Ms Heng, principal of Happles Kindergarten, is very proud of her holistic programme, and rightly so. While we were waiting for her inside the kindergarten, a number of her 4-year old students walked up to us to offer a smile and called us “Auntie” – demonstrating clearly that they were confident young people with social skills!
Extraordinary improvement in her students and positive feedback from their parents have further motivated Ms Heng to use the programme, which is not only effective in helping children with their academic subjects but also in their personality development, such as thinking and problem-solving skills, social and interpersonal skills, self-management and self-confidence.
Happles's language programme is unique. Starting with phonetic awareness, the programme gradually adds in sight words, and synthetic and analytical phonetic skills through interesting stories, games and a systematic guided reading series. The children can read most story books confidently by the time they graduate from the kindergarten.
The programme focuses on three important concepts: Myself (self-image/EQ), Others (empathy/social skills) and the World (general knowledge), while their cross-curriculum and interactive lessons allow children to absorb information through various pathways, resulting in learning that is faster and more integrated than traditional learning methods.
Children obtain information through all the senses – sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, balance, temperature, movement and direction, etc. Preschool education should build a foundation for children to 'learn to learn', giving them the lifetime benefit of further learning. Learning languages enables them to obtain knowledge from written materials. Providing them a good methodology and environment builds a positive attitude in them. They are curious about what is happening around them, discriminatory about information, observant of their surroundings, know how to ask questions and where to find answers, how to describe and express their thoughts. All these qualities are equally, if not more important than the ABCs Ms Heng
We asked how she does all these in her kindergarten classroom. "In traditional classrooms, the teacher points to pictures of apples and strawberries and the children learn the shape and colour of the fruits. But here, we offer the children real apples and strawberries to explore. Then we ask: What colour is it? How does it smell like? What is the colour of the skin? What about the inside? How does it feel when you squeeze it? Where are the seeds? Which seeds are bigger? Which one is easier to cut? How does it taste? While the children answer these questions, they observe and differentiate using all their senses, language and knowledge," Ms Heng said enthusiastically. No wonder the children are so cheerful and proactive!
Ms Heng went on further, "We don't believe that tons of homework can make children smarter. It is all about methodologies. At Happles, we take every activity as a valuable learning experience. For e.g. for our farm trip, we do more than the usual 'Line up, get on the bus and follow the flag' tour. Ms Heng will personally visit the farm, take pictures, plan age-appropriate routes, gather information and design worksheets and flashcards to share with the children weeks ahead so that they have a basic knowledge of what they will be seeing, e.g. names of the animals, what they eat, what can they do, etc. During the trip, the children apply their knowledge and verify the information with real life experience. After that, the children will do an individual report on their experiences and what they learn. That's what we call a productive field trip with learning objectives!"
Such admirable painstaking work! No wonder Ms Heng is proud of her programme.
