Comparing Pre-school English Reading and Phonics Enrichment

[Kammie]

Hi Ros,


I am not familiar with Zoophonic. But my son attended I can read for the last 2 years. It was good initially. My son looked forward to going for his classes. But after a while, they kept changing teachers… i have lost count and hence finally stopped his lessons this year. After one of his particularly good teacher left, I didn’t find him improving very much with the rest of the teachers. So maybe you should talk to the centre manager regarding their teacher’s turnover before deciding. Frequent changing of teachers can be very disruptive.

[JJJ]

My son is 7yrs old attending Pri 1 now. I have sent him to Zoo phonics since he was 5 at Thomson branch and stop before end last year. So he has actually attended 2 years of Zoo phonics.

From what I gather, Zoo phonics is very focused on phonics and has make learning phonics very fun. My son strength on phonics is now very strong, able to pronounce difficult words and this has make his spelling learning so much easlier in Pri 1. However, zoo phonics is mainly on vocab but not grammer. Now my son kind of struggle with his grammer usuage, sentence structure, word orders, etc.

[kaitlynangelica]

JJJ:

My son is 7yrs old attending Pri 1 now. I have sent him to Zoo phonics since he was 5 at Thomson branch and stop before end last year. So he has actually attended 2 years of Zoo phonics.

From what I gather, Zoo phonics is very focused on phonics and has make learning phonics very fun. My son strength on phonics is now very strong, able to pronounce difficult words and this has make his spelling learning so much easlier in Pri 1. However, zoo phonics is mainly on vocab but not grammer. Now my son kind of struggle with his grammer usuage, sentence structure, word orders, etc.

JJJ,

I have a problem with my child's grammar too. I think it is because of influence by the maid. She is solely taken care off by my maid and unfortunately, my maid has passed her poor grammar to my daughter.

[JJJ]

kaitlynangelica:

JJJ:

My son is 7yrs old attending Pri 1 now. I have sent him to Zoo phonics since he was 5 at Thomson branch and stop before end last year. So he has actually attended 2 years of Zoo phonics.

From what I gather, Zoo phonics is very focused on phonics and has make learning phonics very fun. My son strength on phonics is now very strong, able to pronounce difficult words and this has make his spelling learning so much easlier in Pri 1. However, zoo phonics is mainly on vocab but not grammer. Now my son kind of struggle with his grammer usuage, sentence structure, word orders, etc.

JJJ,

I have a problem with my child's grammar too. I think it is because of influence by the maid. She is solely taken care off by my maid and unfortunately, my maid has passed her poor grammar to my daughter.

Yes, I agreed. External factors like maid's language, TV programme which speak a lot of Singlish and of course we unconsciously speak broken English without knowing it. They are like a sponge, absorbing all these into them.

[rockmoo]

VooVoo - what do u have to share abt Letterland? What’s yr feedback?

[liptonice]

Hi,


Do any parents have any feedback on the english classes by Lorna Whiston’s programmes for pre-schoolers and its teachers?

[VooVoo]

rockmoo:

VooVoo - what do u have to share abt Letterland? What's yr feedback?

Haa...I actually don't know much...but I think it is probably similar to Zoophonics...they teach \"o\" by saying \"oscar orange\"?... :oops:

So now, when my son sees \"o\" he automatically says \"oscar orange\"..erhem...I dunno if he knows it is just \"o\" :roll:

[rockmoo]

i went to enquire zoo phonics @ Thomson. Their 2 weekends only have 1 class each. So pathetic. The only timing on Sat (which oso happen to be my girl’s nap time) is full so I’m on waitlist.


As compared, Letterland under tumbletots have many outlets in SIN and various timings…

Wonder if they teaches the same… but seems like more kiasuparents have better reviews over zoo phonics…

[VooVoo]

Since Letterland is part of the curriculum in my son's childcare...I don't have a choice :lol:


I also don't want to confuse him by separately putting him into a phonics class based on a different syllabus...

[liptonice]

Hi Ros & Kammie,


I'm also in the midst of looking for english classes for my child and also
trying to figure out the differences between I Can Read, Zoophonics
and Lorna Whiston. While the 1st 2 centres focus more on phonics, Lorna
Whiston does a little bit more than phonics and focus on working on oral language skills, writing tasks and sentence structure as well as reading skills.

Any parents out there kind enough to share their views on Lorna Whiston for pre-schoolers (english enrichment only) and the differences between the 3 centres.