Thinking English while swimming

I have the honour to teach Nicolas, a ten-year-old boy from France for this whole week. As he has just changed from a French school to an international school, his English is as of those five-year-old. Never mind about that, he's cute and smart. He learns fast. 

For the first day, I had him design his own T-shirt with a fabric crayon. At the first look, it was horrible and I was thinking, "Would he wear this?" But after 20 minutes of drawing and colouring, viola! The T-shirt was brought to life! It was simply beautiful that left me with awe. 

Before I left, Nicolas' mom suggested swimming as part of the lesson to learn English. I was overwhelmed. Swim-and-learn-English? Is this a new lesson or what? I went online to search for games to play when one is swimming. There isn't much help. 

Finally, thank God for His creativity, I got the hint of finding something which could float for the boy to catch or read. And I came to the conclusion of having written papers inserted into clear empty bottles.

Before the game, I taught Nicolas about synonyms and when we reached the pool, I had all the bottles thrown into the pool. Nicolas had to swim to get a pair of bottles with the right synonyms. Eg. If he gets "beautiful" as the first bottle, he needs to find "pretty" and passed to me. The boy enjoyed the game while I enjoyed teaching. So, how about some synonyms in the pool? 

How to teach students compositions?

I was so disappointed when my student's mom called the principal and told her that my student did not understand what I have taught her. I felt like my world was crumbling down and I lost all hope in teaching. 

It was merely three weeks that I saw my student's results and she had flashed a wide grin, saying that it was her first time getting a pass in her Bahasa Malaysia after all these years. Yes, it was her first time passing the subject after studying the language for four years. It did give me a lot of confidence and self-esteem because I have just taught her for three months and she passed. She even asked for a present which I did not promise. But I relented because if the result made her happy, it made me too. After my Thailand trip, I presented a dress to her and she was elated. 

Well, everything was fine till today! I felt the skies ahead turned gloomy and there was thunderstorm and lightning and heavy rain. My heart was raining. I did not cry till I got into my car. Thank God, Isaac was there consoling me and telling me, "Don't be sad. I am here." 

I called my friend and she told me that what I can do is to ask my student to memorise compositions. There is nothing much I can do when her level of understanding is so low and there is not much she can understand no matter how long I spend with her. 

I have always doubted memorising compositions a good way to good marks. To me, memorising a composition and later on spitting it all out in an examination is merely a test on how much the brain can remember. It kills creativity and also, the student's ability to think. Nevertheless, what my friend said was right, "They have too little vocabulary to start a composition with. They need to memorise in order to ''save'' the vocabulary into their brain. Later on, they'll be able to use the saved vocabulary in other compositions." 

I'll give it a try from next week onwards. Please do anticipate for the results of it...

What is hand-eye coordination?

The term ‘hand-eye coordination’ to me was like an alien until my son was two years old. It was then that I put him in a Montessori and the principal explained to me the importance of hand-eye coordination. It saddened me how much I have missed before this. If I were to know it earlier, probably my son would have been better developed. From then on, I try to read more on childhood development and how different motor skills and coordination help in the children’s future learning ability.

Hand-eye coordination is the ability to guide the movement of the hands with the eyes. It is vital for the children to have hand-eye coordination because by the time children start to learn to write, their writing will stay within the lines. I have seen children who struggle writing within the lines although they have tried their best. To avoid such frustration, parents can try to stimulate their children’s hand-eye coordination right after they are born.

Although it is popular among parents, many people do not realise that cloth mat with objects hanging on it is a useful tool for training children’s hand-eye coordination. Infants who are allowed to lie down on the cloth mat will be attracted to the objects hanging above them. Being attracted by the colourful objects, they will stretch up their hands to grab them. Many times the babies will not be able to grab the objects but just manage to touch or push them. That is the start of how they train their hands to go to where their eyes are looking at.

For toddlers who already know how to sit up, they should be allowed to play lacing cards, stringing beads, nesting boxes, stacking cones, completing puzzles, kneading playdough or even cutting some recycled papers with the assistance of adults. One of my friends likes to let her daughters play pouring water or dry sand from one container to the other. The activities above not only stimulate the children’s hand-eye coordination but training the children to have patience and staying focused.

Older children are encouraged to be involved in outdoor playground activities such as climbing steel bars, monkey bars, slide, mock rock-climbing wall or balancing on a plank of wood. Besides the abovementioned activities, parents also can let children handle house chores such as washing the dishes (make sure the dishes are unbreakable), sweeping the floor or picking up toys.

It is vital for parents to understand the importance of hand-eye coordination and using the appropriate materials to develop their children’s coordination. Parents have to understand that well-developed hand-eye coordination and motor skills will provide a speedy learning ability when the children enter primary school. If the foundation is not strong, children will face difficulties in the future learning process, thus, pressure and frustrations will arise. 

The above article is published in The Star online newspaper:

http://parenthots.com/parents_corner/soapbox/Realising-the-importance-of-hand-eye-coordination.aspx

Latihan susun perkataan

Sebagai seorang tutor, saya amat mengambil berat tentang pemahaman pelajar-pelajar saya dalam struktur ayat. Pelajar perlu memahami struktur ayat untuk membolehkan mereka membina ayat yang gramatis. Oleh itu, saya selalu menyediakan latihan susun perkataan untuk mereka. Latihan susun perkataan boleh mengukuhkan pemahaman mereka dalam struktur ayat and memberi idea kepada mereka bagaimana ayat dibina. 

Berikut ialah contoh latihan susun perkataan yang saya sediakan. 

Latihan Bina Ayat

As a tutor myself, I find it difficult to find appropriate materials for my students to incorporate what I have taught them. Therefore, I prefer to prepare  my own exercises to enhance their understanding on the topic we have went through.

From my experience, my students are lack of vocabulary because English and Bahasa Malaysia are not their mother tongue as they are Chinese. They used to speak Chinese at home and in the school. Lacking vocabulary crippled their ability in making good sentences. Therefore, in my class, making sentences or bina ayat is not something new. I make sure my students learn new verbs or kata kerja and use them in the sentences making process.

Below is an example of exercises I've prepared for my students. I hope this will help you too.