Hi all fellow Singaporeans and Malaysians! I noticed seeing a few fellow Singaporeans and Malaysians in the Introduce Yourself board, so I was wondering how many of ‘us’ are there here?
Strictly-speaking, I’m Singaporean, but I spent most of my life living in Malaysia, and even married one, so I have a strong affinity to both countries! Unfortunately, we now live in Shanghai, so I can’t send my kid to Shichida - you all are so lucky!!
Anyway, would be nice to get in touch with you all, so I can get a flavour of home now and again! Please respond here if you are a Singaporean or Malaysian, or if you’re not one, feel free to post here too if you have anything that you’d like to ask one (me)!
I am born and bred in Singapore , and am still in Singapore!
Not a mom but a just-as-excited auntie. My sister has not talked about sending my niece to any of the early childhood learning centers like Shichida. Are they really effective?
It is so stressful just thinking for my niece’s education path.
Yes, there is quite a big contingent from Singapore and Malaysia here - welcome to you all!
I too envy those of you there, as I would LOVE to send Felicity to Shichida class. From what I know and heard, the classes are very good, and very right-brain oriented.
Any Malaysian’s/Singaporeans here who’ve got experience with Shichida classes? Please share!
I had the good fortune to sit in on a Shichida class once when back in Malaysia (supervising my friend’s son, pretending to be his Aunt! :biggrin: ), and it was fascinating.
Basically, a lot of rapid flashing, memory games, imagination exercises, and even ESP (ie., psychic intuition)!
I too would love to hear more from parents whose children are in Shichida!
I am a Singaporean with a 5 year old son. Allow me to make some comments on Shichida class in Singapore. I was about to sign up Shichida class for him but I didn’t do so. There are a few things which were holding me back. 1st, the waiting list is too long. I need to waitlist for at least 3 to 6 months and put S$300 deposit for waitlisting, even that can’t guarantee that I will get a seat for my son.
2nd, the fee is too high. Annual registration is S$50 (yes, payable after every 12 months) and term fee (12 weeks) is S$780 + parent edu course is S$290 per term. All these exclude materials cost.
3rd, the management is very slow in response and not very helpful. As the business is very good, they didn’t take the parents comment seriously. Teacher turnover rate is also very high. Hence, a lot of parents complain about class cancellation without prior notice, grouping kids with different level, inexperience teacher.
Hmm, though their method comes from Prof Shichida, they are very secretive about the method they used. Luckily, they are not the only right brain center in Singapore. We also gather some parents staying nearby and do home practice for our kids. We have a lot of helpful parents who are willing to share resources to benefit our kids.
These might be some negative comments for Shichida in Singapore, others can chime in to share some positive feedback on Shichida method.
There are a lot more brain centers for older kids such as MindChamps, Singapore Brain Development Centre, Tony Buzan Learning Centre, LogicMills, Adam Khoo etc…
lol, I guess these early learning centres are meant for what we called “kiasu” parents in Singapore. “Kiasu” means afraid of loosing. There are also a lot of enrichment classes within walking distance. Parents are willing to splurge for their kids.
My baby is 1 yr old. Intend to send him to one of the right brain centres. It seems that the Shichida school is much more being heard of and popular, and so is the fee!
Wondering if anyone has sent your child to other centre and care to share your experience?
The exchange rate is US$1 = S$1.41 (as per Aug 28). The average Singaporean monthly household income is S$6280 in 2007 with the inflation held at 7.5% y-o-y in June 2008. The household income is the income of both husband and wife as generally both husband and wife are working full time.
20% of the income will be channelled to CPF (for retirement and housing though we don’t think it is enough for retirement). If you have 2 kids going for Shichida lesson, this will amount 11.5% of the household income which is quite a substantial amount for an average Singaporean family.
There’s aplenty to choose from and this is creating confusion. Not wanting to be “kiasu” but really, sometimes I wonder how not to.
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Yup, I agree with you. I think we are in the dilemma on what to do with the kids education. Not wanting to be “kiasu” but at the same time we do not want him to be left behind and missed the window of opportunity.
There is a lot of argument on the early learning. Some people argued that we should not teach the children at all. The following is the video clip from Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Professor at Temple University and author of the book “Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn-- And Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less”.
I really could go on all day about what this lady has to say, but I don’t type fast enough to write all of my thoughts. :huh:
I agree with her about EQ and sending kids to preschool, but that’s where it ends. My son plays all day, exept for the short intervals of playful learning. You should see the toys all over the house. He enjoys Little Reader. He enjoys YBCR. He enjoys Tweedlewink. And yes, for the most part, he enjoys “the flash cards”. When you make learning fun, and teach in a playful way, kids don’t realize that they’re learning. We don’t drill, we don’t test, we don’t force. My son thinks we are playing when we do educational stuff, and if that’s the case, what could possibly be wrong with it?
sorry for the late post. I didn’t know this thread existed until now!! lol
I’m from S’pore and my son is attending shichida classes for a 2 months now. The classes are actually based on having fun and learning. The teachers don’t force the kids to sit in one place to learn, they can be moving about. The quickness of the activities (1 activity 3 mins or less) first bewildered me but that’s how fast the kids get bored of doing an activity.
The kids are fully engaged for that 1hr and after every shichida class my son falls asleep on the way home. He enjoys the activities and i guess gives all his energy and thus he tires easily.
