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  • 3: Literacy Part 2 - How to start reading with my child

    3: Literacy Part 2 - How to start reading with my child
    2020/06/07
    TRANSCRIPT FOR EP3:Literacy Part 2 (How to start reading with my child ) In the second part of these series on literacy, I will be sharing with you on how to start reading with children. Many young parents, approached us and we are often being asked these questions on how to start reading with their children as they do not know how to go about it and when to start reading with them. First and foremost, we need to ask ourselves if we like to read? Before we even begin reading with our children , we have to be reader ourselves so that we can influence them and encourage them to read. Many of us now are not reading well enough.There are a wide range of genre of good books available in the bookstore or even the libraries. If we do not take this opportunity to read with them, it will be quite a waste.So if you were to ask me when to start reading with the children, the answer is NOW. Just pick up a book and read with your children and not read to them. What I’m referring to is reading aloud. The reason being is simple, when you read with your child or children, you are building closeness in your relationship with the child. With that, when the reading is carried out daily, consistently, persistently and you insist that you want to read with your child at a certain time eg. Just before bedtime, you’re really building the relationship so much so that the child will reciprocate and wants to read with you too everyday. It is crucial how you start reading with your child. You have to be enthusiastic about reading yourself and when the child sees your enthusiasm and love for reading, the child will be influenced too. So, reading begins with us parents to be the role model for the child or children. When choosing books for the child, as parents, we need to know the contents of the book first and we have to be excited to read the book before you excite your child. So, as you begin reading with the child, he or she will be interested and you will be able to rub the interest to the child and answer to their curiosities. The next common question is, my child always chooses to read princess books or dinosaurs, would that be an issue? Well, fret not parents, no issue at all. We have to respect their interests too. Start the books that they like and not the books that you like because the ultimate aim is for the child to find joy in reading. Gradually you may introduce them to other genres like mysteries, fantasies.From my own observation when I visit the libraries, it's a wonderful sight to see mommies and daddies are with their young children - so excited to choose the books for them. I could even hear parents telling their children " The book is not for you, it's too easy. Go and find more difficult books. " Then when they sit together with their children in the reading corner, they have the pile of books and I could see the children's reactions. While some obediently sit and read together with their parents, many others were not paying attention to what the parents read. Either the books are too difficult to read or they don't have interest at all and the parents are trying so hard to get the children's attention. Here are some tips in choosing books for your child : First, when choosing a book at the library or bookstore, what I would normally do when my boys were much younger, I will get them to choose a book with vibrant colours and pictures. some books come with prompts to help parents guide your child while reading the book as well. Books with vibrant colours attract the child in wanting to read. Books with pictures help the child to relate to the story even though they may not know how to read the words yet. How do we know if the book is age appropriate?1) Look out for the signs in the library, the book sections are usually categorised by the different age groups.2) If your child is not able to read more than 3 words in a page, then the book is not appropriate for the child. How do we start reading with our child/read aloud with our child?1a) Have a preview of the book both front and back cover. Introduce your child to the title, author, illustrator, genre , fiction or non-fiction. Get the child familiar with the terms - what is a title (to tell the readers what is the book about), who is an author (someone who writes the book), what does an illustrator do (draw, put the pictures together with the colours). Fiction book covers are normally drawn while non-fiction book covers are real pictures. This is to give the child the preparation of mind so that the child will be familiar and get them to better relate to the story in their life.2a) You may point to the words as you read with your child to create behaviours in reading. Ensure what you point is in tandem what you read eg It gives an indicator where you are at when reading, scanning from left to right, connecting from one sentence to another, turning the pages, increasing interest in the child’s independent reading.b) Fluency and intonation...
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    10 分
  • 2: Literacy Part 1 - Mindset

    2: Literacy Part 1 - Mindset
    2020/06/07
    TRANSCRIPT FOR EP2:Literacy Part 1 ( Mindset) In my first part of the many series to come on literacy, I will be sharing with you on mindset and the common mistakes that we as parents make. This sharing is based on my past and current experience as a mom to 3 teenage boys as well as a literacy facilitator. First we have to ask ourselves, as parents do we have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset? If my child has no interest in reading or writing, do we start to label our child as lazy or even slow learner? Let me share with you this story and it's a true story. There was a p3 child in one of our programmes, who was very quiet and will usually sit by himself – so you could imagine how "participative", he was and yes, you’re right with very low self-esteem too. Language itself was a challenge for him at that time. He always had this mindset of “I do not know” and “I cannot”. When the child finally warmed up to us, he opened up. We found out that, the reason behind why he was acting the way he was acting all the while was because, he was always being labelled as ‘stupid’ by his dad. Every little action he made, he felt was never right. Always been put down. We had to create a separate and customised lesson to enable him catch up with the rest. Eventually, through the activities that we engaged him with, and of course with the encouragement and motivation, it allowed him to build his self-confidence once he tasted his first success. So parents, have we asked ourselves, what is our belief system that we are creating for our children? The onus is on us parents, to set our belief system and realise that every child can learn and each child has his or her own unique learning potential with the right tools and techniques to support the child. In my consultation with parents especially for first time parents, many have asked these questions “ How early do I read with my child” or “Is it too early to read with my child” or some even begin to panic, “Is it too late to read with my child” It is never too early to read with the child. The best time to programme a child’s brain is during the child’s first seven years of their life. Studies have also shown that when both mom and dad read to the child even when the child is still in the mother’s womb, it helps to stimulate the brain’s development. So new parents to be, it is just about time. If we think that it is probably too late, then what is stopping us? let’s start to take action now! Early intervention could help identify the gap in the child’s learning if any for example Dyslexia. The child’s self-esteem and confidence could also be developed early. Learning begins from home and parents, we are our child’s first teachers. As parents, we need to create a nurturing environment for the child of “ I love you, I am with you and it is worthwhile to react” , this creates an opportunity for the child to learn from mistakes. In my day to day interaction with children from pre-school to primary school, I have made my own observation and study. Children who have strong support from parents at home especially having both mom and dad together even though these children have zero knowledge when they first enrolled in our programmes, they make better and faster progress. This group of children is more willing to learn and always wanting more as compared to the other group of children whose parents just leave the child in its entirety to teachers and facilitators. The first common mistake that parents usually make is leaving everything to the teachers and facilitators. Some of us, when we're too tired from work and for convenient sake, we easily give our gadgets (handphones and tablets) to the children when the child wants attention or when they are throwing tantrums instead of guiding them through their learning. As one of the facilitators myself, I have always encouraged these parents to be involved in their child’s learning through our extension activities from home and to ensure that parents too are equipped with the necessary tools to support their child’s learning. Let me share with you another story and it's a true story. I've a pair of twins who are 5 years in my class. When I first assess them, they are still grappling with reading. When they are given new words, they simply kept quiet and didn't even want to try sounding out the letters and blend eg. little. Now, they are midway to complete their first module and I'm very happy to see the progress that they've made. Why? The lessons that these twins go through with me are followed up at home. Their parents took my advice by reading with them every night and before the start of each lesson, they shared with me the contents of the book so that as the twins read, I could refer to what they are reading. It's really rewarding to see that even with the difficult words, they're trying to blend and I could see the effort put in by the twins and the ...
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    11 分
  • 1: My story, My Beginning

    1: My story, My Beginning
    2020/05/21
    Transcript of Ep1: My Story, My Beginning Welcome to Every Child Matters Show. I'm Haryani Bakri and in this episode, I will be sharing with you my story, my beginning.Being the eldest in the family of 3 siblings, I've always felt that I should be the role model to my younger brother and sister. There are high expectations of how I should perform in academics, how I should behave and I felt that I've always needed to compete with my other cousins who are high achievers who are now accountants and architects. Growing up I felt that that I needed to be perfect all the time and I felt that I was not good enough.I've always wanted to do mass communication studies after O levels but my dad rejected the idea and asked me to take up computer science in A levels because he felt that it's a future trend and I would have more options when deciding my next career path. I was very upset for not able to do what I wanted to do but I still went ahead and followed his advise to take up computer science because I felt that I needed to be the expected role model to my siblings and not disappoint him as well.After A levels, I pondered what I wanted to do. Since I came from a family of teachers and because I love children, why not I teach and so I became a contract teacher. During my contract teaching, I was juggling with part-time studying at night for diploma and advanced diploma in computer science as part of my own professional development. Upon completion of my advanced diploma, I decided to pursue further studies abroad with my dad's encouragement.I have always thought that my parents always have high expectations on me, always need to be the perfect child, the role model to my siblings and I was not able to make my own choices. But when my dad asked me what I wanted to do after my advanced diploma and I responded that I wanted to pursue further studies, he gave me the option which country I wanted to go. I replied, UK. Without any objection this time, he asked me to look at the available universities in the UK for the courses offered. When I went to study in United Kingdom, then I began to open up my horizons and I realised that those are just the little voices in my head. My parents did not allow me to fork out my own savings, they financed my education fully, which was not cheap. They had to sell the house and my mom had to source for extra income by working extra hours running her Nasi Padang business just to finance my education with the help of my dad. Since it was a family business, my younger brother who was still in secondary school was roped in to help out too . Long hours from wee hours in the morning till late at night. My younger sister went to study abroad the same time as me too. These are big sacrifices that made me realise their unconditional love and extensive support for me. Being a mom of 3 boys now, I fully understand what my parents went through. Without their full support, I wouldn't be where I am now. I realised and appreciate for the support that they have given me all this while in my learning journey.Upon completing my honours degree, my passion for teaching was still burning and hence I came back as an Education Consultant in a dotcom company to train school children in both the primary and secondary levels as well as teachers in software literacy skills. After a couple of months into the job, I became a Senior Education Consultant.Due to the dotcom burst, the dotcom company, now dot gone, was bought over by another company. I was brought in to join the new company and took on a new scope in post-sales to train and provide consultation to teachers on the use of online learning tools to enhance their teaching and learning for the students. Fast forward, I took on an additional role apart from training, which is in sales with a publishing company providing both the digital solution as well as the physical teaching and learning resources in schools.Having been in the education industry for over 20 years now, I’ve conducted regional trainings and workshops in Brunei, Philippines and Malaysia. Throughout my career when I went around schools and the interactions I had with teachers, I realised and observed that there were still a handful of children as old as 13 and 14 years old who were still unable to read and hence a lot of additional support were needed. This dampened their self-esteem. I remembered back then when I began my teaching career. My very first class that I undertook was the primary 1 children. You must have thought, wow, a newbie taking on primary 1 children? Challenging as it sounds, everything new - new to teaching, new to the environment; but I enjoyed teaching them as they were so adorable and I had definitely learnt a lot from them too. What I found peculiar was that, some of these children were still unable to read when they first entered primary 1. This hindered their interest in learning and most of them had low self-esteem; they tend to give up easily. Later, I ...
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    14 分