Ben's First Class

After listening so much from ex-colleagues about the wonders of right brain training, me being a kiasu parent signed Ben up for a nearby class which claimed to train right brain. It goes for an hour each week and cost me RM100 per hour! Yah...that is expensive. But I have been very curious about this program.

It was just an hour but wow, they do a lot of stuff during the hour! They have EVERYTHING! Phonics, Japanese words, Chinese words, Math, public speaking, speed reading, memory games and linking games. I think that is all if I remember right. Even I have problem to remember everything! haha.. I was a bit overwhelmed.

The only thing is I wonder in that ONE hour, we can do so much things (or it was more like I was doing the things) - whether this will increase or decrease attention span??? I mean if the subjects pass so fast, I will be so blur-blur until dont know what happen. Or to look at the other perspective, to get children attention, we need to move fast? I also dont know. Will see what happens during the new few lessons.


5 of us - kids with mothers sat down on the floor with our children in front of us. Then the teacher start off with a greeting very fast and smoothly - about the date, day, time and weather. However teacher's English pronounciation is not good. Then she flash cards on road signs - no turning, children cannot cross here, there....followed by flash cards on elements like the one below Xenon 54. Even I dont know what is that? Haha. Then to enhance photographic, they showed this on the screen for a minute and we were supposed to colour according to the show (my only issue is that Ben only like blue colour...so he wanted all blue colour). I was having problems with this since Ben was starting to get antsy. Subsequent to that we were supposed to also draw out the shape. I think this part of the lesson is called Mandala and is available at some shops which specialises in IQ toys.

One part of the lesson was also they gave us this shape and some pieces.

It happened that at home I also had this pieces so I can do this and showed it here.

Then this I had some problems as well. They showed 3 rows of numbers and then we were supposed to write it out. Of course, they showed it row by row. As you can see, I also had problems to remember here as well! Haha. And they expect Ben to do all of this?? He cannot even sit still.

There were Japanese songs as well and Japanese flash card. Then a sandpaper of this following word was also given where Ben used his finger to trace. Then we were given this homework to trace at home.

And another homework, follow the arrows to draw lines.

Other things that I can remember was dot flash cards (popularised by Glen Doman), artist flash cards with song about the artist (ours was Picasso), public speaking (Ben had to go in front and say his name to the rest of his class-mates), Chinese flash cards, speeding reading (a story was read out from a taped recording and then played again at a faster speed. I wonder is that how you learn speeding reading???.....)

Lastly a sticker was given for attendance. We stick it in an attendance sheet and later after we accumulate some stickers, we can exchange for some small toys!

And for paying RM100 registration fees, there is also a bag!

Yes, I do sound sceptical. But when I asked Ben whether he like the class, he said yes....and I am scratching my head.......because he hardly listen during class. I guess I will give it another few more lessons. But Ben seemed to be ready for some kind of structure - he loved to sit down and do coloring, etc....maybe I will go and find some kind class. Of course, a cheaper one! :)