Category: Education Sharing

Fang Pei Yi, from Ipoh, has been teaching at the Setapak YelaoShr Learning Centre for the 3rd year and she is only 20 years old. If we calculate back, we get to estimate that she joined YelaoShr’s team of educators right after she graduated from her secondary school. Such a steadfast decision was made as she inspires to become a teacher since young.

“I love children. When I saw the information at YelaoShr’s Facebook page, I agree on the one-to-one teaching method because this can really help children to improve in their studies.” – Pei Yi

Pei Yi went on to the Taiping learning centre to apply for a job. Even though she passed the interview but she was arranged to undergo training and teaching at the Setapak learning centre due to having adequate staff force at Taiping. For Pei Yi, who had just graduated from secondary school, find it rather a hard situation to leave home and start a new life out of her comfort zone. Even so, she accepted the job and was willing to embark into the unknown future of teaching.

When she first arrived in the unfamiliar territories of Kuala Lumpur, there were times that were very lonely. Pei Yi is thankful to the centre’s person-in-charge, Alice for being caring towards her which enabled her to adapt easily in this different environment.

“Alice is nice to all the colleagues and I’m blessed to be able to meet such a great employer.” – Pei Yi
At Setapak, Pei Yi first went through training and became an assistant teacher for a week and subsequently upgrade to a teacher. Teaching for the first time in her life, Pei Yi began to realise that it was not as simple as she thought. Different circumstances will occur due to the fact that every student is one of a kind.

“When I first came here, the children are not familiar with me and did not really want to study. At this point of time, I was unable to teach and I could only find solutions one step at a time; to build a relationship with the children before anything is done.” – Pei Yi

Reminiscing about the past, there was an 11-year old boy that left a lasting impression on her. The boy was rather mischievous; he does not like to do his homework at school, nor does he sit still in the YelaoShr Learning Centre, running to other places and not wanting to learn and sometimes needed his mother to come and persuade with the teachers before he is willing to go back to his seat and attend classes. There was once, the boy did not want to study.

“At that moment I felt that was a failure. I was angry and sad and I could not contain my feelings and cried on my seat.” – Pei Yi

It is not sure if the boy felt guilty about it, or did he felt that Pei Yi truly cares about him but after that incident, he became more obedient, and start to cooperate with the teachers’ classes. In a few months, his heart is at the right place.

Children’s willingness to be taught is the best consolation for teachers

Entering Pei Yi’s 3rd year of teaching life at YelaoShr, there was not a moment of weariness towards her profession. However, there was more of an expectation to want to explore the endless possibilities that this job can bring.

“I hope that in the future, I would have the opportunity to work in the centre’s customer service position, and even open my own learning centre.” – Pei Yi

Pei Yi admits that she is a shy person and is one with few words. She understands that she needs to improve her communication skills so that she is competent for the position. Because of this, she would learn skills beyond the classroom from Alice to accumulate her experience and equip herself. This profession allows Pei Yi to be able to review herself from time to time and to have that opportunity to grow.

In addition, the other aspect that continuously motivates Pei Yi to persevere is the gratitude she gets from the parents.

“Some parents will be extremely happy that their child is accepted for enrolment after the interview as their children are either bad at studies, or have ADHD or a bad temper. Seeing their happiness, I was able to feel that satisfaction as we can help the children as well as their parents.” – Pei Yi
We hope that in the future, Pei Yi’s dreams of opening a centre of her own will come true.

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Teacher Yap: For a young woman to leave her hometown, it is not easy. However, this courage and determination is the best influence on the children. We encourage our children to jump out of the comfort zone, to accept challenges with boldness, and this is the attitude we should have in our lives.

 We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.

More info: https://teacheryap.com/voucher/

Stepping into the workforce, I believe that every career has its own mission and social responsibility in addition to earning a living. All fellow principals and teachers at YelaoShr learning centres are dedicated to the education service. What urges them to have unconditional love and motivation to devote themselves to the children? Let’s look at Samantha’s life story, perhaps we will get to understand a thing or two.

Samantha was the chief editor for a children’s magazine. Even though she earns a substantially generous income, she came facing a bottleneck situation and thus had the entrepreneurship seed planted in her head. Starting off a business does not work when you say so, and the thoughts were just stowed away in her heart. Samantha left her job and took up a part-time job doing what she loves – baking while searching for another opportunity. She saw a recruitment advertisement by YelaoShr and came looking for a career as an educator. Little did she know this was the key to her entrepreneurship dreams.

Mdm Yap, the founder of YelaoShr learning centres herself interviewed Samantha. Throughout the interview, Samantha got to know that YelaoShr offers a channel to joined partnerships, and the only aspect prospect partners needed was to go through training programs.

“I know that to open an education centre not only requires communication with the children but also to meet up with the parents. These were some of the responsibilities I was involved in while being the chief editor, and with that, I believe I could do it.” – Samantha

From then onwards, Samantha went to teach at the YelaoShr Headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Selangor and at the same time accept training at work. The trainings are relevant to the teaching techniques and the management skills of the learning centre.

“A few months later, I was being arranged to be trained as a person-in-charge at Cheras. Thereafter, I set up my own learning centre in Alam Damai.” – Samantha

Right from the beginning till opening up her own centre, it only took Samantha less than a year to turn her dreams into reality.

A childlike heart, rekindling that first purpose

To Samantha, the most challenging part of this job is to communicate with the children. As time passes by, Samantha begins to find the innocent and honest conversations of the children which are the purest and most direct way of communication. Because after long periods in the field, sometimes it is easy to forget that childlike heart.

“Sometimes, communication is not just with words but feeling the growth and change in a child.” – Samantha

As the director of a learning centre, Samantha has some strict aura among the children and the children respect her. There was one six-year old child that Samantha always fetches home and most of the time the child would be silent throughout the car ride, as if he was scared of Samantha.

“One day, he suddenly started talking to me. We talked about the recent events, the movies that we watched at the cinemas etc. I felt that he was lowering down his guard and opening up to me, to which I asked instinctively if he likes YelaoShr Learning Centre? He replied that he is afraid of tuition, but loves to attend YelaoShr’s classes because the learning process here allows children to relax, to restore their best attention and that the goals set based on his progress makes it even more interesting. These words, coming from a child made me touched at that moment. It was as if I had recognition, and that recognition was sincerely from a child, which makes it even more precious.” – Samantha

Samantha has children of her own. Perhaps because of this she has the ability to converse deeper with the parents as their frequencies are similar and that they find responses to their heart.

“Because of this job, I can bring up my children while at work. I can accompany them personally in their growing years. This is the main reason I wanted to start my own YelaoShr Learning Centre.” – Samantha
She also notes that the education system and information at YelaoShr is very beneficial to her and her children.

To be able to encounter YelaoShr Learning Centre, this job has given her a mission, a sense of achievement and builds a business while being able to take good care of her family; Samantha is very honoured and blessed.

—
Teacher Yap: What are you working for? Not forgetting your first purpose, should be a self-reminder to all entrepreneurs. When your belief is right, then whatever you do will be right.

 We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.

More info: https://teacheryap.com/voucher/

There is a saying which goes “Entrepreneurship is difficult, it is harder to maintain a business.” In 2014, when Maymei was establishing [Teacher Yap Early Child Reading & Brain Development], her friends would question the distrust that locals have……These were to test Maymei’s toughness and perseverance.

“Some friends said that Rawang is really messy, security is bad, and no locals have ever heard of [Teacher Yap], which tells me that the tuition center in Rawang is not progressing…… I thought to myself that: every place deserves a place for kids to learn, Rawang is no exception which is why I am here.”

Maymei is in charge of 5 out of the 53 [Teacher Yap] centers in Malaysia as a business operator. She thought that since Kuala Lumpur city center already has a branch for [Teacher Yap], she decided to start one in Rawang. Although Rawang is not the first branch she started, she felt pressured as she was questioned by locals. “In the beginning as she met with parents in Rawang, some of them were hesitant to pay the fee since they were afraid that we were part of a scam organization; some would advise me not to hit or scold the students, if we do not teach well, the entire pasar (market) would know.”

Facing severe questioning, Maymei clenched her teeth and started to work harder. She headed to the market with teachers in the center to promote the center by placing flyers on cars at the carpark (which was questioned by the police), clipped them in newspapers, and handed them out at the local schools. These efforts are just to let others know about (Teacher Yap) and also the education mission. “Sometimes when I meet with a parent, I would talk to them up to two to three hours. I treated them as friends instead of customers to talk about the educational status, and teaching experiences at [Teacher Yap]. After establishing a good relation with them, it will be easier to teach their child since they will understand and cooperate with our teaching method.”

One day, a security problem occurred, Maymei and her sister met a male on the road by the carpark. The malewas extremely provocative causing them to be in fear. They quickly hopped into their car and called the police. When they arrived at the police station, they experienced a series of suffering. Luckily, they were able to talk with captain and Maymei took the chance and told captain that they have a center located in Rawang which causes her to feel on tenterhooks and heart aching everyday. “Our tuition center is located in the so called ‘red light district’. There are many cases where kids are kidnapped, therefore, teachers would often go downstairs to pick up and drop off the students to prevent a tragedy from happening. With your current management style, how do you expect Rawang’s security to improve?” the captain listened with patience and decided to give Maymei his personal phone number and contact him if anything were to arise. He also thanked Maymei for providing education in Rawang.

Starting a center is not easy, but with Maymei pouring in her hard work, the tuition center in Rawang is becoming stable while the reputation is improving. “One day, one of my teachers told me what her dad heard in the market which was (Teacher Yap) is very good, and he suddenly asked her it’s whereabouts. After her dad found out where she works, he said: “Oh my, I have been sending you to work everyday and I don’t even know that you work as a teacher there!”

After Maymei heard this joke, she bursted out laughing and felt touched since this is the result of her hard work. Although the process was hard, she received what she deserves.

—
Teacher Yap: “Hardships will arise in every job, steady development is up to whether the business operators are hardworking but more on their beliefs and determination. “When the whole world distrusts you, will you still be able to trust yourself?

We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.

More info: https://teacheryap.com/voucher/

This is a story shared by Belle, the person in charge of Puncak Jalil center. The following story is about a standard three student with the language skills of a standard one student.

“There are times when parents have to accept their children’s study weaknesses.” After this student enrolled, Belle gave him a set of tests to complete to understand where his standard lays. Afterward, Belle talked to his parents hoping they would cooperate. Belle said that reaching consensus with his parents will allow them to agree with the teaching method and also making it less perplexed for their children.

In the beginning, that child did not enjoy attending classes. He would hide his backpack or leave his books in the car on purpose and assume that by doing so, he would not need to study. Sometimes, Belle would have to run out of the tuition center in pursuit of the backpack. After acknowledging this problem, Belle changed her method of teaching, making it so that he does not have to study in the tuition center but instead talk to him to find out why he hates coming to the tuition center, subjects he likes and dislikes etc.. She finds out that the child’s weakest subject is Malay, which is also the subject he hates the most. The reason behind this isn’t because Malay is hard but instead is that his Malay teacher is strict and often scolds him.

His parents don’t know about this at all.

“In primary school, he was hurt by his teacher, therefore, I am able to understand his feelings.” After interacting with the child, Belle noticed that the kid also had his good points, it’s just that his language foundation isn’t solid. This interaction allowed Belle and that child to build trust and a relation as a friend. Since he knows that Belle understands his situation, he became more diligent and knows how to make negotiations with Belle. An example is allowing him to take a break after he reaches a certain period of improvement. This allowed him to excel tremendously.

Belle told his parents about his every detail and they finally understand his current condition. Fortunately, change also appeared on the parents. “In the past, his parents would rush him for his results and blame him for not working hard enough and not paying enough attention if he receives a bad grade; now, they would praise him and give him recognition for his efforts. These minor improvements allowed them to be appreciative.

YelaoShr Puncak Jalil 分院负责人 ／ Belle Fong

—

Every child is unique, they have their own character and story. In order to find the correct teaching method, it is not only effective but also improves parents and children’s relation. This is the happiest moment in her teaching career.

Teacher Yap: “We all know that patience is the essence of teaching children which is also the biggest challenge that we face. It is not that we adults do not know how to teach, however, it is how much patience do we have?”

We having a special offer RM98 (4 lessons. Usual price is RM290) for our one-to-one Mandarin, Malay and English programmes as well as abacus mental arithmetic so that your child can experience the fun and unique learning at YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre. This offer is valid at all 59 centres nationwide.

More info: https://teacheryap.com/voucher/

Crystal和紫玲这对姐妹花，算是【葉老師】在创业初期就加入的元老级人物。目前她们拥有四间【葉老師】中心，即USJ Subang、Kota Kemuning、Bukit Tinggi以及巴生的Bandar Parkland。看起来事业有成的风光背后，谁能想到她们曾经经历没有学生、没有收入、无法出粮的窘境？

这次受访的是姐姐Crystal。当年18岁的她考完SPM后就去进修有关空姐的课程，由于上完课程以后心仪的航空公司未有空缺，于是便带着“暂且做做”的心态加入【葉老師】。但缘分有时就是如此奇妙，当初“暂且做做”的念头，竟促成她在【葉老師】超过10年的工作生涯。“那时候我有机会教到一些特殊小孩，他们为了不想读书可以滚到桌子底下的，但透过【葉老師】的教学方式，跟他们说说故事培养感情，最后竟然愿意乖乖坐着上课。这除了带给我很大的成就感，也让我感到帮助他们学习的快乐。”

一年多以后，Crystal就获得打理中心的机会。她笑言：“当时我任教于Sri Petaling【葉老師】第一间中心，中心里有我和另一个同事的表现比较特出，创办人Carol就说我们‘一山不能藏二虎’，于是就安排我到Mahkota Cheras帮一位投资者管理中心。”性格乐天的Crystal当时没作他想，只是认为Carol既然给了她这个任务，必然是相信她能做到，于是她就从教书的工作转换成中心负责人的职务。

“后来，Carol给我的任务就是开店了。”

当时才工作了两三年的Crystal，哪有资金开中心呢？当时她申请了个人贷款，加上亲人的支持，才凑足了开中心的资金，便带着妹妹紫玲一起到了梳邦开创自己第一间【葉老師】。Crystal负责打理，紫玲负责教课。这样的拼劲和计划并没有为她们带来美好的开始，开业第一个月，她们收不到任何学生，没有收入，自然也没办法出粮。“那时候确实辛苦，【葉老師】的名声也还没有很响亮，很少人会慕名而来。”Crystal形容说，既然“洗湿了头”，就只能咬紧牙关坚持下去。于是，她们到学校、到住家挨家挨户派传单，并告诉自己一定会收到学生，运用“吸引力法则”的力量，她们在第二个月，竟就收到了足够平衡开销的学生数量，总算让她们度过了难关。

然而接下来发生的事情，更能充分证明Crystal有多乐观。因为就在她们第一间【葉老師】创立以后的5个月，Crystal就开了第二间【葉老師】。“当时我想，既然我和妹妹有两个人，第一间也上了轨道，那我去闯第二间有何不可呢？”Crystal找来Sri Petaling的同事成为创业伙伴，在Kota Kemuning成功创立她的第二间中心。“我相信，有人的地方就有学生需要【葉老師】。”这麽一个简单的信念，让她随后开了第三间（Bukit Tinggi）及第四间（Bandar Parkland, Klang）【葉老師】。

不因业务和工作，乖离初心

目前，Crystal往返于四间中心，偶尔在人手不足的时候教书之外，其馀多数的时间都在见家长。对此她感慨道：“从商业的角度而言，家长就是我们的收入来源，但我们不能抱着这种心态去接见家长，因为这个观念会影响你和家长的交流。因为，我试过。”

Crystal透露，自己向来并不是任何学生都会录取的，唯有在经过测试以后发现真正有需要的学生，他们才会录取，有一些程度很高学习能力很好的学生，Crystal反而不会录取。当然，在商言商，这样的做法固然会影响业绩。“当初我帮投资者管理中心的时候，投资者会不断告诉我没有业绩，令我很压力，那时候我看到家长就像看到钱一样，一直说服他们带孩子来报读。”然而很快地，Crystal意识到这违反了自己和【葉老師】的专业准则，于是她跟投资者反映，说不要再单纯地只用业绩来评估中心的表现，因为这样会让【葉老師】的教育理念变质。“我相信，抱着忠于初衷、忠于教育的心态，家长会感受得到的，也因为正确的心态，学生才会来。”

对Crystal而言，创业最挑战的不是教书，也不是面对家长，而是找到一位有心而会教的老师。“两者兼具的人太少了。”有时，当Crystal发现一些老师只抱着打工的心态工作，或是教学生时觉得很困难、很辛苦，Crystal都会和他们谈谈工作的前景和方向。“我认为，只要你真正有心要教好一个孩子，你是不会感到辛苦的，如果你感到辛苦，那就是你的方法错了，或是你的心态、性格不适合这份工作。”这么做，Crystal认为是对双方都好，因为无需勉强把老师留住，让老师觉得很辛苦，自己看了也很辛苦。“既然不适合，就放手吧！这没有什么对错可言的。”

未满30岁的Crystal对自己目前的现况很满意：“我有充分支持自己的家人，家人为了我搬家了好几次；我的四间中心只需用一条高速公路就能通行，十分方便；而今年年尾或明年年初，Putra Heights【葉老師】也即将开张，我很期待未来。”抱持着一颗赤子之心，帮助孩子的教育热忱，解决家长烦忧的善念，是Crystal成就今日的秘密钥匙。这些听起来有点虚无的事，却是让Crystal心灵最富足的精神，也是推动她持续开拓【葉老師】事业的原动力，她所想的只有一个目标——让更多人因【葉老師】受惠。

【2018下半年学期 – 学习计划特价限量Voucher】华语/ 国语/ 英文/ 珠心算，6 堂课 RM98，而不是RM290 (适合4至12岁的孩子, 每节课仅RM13, 折扣高达61.99%) ！全马55间分院有效。

马上登入  https://teacheryap.com/voucher/cn 购买学习优惠券

Writing words and phrases has been a major part of homework in primary school. Mrs. Du discovered that her Standard 2 son had been very slow in writing, especially words with more strokes or words not commonly used in daily life. Her son always wrote a word stroke by stroke, constantly lifting his eyes to refer to the sample given. Thus, he usually could not complete his homework on time. Mrs. Du was dismayed because her child took his learning seriously but every time when she looked at his snail’s pace, she couldn’t help to feel impatient. As practice makes perfect, she gave her son more word writing exercises to improve his writing speed but the result was still unsatisfactory.

YelaoShr® has often encountered such children for the past 20 years. In fact, their slow speed in writing words, learning to recognize words and reading are actually attributed to visual memory deficiency. As the Chinese proverb says, “A workman must first sharpen his tools if he is to do his work well”. Therefore, instead of giving children more word writing exercise to improve literacy, parents can enroll their children in proven literacy programmes to develop their visual memory in order to improve their learning ability. Only by increasing children’s visual memory can parents help their little ones overcome the problem of ‘snail’s pace word writing’.

What is visual memory? Visual memory is the ability of the brain to retain, categorize, integrate, and store the visual information seen by the eyes, and if necessary, recall and reproduce the visual image. Under normal circumstances, the brain can absorb up to 83% of visual information. In other words, we remember more by seeing. However, visual memory needs to be developed. Children with underdeveloped visual memory will inevitably face tough challenges on their journey of learning.

Here’s an analogy between visual memory and a drawer. Suppose a thing that we remember is a balloon and our visual memory is a drawer. For average people, they only need to blow a small balloon and it can be kept inside the drawer for a prolonged period even though air will gradually leak out from the balloon. However, for children with underdeveloped visual memory, their visual memory is akin to a drawer with a hole. So they need to blow a big balloon, bigger than the hole in the drawer, so that it will not drop out from the drawer through the hole.

Children with under developed visual memory usually:
1. Cannot write words they have seen or read
2. Cannot read a passage or a sentence smoothly or completely
3. Can only manage one task at a time; often forget about a task if given two tasks at once
4. Cannot focus in class and are easily distracted
5. Make many spelling mistakes in their homework
6. Write a word stroke by stroke, constantly referring to samples given
7. Are absentminded and often misplace their belongings

[soliloquy id=”2951″]

YelaoShr® ‘Word Impression Method’ capitalizes on the separate functions of the left brain and right brain as well as the pictographic nature of Chinese words to help children learn the language. We also use flashcards to catch their attention, especially younger children with short attention spans. With a large amount of illustrations to stimulate the brain, and as children learn to read the words aloud fast and repetitively, we develop their visual memory. Our teaching method fully harnesses the potential of the right brain to transform a large amount of Chinese words into images in a short span of time. This method enables the brain to recognize Chinese words like a camera taking photographs, thus making learning naturally fun and easy.

This stimulating process propels children’s brain development and improves the brain’s visual memory. As their brains develop, it becomes naturally easier for children to remember the structure of Chinese characters. With increased ability to recognize spatial relations, young learners can recall and write a word correctly after a glance and need not practise writing it repetitively to remember the order and location of its strokes. This indirectly helps children to save time and effort when doing their word writing homework, helping them to overcome the problem of ‘snail’s pace’ writing. Most importantly, we make the whole training process more lively and interesting than dull and repetitive writing for children, thus making them more receptive to learning.

Research has shown that training indeed affects memory development. The more opportunities a child is given to train his or her memory power, the higher the possibility of him or her having a strong memory in the future. Therefore, it is advisable to start the training as early as possible to nurture this lifelong ability. Visual memory aids significantly in developing a child’s thinking and comprehension skill. Poor visual memory will hinder a child’s learning progress in a big way. So, contact YelaoShr® now to know more about how we can train your child’s memory power to improve your little one’s learning efficiency!

Reading is the foundation of learning. The age between 3 and 8 years old is the golden period of reading development. Thus, nothing is more important than parents helping children to read more and to improve on their reading ability during this stage. Children, who are able to read extensively, possess unlimited potential to improve academically and catch up in school in spite of a slow start.

In theory, the age between 0 and 6 years old is an important period when children form good psychological and behavioural habits; it is also a stage where they develop various abilities, especially cognitive abilities. It is known that at least 90% of the cognitive abilities can be developed through reading. Two conditions must be met to develop reading effectively, i.e. continuity and consistency. That means, first and foremost, cultivating a habit of reading requires a child to read daily at a designated time rather than reading only based on one’s whims and fancies. Secondly, children should read consistently in order to reach a targeted cumulative amount of words, normally ranging from 500,000 to 1,000,000 words a year.

Reading ability develops rapidly during the primary school period. Therefore, there is nothing more important than parents helping their children to read extensively and improve on their reading ability. A child’s intelligence is akin to a sprouting seed that only grows under certain conditions. In this sense, the conditions are high-volume reading and cognitive games that involve the use of the hands and mind.

If a child has never read a good book or a book with more than 100,000 words, and his or her time is mainly spent on reading textbooks and doing homework, the potential of his/her intelligence will not be fully developed. In general, children in Standard 1 and 2 should read at least 1 million words a year (normally between 1 – 2 million words), while children in Standard 2 and 3 should read at least 2 million words a year (normally between 2 – 3 million words). For children in Standard 4, 5 and 6, their reading volume should reach at least 3 million words a year (normally between 3 – 5 million words; some can even reach 10 million words per year).

Children in primary school should never spend most of their time and energy in reading textbooks and doing workbooks because these books do not provide in-depth knowledge that satisfies their inquisitive mind. Only reading a huge volume of books like classical stories and general knowledge books (astronomy, geography, history, physics, chemistry, philosophy, arts, etc.) can help children develop their intelligence and potential.

Schooling children spend most of their time learning in class, doing a large quantity of exercises in school as well as at home in the evening. As their time and energy have been largely spent in academic learning, studying more is therefore ineffective in developing their intelligence―it is akin to trying to find a needle in a haystack. Therefore, why not let them read more books to improve their cognitive abilities and expand their knowledge rather than pursuing something in futile? That’s why some even say that academic results in primary school are often misleading and inaccurate in measuring children’s cognitive abilities. This is because when studying and homework have occupied most of their time, children will not be able to read extensively. Spending more time in academic study is a case of penny wise and pound foolish. Even if our children can obtain full marks in exams, it is still a huge loss for their future.

The problem surfaces during the period of lower secondary school. Many secondary school teachers discover a peculiar phenomenon: High achievers who put all their time and energy in study to obtain high scores in primary school often suffer from slipping academic performance; some even suffer from burnout and throw in the towel. On the contrary, those who are well-read but performed mediocrely in primary school often exhibit higher potential to improve academically and are able to catch up in learning despite having a slow start.

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The situation becomes even more serious in upper secondary school and when they enter the society where job performance is not measured by academic results. Many parents place great importance on children’s academic results during primary school and are even misguided by teacher’s emphasis on test scores to the extent that they are reluctant to allocate more time for their children to read and play as these activities are deemed as wasting time.

However, like a seeding that lacks nutrition and suffers from malnutrition, these children often experience learning fatigue in high schools. This leads to parents complaining about their children lackadaisical attitude but they hardly realize that they are the ones responsible for such ‘short-lived success’ and ‘malnourished intelligence’.

Therefore, parents should be open-minded. They should not be restrictive, insisting their children to pursue high scores when their children enter primary school. Instead, they should make preparation to pave the way for their children’s future development. Primary school is the sprouting period of a seed, lower secondary school the budding stage, upper high school the full bloom, while tertiary education is an all-new phase of growth.

In short, as parents who care for the lifelong growth of our children, we should not overstress academic results in primary school. We should aim at helping our children to build a solid foundation in various aspects, cultivating good habits that can truly benefit them throughout their lives.

How time flies and it’s already half of the year 2017. Over the past several months, we have seen in the mass media news about youngsters committing suicides due to severe stress. As the list gets longer and the cases get more tragic, our mind is all on pins and needles, wondering “what has happened to you, kid?”

According to statistics by the Malaysian Health Ministry, among all the races in Malaysia, the Chinese tops the suicide list, overtaking the Indians since 2007 (48% Chinese, 21% Indians and 13% Malays). Chinese students constitute the largest group of suicides within the community, a trend which is more prevalent than other ethnic groups in the country. Most suicide victims are secondary school students and undergraduates. However, we are now seeing an increasing number of cases involving primary school children. This evidently shows that Chinese students are facing enormous academic competition and mental pressure early in their lives.

At school, young students are burdened with parental expectations to compete with their peers and excel academically. Slow learners who are unable to keep up with their studies often feel neglected and rejected. Suicides among the young have become an inevitable issue that we need to address. However, when this issue pops up in our conversations, the most common remark is “Why are young people so vulnerable these days? They’re so spoilt!”, etc.

Indeed, there are many reasons that have led to young people choosing to take their own lives. For instance, stress at school and pressure from parents are some of the causes of suicide. However, we’re not going to dwell on these causes. Instead, we will explore the importance of emotional intelligence and psychological quality of the young generation today.

Our education system lacks EQ education, resulting in students having inadequate emotional resilience and skills to overcome various challenges and stress in school. Akin to a budding seedling, their mind withers prematurely. US psychologist Daniel Goleman believes that IQ only accounts for 20% of success while other factors account for 80% of success. The other key factors include EQ skill set like self-motivation, perseverance, impulse control, emotion regulation, optimism, a sense of responsibility, etc. Goleman’s study shows that experience and education have little impact on IQ but EQ can be acquired and improved as early as during childhood.

Studies show that the best period to nurture EQ is before one reaches 15 years of age because the formation of a person’s character and mentality is almost complete by 15, thus harder to mould it by then. Children these days have lower EQ. This simply means they lack the skill set to control their emotions, and are prone to feeling dejected. With couples now having fewer children, most children grow up in an overprotective environment. This leads to limited exposure for them to learn about facing obstacles and honing their willpower. So, what can parents do to help children develop their EQ?

For children, home is the first place to learn―their first school in the journey of life. In other words, parents like you are your child’s first teacher. Therefore, parents need to teach by example because it has profound influence on children. Apart from learning at home and school, how do we help children to grow in emotional resilience? Abacus mental arithmetic is actually a good way to help children acquire the skill set in developing EQ. Though it is commonly known that learning abacus mental arithmetic can help develop children’s mental focus and their left and right brain, it is less known that learning abacus mental arithmetic can also nurture a child’s resilience and willpower.

Learning abacus mental arithmetic undoubtedly improves your child’s concentration, but at the same time, it also helps develop your child’s EQ. When children move the beads in their mind, they need concentration. For instance, a arithmetic question of adding from 1 to 100 requires repetitive skill practice up to tens and hundreds of times before one can obtain the answer fast and accurately. To go through the process, children need to persevere, practise repetitively and put in their efforts. They might get bored and even think about giving up, but with encouragement and guidance from their instructors, children learn to control and adjust their emotions. This ultimately helps develop discipline, determination and motivation in young learners as well as keeping their minds away from being filled playful thoughts all the time.

Do we not lament that our children are not ‘tough’ enough? Learning abacus mental arithmetic is actually a process of self-control, a test of their willpower. As abacus mental arithmetic requires speed and accuracy, learning it over a long period of time can gradually develop learners’ attention to detail, diligence and meticulousness. All these traits help cultivate children’s sense of responsibility, perseverance as well as their inner drive to strive for efficiency and quality in whatever they do in the future. Life is a long journey of striving to be better. Thus, it requires one to be well-equipped mentally and psychologically. Empower the little ones with emotional resilience. It will benefit your child a lifetime.

Aiming at parents who hold high hopes for their children, tuition service has been flourishing in recent years. Spurred by the proliferation of internet, some tuition service providers advertise their service on the internet to enrol students and recruit part-time tuition teachers at the same time.

It is not uncommon that parents who came to us compared home tuition and YelaoShr® as both are providing one-to- one coaching. So what is the difference between the two? Below are our answers:

Difference 1:

YelaoShr® Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre is an established educational institution with more than 10 years of experience in the sector. We have a comprehensive system to select and train teachers to ensure service quality. Many tuition centres or tuition service portals on the internet serve only as intermediary agencies to provide a platform to connect teachers and parents with the aim of learning intermediary fees in the process. Thus, the service quality is often inconsistent, if not questionable, due to inadequate qualifications and experience as well as lenient standards of teacher selection.

Difference 2:

YelaoShr® Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre requires all teachers to adhere to our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), programmes and prescribed methods so that the progress of each student can be systematically measured. When a student has not shown expected progress, we are able to provide timely and specific solution to tackle the issue. On the contrary, home tuition teacher does not have a systematic teaching programme or learning plan despite providing one-to- one coaching.

Difference 3:

YelaoShr® Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre provides learning assessment for every child. Our experienced teachers assess, record and report a child’s learning progress periodically in addition to providing feedbacks to patents when necessary.

We also develop our own teaching materials and adopt learning solutions based on a child’s learning pace and literacy level because we do not subscribe to one size fits all. On the contrary, home tuition teachers do not have a proven programme and materials.
With so many tuition choices to select from, parents need to consider several key factors:

Key Factor 1: Qualifications of Teaching Staff & Teaching Methods

Large classes affect learning because teachers are unable to give adequate attention to each student. Therefore, one-to- one coaching is a better solution that ensures effective teaching and learning. At YelaoShr® Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre, we are backed by several hundred teachers who are systematically trained and dedicated to the teaching profession so that one-to- one coaching is available to every student.

Key Factor 2: Teaching Solutions

The teaching programmes should be target-specific and custom-made with strategies that vary according to literacy level and learning pace. For example, at YelaoShr® Teacher Yap Creative Learning Centre, our personalized programmes provide individualized learning based on each student’s ability.

A friendly reminder to parents: Avoid enrolling your child in a tuition class that does not really benefit him/her just because you want a quick-fix solution, which eventually and actually costs more precious time and money.

Key Factor 3: Brand, Word of Mouth, Customer Service System, Number of Students and Track Record

Parents should do their homework after searching for info on the internet. This includes visiting the centres, enquiring about qualification of tutors, number of past successful students as well as asking for opinions of friends and relatives.

No teaching method will work if parents do not understand their children’s aptitudes and abilities because they cannot instill a love of learning in children let alone improving their academic performance. For instance, some children are fast learners but lack self-control; some might be below average in a class, so a large class will not benefit them as they require more personal attention from teachers.

Therefore, parents should be aware of their children’s learning needs before selecting a learning programme. Professional learning centres have a systematic pre-learning assessment that helps identify a child’s learning challenges before formulating a solution plan that targets at the root of a problem. This approach is more effective in helping young learners to improve in their learning.

“Why are your Chinese flashcards different from others?”
“Why are there no pictures in your flashcards?”
“Can children learn better without pictures?”

These are some of the questions we often encounter regarding our flashcards.

Yes, YelaoShr® Chinese flashcards do not contain any picture but only words―a unique feature that set us apart from other learning centres, giving us the leading edge in helping young learners to read.

Most Chinese flashcards in the market come with pictures to help teachers give hints to students when they learn how to read a word. A picture is usually placed next to a word to suggest its meaning. It purportedly facilitates teaching as teachers can use the picture to explain the meaning of a word. Such method is often said to improve literacy and hailed as the latest learning development. On the contrary, we see this approach as counterproductive, affecting children’s ability to recognize words.

Chinese words are essentially pictographic writing. It is one of the few languages in the world that promotes right brain development. Chinese characters appear as beautiful images for children who have yet learned to read in the language. Adding pictures to Chinese words is therefore unnecessary.

Using flashcards with pictures so that teachers can provide hints or meaning of a word from the picture actually impedes effective learning. The disadvantage of this method is that children won’t be able to grasp the strokes of the Chinese characters correctly. They may be able to recall the shape and pronunciation of a word but fail to remember every stroke accurately. This defeats the ultimate purpose of learning to read and write in Chinese.

At YelaoShr® Creative Learning Centre, we use Chinese flashcards that contain only words and do not use pictures as hints. Such approach ensures that teachers employ their creativity in teaching young learners to recognize and pronounce words. This poses a great challenge to our teaching staff. Hence, our teachers are professionally trained and experienced. Children learning Chinese with pictureless flashcards can master pronunciation and remember every stroke better, thus helping them to write correctly.

In addition to Chinese flashcards, most Malay and English flashcards also come with pictures. The main purpose of using pictures in flashcards is none other than stimulating the right brain for better learning results. However, unlike the pictographic Chinese words, Malay and English words are formed from phonetic letters, thus making the method fundamentally flawed.

Malay and English words are not pictographic writing. Therefore, putting Malay and English words in flashcards to teach reading is no different from conventional method of teaching children to read from a printed page. It fails to take full advantage of flashcard learning method. It should not be even called as flashcard method. To put it plainly, such approach in teaching Malay and English literacy only encourages children to memorize the words. It regresses to conventional rote learning.

YelaoShr® Malay & English Literacy Programmes emphasize pragmatic and long-term results. As Malay and English words are composed of phonetic letters, we focus on suku kata and phonics to teach children how to pronounce the words. Only when children have mastered them, we will then move on to using flashcards with pictures (as per samples of English flashcards shown below).

Picture left shows a flashcard with a picture to stimulate the right brain of young learners. Picture right is flashcards used to help children learn Malay and English.

Only when children have built a strong foundation in phonics can they read, comprehend and write correctly in a breeze.

Life is full of joy when one learns to read and write!