I posted in Facebook this question : Would you enrol your 5 year old child in a language enrichment class, ie BM, Mandarin, English although he/she is already in kindy and most comments I got was a NO. My answer is yes and no, based on my personal experience.

I was never Mandarin educated.

When Big J started primary school, I was contemplating to enrol him in a national school, rather than a Chinese school for a simple reason, I would never be able to assist him in his school work if he were to study in a Chinese school. Hubby, being Chinese educated was adamant that the children go to Chinese school.

Big J didn’t go for any Chinese language enrichment classes because my well-meaning relatives said he was too young to go for additional tuition classes, they claimed that he will pick up Mandarin naturally once he entered primary school and not to pressure him.

They were wrong. He was struggling. He was frustrated. He started to lose interest not only in Mandarin but in the Chinese school. He told me then that he wanted to be transferred to an English school. As a result, academically he performed poorly and was side-lined in class. He was demotivated and uninspired to study and started to become rebellious in school and at home.

I panicked. I was equally frustrated because I was so helpless and hopeless. I struggled with the Chinese dictionary, something which was so alien to me. That’s when I started to scout around for a Mandarin enrichment center. I shared my story earlier in this blog entry.

Today, at Primary 4, he does well not only academically but is also elected as the Deputy Head Perfect and has represented his class in several speech contests. His Primay 1 class teacher was surprised to see his progress. A once hopeless student is now a shinning star in school.

I didn’t want to make the same mistake with Little J. At age 5, I enrolled him in a Chinese language enrichment center and today at Primary 1, he excels in the Mandarin language and loves going to school so much.

Back to the question, yes I would enrol my child in a language class at the tender age of 5 under the condition that the class is not the typical tuition class, he would not be pressurized with tons of homework and he enjoys the class and has lots of fun. I would also only enrol him in a particular language class only if I do not know the language myself!

First, they said we are scrapping the policy of learning Math and Science in English (PPSMI) from 2012 onwards. Read here for the story. 

KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has decided that the medium of instruction for Maths and Science will revert to Bahasa Malaysia in national schools and mother-tongue languages in national-type schools from 2012 onwards.

The reversal of the Teaching of Math and Science in English (PPSMI) policy will be done in stages, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on Wednesday.

He however added that there will be greater emphasis on learning the English language.

English literature will be re-introduced, as will subjects on grammar and composition.

Beginning 2012, students in Year One and Year Four in primary schools, and Form One and Form Four in secondary schools, will learn Math and Science in Bahasa Malaysia.

The change will not affect those in Form Six and Matriculation.

The two subjects will be taught in two languages until 2014 for other students, he said.

A month later, after all the hoo haa, our honorable Minister announced that those who started learning the two subjects in English would continue to learn them in English till they finish secondary school. He said it here.

PERTH (Australia): Students who started studying Mathematics and Science in English can continue to do so until they finish their secondary school education.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he wanted to allay the concerns expressed by parents.

“The Cabinet discussed and agreed to this as some of my colleagues expressed their concerns about students who started studying the two subjects in English and would be in Years Four to Six, and Forms Four and Five when the new policy is implemented in 2012,” he told Malaysian media during a breakfast meeting at the end of his five-day working trip here.

That I gather it means my Little J, who will be going to Primary One next year, the year 2010, will study both subjects in English (since implementation to study in BM only started in 2012) till he complete secondary school (Form 5) in 2020. BUT hold on.. read what the Education DG says today, quote from theMalaysiainsider

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 11 — The teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English will be scrapped in stages from 2012 starting with Year 1, Year 4, Form 1 and Form 4, Education Director-General Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom said.

Form Six and matriculation would not be involved in the scrapping of the policy, he added.

“As a ‘soft landing’ mechanism, the teaching and learning of both subjects will be carried out in two languages either in English and Bahasa Malaysia or Chinese or Tamil from 2010.

“The teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics for Year 4 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and Year 5 in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and Year 6 in 2014, 2015 and 2016 will be conducted in two languages,” he told reporters after meeting Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who is also Education Minister, here today.

In line with this, he said, Science and Mathematics examinations would be carried out in two languages until 2016.

Both subjects would be taught in two languages in Form 4 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and Form 5 in 2013, 2014 and 2015, he said.

The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia examinations for both subjects would be carried out in two languages until 2015, he said.

I AM CONFUSED! If what the Education Minister said yesterday is correct, the SPM exam should be carried out in two languages till 2022! It is unbelievable that our children’s future are in the hands of these people! Don’t they even know how to do simple Math??? I seriously don’t mind to follow our education policy, but PLEASE make it clear! Apa it “soft landing”? I tak faham!

I was a working mum when Big J started pre-school in 2004. Being a first time mum, I did not have any experience in sourcing a good pre-school for him. So the “best” school was the one located just opposite our house. I enrolled him in that school which claimed that they used Montessouri method and he studied for 3 years. I noticed during his final years in the school in 2006, he would have tons of homework and he would have spelling test for BM, English and Mandarin every day. I thought that it was good as a preparatory step to Primary 1 in a Chinese school which normally gives tons of homework. (Eventually the Chinese Primary School he went to did not give as much homework as the Pre-school!). Big J was just an average student then. He wasn’t independent and needed to be supervised daily to complete his homework. School didn’t sound fun to him then.

For convenience sake as well, I enrolled Little J in the same school in 2007. In June 2007, I left the corporate world to become a stay-at-home mum to my 2 heroes when Big J was struggling with his Primary 1 school work. The day I quit my job to stay at home, I got a shock of my life! I was in the bathroom when I heard shoutings from the pre-school. The supervisor and teachers were screaming and shouting at the students. Apparently a child wanted to pee and the teacher scolded her for not going to the toilet earlier. The shoutings went on almost daily and the worse was on the day where the kids were practising for their concert song. The teachers were screaming and shouting all the time. Goodness, the children were from age 4-6 years! What amazed me was that the teachers will be so friendly early in the morning when parents drop off the kids and when parents pick them up after school.

Wasting no time, I scouted around my neighborhood to look for an option pre-school. I chanced upon Sri Johan which is using the Fungates systems. I called up the Principal and she invited me to take a look at the school. It was located at a shop lot and I must admit that by first impression, I didn’t like the idea of a pre-school in a shop lot. However, when I stepped inside, I was greeted by a friendly principal Florence. She explained to me the concept and what’s make the school different is that it is operated on a open-classromm concept. Hmmm.. I was thinking, how would the children concentrate? Without any second thoughts, I registered Little J.

What impress me is that the school emphasis a lot on character building. Children are taught to be independent. Everyday, Little J would take out his homework from the homework pouch and keeps the homework in the homework pouch after he completes. The homework pouch systems work excellently and I implement the system to Big J’s too. I dropped by the school unannounced one day just to “spy” and was impressed with how the teachers handled the kids. The school practises positive reinforcement through recognition, encouragement and rewards. On numerous occasions, Little J was awarded the Star Student of the school. There and then I know that my Little J is in good hands! Oh yes, the open classroom concept is excellent. There was one day when Little J was doing his homework, my friend came with her 3 children. The children were playing and they were so noisy. And the noise DID NOT distract Little J and he continued to finish his homework before joining them!

Little J loves his school so much to the extend that he would do more homework than those allocated by his teachers. He would even insist on going to school on days when he was sick! When a child is happy and having fun in school, automatically his academic results excel!

Choosing a RIGHT kindergarden is not easy. You would never know what happen in school unless you spot check. I would have continue to send Little J to the school opposite my house had I didn’t quit my job and had a first hand experience at the shoutings! Oh yes, till today, there are still regular shoutings at that school….

In my previous entry about learning Mandarin, I mentioned that Smart Little Beans Reading Center is not so “smart”. Reader Kathleen asked to share the story about Smart Little Beans and this is what I replied to her comment:

I feel that Smart Little Beans (SLB) is a bit too “academic” for my son’s liking. Little J is 5+ and he has short attention span. He learns faster through fun and play. SLB’s concept incorporate a lot of readings and no play and lots of words actually put him off. The concept may work on certain child but not my Little J.

And also 3 languages at one time does not work for him either. Our main focus is Mandarin because he is relatively good in BM and English. In SLB, the teacher who teaches Mandarin and BM tends to explain and communicate with him in English, as such he is not picking up much Mandarin compare to Bao Bei where Mandarin is strictly used. The teacher actually says that because he speaks English at home, therefore it will be easier for him to understand if she explains in English. That defeats our purpose of sending him to the center to learn Mandarin.

Oh yes, do be aware that if you choose to send your child to Smart Little Beans, your deposit which they collected from you is NOT refundable. I was not informed of their refund policy until I told them that Little J will stop end of this month. They said that it was mentioned in the terms and condition which I signed upon registration and Little J has to stay till end of August. My point is if we have no confidence in their programmes, why should we waste another one month in the center?

Till now, I am still baffled as to why the center needs a child to give one month notice to stop lesson. Common understanding of the purpose of deposit is in case parents do not pay up the fee for a particular month, then the deposit will be forfeited. I was wondering if the center needs the one month notice to get a replacement student.. strange policy! Lesson learnt, signing without reading what I signed, I am actually signing my life away, haha.. luckily it is only a RM300 deposit and not my life!

Both Big J & Little J have not been very receptive towards Mandarin. At home, we speak in English. When Big J first started attending Chinese Primary School, he was struggling with Mandarin. I did not give him a good foundation in Mandarin. Due to his weakness in Mandarin, he had problems to understand Maths and Science in Mandarin and he did fairly in these subjects as well. As a result, his grades were only average and he was not motivated to study.

When he was in Primary 2, I started to scout around for a good tuition center to improve his Mandarin. I enrolled him at a nearby tuition center which focussed on school Mandarin syllabus. 4 months passed, there was no progress. 6 months passed, still no progress. He became very frustrated for not being able to catch up and he was starting to lose interest in Mandarin. I realised that the problems lie with him having no good foundation in Mandarin. I started to survey all Mandarin enrichment centers such as HanYu Home, MEB and Bao Bei Reading Wonderland to find out their teaching method. The one which caught my attention was Bao Bei Reading Wonderland. They use flash cards, incorporate play and games, their concept is learning Mandarin the fun way.

I wasted no time to enrol Big J. He was the eldest kids among the smaller children. Amazingly, he showed tremendous progress and most important of all, he started to have interest in Mandarin. He was always looking forward to go to the center. And automatically, his Mandarin in school started to show improvement. From Grade C/D to Grade A/B! 

I realise that Little J must have some exposure to Mandarin since he will be going to a Chinese primary school. I enrolled him in Bao Bei as well and his Mandarin improves tremendously. Then, a friend recommended me to check out Smart Little Beans Early Reading Center which focus on 3 languages, English, BM and Mandarin. I checked out the center and decided to give Little J a try.

3 weeks after Little J started his lessons in Smart Little Beans, I found out that the center is not so smart afterall, found it out the hard way! Little J is happy to go back to Bao Bei Chinese Reading Center! He misses the center due to mummy’s bad decision to switch to Smart Little Beans. :(  Why is Smart Little Beans not so smart, it’s another story for another day…