Yesterday, while the two boys went cycling on their own, I attended a talk about The Shichida Method of brain development for children. While the main objective of the talk was enrollment, the content was rather inspiring and the course emphasis which focused on parent-child relationship as well as personality development really appealed to me.
And you know what? I actually walked away from the talk with excitement and having a renewed confidence of coaching Gavin. There was no trial lesson. Just information and testimonies but many things that were said hit me right.
I admit I have problems teaching him despite what I do for a living. I was talking to my colleague the other day and we both agreed that it’s hard to teach our own kids. We lose our patience fast. (Maybe it’ll be a different story if our kids pay us :p) At the same time, it is not possible to leave him to learn from school alone.
I agree that parents play the MOST important role when it comes to a kid’s education. More so when they’re young, like Gavin now. I’m also well aware that if I constantly lose my patience with him, it will inevitably create negative feelings in him and probably impede his learning abilities in the long run.
I’ve seen that happening in one of my nephews and I don’t want that to happen to mine. And so I’ve been taking it slow, trying not to force him to learn writing for example, and do the things he enjoy. However, I want to improve my way of teaching and I think I might be able to find my answer in this programme.
I like the fact that Shichida method does not focus on academic abilities. And while the method is to develop the child’s brain, the most important takeaway is that a parent’s love can influence the child and bring out his innate abilities, with less stress and more joy. Something I strongly believe in as well.
According to Professor Makoto Shichida who developed the training programme, when the right brain is developed well together with the left brain, the heart will be raised to a high level of potential. That is when a child is able to exceed parents’ expectations and show his or her strengths. After succeeding to activate the right brain abilities, children can learn quite easily in any school.
I’ve reserved a place for him starting in April and I’m committed to do the entire works with him, even attending a Parents’ Education Course as part of the programme. Irony isn’t it? But I believe I need to be taught how to teach my child; to find out how to encourage and motivate him the right way. Part of my problem in teaching him right now is actually my conventional mindset towards education and I’ll probably be able to benefit lots from the course.
The only concern I have right now is the fees. It isn’t cheap. One term of 12 weeks is $745, not including the enrollment fee, deposit and parents’ course. And it’s only a duration of 75 mins every week as the crux of the programme is to learn the activities, how to coach him, and practise that at home.
Add that to his school fees which is 1k every term, we’ll really become VERY poor. It’ll be nice if money isn’t a consideration but unfortunately, it is. So somethings got to give.
Either I continue to homeschool him until end of the year, or I put him in a cheaper Kindy with a less than desirable environment.
Frankly, I’m not very impressed with what he covered in school last year. Which is why I’m not very concerned even though he hasn’t started K1 this year. Whatever they’ve cover in school can be taught at home. My main objective of sending him to a school is to learn the social interactions. Hence, homeschooling will not meet this objective.
I do need to give a bit more thoughts to this and be able to strike a balance. Yet, there are questions. Do I want to follow the convention or can I trust my instinct of educating him on my own? What about his social skills? Perhaps enroll him in some playgroups? Where?
But one thing is for certain. I definitely want to give him a headstart.
what an interesting post..
i always believe that the future of a child is very much dependent on how he or she is being brought up by his parents.. a parent’s love is the greatest gift a child can receive.. and with the right environment, the child can achieve anything in life.
=)
nay min thu: This is so true. Their foundations are in our hands…and it’s such a scary thought sometimes because it puts some amount of pressure on parenting. But after attending this talk, I find myself feeling more positive and enlightened. I think I’ve just renewed my love for my child!
Comment by nay min thu — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 @ 1:17 pm
Sesame, I introduced music to my kids at such a young age. Like I would play the guitar, and the kids would sing ABC. Same in Math, kids learned the multiplication table through singing. It was very effective and the kids loved it. Just now, I heard my daughter sing the multiplication table that she learned 13 years ago. Amazing, she still remembers it.
Whatever you think your boy will do best, go for it. Good luck!
Belle: You must have been really good. Just see how your girls turned out! Btw, do you have any tips how I can interest him in handwriting? THIS is my biggest problem now. Everytime I try him on that, he’ll pretend to be bored, in pain or sick. He doesn’t like to scribble that much either.
Comment by Belle — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 @ 6:26 am
The Shichida Method, most of my colleagues here sent their kids to shichida and claims how good and effective it is. Some start as young as 18 months old.
This is probably not an option for me because it’s really costly. The rays schools fees are setting me back like 1,100 per month (after the govt subsidy). If we really want to consider Shichida, I may have to forgo childcare and let them attend Shichida only, then will have to home school them myself and that means, I may have to stop working then…..
Been thinking about this for a long time but never really came to a definite decision.
Perhaps you care to share with us how you teach Gavin with The Shichida Method and we can learn or pick up a tip or 2 from you (that is if you don’t mind lar)….
Jan: Of course I’ll be happy to share, as long as I can make some sense.
Yeah, some pple start their kids even younger. At 4 now, he may need to get his brain re-wired before he can benefit. Hahah. But they have testimonies of kids starting later like 4, 6 or 10 and still did well. I’ve been thinking of this for a long time too just that it was hard to break the convention. This is not mainstream education afterall, yet the cost is prohibitive. But recently I feel that I need to make a change. Somehow I feel that Gavin cannot benefit so much from mainstream education. We’ll see. I work but I can fit some time in to do this if I really put my mind to it. And after attending the talk, I’ve really been inspired to do things differently rather than follow the conventional way. I look around for a cheaper kindy that I can be happy with. Otherwise, I’ll just settle with homeschooling him until end of the year.
Comment by Jan (My lovely Rays) — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 @ 11:16 am
Pardon me but i’ve not heard of Shichida Method, have i missed out something?
As parents, we would always want to give our kids the best of everything (if possible). Trust your instinct, Sesame, i’m sure you know what is best for Gavin. I am actually more worried about Damien’s social skills, as an only child, he seem to be at a loss if you put him with a group of kids around his age (besides his classmates and cousins)…he prefer kids who are older (like 8 or 9 yo).
Eileen: My apologies. I should have given a link. You can find out about Shichida Method at their website http://www.shichidamethod.com/. This is a children brain development training program and has been receiving many positive feedback on most front in creating little geniuses. I was told at the talk that the Japan is now even trying to include this program as part of their mainstream education.
Hey, I think Damien is normal. And that makes Gavin normal too. He also like kids are are older than him, particularly the teens! He either shuns kids his age, or gets shun by them!
Comment by Eileen — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 @ 3:47 pm
Heard about this shichida method, received good feedback too but their fees really set me back!
Cannot understand why the fees can be so steep? Most prob that gv me a negative effect thinking they are commercialise. And the fact that more of such brainy school are sprouting out…
But still I dont denine I am impressed, infact like to adopt the method in bringing up my children.
So SS, maybe you go and master their skill and impart to we mommies huh? kekeke
wtpg: Haha…can but I have to be careful. Scally get sued for intellectual infringement. The fees is high cos it’s very exclusive. I cannot find books about it either.
Comment by wtpgrr — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 @ 7:21 pm
Oh boy, I totally agree with you.. I’m so impatient when it comes to Zara but with other kids I can be more impatient.. Don’t think I can home school her.
ZM: I’m still trying to improve here…
Comment by zara's mama — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 @ 9:04 pm
he’s so cute. that’s all i gotta say
tanyetta: Hey, how are you? Haven’t heard from you for awhile. And thanks for the compliments!
Comment by tanyetta — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 @ 4:09 am
I’m so glad to find a parent that loves their child so much. There’s one thing that I wish you to re-research, and that is ‘Social interaction’ when you homeschool your kid. You’d be surprised that you can give him better social skills if you home school him. Perhaps you’ve heard that homeschooling causes social problems due to lack of exposure to other children, but that is largely a myth. I have no web address to give you because they are aplenty, just search ‘Homeschool Social Interaction’.
Now, I’ve not (yet) homeschooled my kid, so I do not speak from experience, but from reading widely enough, I’ve discovered theres nary a good rebuttal when someone says “Homeschool is not = Bad social intarective skills.”
Enjoy your day!
Roki: Hey, thanks for pointing that out. I’m going to find out more on that. Sounds really useful!
Comment by Roki — Tue, 5 Jun 2007 @ 10:52 am