A Roundup of Enrichment Classes

In this new year, we had attempted to enroll Isabelle into a right-brain training class HEGL.  I had attended the first lesson with her.  Although she was rather uncooperative at times, we still managed to sit in throughout the class.  In the second lesson, I had thought that she would be better-behaved with her Daddy with her, but it was the exact opposite.  She started crying upon entering the classroom and had refused to stay there.  Hence, we had decided to let Ian "take over" this enrichment class.

The principal had kindly allowed me to sit in with him in the first class, and unlike how he ran around when he attended at the LNT when he was younger, he could now sit still and listen to instructions.  However, he could still improve on his ability to focus.  In those memory exercises, he fared pretty badly.  We shall see how he improves in the next few months!  *Fingers-crossed*  The consolation was, he really enjoyed himself and took the initiative to ask to do the homework when we were back home!

The other classes that Ian is continuing from last year are:

1. Piano (last term of the beginning class now, with advanced group class starting from Febuary) - he is beginning to read the score and play on his own now, though still not playing smoothly unless he has memorised it.
2. Abacus (into his second term) - doing double-digit addition/subtraction using abacus, still having some problem with simple addition without an abacus.
3. Advanced phonics (starting from January) - doing long vowels as of now, with sentence writing, and simple comprehension.
4. English Speech and Drama (in childcare) - sheesh, no idea what they are doing!  But he seemed to be having tons of fun when we attended the open house lesson last year.

Since stopping his Chinese enrichment class, it had become a bargaining chip to make him do our bidding as he really detested being sent to the class again.  We had been home-teaching him using materials that a friend  gave us, and so far Ian seemed to improve more than the 3 terms of Chinese enrichment class.  It had not been an easy task, as it was quite evident that he had no interest in the language.  It took us many revisions just to drill a word into his mind.  Hopefully, the right-brain training lessons will improve his memory skills and enable him to remember Chinese characters with more ease.

Recently, he also surprised us when he used his phonetic skills to figure out the spelling of a word.  Just a few months ago when I tested him, he was still clueless as to how to apply his knowledge, and all of a sudden, he seemed to understand now.  When I asked him who had taught him that, he said that he had self-taught!  *Faint*