10 Things You Should Know When Sending Your Child To An After School Care Centre

With the new school year looming ahead, and many parents starting to plan for school, tuition and after school care, we came up with a FAQ list to one such centre. We are posting this up and hope that this will help some of the parents sending children to an after school are centre for the first time. 

While every centre may have its own special arrangements, we think that knowing at least one will help you be better prepared if you are planning to send your child to an after school care centre.

These centres can also be referred to as a before school care centre depending on which schooling session your child is in.

FAQ OF A BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL CARE CENTRE

1. Do you pick the children up from school? 

Yes

2.  Will you help the children with homework? What if my child is extra slow in a subject? Will you give him additional help? 

Yes, help with homework and if extra slow in a subject will provide additional help, however some child might due to lack of interest so will suggest different ways for the child to catch up.

3.    What do I need to bring for my child each day? How many sets of uniforms do you recommend me to have? 

If child is in morning session, please leave a week or more clothes in the center, towel to bring back every day. If child is in afternoon session, please bring uniform when sending the child coming over.

4.     What happens if I am late to pick up my child? What is the latest time I can come? Will you charge me for late pick up? 

Latest pick up by 7pm, however if late we will still wait, there is a chargers of RM10 per half an hour to be paid to teacher directly as it as a token of appreciation to the teacher.

5.    What happens if my child is sick? Will you help to feed my child with his medicine? 

For children who are sick, if is mild fever and flu we will accept and keep them with us to rest and feed them medicine, however if child’s fever hit 38 degree and above, we advice please take care at home.

6.    Do you open during school holidays and unexpected holiday announcements? 

Yes, I open throughout all school holidays; only will close during Chinese New Year for a week or so. It will be announced earlier.

7.    What if my child does not like to join in the supervised play sessions? 

We will first need to identify why, and we will try by talking, introducing different style and etc to help the child gets comfortable first.

8.     Can my child bring his own favorite snacks? What sort of meals do you provide? What if my child has an allergy? 

Yes, every child is allowed to bring favorite snack, we provide home cook food with no canned or unhealthy food like nuggets and sausages. If your child has an allergy please inform us and we will cater differently for your child.

9.    What tuition do you provide for after school care kids? Do I have to pay extra tuition fees? 

We provide 5 subjects of tuition for before and after school care kids, there is no extra chargers.

10.   What sort of security measures do you take? 

Our gate is locked all the time, our doors are all with double lock with 2 different style, no walk in enquiries allowed, no aunty or uncle pick up allowed unless parents inform us earlier with IC and certain personal details provided.

We wish to thank Little Oxford Daycare Centre for answering this FAQ and giving a sneek peek to parents on what to expect.

Related posts:

• Life In A Before Or After School Care Centre Of A SK Student
• What To Look For In A Before Or After School Care Centre
• Time Table Of A SJKC Student In A Before Or After School Care Centre

Register now to join British Council Young Learner English courses for ages 5 to 17, starting 9 January 2016

Recently there has been a lot of news on the declining standards of English in the country. The value of good English in the higher institutes of learning and workplace cannot be denied. Concerned parents who realize the importance of English are looking for good English Language schools to give their children that extra edge they need. British Council Malaysia is one such school. If you are interested in finding out more about the courses being offered by British Council Malaysia now is your chance to get more information. Registration starts now, learn more about the courses here.

British Council Kuala Lumpur and Damansara are having open days on 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20 December 2015.

Lots of activities have been planned for the open days. You can attend free parents workshops while your children have fun participating in arts and crafts, hand and face painting, treasure hunts and story telling activities. There will be free goodie bags and gifts to be won. So why not treat it like a little holiday excursion with your children while you find out more about the English Language courses, the fees, timetable and more.

Speak to the teachers about the syllabus and have a good look around to visualize whether your child will enjoy the learning environment. This is always a good idea whenever you send your children to any learning centre. It is important to pay the centre a visit to understand the learning culture and conditions.

The open days will be over 6 different dates to fit your schedule so you can drop by on the day most convenient to you.

This open day is held simultaneously on both British Council Branches in the Klang Valley ie. the Mutiara Damansara and Kuala Lumpur branches.

Who Should Attend The Open Day?

British Council Malaysia has courses structured for lower primary (age 5-9), upper primary (age 10-12) and Secondary (age 13-17). All parents with kids and teens in these age groups should drop by to find out more about the courses available.

Notable: The New Primary Plus course by British Council Malaysia

Those with kids aged 5-9 can ask about the new Primary Plus Courses which is a new course introduced by British Council Malaysia specifically for this age group.

Here's a sneak peek of the new course. In Primary Plus, kids will be doing a variety of tasks and projects that are aimed at improving their understanding and use of the English language. Besides learning English, the plus factors are the essential living skills of communicating, working with others, problem solving, decision making, leadership, creativity and higher order thinking skills that they will learn in the context of the English lessons. It is like a two-in-one course. This is an excellent course for those seeking for something more than just academics.

Location of the British Council teaching centres can be found here:

Kuala Lumpur
Mutiara Damansara
Penang

Parents with kids in SJKC or SK should find the course useful to help their children advance in English as well as think out of the box. Those that plan to send their kids to Private or International Schools for their secondary school education should also find this course useful to prepare their children not only for English but for the different learning environment in such schools.

Click the following link to book your place for the open day by using the form available on the page.

Mini Giveaway for our blog readers in conjunction with the open day

Share this post on your Facebook timeline to be in the running to win MPH vouchers. 
3 sets of MPH vouchers worth RM50 each will be given away to 3 randomly selected winners. (Winners to collect the vouchers from the British Council KL Centre)

All you have to do is share this post with the hashtag #BritishCouncilMalaysiaOpenDay and leave your Facebook username in the comments below so you can be contacted if you win. Click on the Facebook icon below this post to share. Easy?  This giveaway ends on 1st December 2015. Start sharing now! 

IMPORTANT!
1. Don't forget to share using the hashtag #BritishCouncilMalaysiaOpenDay
2. Remember to leave your FB username in the comments after sharing.

This Giveaway Is Now Over

Congratulations to the 3 winners!

1. Nicole Ng
2. Nirmala Krishnan
3. Sean Ong

Gearing Up For Back To School Season

We are getting ready for the back to school season on our website. We have created a Back To School Shopping page where we will list back to school promotions, offers and places where you can shop for back to school items online including school uniforms, school bags, labels, calculators, workbooks, textbooks and other back to school stuff.

It is still early days so watch this space and bookmark it for your back to school shopping needs. There will be more to come. We also included a free printable back to school shopping list for you to print out and use.

Happy Shopping!

Creative Writing And Storytelling For Kids Resource

Recently, we wrote an article on 10 Fill In The Blanks Story Makers For Kids. Somehow, at the time we did not come across this wonderful resource on creative writing and storytelling for kids from Super Easy Storytelling.

This school holidays, you can explore this site and do some of the fun activities with your child to encourage creative storytelling and writing. Here's what we love about the site.

• We love the writing worksheets for kids especially the creative writing prompts. I bet the kids will have a lot of laughs with those

• We love the adjectives, verbs and adverbs list. These will be useful for kids to help them along especially if they struggle with the right words to use in a story whether written or verbal

• Parents and educators will find the lesson plans and classroom posters useful

• Younger kids may enjoy the Fill In The Blanks Story guides. All they need to do is fill in the blanks when prompted to come up with a quick story while older children can use the story prompts to tell their story

• There is a section on "How To Tell A Story" which is excellent for parents/teachers as well as students. You can brush up your story telling skills or organize a fun group storytelling for your family or students

Check out this creative writing and storytelling resource for kids. You will find plenty of storytelling ideas here. Big thanks to Super Easy Storytelling for the images above. You can download all of the above and more from the site.

Money-Free Holiday Activity For Kids

Everything costs money these days. Right? Wrong. There are still some things in life that are free. For example, if you are looking for a money-free holiday fun activity for your kids, why not try this? A nature walk. Yes, it is fun, wonderful and absolutely free. All you need to do is to take your kids out for a walk in the park and open up your eyes, mind and heart. Come take a nature walk with me and I will show you what I mean.


 Choose a beautiful day for your nature walk and then remember to look up to enjoy the pretty blue sky.

 Let's see what else you can spot when looking up? Here's a tree with tiny pink flowers.

 One of the flowers fell to the ground. It looks like a pretty hula-hula or tutu skirt.

Remember not to trample on the grass. Many of them have tiny pretty flowers too. Watch out for them. 

Let's take a closer look at those tiny flowers.....

 Here's one of those tiny flowers by a tree. So pretty. It looks like an exotic flower in a jungle but if you weren't looking out for it, you would never have noticed it because it was just weeds growing at the base of a tree.

 Now let's have a closer look at the tree. Such texture. Reminds me of those old trees you encounter in storybook land.

Here's another tree. This one has been chopped off leaving only the stump. Let's study the stump. All those circles within show how old the tree is. How interesting.

Here are more flowers .....

Creamed coloured flowers....

 Tiny yellow flowers....

White Flowers...

Oh look, here are some pebbles.

Did you know that green moss actually look like a thin layer of carpet over the drain if you open not just your eyes but your mind

Here's a seed. My son is very into seeds at the moment. He would plant this one if I let him. This seed and sand conjures an image of a sandy beach and sunny skies. Actually it was lying forlornly at the side of a gravel road.

No birds or insects to capture on this nature walk but a snail snacking on a leaf was found!

Did you enjoy the nature walk? Now go for one of your own. It is free! You can find most of these things at a park. You don't have to go jungle trekking or to a beach resort to see these things. They are everywhere around you.

Be a kid again. Kids see wonder in everything. An ordinary walk in the park is full of beauty to be discovered. The art of looking is seeing everything as if you are seeing it for the first time. Remember to point everything out to your children and bring your camera so you can capture the wonder and talk about them again later on.

Beauty is all around us. We just have to open our eyes to notice them. 

So next time you go to the park, don't trample on the leaves or walk about absent mindedly thinking about the 101 things in your todo list. Look around and pay attention to the little things around you, the colour, the texture, the flora, fauna and little creatures. Everything is beautiful!

Learn To Sing In 6 Months Or Play Drums in 4 Months At Elysee Music Malaysia

Do you have a child who loses interest in music lessons you send them to? They may beg you to learn the piano or insist they want to take up the violin but then their excitement fizzles out after a month or two. If you have a child like that, why not sign them up for a short course before you invest in expensive musical instruments that you may later have to sell as a pre-loved item because your children have lost interest in them?

Elysee Music offers short courses for children, teenagers and adults (from age 7 and above).These are ideal options for you to gauge your child's interest before investing in longer term programs. It is also a great way to expand your children's musical horizons by learning something new in a very short time.

Current short courses on offer include:

1. Learn to sing in 6 months - This is an introductory voice course. Great for anyone who likes to sing from ages 7 and above. The fee is RM990 for 6 months. You get RM100 off if you register before 31 January 2016. Singing is an excellent activity to build confidence, similar to public speaking but more fun. You don't need any special musical instruments with this one. Your voice is the instrument you can carry around with you anytime and anywhere. You just have to get it trained. The voice coach will help you find your original voice. You will learn to sing within your natural voice range, be introduced to voice projection, build confidence in solo singing and develop fundamental skills e.g. vocal technique, listening skills and music interpretation within 6 months.

2. Learn to play drums in 4 months - This is an introductory drum course for ages 7 and above.The fee is RM660 for 4 months. You get RM100 off if you register before 31 January 2016.You will learn to read drum notation, play basic grooves and discover new beats and patterns while developing coordination and drumming techniques. After 4 months, try getting into the groove and start jamming with other people!

For more details on the above short courses, contact

Elysee Music
A-3A-08 Capital 1, Oasis Square, No. 2,
Jalan PJU 1A/7A Ara Damansara,
47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: 012-3321272
Website: http://elyseemusic.com/

Teaching Kids About Conscience

Image Credit: Positive Quotes For Kids Are Available To Download From Talking Tree Books

Recently my son brought home his test results. According to him, he lost a few marks because his English teacher made a mistake while marking so he went to inform the teacher. Many of his friends also found mistakes in their paper but they chose not to reveal it to the teacher because the few marks mattered a lot to them.

The next day, he discovered some mistakes which earned him a few extra marks. This time, friends who found the same mistakes went to inform teacher about the mistake to get those additional marks.

My son was confused because though marks mattered to him too, he didn't understand why his friends reacted in that manner.

When I heard about this, I was saddened. What is happening to our kids today? Why are academic results, getting marks and comparing class positions so important to them. What about the parents? Are they aware of their kid's actions? Holding back from informing teacher just because they were afraid of losing marks is akin to lying. Whatever happened to honesty and conscience? That little voice in your head that tells you whether something is right or wrong.

Our kids study "Moral" as a subject in school but are they really taught to practice it?

I think it is important to educate your child about honesty, conscience, empathy, self-control, having respect for others, responsibility, say no to bullying, being kind and other important moral values in life. These are so important as part of a child's overall education. Education is not only about getting As and studying Math, Science, Languages or other subjects.

If you are interested to teach your child about conscience and other important traits, you can check out this site which I found while surfing online for resources on teaching kids about conscience. I especially like the free printable character education worksheets. They include worksheets for kids, powerpoint presentations and lesson plans. You can see an example below but there are lots more from the site. Really wonderful resource for parents and educators to teach the following character building traits.

• Conscience
• Honesty
• Empathy
• Respect

Image Credit: Character Education Free Printable Worksheets From Talking Tree Books

Special thanks to Colleen Bryant for allowing me to use her posters and worksheet to illustrate my blog post. Colleen is the author of the Talking With Trees books, a series of character building story books for kids.

Personalized Labels For Kids Malaysia

Brightly colored custom labels make it easy for your child to find his belongings

Brightly colored custom labels make it easy for your child to find his belongings

Once your child starts attending kindergarten and later on primary school, personalized labels are invaluable. Kids being kids, often end up losing their stationery, water tumblers, bags and even shoes! So much so that some schools set up a lost and found corner for missing items.

You will find all sorts of lost items in the cabinet or cupboard set aside for this purpose. Pencil cases, shorts, t-shirts, spectacles, food containers, school uniforms..... The list is endless.

Personalized labels make sure your child can differentiate
their tumbler from the exact same looking tumbler from a classmate

In addition to losing items, sometimes items get mixed up. This happens frequently for water tumblers that look alike. Mix up also happens when children have to remove their shoes to enter the library for example, wrong shoes get worn home frequently.

If you are a parent facing this, don't tear out your hair in frustration just yet. There is an easy solution to lost or mixed up items. Cute Personalized Labels For Kids. Personalized labels are also useful when you send your child to daycare. It is easier for the daycare centers to identify your child's clothing, bags, shoes and tumblers if you label them.

Personalized iron-on clothing labels make it easier for the
daycare centre to identify your child's property

Previously, you had to order nice custom labels from overseas. They take weeks to arrive. Now you can buy them in Malaysia online or directly from the Fun Printz kiosk at IPC shopping centre. Brightly colored labels with cute designs make it easy for your child to find their items because it stands out more. It is also easier to locate your child's missing items when claiming them from the lost and found station if you label your child's stuff.

At Fun Printz, you can get just about any type of label for your needs including bag tags, shoe labels, shape labels both self-adhesive labels as well as iron-on labels.

Shoe labels are designed to stick to the insole of your shoes and with the weight of the person on it, the stickers stay stuck and hardly come off even during laundry. This helps your child spot their shoes easily every time they have to remove and put them on again later.

All the pictures shown in this post are from Fun Printz. Online ordering is available at www.fun-printz.com. If you are not sure what size labels you should order, then go for their value pack plus which includes labels in 4 different sizes, a set of stick on clothing labels, shoe labels and iron on labels.

For express printing, you can visit the store at Ikano Power Centre. There are more selections available instore. Orders can be ready within 30 minutes to hours on the standard label and bag tag.

While personalized labels make it easier for children to identify their things, as parents we must not forget the most fundamental thing of all which is to teach our kids to be mindful of their stuff and to take care of them. Still, custom labels are fun and do make our life easier as parents of school going kids.

Standard 6 SJKC Workbooks For 2016

One of the annoyances I feel when buying  SJKC workbooks is buying them for my going to be standard 6 in 2016 kid. Since he is in the first KSSR batch of students, the workbooks are always unavailable. Every year it is the same. I would go to the bookshop and see workbooks for all the standards accept his. This happens every year, Std 2, 3, 4, 5... His workbooks always come out last.

So I'm sharing this with all the parents who face the same thing. Just to let you know that the workbooks for those going to standard 6 in 2016 is out. Not a lot yet at the moment but more to come soon hopefully. You can get these 2016 Std 6 Workbooks online from Peekabook.

Mumsgather Finds - Dinoscovery Giveaway Contest

Are you ready to travel back in time? Go on a Dino treasure hunt or race with one? Learn all about dinosaurs or be a paleontologist for a day? You can do all that at Dinoscovery this year end.

We're running a giveaway contest on Mumsgather Finds from 16-23 November 2015.

For a chance to win 2 adults and 2 kids tickets to Dinoscovery this school holidays,  Click here to enter this simple online contest.

Good Luck!

Free Printable Back To School Shopping List

The back to school shopping season is about to start. Isn't that exciting? It is exciting especially for those who are going to school for the first time. That is why we prepared a free printable back to school shopping list just for you.

Do you look forward to back to school shopping or do you hate all the rushing and shoving and bargaining? Are you the type to plan ahead and buy early or do you prefer to wait till last minute and brave the crowd to get the best back to school offers and promotions?

Whichever type of shopper you may be, you will need a back to school shopping list. We made one just for you to help you save time so you can concentrate on other things and there will be lots of other things to do to get ready for the holidays and back to school season.

You can print our free back to school shopping list which contains all of the most basic stuff that a school going kid requires plus a few extra lines for you to fill in your own.

If you are doing it for the first time, why not make it a fun event, print the list and pass it to your child. Then shop for the items together whether in physical shops or online and tick them off as you go along. This ought to get them all excited and ready for school. It will also teach them organization skills. It is always better to have a list then to shop haphazardly. When you do that, sometimes you miss out items or get things you don't need.

This free printable shopping list is for our members only. Members can download the back to school shopping list from here.

Pusat Tuisyen Aman Suria By Collis Academy Learning Centre

Nestled along Jalan PJU 1/43, Aman Suria Damansara, you will find Pusat Tuisyen Aman Suria, a learning centre owned by Collis Learning Academy. This learning centre will take care of your child's tuition needs from lower primary right up to pre-U level as it offers lessons for every level for both local and international syllabuses.

A typical lesson being carried out at Aman Suria Tuition Centre

This is good news for those staying around the area because it means you do not have to go hunting for a new centre every time your child levels up. It is also useful for home schoolers who need extra help in various subjects.

Classes offered include:

• Primary
• Lower Secondary
• SPM
• IGCSE
• O-Level
• A-Level
• IELTS
• TOEFL

Reading up on the tuition centre's Facebook page and website, their main strategy is that classes are kept small 6-8 pax max so that students will get personalized attention from the tutors. We also found the following reviews by parents on their Facebook page.

"Friendly staff, wonderful teachers,very well managed, clean & hygienic tuition center". - Azumi Ishibara 

"Small and focus class. Help to build strong foundation" - Connie Yap

Currently the centre is running  a Holiday Compact & Structured Workshop For English, Bahasa Malaysia & Mandarin (for primary to secondary levels). If you think your child requires remedial help to prepare them for the next schooling year, you can check out the language workshops. Details on the flyer below.

For more information on this learning centre or the holiday workshops. visit the following links.

Website: http://www.collislearningacademy.my/
Facebook: Aman Suria Tuition Centre

Location Map For Aman Suria Tuition Centre is below:

Dance Classes For Kids For November And December School Holidays 2015

Do you have a little dancer at home? One that can't help but twirl around the room or tap their feet or snap their fingers whenever they hear music?

If you have a child like that, or if you have a very active girl or boy who can't seem to sit still, send them for a dance class for kids this November and December School Holidays 2015.

Here is one such dance camp, a performing arts school holiday programme that will teach your child all about the various types of dances and music. They will have their minds and hearts opened up with music and dances across cultures and years over 5 fun filled days.






They will learn the following dances:

• Hip Hop
• Broadway
• Jazz
• Zumba
• Latin
• Ballroom
• Disco
• K-Pop

In addition, they will also get to practice traditional dances that they read and learn about in school books like:

• Silat
• Bharatanatyam
• Chinese Traditional Dance

Have a look at the workshop schedule below to see the full scope of what they will learn at this dance camp.

This is an incredible opportunity for school going kids of any age. Fortunately, kids of every age are given the chance to join this performing arts school holiday programme as there will be 3 different camps for kids ranging from 5 to 17 years old.

School Holiday Dance Class Details:

Dates:  Camp 1 (5 to 8 years old) 23-27 Nov 2015 / Camp 2 (9 to 12 years old) 7-11 Dec 2015 / Camp 3 (13-17 years old) 14-18 Dec 2015

Time: 2 - 5 pm

Venue: Joy Club Academy, Taman Tun Dr Ismail

Contact: 03-7727 7291/ Call or Whatsapp 017-291 2800 (Esther)/017-2912811 (Rachelle)

Or Complete The Programme Registration Form Here

Nature Math And Science Activity For Kids

One of the easiest activities to teach kids math and science is planting activities. Recently, my boy has taken to planting. He is fascinated by collecting seeds, planting them and then checking his plants daily to see what he gets.

One day he came home with a red bean that he picked up from the floor in his school canteen. He immediately planted it. It grew very quickly and soon we could see some light yellow flowers. When the flowers dropped off, the beans appeared.

Slowly the beans turned yellow and we plucked them and popped them open to reveal more red beans! He was very excited and wanted to pluck some more red beans for his friends.

"We won't pluck the dried ones mom", he said. So he plucked the nice green ones and they turned out unripe and slimy inside.
From this activity, he learned so many things. He learned the life cycle of a plant. He also learned math and counting. How amazing it is to see one bean turn into five!

We recommend planting red beans as a fun, easy and quick nature math and science activity for kids. It only takes a few weeks to see the results.