriching as it focus on the basic things she requires in the future especially English and Math. Going one big round of changing schools and visiting, we decided this is the only place where she loves and allow her to learn to her maximum. Although my savings may start to grow lesser and I will not be able to enjoy or spend using the additional cash I left in my salary, I believe it’s all worthwhile and I can be at a peace of mind that she is at a good preschool which I do not worry throwing away the money.

With the current daily preschool covering well English and Math, and Tien Hsia covering Chinese, I do not need to worry her education for a short while till I find better ones.

Ps: All this are my personal opinion for Alicia and it does not apply to other children or parent’s opinion or concepts to upbringing their children. Please do not get offended in any way as I just want to blog in her blog as part of her childhood life.