Why Kids R Us English?
Nowadays, parents have high expectations in regard with the English
ability of their children. They want to prepare them for the real world. It’s
pragmatic world. It’s a world that measures one’s proficiency not based on
one’s grades at school or scores at English proficiency tests but rather
whether you can effectively communicate in English – at school, at work, on
travel, in social settings…
There are countless numbers of English schools just in Chubei. They
all aim at helping young children and adults develop or improve their English
skills. Some are household names and others like Kids R Us aren’t. So why
should you consider sending your child at Kids R Us instead? Here below are few
thoughts without any order whatsoever to ponder over.
1. We the teacher. Teacher Serge is a talented and experienced teacher who is good with
children and has a passion for teaching. He speaks fluently four different
languages including Chinese and has learned Latin for over 4 years. He
leverages all these experiences from learning and teaching to assist his
students and help them in their turn acquire English.
2. We’re committed to small class
sizes. How does a teacher give enough
individual time and attention to students when they are 15 of them in class?
How does he/she see the individual efforts to encourage, achievements to praise
and struggle to address if there are 20 students to care for? And the list goes
on. That’s why at Kids R Us, we limit our class sizes to eight (8) students for
level 1 and 2 and to twelve (12) students for level 3 and above.
3. We teach how to learn rather than what
to learn. Take a look this: Chair = C + hair and
Hair = H + air. Between having a six or seven years old child remember all the
three words independently and showing him how to retrieve the first two through
recombination, which one would you pick? With the latter, the only word that
your child will need to remember is “air”. At Kids R Us, we aim at educating
successful and autonomous learners. We teach them how to learn rather than what
to learn. And this is skill they’ll use the rest of their lives. It’s investing
in the future of the children.
4. We make learning safe for students. Systematically correcting students’ mistakes when they express
themselves so as to build accuracy makes them feel judged. It kills fluency,
builds up distrust and silence in the classroom. There is a time for talking –
even with mistakes – and there is a time and place for addressing these
mistakes. Doing so makes learning safe. And when this is the case, students feel
less worried and even confident about making mistakes, which ultimately is more
important for their learning.
5. We make learning fun for students. Alfred Mercier once said that what we learn with pleasure, we never
forget. Learning the fun way is truly at the heart of our teaching philosophy.
Learning is more successful when students feel good. So through engaging plays
– games, songs, chants, fingerplays, projects, readings, role plays…- we make
our classes fun and enjoyable. Time seems to fly and learning takes place
without students knowing. When they leave the class, they only how fun it was.
6. We empower students early on to
read. Does your child struggle with reading
books or even common words? Do you want your child to be more fluent in
reading? If the answer is yes, then Kid R Us is where to go. Reading fluency
instruction is a cornerstone of our English program. Very early on, we equip
students with the useful tools and skills they need to decode and read an
impressive number of English words. It gives children a sense of control, a
feeling of “I can”, of “I’m good at English”. It frees up more brain resources
to then focus on understanding what they read.
7. We empower students to use English
on day one. The truth is that children go to
English classes expecting to know as much English as they already do in
Chinese. At the same time, they fear not to be able to actually do that or not
to understand much. We address fear before classes even start and start to
fulfill their expectations on Day One. Your child returns home from his first
class relaxed, happy and with lots of English to boast about.
8. We expose them to huge amount of
quality English input. Are our classes one hundred
percent (100%) taught in English? Of course not. For example, sometimes, as a
teacher, you want the students to feedback something you explained in English
in Chinese so as to check for and confirm understanding. And sometimes, it’s
the other way around. Aside from these inevitable situations, our classes are
fully conducted in English. Students are therefore exposed to a huge amount of
quality and comprehensible English input. In a safe and enjoyable environment, this
leads to language acquisition.
9. We give students a reason to use
English NOW.
“Because
I want to be able to talk to foreigners when abroad”
“Because
I want to make friends from other countries”
“My mom
said it will help me in the future”
I hear
that a lot from students when I ask them why they’re learning English. Does it
ring a bell? No matter what your children or your own reasons are for them to
learn English, we can agree on one thing. If they want to have foreign friends
and discover other cultures, they don’t have to wait until they’re 18. They can
do it right NOW. Our International Partners in Acquiring English (Int’l PAE)
program hooks students with penpals from English-speaking countries. It gives
them a compelling and urgent reason to learn and master the language in order
to write to, read and understand their friends’ mails.
10. We want you to actively participate in your child learning. All our students’ parents have high expectations from their little
ones English learning. They also want to be part of it to show support and
encouragement. Unfortunately, few schools provide more parents involvement
opportunities aside from signing contacts books. At Kids R Us, you are part of
the program. For example, every lesson comes with a consolidation practice game
or project that you can do with your child. This way, you have a firsthand
knowledge of how well he or she’s learning.
11.We assess what has been learned rather than what has been taught. Written Assessments have limits in telling how well a student is
doing in his or her learning journey. Therefore, at Kids R Us, we use a wide
variety of ways to evaluate the students learning. It comes with no stress or
pressure. Students do better. More importantly, assessment doesn’t stop there. We
advise actionable steps that students need to take to address any weaknesses
shown in their different assessments.
If after
reading these points, you are still undecided about whether Kids R Us will
provide the best environment for your child to learn, here are two last
suggestions.
12.Check our references. These are
adults who attend our conversation classes or parents of the students we’ve
taught. Their contact information will be provided on request and they can only
be reached between 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm and from Monday to Friday. Please do not call in a different time.
13. Sign up for a demo class or the Parents’ Corner workshop. “Seeing is believing” they say. So, come join us one of these
Saturdays of June through July. You may also want to sign up for our classes
catered to parents who want to accompany their children’s learning and don’t
know much how to go about it.
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爾思美語 Kids R Us English
Line: skjean 0921-415083
竹北市文信路139號2F
部落格: http://goo.gl/VLxg4M
FB: https://goo.gl/zm4coA
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