Right Brain Education - A Teacher's Perspective

In the world of early childhood education, there seems to be two different sides:

First, there is the world of Play based, Hands on learning.
This is the approach I learnt in college. Children learn through play, active exploration, and should have the freedom to choose their own learning activities. They do not advocate worksheets & flashcards.

Then, there is the flashcard/right brain way of learning (Glenn Doman, Shichida, TweedleWink).

In a nutshell,
Glenn Doman first worked with children with brain damage. Then, he applied the same methods to normal children. His approach uses flashcards to teach babies reading, foreign languages, maths spots, doing complicated equations, swimming, encyclopedic knowledge etc.

Shichida is a professor from Japan. He believes that the right brain has its own 5 senses: telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, tactility & precognition.
The right brain also has abilities that the left brain does not:
- high speed mass memorization (photographic memory, speed reading)
- resonance (able to receive waves)
- high speed automatic process function (able to do complicated math calculations automatically)
- image visualization function (able to visualize and make what they visualize happen)

TweedleWink is in a way a combination of Glenn Doman, Montessori and a bit of Shichida, too. It is a gentle, loving approach with the motto Relationships before Results. In the class, they go through 8 different learning areas: Vision, Vocabulary, World, Music, Reading, Math, Science & Art. It is an exposure of general knowledge and topics range from learning about Ethiopia to horse breeds to conifer seed cycle.

What I wonder is, why not have the best of both worlds?

What I know for certain is that early childhood is the best time to start educating your child. Children have sensitive periods for learning and they learn faster and easier when they are younger.

My guideline is: as long as the children enjoy it.  I'm not encouraging parents to teach by making them sit at the desk without moving and just listen and do homework. Sadly, many think that teaching young children is torturing them and they make comments like "sad, nowadays children got no childhood.. Every time go for classes, start learning so young. Last time when I was young no such thing and I turned out OK." Well, just because you "turned out alright" doesn't mean you couldn't have turned out better.

Children actually enjoy learning!! YES REALLY! It's the education system of drilling and meaningless memorization which makes us grow to dislike learning. That's sadder.

I believe a holistic learning program will incorporate all the various methods, not just look at one side. Yes, children need lots of play where they can explore, run, jump, pretend, discover, imagine. Yes, children need hands on learning. Yes, children also learn from flashcards. They can learn reading, maths, expand their knowledge and the best part is, with flashcards, it only takes 5 - 10 minutes a day. If the children enjoy it and can learn. Why not?

Oh and a very important belief of mine: I believe that at the end of the day, character building is still much more important than cognitive development. What is the point if your child is super smart & bright, but is arrogant. Think of the long run. What is the purpose of education: to get good grades? Or to learn & love learning?

The even sadder part is that in Malaysia, most preschools and kindergartens are not using either approach. Not play based, not flashcards. They make 25 children sit for most parts of 4 hours or more a day and listen to the teacher without moving and do worksheets. Way to squash creativity! Go figure.

DIY: Button Board

I saw a link on Pinterest & thought I could do it myself for the center.

I cut out felt into squares and sewed buttons onto the middle.

Then, I cut various shapes and added little slits in the middle.

The felt cloth backing was flimsy so I glued them onto cardboard and added adhesive ribbon to the borders.

Tadaa! It looks so pretty that I could even put in on my wall as decor. LOL

Easy peasy!

Children can learn buttoning, which trains them to be independent!

Cultural Exchange - Canada, US, UK

 My packages are arriving!! 

This is from Utah, USA

Flags

Money

Statue of Liberty mask

Dinosaur stickers

Seeds

Puzzle of USA

Flag craft

Postcards

Colouring sheets

Letter

Recipes & facts about the Statue of Liberty

From Canada

Animals

Letter

Maps, recipes, crafts, colouring sheets

Sticker, flag, postcard, pencil

Money

Maple leaf & shells

Tea & catalog

From UK

Letters

Flowers, recipe & colouring sheet

Stamps, coins, tattoo, pencil, postcard

Flag

Catalogs

Souvenir

Food

CD of favourite songs

My Cultural Package

After getting my groups, being excited, writing down ideas... I procrastinated. Was kinda busy with work (that's my lame excuse), so I just did a bit here and there. It was only after I received the package from Canada that I started to buck up and got my engines on (causing me lots of late nights and lack of sleep!) Once I started putting stuff together, the ideas just keep rolling in and I just wanna include more and more stuff! (However I am on a budget because it sure is not cheap sending 6 packages all around the world!)

Here is what I included in my package!
A letter (about family, festivals, Chinese food, holidays)
A map of Malaysia & Selangor
Pictures of traditional clothings
Some Indian bangles
Batik cloth
An article about why Indian women wear bangles
Languages - Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin Chinese & Manglish!
Facts about the Petronas Twin Towers
Magnet of Petronas Twin Towers
Money - Coins, sample notes in Ang Pao, write-up to describe pictures on money
The Story of Chinese Zodiac
Chinese Zodiac colouring sheet
Chinese New Year story
Ang Paos containing fake money
Chinese New Year craft (wall decoration)
Chinese calligraphy writing wall decorations
Mid Autumn Festival Story
Paper lantern
Chinese Dragon Boat Festival story and colouring
Malaysian flag description, colouring sheet and pasting craft
A piece about fruits we love
Recipes - kaya, tang yuan & wanton
A packet of kuaci
Stamps, postcards & travel brochures

Ta-daa!! Hope it's enough! =p

Cultural exchange!

I am taking part in a cultural exchange group! This is so exciting!

It works like this: There are 4 members in a group, all from different countries. Each one will send a pack to the other 3 members in the group, and will (hopefully) receive 3 packages back!

Each package should include the following:

- a letter from a child describing his/her life in his/her country...favorite foods, sports, activities, religious activities, daily schedule, school, vacations...anything that you or your child think would be interesting to a child in another country.

- Pics of your child in his home, etc.  You don't have to send close-up face pics if you are not comfortable doing so.

- Postcards, stamps, coins,

- craft, coloring sheets, small toys or games, small books

- cds of your child's favorite music or books on cd (we received several of these and LOVE them)

- recipes, pics of food specific to your region

- anything else that you think would be fun for a child to receive

More info here!!

Carly's Voice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNZVV4Ciccg&feature=youtu.be

This is a truly amazing story of Carly. Carly has autism. She can't speak. No one knew what was going on inside her mind. Until they realised she could type. It  is so heart wrenching to hear about what she goes through. Hats off to you, Carly, as well as her dad and all who believes in her.

She has written a book together with her dad. I have preordered it here. Can't wait to read it!! =)

Shichida

I've just finished Shichida's book on prenatal education. What do I think of it? Frankly, I don't know. The book is in Chinese, so there were some parts where I just browsed through (I'm not a huge fan of Chinese language). Also, the book does not seem to be based on research. He just says if you do this, babies will be like that etc. Where is the research? There are lots of testimonials, stories from parents who have tried his method. Their babies can remember things that happened when still in the womb, their babies give them easy labour, coming out using their (baby's) own strength and at the accurate weight on the date the parents tell them to......

Ok, I admit I still am a bit skeptical. I guess I'm the type where I have to see it to believe it. There are parts which I agree though, like talking to your baby, meditating, doing mental imaging, not giving the baby stress etc. I'd definitely try these methods IF I ever get pregnant. But that's still a long way to go, I'll let you know how it turns out. =)