Archive for the 'Education' Category

My girl’s classmate had given my telephone number to one of the teachers at the tuition center she was attending because she wanted my girl to attend the same tuition center as her.

Last week the teacher at the tuition center called me. I told her that we were busy preparing for school tests so we have no time to attend the free class that they were offering. At the same time, I enquired about their after school tuition hours.

Yesterday, the teacher called me again. She said…

“I am calling to confirm that your daughter will be attending the free class today.”

I repeated what I told her.. that my daughter was busy preparing for tests and she has no time to attend the free class.

She said….

“I know your daughter has tests. We are doing revision for tests now. We are doing past year papers today. I would like to confirm that your daughter is coming.”

Two thoughts come to my mind.

1. The poor teacher has to double up as marketing agent too.

2. Why on earth would they think that I would want to sent my daughter to a strange new place to “benefit” from a free lesson to do past year papers on the eve of her tests? She should be doing light revision at home and getting more rest! Not going to some strange place and doing past year papers! She is only 9 for goodness sakes.

I really think that we are going overboard in preparing our kids to sit for tests in school.

Anyway, I declined politely but just out of interest, I asked her how much they charged for lessons. She says it is RM45 per month for one subject and it gets cheaper if you take more subjects.

After reading the article Playing I Spy with Facebook, I have only one comment.

The first thing that came to my mind is, when my children start a facebook account, I shall be the one to show them how and what they should or should not do. I would also insist that I be their friend on facebook.

However, I would never leave a negative comment on their accounts. Encouraging comments are okay but not negative ones. If there is anything I need to talk to them about their conduct or their friend’s conduct on facebook, then I will talk to them in person instead of leaving a comment. I think it is ridiculous to leave a comment on your children’s facebook account when you have something important to discuss with them.

Firstly, they will be afraid of being laughed at and ridiculed by their friends. Secondly, facebook is not the place for any family or even lovers discussion for all to see. Family discussions should be kept private.

Lastly, no, I do not think that I will be invading their privacy by being their friend on facebook. Certainly not! I am their parent. For their own safety, I SHOULD know what is going on in their lives. I would not read their diary but a facebook account is unlike a diary. Sometimes, if the privacy profile is not set up, the whole world can read what is being written, so why shouldn’t I, the parent? However, as I said, for the sake of their privacy, I will refrain from commenting anything negative. I will also refrain from reading it in detail and discussing things with them in detail. Just enough to know that they are doing the right thing is good enough.

As a parent, I would make it a point to know my children’s friends so that they do not get into the wrong company, all the more so for cyber friends with its different set of rules for friendship and relationships.

Thats my two cents. Whats your take on this?

Related post:

When should kids have a facebook account?

My children are learning Chinese, English and Malay at the same time in school. This is how I teach them languages at home. It does not matter what language, the principal is the same. It is easier for them to grasp the concept when there is synergy even though they are learning 3 different languages at the same time.

Right, here are the steps I tell them they have to go through when they learn a language.

1. First you learn alphabets (Huruf). For Chinese you learn Strokes and Radicals
2. Then you learn to form a word (perkataan) by putting together those alphabets.
3. Then you learn a phrase (Frasa) by joining two or more words together
4. You will need to learn spelling (ejaan or ”ting seah”) and improve on your vocabulary of words.
5. Next you need to learn grammar (Tatabahasa). Some basic ones include nouns (Kata Nama Am), proper nouns (Kata Nama Khas), pronouns (Kata Ganti Nama Diri), verbs (Kata Kerja), punctuation (Tanda Baca), conjuctions (Kata Hubung) etc.
6. After that, you are ready to make a sentence (ayat) by joining the phrases and words and using your basic grammar knowledge.
7. When learning to make sentences you will need to a lof of practise.
8. You will need to match phrases to form a complete sentence. (Padankan rankai kata)
9. You will need to practise by select the correct sentence for a given picture. (Suaikan ayat dengan gambar)
10. You will need to rearrange words to form sentences. (Susun semula Perkataan)
11. You will need to number pictures according to sentences. (Susun Ayat mengikut urutan)
12. You will need to fill in the blanks in a given passage. (Isi Tempat Kosong)
13. You will need to expand sentences by completing sentences or by replacing given words. (Lengkapkan ayat)
14. You will need to rearrange sentences to form a passage. (Susun ayat mengikut urutan)
15. Finally, you will need to make sentences based on a given picture (Bina Ayat berdasarkan gambar)
16. Ultimately, you will need to make a sentence from a given phrase or phrases.(Bina Ayat)
17. When you can make good sentences, you can join a few sentences together to make a paragraph.
18. Writing a few paragraphs will give you an essay (karangan).
19. Put together several “essays” and you will have a chapter.
20. Write a few chapters and you will have written a book.
21. You are now an author.

My kids will laugh when they reach the last part. They like to imagine themselves as authors. So you see, although the kids have to learn 3 different languages, it isn’t really hard if you explain it to them in this manner. It is the same really with some slight differences. For example, in Malay, you may need to learn sukukata and imbuhan whereas in English you may need to learn phonics.

In Chinese, you may need to learn the history of how each Chinese character is formed. This is really very interesting for the kids because many characters come from drawings and there is a story behind it. However, though Chinese may be slightly different, you can still apply the same principals of learning language above. Kids also have to learn in a step by step manner as I have described above. I have purposely included the Malay words beside the English ones to emphasize the similarity.

I “discovered” this similarity from teaching the kids myself. I didn’t learn very much grammar in school but since the kids started schooling, I find myself being “back to school” through self learning and teaching.

So to all the parents who have to teach their kids at home, perhaps you will find this article useful too. If you like to check out some Chinese Learning Resources, you can go to my Squidoo Lens on Learning Chinese Mandarin Online for Kids which I have just published.

Next, I will feature some books I have found which aids in this type of step by step learning method from sentence construction right up to essay writing.

Did you like this article? If you did, I would appreciate a facebook like. Thank you.