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.
