Life Is In The Small Things

An Underwater Chinese Adventure with KidStartNow

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Whenever the school holidays roll round, I am always caught in a dilemma when faced with the question of how to fill our days. Should I sign the kids up for holiday camps? Or should we wing it on our own?

When faced with the choice, my preference is usually for the kids and I to hang out together and do our own thing. After all, there’s already too much to do!

But the one thing I never say no to is the opportunity for the children to get more exposure to Chinese. So when Noey was invited to attend the Chinese June holiday camp at KidStartNow, I didn’t think too much — it went straight onto his schedule for the month. How could I turn down a camp that promised that my child could “love Chinese in 4 days”?

I was wondering how to break the news to Noey that he’d be attending 4 days of Chinese during the June holidays when I found the task taken nicely out of my hands when an invitation card to the June holiday camp arrived for Noey in the mail. He was excited to get the card, which featured a shark in an underwater scene, in line with the theme for the camp. It gave me the opportunity to tell him what he would be doing and he started looking forward to the camp immediately. Hurray! I thought the card was a nice touch.

On the first day of camp, I sent Noey into the classroom then hung around a bit to see how he would take to the camp. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in the waiting area there was there was a screen showing a live feed of what was going on in the classroom. How helpful! I certainly appreciated being able to take that first-hand look at how Noey was adjusting to the environment and the programme.

KSN1Parents in the waiting area watching a live video feed of the ongoing class. The whole school was decorated with an underwater theme in keeping with the theme for the camp.
I quickly figured out that I needn’t have worried. He was obviously having a good time AND speaking Chinese. I couldn’t ask for more than that! 
During the course of the next 3 days, Noey continued being very enthusiastic about attending class, and I continued to get good feedback from his teacher about his attitude and behaviour in class. I believe this was due to several factors:

1. The interesting proprietary programme

The premise of the camp was an underwater adventure in which the children on a mission to save all the fish from a fearsome shark. How apt for my little ocean lover. The focus of the camp was on oral skills and the children got to learn and speak Chinese through a role play, games, the use of animated e-books and art and craft. I was impressed to learn that the curriculum at KidStartNow, including the e-books and materials, is one that is developed in-house. Dan, who is one of the directors behind KidStartNow, shared that this allows them to cater the curriculum to the local context and make references to things or events that the kids can relate to. During the holiday camp, I could see that the variety of activities were fun for the kids and captured their interest. 
KSN3Circle time with Li Laoshi.

KSN2Playing a game of “Who’s got my fish?” Anya‘s turn to guess.

KSN5Noey the magician in one of his favourite FOX tees. (The magician is the main character in the story who accidentally whisks himself into the underwater world.)

KSN10Loved the comfy setup in the corner with a clamshell throne and plenty of underwater creatures!

KSN6The cute characters the children meet over the course of the camp. Mei liked them very much and asked me to take this photo of her with them.

2. The use of technology or gamification

One thing that distinguishes KidStartNow’s programme from other Chinese enrichment centres is the keen use of technology in its programme. In particular, the school uses gamification as an approach to grading. Each of the kids in the class has an account (with an avatar reflected a leaderboard) and they get to rack up points in the form digital gold coins in class by participating, speaking Chinese, and having good behaviour. The gold coins can later be traded for stickers. Regular students can also save them up for bigger rewards. This was a very interesting concept and I can tell you it was quite a hit with my son. Each day at the end of class, he would tell me how many gold coins he got and what stickers he got. It certainly served as a form of motivation for him!  
Like I mentioned earlier, KidStartNow also develops and uses its own e-learning materials, and these are provided to students who can use them for revision at home. Their bilingual eBooks have a Mandarin read-along function and easy to understand English translations so parents can learn along with their children too.
I personally have a love-hate relationship with technology and am highly wary of the overuse of it. This is something they recognise too at KidStartNow and I understand that technology usage only forms 30% of the class time and the remaining 70% of the time will be focused on activities like story-telling, song and dance. The idea is for children to reap the benefits of learning with technology without being overly reliant on it. That sounds pretty good to me.
KSN4The class leaderboard where the gold coin count is reflected. There was a nice tinkle every time a coin was earned too!

KSN8Choosing the stickers he earned for the day.

3. Good and enthusiastic teachers

At the end of the day, whether technology or other traditional methods are being employed, it is always the teachers who truly make the difference. Li Laoshi, who was Noey’s teacher for the 4 days of camp, was lovely, warm and showed a lot of patience for the kids. Noey liked her and so did I.

KSN9

It was, all in all, a profitable 4 days for us. Time well spent, I say.

If you’d like to find out more about the programmes offered by KidStartNow, do check out their website for more information or to sign up for a trial class.

KidStartNow
CT Hub, 2 Kallang Avenue, #02-09, Singapore 339407
Web: http://www.kidstartnow.com/contact
Tel: 6444 8280 / 6444 6310 / 9820 7272
E-mail: enquiry@kidstartnow.com

* We were invited to attend the June holiday camp at KidStartNow for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain strictly my own.

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