Why can’t administrative or service roles, like blue-collar jobs, add value to one’s career?
When seeking a job, it’s not just the salary that matters but also the future prospects of the industry. A few hundred dollars in raise might seem tempting, but if the job involves long hours, working on weekends and public holidays, and does nothing to enhance your resume, then the cost is too high.
In blue-collar roles, long hours, overtime, and irregular shifts can impact your health and stall your career progression. These jobs often lack clear promotional paths and make it difficult to plan for the future. Moreover, dealing with challenging customers or tough working environments is common.
Additionally, the resume from a blue-collar job often lacks competitive edge in the job market, with fewer opportunities for raises and promotions. During job interviews, you might often be asked, “What salary do you expect?” However, due to market constraints, even switching jobs doesn’t lead to significant pay increases.
Prolonged standing, walking, and physical labor can cause discomfort and affect the quality of life. Conversely, office jobs might lead to unhealthy lifestyles, increased waistlines, and obesity issues. Such roles do not foster career development and can harm your health.
In contrast, YelaoShr® Educational Institute offers more promising career development opportunities. If you are passionate about education, enjoy interacting with children, and have patience, love, and responsibility, this could be your chance.
YelaoShr® can help you start as a teacher and gradually advance to a supervisor or even a center principal. Some teachers can even become partners, open their branches, and become owners. Opportunities like these are rare in blue-collar jobs, but YelaoShr® offers the chance to become an entrepreneur and earn passive income.
Furthermore, YelaoShr® provides on-the-job education and training to help employees gain early childhood education qualifications from the UK, enhancing their resume competitiveness. This not only opens up more opportunities in the education sector but also adds value to your career.
If you’re tired of long hours, lack career prospects, or just want better pay and more freedom, YelaoShr® Educational Institute might be your ideal choice. We currently have openings for two teaching positions. If you’re interested, send us your resume soon! Whether you’re looking for a promising career or a better salary and quality of life, YelaoShr® welcomes you to join us in creating more value and opportunities. Don’t let blue-collar jobs limit your career possibilities—choose YelaoShr®, and open new doors for your future!
The benefits and positive impacts of one-on-one teaching on children are quite clear. It can significantly improve their literacy development as well as their comprehension and independent learning abilities at various stages.
First, let’s discuss the advantages of one-on-one teaching. Eighteen years ago, many educational institutions and tutoring centers were hesitant to adopt this teaching method, but YelaoShr® has steadfastly chosen it. Why?
Many educators resist one-on-one teaching because they fear the difficulty of addressing diverse student needs. However, it is precisely this personalized attention and teaching approach that has led to its significant success in education. Compared to traditional large class teaching, one-on-one teaching offers unique advantages.
First, it allows for high levels of focus. In a large class setting, a teacher often needs to take care of 30 to 40 students, making it hard to ensure that each student gets sufficient attention and guidance. However, in one-on-one teaching, a teacher can fully focus on one student, ensuring their learning process receives thorough attention and guidance.
Second, one-on-one teaching accommodates each child’s learning pace. Every child learns at a different speed and has different needs, which traditional large class teaching cannot meet. In one-on-one settings, a teacher can tailor individual learning plans according to each child’s situation, ensuring they absorb knowledge in the shortest possible time. This means no child is left behind, and each one has the opportunity to learn at their own pace.
Third, one-on-one teaching provides more opportunities for listening. Children who are listened to feel less psychological pressure, are more willing to express themselves, and become more confident in learning. Cultivating this confidence is crucial to a child’s learning process, as confident children are more likely to overcome learning obstacles and actively engage in their studies.
What positive impacts does one-on-one teaching have on children?
For children aged 3 to 6, literacy is one of the most important foundations of learning, directly affecting their future attitudes towards education. If a child has low literacy, they may lose interest in learning and be reluctant to follow adults’ instructions. However, through one-on-one teaching, children can learn to read at a higher rate, boosting their confidence, improving their thinking skills, and enhancing their ability to ask questions. This lays a solid foundation for their educational journey.
For children aged 7 to 12, comprehension and independent learning abilities become crucial. If a child struggles with comprehension, they might develop a negative attitude towards learning and find it difficult to understand and cope with school materials. However, one-on-one teaching can enhance a child’s comprehension skills, enabling them to study independently and confidently face academic challenges.
The benefits of one-on-one teaching are clear. It provides high levels of focus, personalized education, more listening opportunities, and accelerates learning speed. This positively affects children’s learning abilities and confidence, laying a solid foundation for their future academic and career success. Despite some challenges, one-on-one teaching is undoubtedly an effective educational method, particularly suitable for families who want to provide personalized care and guidance to their children. YelaoShr® continues to advocate for one-on-one teaching because we believe it offers the best educational experience and academic achievements for every child.
This heartfelt sentiment is shared by countless parents and children after experiencing our programs. 🌹🥰
Let’s take a moment to reflect on 20 years ago, when most educational institutions and tuition centers rejected the idea of one-on-one teaching, believing it to be time-consuming, labor-intensive, and ineffective.
Only YelaoShr® had the determination to pursue this path, because we firmly believed that every effort invested in a child’s future is worthwhile! 💪
Today, our unwavering dedication has paid off. We’ve helped over 80,000 children achieve their educational goals, pioneering one-on-one teaching in Malaysia, and proudly becoming the trailblazer of personalized education in the country! ✌️
Through one-on-one teaching, YelaoShr® ensures that every child receives undivided attention, tailoring personalized learning plans to their progress and needs, focusing on teaching children how to learn, rather than just completing a syllabus. 🥰
Unlike the profit-driven approach of large-group teaching, YelaoShr® prioritizes the quality of education and the growth of every child! 💛
Thanks to our steadfast commitment to our mission, YelaoShr® has been honored with multiple prestigious awards:
🏆 Sin Chew Education Product Award 2019 🏆 Sin Chew Business Excellence Award 2019 🏆 Sin Chew Outstanding Education Institution Award 2019 🏆 The Star Outstanding Female Entrepreneur Award 2019 🏆 SME Platinum Business Award 2022 🏆 Consumer Certification Brand Award 2022–2023
🌟 Limited-Time Exclusive Offer 🌟
Good news! For just RM 98, your child can personally experience the incredible impact of YelaoShr®’s one-on-one teaching! 🎉
This limited-time offer includes: ✨ A Children’s Learning Assessment Test (original price: RM 250) ✨ 6 Language Trial Classes (original price: RM 450)
Just as your child’s learning journey shouldn’t wait, experience the expertise of YelaoShr®’s 20 years of one-on-one teaching, and open the door to a brighter future for your child! 🌟😉
The most critical stage of a child’s development is between the ages of 3 and 12. Scientific studies show that during this time, a child’s brain develops rapidly, and their ability to absorb new information is at its highest! 💪
This period is especially vital for growth in language, cognition, and emotional-social skills. It’s often called a once-in-a-lifetime Golden Learning Period! 🌟
Time flies, and your child’s Golden Learning Period is rarer and more precious than diamonds or gold! ✨
With the right support and guidance during this phase, you can profoundly shape their future learning habits and interests, helping them grow joyfully and positively influence their entire life! 💖
However, if this golden period is missed, your child may face challenges such as limited vocabulary or poor reading comprehension. As learning becomes more difficult, they may start to fall behind in school, turning education into a stressful and overwhelming burden. 😫
If you don’t want to miss your child’s Golden Learning Period, now is the perfect time to let YelaoShr® help! We can assist your child in building a strong foundation and starting a joyful journey into reading and learning! 🥰
Wondering how YelaoShr® can enhance your child’s learning skills? Contact us today to book a FREE learning assessment (worth RM 250)! We’ll create a personalized learning plan tailored just for your child. 😉
At YelaoShr®, your child will master word recognition at 100 times the usual speed, while also improving their pronunciation, reading, comprehension, and writing skills. For 20 years, YelaoShr® has been fully dedicated to helping children reach their learning potential! ✌️
Parents, don’t wait! Your child’s Golden Learning Period is brief and fleeting. Act now to make their educational journey smoother, more enjoyable, and full of success! 🎉
You may have heard of us, but did you know that YelaoShr® has been a cornerstone of education in Malaysia for 20 years? We are pioneers in innovative education, offering a unique approach that sets us apart from traditional methods.
At YelaoShr®, we embrace Finland’s renowned education philosophy, providing one-on-one, high-focus learning sessions. To date, over 80,000 children facing learning challenges have achieved remarkable breakthroughs with our guidance!
We strongly believe in the transformative power of one-on-one teaching. By rejecting rote memorization, we foster a warm, supportive environment where children are encouraged to actively explore knowledge, build confidence step by step, and achieve our vision of “Independent Learning, Confident Growth.”
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now! By choosing YelaoShr® today, you are planting a seed of hope for your child’s future. Before long, you’ll witness their incredible transformation right before your eyes! 🥰💛
Once again, thank you for choosing YelaoShr®. Our team looks forward to meeting you and your child soon. ☺️💖
If you’d like to learn more about YelaoShr®’s philosophy and methods, feel free to visit our website: https://yelaoshr.edu.my
In Malaysia, there are two age categories for early childhood care and education which is 0–4 years and 4-6 years. The Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (MWFCD) oversees national initiatives for children’s growth and development and is responsible for the first age range (0–4 years). The MWFCD maintains a list of all childcare facilities, or taska as often known, around the nation through the Department of Social Welfare.
Even though it is not compulsory in Malaysia, early childhood education tremendously impacts children’s development. It also describes a critical period in a child’s growth and concerns how a child’s personality develops.
The child’s biology, psychology, and emotions all change during development. The parents must be informed about the growth process and aware of the changes to ensure the kid learns the essentials of their own development.
Features of the Yelaoshr Early Learning Centre for Children in Malaysia
Yelaoshr’s interactive education programme encourages kids to carry out dramatic scenarios while stimulating their brains and having fun learning academic material in a clean and secure environment. Children are observant, inquisitive, and easily swayed. These five components are necessary for every kids that providing by Yelaoshr with the correct atmosphere for kids to develop, learn, and prosper.
Cognitive Stimulators
Children constantly absorb new knowledge. Cognitive stimulators direct the mental energy in a targeted manner. Yelaoshr provides children with a wide variety of learning opportunities by including new puzzles every week, building blocks, books with high levels of engagement, objects that call for sorting and organising, and exposure to technology through fundamental computer instruction. Moreover, by offering kids a healthy diet, Yelaoshr also increases cognitive stimulation with nutrients that support the growth of brain connections.
Rest & Relaxation
Relaxation is important! The children’s post-game or riddle-solving tiredness is crucial to assimilating the sessions’ lessons in psycological and physical skills. Yelaoshr designs a nap/lounge area with cosy pillows, mats, wiggle chairs, and even therapy balls for kids with ADHD and special needs.
Dramatic Play Areas
One of the most effective methods to foster a love of learning and a passion for life is dramatic play that challenges kids to use their imagination and “pretend” themselves into different roles. Little ones can explore the ideas of accountability, adventure, truth, and morality via make-believe or dramatic play. Yelaoshr employs virtual reality-based content projectors, puppets, costumes, and accessories to make the kids imaginations come to life while educating.
Artistic Expression
A well-rounded personality appreciates both the abstract of art and the logic of science. With an artist’s corner in your child’s development, Yelaoshr will provide the groundwork for this wholeness to encourage young children to express their creative impulses via colour, form, or sound. Yelaoshr also offers materials, including paint, pencils, paper, play dough, and even rudimentary musical instruments (baby pianos and tambourines) to make the lesson more interesting.
Motor Skill Enhancement
Unstructured outdoor play allows kids to develop their muscle tone and coordination. Yelaoshr offers a designated playground and clears a space in the room for children to run about, catch and toss a ball, play tag, and stimulate their blood flow.
The Benefits of an Early Learning Center for Kids
Choosing the best early learning centre involves much more than just finding a location to have your child cared for. Because the foundation of the person your child will become is being laid at this age—likely more so than at any other point in their lives.
These formative years are essential for a child’s healthy growth and future success and enjoyment. Using an early learning centre is a fantastic way for your child to start developing those crucial life skills.
It’s a Place of Socialisation
Quality early learning centre services encourage and foster the growth of these relationships, which are essential for social development. The development of the children’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills in their care is entrusted to qualified adults in addition to their respect for the children themselves. Children acquire confidence, overcome shyness, and create the connections necessary for success later on in life when adults encourage them as they engage with others.
It’s a place of structure that helps nurture a healthy desire for lifelong learning.
The best early learning programmes offer a regulated setting where good behaviour is promoted as the kids play, learn, and have fun. Such a structured framework isn’t something self-evident; in fact, the kids won’t even notice it. However, being in a structured environment with timetables and areas designated for particular activities encourages learning in various ways.
This, in turn, fulfils the intense curiosity that toddlers of this age have about the world outside them. If done well, it creates a passion for information that will serve them well in their following academic years when they move on to higher education and beyond.
Promotes Essential Early Life Skills
An early learning centre is an educational establishment run by experts rather than a babysitting service. Between the ages of 3-5, a pre-vocabulary schooler’s will increase from roughly 900 words to about 2,500. The exposure to language kids receives via enjoyable activities like storytelling, singing, and games dramatically help to advance language abilities.
In addition, the foundational skills of topics like arithmetic and reading, as well as enjoying hands-on activities that support cognitive growth, may be built upon with gentle encouragement through discussion, counting games, and Qs & As. Children are taught to apply their investigative talents and deal with various problems.
Building Self-Esteem and Confidence
At this time of development, several encounters are essential. Early interaction with instructors and students and adequately planned, age-appropriate learning offer a solid foundation from which confidence may emerge. Kids are more likely to explore their hobbies, look into their capabilities, and start comprehending their abilities and talents when feeling good.
A child’s sense of self-assurance grows in direct proportion to the number of good interactions they experience with others around them. This encourages a positive outlook on how to handle complex challenges in life. Such a strong foundation is essential for the child’s confident start in life’s adventure.
How Can Parents Benefit from Sending Their Children to the Yelaoshr Early Learning Centre
No Work Compromise
After children, the majority of parents are forced to make career compromises. While taking a temporary sabbatical is OK, giving up on your profession might prove to be a mistake. The childcare sector addresses such parental concerns.
Yelaoshr provides parents with the perfect hands for optimum parenting. With the help of their skilled and ECCE-certified facilitators, they take excellent care of kids. Yelaoshr assumes full responsibility for your child’s whole growth during the program. Additionally, they update the parents. You may contact the tutor of your child at any moment if you’re concerned about them and return your attention to your business or work.
Easily Control Kids At Home
Kids who attend early learning centre learn many self-engagement activities and stop clinging to their parents. Therefore, the kids are well-behaved enough not to bother you while you cook or take care of other home duties. When you choose Yelaoshr for your child, they also begin assisting your kid with all of your house duties.
Yelaoshr cultivates a passion for learning in kids and fosters their capacity for critical thought. Therefore, if you select Yelaoshr, your child will experience perfect growth and development throughout their formative years.
Happy Family
Conflict arises between a husband and wife if they cannot effectively handle a kid’s obligations. Mothers in Malaysia may have more responsibilities than other people, making them feel overburdened. Being a parent for the first time is entirely novel for a mother. As a result, we cannot count on her to manage things precisely as she has never been in the position earlier.
But many of the survey’s findings show that a happy family seeks assistance from a reputable and professional early learning centres. When everything is thoroughly thought out and arranged, the family tie is strengthened even further.
Who can Enroll their Child in the Yelaoshr Early Learning Centre
Yealaoshr’s Early Learning programme provides a foundation for learning, growth, and care for kids aged 4 and above. Your kids may learn through a variety of activities when they join Yelaoshr for their fundamental development.
Develop your Child in the Yelaoshr Early Learning Centre
When selecting an early learning centre for your child, there are several features and factors to consider. The most crucial step is to spend some time investigating local early learning centre’s facilities and weighing your selections according to the standards we have listed above.
Touring a few early learning centres’ facilities is generally advised before enrolling your child. Trust your instincts when selecting and assessing your early learning education provider. Never be scared to search for another early learning centre if you think something is wrong.
Yelaoshr has childcare experience, and we want to support your children in becoming better people in the future. To learn more about our childcare services, please stop by or give Yelaoshr a call.
Firstly, we need to understand that learning pinyin (Chinese phonetic alphabet) is not learning to recognize Chinese words. Pinyin is recording pronunciation. Using pinyin to improve literacy and reading creates an additional obstacle that often frustrates children when they can’t master it. This may cause young learners to shun learning and reading all together. Just put yourself in a child’s shoes. A Standard 1 student needs to learn as many as 8 subjects in school. Learning Mandarin alone requires them to master Hanyu Pinyin, recognize words, form phrases, make sentences and write essays. Juggling between these learning tasks causes a huge amount of stress in children.
Chinese words are pictographic writing. So it is actually easier for young learners to recognize words than learning phonetic alphabet. Children aged 3 to 7 are very receptive to images and colours as they use the right brain more often during this period. Transforming Chinese words into image helps children to learn reading faster. Using the right hemisphere of the brain, children can easily relate images with words. This approach allows them to grasp the pronunciation of Chinese characters easily and quickly.
When a child is able to master 1,500 Chinese words before entering primary school, he or she need not spend much of his/her time and energy learning words during the first 3 years of primary school. More time and efforts can be put into learning other subjects or even reading.
A child who has higher literacy will not find learning burdensome compared to children with low literacy, thus giving the child a significant advantage. While other children are still busy learning to recognize words, the child is already reading a book and immersing in the wonderful world of knowledge! The more the child reads, the better his or her comprehension skills. With increasing learning speeds, his or her self-confidence grows too.
In other words, literacy plays a key role in determining a child’s academic achievement in Standard 1 till Standard 3. His or her academic results in Standard 4 and 5 are further determined by how much the child is able to read. Therefore, first thing first, high literacy before primary education is the key success factor.
Learning is a lifelong journey. Seize the moment and give your child a head start now!
Writing words and phrases has been a major part of homework in primary school. Mrs. Wu 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. Wu 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
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!
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® 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® 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® 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.
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.
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.
