Disadvantages of Early English Education?

Disadvantages of Early English Education

Harm of early English education! ? English words are mixed in shiritori!

Today I did shiritori with my daughter, but she mixed English words into the answer. Smiley. But, this is NG if you take an elementary school exam. It says, "Let's think only in Japanese."

By the way, today, I saw a parent and child who seems to have been after kindergarten resigning, working on a drill for an elementary school exam at Starbucks. It's amazing how a kindergartener works with drills at Starbucks. I guess you can't achieve anything if you don't really tackle it.

Review of Kids Duo - After kindergarten and after school in Japan

This article summarizes what I felt as a result of attending Kids Duo for one month.

I am currently searching for the English output environment for my 3-year-old daughter. A strong candidate is the English childcare, "Kids Duo." I have visited its trial lessons, and finally, joined the course because I might not understand the service unless my child actually goes to the school.

Please note, however, that Kids Duo schools may be different from school to school because there are two types of management models -  direct management and franchise. The operational situation and the atmosphere can differ depending on the classroom. This article is just an impression about one of those classrooms. If you are thinking of Kids Duo for your kids, please visit and see by yourself. I have not experienced unreasonable solicitation at Kids Duo.

What is "Kids Duo"?

"Kids Duo" is famous for its "daycare in English" in Japan. This is a new type of pre-school and after-school where native teachers and bilingual teachers take care of children in English, and spend a long time in an English-speaking environment. It has about 100 classrooms nationwide, mainly in the metropolitan area and Kansai. In addition to after school course for elementary school children, preschoolers aged 3 and over can also attend the curriculum.

Kids Duo's policy is "English Only" and "No Japanese." As all of daily conversations are spoken in English, the best selling point is that kids can learn English naturally. The Kids Duo's regular course is at least  twice a week.

The biggest benefit is that your kids can be soaked in English-speaking environment

Until now, the Japanese parents had to send their kids to an international school or pre-school, if they wanted to keep their baby in English speaking environment for a long time.

However, if you choose Kids Duo as an afterkinder, you can place your children in an English speaking environment for a long time (up to 4 hours x 5 days = 20 hours / week) every day after attending Japanese kindergartens and nursery schools in Japan. This is the biggest benefit.

The most effective way to learn English is just the output. It is an advantage to naturally use English.

Atmosphere of Parent's Presentation

The atmosphere of Parent's Presentation time at the end of class was a bit loose. This is unavoidable because the kids are infants.

There were very few parents coming to pick up when the preschool class was doing Parent's Presentation, and many parents were rushing in after the end, and many families were asking for extension until 19:00. Are they not particularly interested in the outcome of their children's output, or are they too busy as working parents? As many of the children feel strongly that they want their parents to admit, I think it would be better to stand at school from Parent's Presentation time, if possible. At least my daughter looks happy when she looks at me, and she tries to speak up.

I wanted to ask the teacher how she was doing at the end, but the teacher turned home quickly. I was even more surprised when the teacher was a student part-time student.

Not to expect excessive levels and effects

Although the class at Kids Duo are divided according to the age of infants and elementary school children, there is no classification by level / age in the infant classes in particular. Some children cannot speak English at all, and children who are fluent in English are in the same class as returnee children.

If you want English education firmly according to your child's level, it may be better to go to small classes.

There is not much English speech by the children.  I was interested in the children around me and asked a native teacher to what extent the kids speak in English. The teacher said, "It's difficult to force them to speak in English." It is different from the explanation I got from the Japanese staff at first.

Also, since both Japanese and foreign teachers share the class, the best pronunciation may not be expected.

Not many children speaking English well

At Kids Duo, there is a Parent Presentation at the end of the day. It is time for children to make a presentation in front of the parents who came to pick up. Everyone is cute. At Parent Presentation at the time of pick-up, my daughter was also actively participating in activity.

At the same time, however, I found that the most of kids' Japanese accent was strong. I had been thinking that "Infants have good ears and those kids will gain good pronunciation in English," but that is not always the case.

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I am not sure of the reason, but possibly, one reason is that the amount of time that the teacher talks to one child may be overwhelmingly small, and the quality may be different. Because there are many students, it may be difficult for teachers to handle them individually.

Also, probably parents are too busy to follow up their kids' English at home (the low attendance rate of Parent Presentation suggests). The ears of the infant are good, so if the parents spend some time for their kids' English - for example, watching English videos, singing a song in English -  the kids will obtain the beautiful pronunciation. In fact even if the kids attend kindergarten or pre-school, you may find that there is a significant difference in English ability depending on whether the kids are working on English at home or not.

Conclusion

After all, Kids Duo is still attractive for me that it offers the English environment for infants for a long time after typical Japanese kindergarten or nursery school. I'm going to continue Kids Duo at least one more month as I want to observe other days.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is an American interactive computer-animated children's television series which aired from May 5, 2006 to November 6, 2016.

Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, and a mechanical assistant "Mouseketool" called Toodles, interact with the viewer to stimulate problem solving during each episode's story. Disney says that each episode has the characters help children "solve a specific age-appropriate problem utilizing basic math skills, such as identifying shapes and counting through ten".

A break from Kumon lessons for a while..

This article is about my decision to take a break from my daughter's Kumon lessons.

My 3-year-old daughter is currently taking the language class (Japanese) at Kumon. She started Kumon this spring and only a few months have passed. At first, my daughter delightedly worked on the assignments.

She, however, does not work on the assignment diligently recently. It seems that my daughter does not feel motivated with these assignments.

I was tired of asking her about her homework every day. Even if she continues Kumon in this situation, I think that time and money seem to be wasted.

Finally, I decided to take a break from Kumon lessons. The break period is up to 3 months. During the break, I will observe my daughter carefully and make a final decision.

Continuing piano lessons?

My daughter is currently taking private piano lessons. The location is close to our apartment and it is easy for us to commute the school.

She, however, does not follow the instructions by the piano teacher and she does not concentrate on the lessons.

She is curious. She seems to want to move with interest rather than sitting still.
It may be better for her to join in lessons that have fun with friends, such as rhythmic lessons, rather than private piano lessons.

I, however, would like her to start the piano lessons at this stage because her ears are good.

Learning Chinese

I have provided English-Japanese bilingual environment for my daughter.

I wanted my kids to get used to the sounds of foreign languages because it was said that children's ears were good. Aside from English, my kids have listened to some CDs in four languages (Chinese, Korean, Italian and Spanish).

Now I am thinking to focus on one language in addition to Japanese and English. I tentatively chose Chinese as the 3rd language for her. This is because Chinese is the most common spoken language in the world, with over 1 billion global speakers!  It is the official language in China and Taiwan, and one of the official languages in Singapore.  Also, the expansion of China's economy is another reason.

I hope exposure toward Chinese will enhance my daughter's skill and expand the opportunities in future.

I firstly bought Dino Lingo's DVDs. "Dino Lingo Introduction to Chinese for Kids" is a Mandarin Chinese language learning program where cartoon dinosaur characters introduce the most common animal words and daily phrases in Chinese Mandarin.

This program consists of 1 DVD, animals flash cards, posters and the parents guide.After watching the DVDs several times and playing with the flash cards, most children can easily name everyday objects and understand basic phrases in Chinese. Dino Lingo Chinese for Kids is suitable for all children between the ages of 2 to 7 years old.

Disneys World of English (DWE) Play Along Show!

Today we joined an event presented by DWE - "Play Along Show!"

This time the event was held at a relatively easy-to-access place from our residence.

The content and songs at "Play Along Show" is organized in consistent with DWE's teaching material "Play Along!"

Compared with another show, "The Froggy & Bunny Show," the actors did not wear the Froggy & Bunny costumes. "Play Along Show" is a show that centers on activities using various toys that appear in DWE's "Play Along" DVD.

As usual, we were instructed to shoot the videos backside, regardless of the device type. I asked my husband to take the video.

Now my daughter is 3-year-old. She actively participated in the activities during the show. I felt that the content of show has become a little easier for her. I thought that "Puppet Show", which we joined the other day, were more difficult and had more vocabulary than "Play Along Show."

A benefit of walking that I realized during my daughter's excursion

There is a great benefit of walking. I realized this fact during my daughter's school excursion.

My daughter, who is now 3 years old, goes to the preschool on foot. It takes about 30 minutes. Whereas most of the children go home on bicycles driven by their parents, my daughter and I have spent a time to walk on foot. It was sometimes frustrating for me that my daughter turned to the various things on the roadside and wanted to make a detour.

It took a time for us to go to pre-school on foot, but thanks to walking, my daughter seems to have gained physical fitness to a great extent. Indeed, I realized this fact during the parent-child excursion event organized by the preschool.

The excursion was held on one hot day. My daughter continued to walk on her own while many of her friends requested their parents to hold them one after another. I was very proud of my daughter.

Also, one of the school teachers said that my daughter usually complete walking during field trip.

Aside from gain fitness, walking gives us with the chances to chat together. As working mom, I do not have much time to talk with my kids.

I want to keep walking with my daughter in the future.