PerchingKids: Mandarin Class Giveaway!

-Sponsored Review-

(Daddy reviews)

If you have been following our blog ever so religiously, you would have known by now that Ash's & Ayd's command of the Mandarin language is passable at best. And that's the optimist in me talking.

So when the opportunity came in the form of a trial lesson from PerchingKids, I couldn't fathom saying no.

Predictably, when I broached the subject of attending the 1-hour trial class to the 2 boys, their response wasn't too favourable. Luckily, there exists something in the language centre which completely made them change their tune.

Heh, the play area always works.

So what exactly is PerchingKids? It's a Mandarin Learning Centre, which has its roots in Shanghai since 2003. And this spanking new centre in 112 Katong marks the first ever overseas franchise for the Learning Centre.

PerchingKids promises to make Mandarin lively and fun for children, so as to allow them to deftly master the language by stimulating their interest and imagination. In fact, they believe that a child with no background in the Chinese language can learn up to 1,000 characters by the age of 6! And PerchingKids has developed a successful system to do so.

Ash & Ayd attended the 'I Can Read Chinese!' class, which is appropriate for kids up to 6 years of age. In this class, the boys were tasked to recognize and read, rather than write the Chinese characters. Well, it sure made the process very much more interesting, as they were soon clamouring to shout out the words on the board.

Since that was going rather well, I popped out of the classroom for a while to see what my Diva was up to.

It turned out that she was having her own solo fun with the many wooden play instruments that were mounted on the walls around the centre - which I felt was a really nice touch.

But she didn't get the chance to hog those for long, for she was bundled into an ongoing class session.

But this was no normal course - it was actually an extra activity class which serves as an additional perk for all kids who are enrolled with PerchingKids. Take a look at the current activity schedule here: http://perchingkids.com.sg/activities-events/

Save for Mondays, there are different activities happening everyday and they come at no extra cost to existing students of the centre. What this means is that you can practically bring your child everyday to the centre for these activities on top of your regular class. Which begs the question - why did I have to stay so far away from Katong?

Because I think Ale enjoyed the 30-minute class thoroughly!

Amazingly, she could understand and follow the instructions of the teacher... in MANDARIN! And this had prompted the wifey to remark that she thinks she is ready for school.

Sigh. She is growing up waaay too fast.

I sneaked a little peek back at the boys, and they weren't doing too shabbily either.

Later, I had the chance to speak with the teacher and I understand from her that a reading program is weaved into the various activities, which will aid the children in recognizing Chinese characters more easily and get them to read the characters with the authentic pronunciation.

I think Ash's level of Mandarin may have been a tad higher than the class' teachings (PHEW!) as the class is catered to those 6 years and below. But nevertheless, I think Ayd had benefited from his brother's company and Ash himself had found it to be enjoyable as well.

For more information about the courses that PerchingKids offer, click here: http://perchingkids.com.sg/courses/

And now, here's a chance for you and your kid to try out the class. Thanks to PerchingKids, we are giving away free trial lessons to THREE of our blog readers!

Here's how to snag one of those lessons:

1. 'Like' PerchingKids Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/perchingkids

2. Tell us why you want to give PerchingKids a try by leaving a comment in this blog post.

Deadline is 16 July 2012 (Monday), 2359 hours.

That's it! 很简单 right? Good luck!

Useful Information

PerchingKids

112 Katong #04/04-07  

112 East Coast  Road  

Singapore 428802

Tel: (65) 66363398