A couple of weekends ago, we were invited to the My Little Genius open house where Kylie and I got to learn about how they teach bilingualism!
Now, everyone who has met Kylie have always remarked about how eloquent and confident she is in the English language. Not many know this but while Kylie excels and has a great vocabulary when it comes to English, her mandarin however, is quite terrible. I've been wanting to send her for mandarin classes since she was 4 but had always been told that she's "still young". Unfortunately, I missed out on the first 5 crucial years to hone her mandarin language skills as she's turning 6 this year and while it's better late than never for Kylie, I'm not making the same mistake again with Megan! (More on that below).
During the open house, Kylie was treated to a balloon sculpting workshop before the actual briefing and trial class begun.
Having always loved getting her hands on crafts, balloon sculpting was one thing she had always wanted to learn so you can only imagine how excited she was!
Her very first self-made balloon flower!
After the workshop, we were given a short introduction about the courses at My Little Genius and I learnt some really interesting facts about about the left and right brain! The right hemisphere of the brain, as we all know, deals with creativity while the left, in logical thinking. But more than that, young children are actively right-brained and the left hemisphere only slowly begins to show dominance as they age. My Little Genius aims to stimulate the right brain from a young age because with a strong right brain, a child learns languages easier, as well as the subtleties of language. Their courses progress with the age of the child and ultimately seeks to simulate both hemispheres of the brain so that children from My Little Genius can graduate and go on to do well in their studies, taking them further in life.
Brain development is the most crucial in the first 5 years of a child's life and there really isn't such a thing as "too young" when it comes to brain stimulation. In fact, what My Little Genius encourages is to start them at a young age - right from the first year!
One of the techniques they use when it comes to teaching bilingualism is through the use of flashcards at an alarming speed. The reason why the cards are flashed at such a fast pace, is to encourage the development of the right brain instead of the left. When done at a slower pace, it becomes a left-brained activity which isn't an effective learning method for young children.
My Little Genius uses a vast variety of learning materials to keep the children engaged throughout the lessons, spending no more than 5-15 minutes per activity which is especially important for infants and toddlers considering that their attention span is incredibly short.
Activities for older children up to age 5 ranges from puzzle solving...
& even simple science experiments!
Children are also taught language through songs which are aided visually using illustrated flash cards.
The lessons cover a multitude of different activities including memory work and so much more!
Currently, My Little Genius offers courses from 1 years old to 5 years old at two outlets - Hougang and Jurong East.
You can check up more on their courses here: http://www.mylittlegenius.com.sg/programme.php#programme
I've signed both Kylie and Megan up for their courses which encourages parents to sit in and participate in the lesson together with their kids and I really can't wait to see how they will progress in their language skills! Kylie really enjoyed the trial lesson and has been constantly asking me when she can start her language lessons so I'm pretty sure Megan would look forward to her interactive bilingualism classes as well! I'll be updating more on their progress in the next few months once they start their courses so do watch this space!
In the meantime, if you're interested, do check out http://www.mylittlegenius.com.sg/index.php for more information!
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