A right choice

tszma

Hi, everybody,
I am a new member. Glad to find a place for me to share and discuss with other mums.
My daughter is a P.1 student in Gigamind. Last year around this moment I was worrying about choosing a suitable primary school for her. But now she is already in P.1 now. As I have said in the title, I think Gigamind is a right choice for my daughter. She loves her schooling very much. On the first day of Christmas holidays, she told me she missed school and the teachers very much. The teachers here are really nice and gentle. Although most of them are young,they are not totally fresh or unexperienced. This was one of the issues I worried before. They are every encouraging even to the low ability students. I think it's the educational belief of the school. Every month, there is an award certificate for each subject (Chinese, Eng, Maths, IS, P.E. and even Art) to the best performer in each level. Very often it is not the brightest children that get the awards. The teachers will look at the children's effort. They praise improvement and effort more than result.
It is what education is for. Agreed?
Sorry I have talked too much on my first visit. Share with you all later.

cckmami

Dear Tszma,

Nice to meet you!

It's glad you share your feeling regarding Gigamind. I'm also a Gigamind mom with the same feeling with you.

Let's share with each other in the future!!

tszma

Hi cckmami,
Nice to meet you too. Is your child in P.1 too? It's ok if you want to keep it a secret. It will not bother our discussion. I posted my feeling of Gigamind because I always find that some people (outsiders) have some misunderstanding of this school. To be frank, it was really mysterious to me in the past. I hope people can know more about this school when they read our discussion.

cckmami

Dear Tszma,

My child is in P2 now. I have asked him that if there's any lesson he doesn't like to have, he said none. Teachers are nice to him too.

Yeah, would like to let others know more about this school.

moondream3003

多謝你地分享.  希望將來囝囝都係一份子啦.

pigmei

My kid is now studying in Yuen Yuen, although she like her school and the teachers there are really good. But it seems like the 課程are a little bit difficult to her, so, I consider to send her the Gigamid. Please tell me that is there any vacancy in Gigamind and is it difficult to enter the school? Thanks, Gigamind mums for sharing.

tszma

Welcome pigmei and moondream 3003,

As I know P.1 in Yuen Yuen is quite demanding this year. My friend's daughter is studying in P.1. Last week I visited her and found that she had two sets of exercises (at least 15 pages each) for both Chinese and English. Some of the English exercises are really demanding for P.1 pupils. Reading passages of about 200 words each. If a pupil can finish the exercises on his or her own, he or she is really a talented one. Pigmei, do you agree?
Pupils in Gigamind don't have too much homework. Hence, they have time to think and create. Let's talk about an example. Last week they learnt about clothings (jumper, trousers, sneakers,...)and the sentence structure( I'm wearing a red jumper, black trousers,... and yellow shoes). After they have got hold of these vocab, they had to make a booklet of Clothes Diary. They were asked to record what they wore for a whole week, draw and write sentences. As I observed, most of the pupils did very nice work in both drawing and writing sentences. The reason is that they have adequate time to absorb the knowledge, internalize it and produce their own products. The products gave them a sense of belongings. Once the booklet was made, they needed to circulate them among classmates and read them to one another. The classmates then would assess one another's products. Some parents may find it unbelieavable that they spend so much time on one topic, but I completely agree to it. Little children need time to absorb knowledge, right? The syllabus should be going with them but not leading them to chase.
Throughout the year, new comers are admitted if they pass the interviews. I think the class size is not full yet. However, I suggest you to think twice (or thrice) before you change the school for your kid. Discuss with your kid beforehand.

dlh525

Hi tszma,

你好!  我囡囡應該明年09年會入讀 p.1.  希望你可以分享多些學校資訊給我們這些未來家長.  Thanks.

dlh525

tszma

Nice to meet you, dlh525,

Just feel free to ask. We would be happy to give you more information.

Pupils here (especially P.1) don't have much homework to do. So they have a lot of time to read.
Be honest, sometimes when I share with parents from the other schools, I am a bit uneasy and puzzled -- 'Will my daughter lag behind since the other children do so much homework and have so many dictations and tests?' Hence, I do give her some supplementary exercises (managable quantity and difficulty) in her spare time and require her to spell words and memorize Chinese characters. Since I set it as a schedule for her, it works very well. What, when and the amount of exercises you assign him/her to do depends on his/her abilities and interests so the child would find it acceptable and fun. My daughter would sometimes ask for more challenging exercises and she would tell me what kind of exercises she wants more.  
By the way, helping your kid to build up a good reading habit is crucial. My daughter reads a lot. Whenever she is idle at home (or even go poo-poo), she will pick a book to read. To my surprise, she has learnt many phrases, expressions and vocab unnoticed. Besides, through reading the scope of their thinking will be broadened. I realize it when she tells me her own stories.
Nice to share with you.

dlh525

Hi tszma,

你好!  想了解多些你小朋友喜歡睇書是因為p.1不太多功課而是由你配養出睇書興趣定學校配養出睇書興趣呢?

另外有一小小問題!!  因為我及我c6的普通話都不太好.  想指教下你如何教導小朋友普通話.  

謝謝

原帖由 tszma 於 09-1-17 22:50 發表
Nice to meet you, dlh525,

Just feel free to ask. We would be happy to give you more information.

Pupils here (especially P.1) don't have much homework to do. So they have a lot of time to read.
Be  ...

tszma

dlh525,
A bit sad at present. My domestic helper is at the airport now. She is leaving HK back to Indonesia, her home. I (my whole family) miss her a lot. She has worked for me for seven years since I was pragnant. We came across a lot of happy and important moments. When she was here, I hadn't said much 'thanks' or given her big hugs. But  in these few days, we have hugged and cried several times. Have you got a domestic helper at home? Do appreciate her more. I always tell my daughter to be nice and grateful to her since she has left her own children and come to a completely strange place alone. She has devoted her most treasurable years to us. My new helper will come in two weeks. I hope we can get along well.
Well, happy to share with you about helping a child build a good reading habit. When my daughter was small, I read and told stories to her whenever we were free. We went to the library quite often when she was in kindergarten. Most of the time, I chose books and read with her. People always say (I agree too) that almost all children like listening to stories and viewing beautiful pictures. My daughter was attentive when she read with me. As I remember, in mid K3, she started reading the words out on her own. I just listened without criticising or correcting her much. After she had read it, I might read it one more time to her and focus on the words that she didn't pronounce well. After several weeks (surprised to see such a smooth transition) she started silent reading on her own.I didn't request her to read out all the words. I think, if she understands and gets the message from the book, then she has completed the task and had fun through reading. Just think about ourselves, when we read a novel, we still understand and are involved without pronouncing all the words accurately. When she was about six years old, she started reading chapter books and books in a series (Adventures stories - Magic Treehouse, Fairy stories - Weather fairies,..., A to Z Mysteries..)Most of the time we borrow books from the library. I seldom buy story books because they are really expensive (~$50 a copy)and once my daughter knows the story, she seldom reads it again. Besides, waiting for a book and looking up books in the library is another lesson for her. Once there was a series of fairy stories (Monday Fairy to Sunday Fairy), she had read five of them but could not borrow the other two. (There are not many copies in the library) Then I taught her how to surf the net to look for books and how to reserve books in the library. Finally we reserved them( $2 for a book) and completed the series. Well, if I bought the whole series back home, the fun of longing for a book would be killed.See the point?  
Sometimes I question whether she understands the story or not, I would ask her to do me a favour(not demand or test her) to tell me the story briefly to see if I am interested in it or not. Well, she would tell me proudly because she thought only she knew the story. She can now give me an oral book report on the book that she has read. Last time I recorded it on my phone and told her that we could put it down in words later.
Reading is a life-long learning. Never too late to start.
Putonghua is getting more and more important in HK. It has been found that speaking and thinking in PTH helps a lot in writing Chinese essays. My daughter had PTH lessons two or three times a week (25 minutes a lesson) in her kindergarten. They listened to instructions and responded in PTH. Early acquaintance will help. When my daughter was small, I would play videos to her (Movies of Barbie,...) and sometimes I would cheat her that only Putonghua version was provided. Since she wanted to watch them, she would not refuse (but I would watch with her and clarify the plot if she was confused) But if you think watching a movie is too long for her, try short programmes (PTH Doraemon on internet) first.
Sorry that I have typed in English since I can't type fast in Chinese.
Happy Chinese New Year!

dlh525 於 09-1-19 21:44 發表
Hi tszma,

你好!  想了解多些你小朋友喜歡睇書是因為p.1不太多功課而是由你配養出睇書興趣定學校配養出睇書興趣呢?

另外有一小小問題!!  因為我及我c6的普通話都不太好.  想指教下你如何教導小朋友普通話.  

謝 ... [/quote]

dlh525

Hi tszma,

好多謝你回覆. 我都有帶個女去圖書館. 不過, 就唔係時時可以去圖書館真係要等我地o的時間許可才去到!!  而晚上都有講故事比佢聽.  
.....普通話, 其實我個女幼稚園現在都有普通話學.  不過, 而我了解我囡囡就真係一般般啦.   所以都諗緊將來點教佢普通話.   
新年快樂!  我屋企係冇姐姐幫手架!  

Tks/dlh525

原帖由 tszma 於 09-1-21 15:31 發表
dlh525,
A bit sad at present. My domestic helper is at the airport now. She is leaving HK back to Indonesia, her home. I (my whole family) miss her a lot. She has worked for me for seven years since I ...

BAOXIA

can you send me the address of the "Gigamind" ? Thanks...

cckmami

Address : BlockA, 9 Tin Lung Road,
Phase 6, Maywood Court
Kingswood Villas, Tin Shui Wai, N.T.
Telephone  : 2446 9883
Fax : 2446 9583
Email : [email protected]

地址： 新界天水圍天龍路9號
嘉湖山莊第6期 美湖居A座

myagnesbb

Hi~! May I know if gradurates from Gigamind must study in International secondary school? Does their Syllabuses can match local secondary schools? Please advices & thanks

tszma

Most of the graduates will go to local secondary schools (direct sub or subsided ones). Actually they have almost the same subjects as local primary schools (Chinese, English, Maths, I.S., Religious Studies, P.E., music, art) On the timetable, they have three reading lessons every week.

原帖由 myagnesbb 於 09-4-28 15:46 發表
Hi~! May I know if gradurates from Gigamind must study in International secondary school? Does their Syllabuses can match local secondary schools? Please advices & thanks