Alycia came home excitedly last week announcing that she got a pencil from the principal coz she got full marks for her Ting Xie again. See how a little reward can bring so much joy to a 5 1/2-year old. I’m glad that her pre-school uses rewards to motivate the kids to do well in their studies.
On another note, we received a letter from the MoE last week informing us that Alycia has been accepted into a Chinese school. It’s daddy’s unwavering decision to send the gals to a Chinese school but I’m not sure if my gals have the material to be in a Chinese school. After hearing lots of feedback on heavy homework, heavy trolley bags, caning as a form of disciplinary, etc. in a Chinese school, I really shudder at the thought of Alycia having to go through all these next year… not to mention the distance to/fro school/home and the horrendous traffic leading to the school. We will see how Alycia fares in a Chinese school next year and if she does not fit in, we can always pull her out and place her in a Kebangsaan school. Let her be our guinea pig and if all is well, I will register Sherilyn and Baby C in a Chinese school, otherwise, #2 and #3 will go to a Kebangsaan school at our neighborhood… which is actually my plan but hubs is dead steadfast in his Chinese school decision, looooooong sigh…..
And by the way, does anyone know of any private tutor who is willing to come to my condo to provide Mandarin tuition to my gals? Please email me at shireenyong@gmail.com. Thanks peeps and have a great weekend!
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Good that you have received the letter. I called the school (also a chinese school) in Bandar Utama and was told it would only be sent out early next week and my son too has been accepted. Well, as for the heavy homework, I’ll just take whatever that comes and hopefully all our efforts are worthwhile.
I am from a Chinese school (with both my parents are English literate), and it’s tough but once the 6 years were up, I find it useful now since I have additional language in my hand. I don’t think nowadays the school are using cane anymore, as there are parents that complain, however the discipline is definitely stricter compared to Kebangsaan school. Each child is different handling Mandarin, as it’s more a memory game than like English or Malay we can do “combination”.. Let Alycia try… 🙂 All the best!
I have also registered my eldest in the Chinese primary school for next year, me & my hubs both agreed sending my gals to Chinese school, despite the heavy homework. it would be good to stretch their mind a little. You will find their abilities to absorb knowledge is incredible at these tender years.
We as parents have to be ready for the hooha especially before the exam times.
you can do it Alycia!!
she is doing so well in the kindy…her Ting Xie looks tough..
Did you check with the kindy if got extra chinese?
Jeriel attend extra chinese in his kindy…
my boy oso going to chinese school next yr but i have yet to receive any notice yet.
am thinking of letting him to be the guinea pig too!! haha! i am so afraid of the homework load and stress too
i think i will send my kid to cina skool too, being a banana, i think better let the kid learn chinese, really useful 🙂
Great! I think sending now her to a Chinese School would be a good idea. Let her learn the disciplines in Chinese School and obviously Mandarin Language that can give her tremendous career opportunities in coming days.
no regret….i am a product of chinese school…when those days, my parents also have the same argument. Luckily my dad insisted to send 3 of us, girls to chinese school…coz the development of China really proves to us how important is Chinese language!!!
Alycia was like me… I went to chinese school (std 1-6) and parents cannot speak/write chinese type. i really hated hated it.. but during univ time n working life now… i really appreciate the language..
I wrote a post on my experience .. http://racheljtle.blogspot.com/2008/07/sharing-my-personal-experience-on.html
I am sure Alycia will be fine. Good luck to her. She must be excited about going to ‘big’ school.
actually hard to decide based on guinea pig…In my case,my twins are coping OK after 4 yrs verbally thgh their writing is still nt good. As for the girls, the principle of the foundation & K1 class made an assessment and told us that Ju (K1) is not a Chinese school material & better put her in Kebangsaan school whereas Jasmine is very independant & keen to learn& doing better in chinese than her cheh cheh ..so she will be alright to be in chinese school…Anyway you can out Aly in chinese school for the 1st 3 years. if she cant cope, need to change before std3.
shan leo will be attending chinese school as well. in fact, it was a tough decision coz mummy is a “banana”. she is worried that she wont be able to guide shan leo with his homework 🙁
anyway, we shall see how…
I plan to send vic to chinese school too, and will start her on private tutor for mandarin next year, probably get some of her classmates to join in too so it should be more fun. hubby and i are “bananas” and worry that we won’t be able to help her with her homework next time, but then my cousin went to the same chinese school and had two banana parents and she aced! if vic struggle and can’t survive, then we may have to consider private school, coz we don’t trust the kebangsaan teachers, discipline and safety there, sad to say.
good decision in my view. I dont think I am any less eqiupped in contrast to kids who have been to full kebangsaan school. On the contrary, having another langauge under the girls’ belt is certainly a competitve edge over others in view of the growing giant in this region – China. Ganbate Kudusai!
So kesian our eldest kids. All become guinea pigs. Hahaha. Anyway, I had the same fears as you but so far its been ok. I think your girls already trained from the amount of homework and chinese writing they have been doing so its ok. Anyway so many parents are sending their kids to chinese school these days that you find that most of the children are in the same situation. In my girl’s school about 80% of the parents do not speak Chinese and the kids speak English to one another. Even the teachers speak in English to them at times to make sure they understand the instructions!
Hi,
Came across your posts by accident but wondering if anyone can help me please with the below?
My husband and I are Australian and have been living in Singapore for nearly 5 years. For his work we are looking at relocating to KL for a year, maybe longer if we like it. If after a year we decide to leave we shall be returning to Singapore.
We have two girls, one aged 5 years and one aged 3 years. Curretnly both girls are attending Pat’s Schoolhouse in Singapore. We are very happy with the school, our eldest has been there for 4 years and the youngest just commenced this year. We liked the size of the school but more importantly the fact that it was Bilingual. The girls always have one english teacher and one Mandarin teacher at all times thus their Mandarin skills are very high even though we do not speak it at home.
I would like the girls to continue in a Bilingual school but understand that the schools in Kl may not be on par with what the Singapore schools offer. If we were to remain in Singapore we wanted to send our eldest to a local school i.e Singapore Chinese Girls School, where she would be taught Mandarin as a second language everyday. In light of this I would love your opinion on what primary and nursery schools you consider to be appropriate? We prefer local schools for experience but a private Chinese school is ok too. Our eldest will commence Primary 1 next year. Location isn’t a concern at present as we have no preconceived idea on where we should live.
I appreciate your time spent on this and look forward to a favorable response.
Kerry… reading your comment, it looks like you want your gals to pick up Mandarin. Such being the case, you can send your gals to a pre-school that is Mandarin-base. My gals go to a pre-school that is Mandarin-base to prepare the kids for Chinese primary school. You can consider sending your gals to Kuen Cheng kindy, where the kids are being taught in Mandarin and will eventually go to Kuen Cheng Primary school. I don’t know if that helps.
My daughter went to Chinese school during her primary years and inspite of us all being English/BM educated, she did tremendously well and now, she is in Chinese Secondary school. I had to fight tooth and nail with everyone with my decision to send her to a Chinese school.
The heavy workload and strict discipline are the other reasons beside learning and mastering Mandarin that I want her to go thru. As for caning, yes, they still do and I wont get involved. I dont want her to think that she have me to back her up and therefore can be as naughty as hell. I believe there can only be 1 master when it comes to schooling and there will always be a good reason for canning. So, after 6 years, I must say, she is very discipline. I never had to “loh hei” over her school work. She will do her homework without being asked, study for her exams without being prompted, make her own preparation for test and all. Never had to worry a day!