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JUL - DEC 2019
KUMON
FEATURE Improving the work skills of Kumon students
PARENTING TIPS How much screen time should your children under 5 get?
MY LIFE,
MY DREAM
Thareni Thayabaran Nur Iffah Insyirah Muhamad Hanafi
Editor’s Note
ON THE COVER JUL - DEC 2019 NUR IFFAH INSYIRAH MUHAMAD HANAFI It is our pleasure to present to you the second issue of the Potential Newsletter 2019. Time flies so fast as now, we are already in the middle of the year. While we are busy chasing our tasks, don’t forget to enjoy your life and live in the moment. Let’s grow to a better life and don’t forget to spend your time with your beloved ones.
In this issue, we will bring you through the journey of two Kumon students who have benefitted from the Kumon Method. The first story highlights a little girl with a big heart, Thareni Thayabaran. Look at how she is enjoying her life in doing new things with the perseverance that she learnt from the Kumon Method. The second story is about a sweet girl who has an interest in English since young, Nur Iffah Insyirah. Let’s read how the Kumon Method has helped her in becoming who she is now. In our local news, we focus on our annual event, the Advanced Student Forum 2019 which is more special this year with the appearance of Malaysia’s first astronaut, Dato’ Dr Sheikh Muszaphar. Next, we have parenting tips on “How much screen time should your children under 5 get?” We hope you will enjoy this issue and be inspired!
Contents MY LIFE, MY DREAM
03
The Parents’ Grit Breeds The Excellence In Children Thareni Thayabaran
Zero To Hero 04 From Nur Iffah Insyirah Muhamad Hanafi
FEATURES Article 06 Regional Improving the work skills of Kumon students
08
Instructors’ Quotes
REGULARS
10
Local News Advanced Student Forum 2019 – Inspiring Students to Achieve Their Dreams
11
Parenting Tips How much screen time should your children under 5 get?
Love, Kumon Malaysia
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The Parents’ Grit Breeds The Excellence In Children
in Maths, and also teach her how to independently learn at an accelerated pace. Being the first child, her mother also wanted her to be exposed to new things and occupied her time with extra activities. 5 years later, Thareni has become more than what the mom had expected as she has gotten many benefits by joining Kumon. Talking about the skills she has gained from Kumon, the mother proudly said, she is really thankful to Kumon. She also feels contented to have enrolled her daughter as early as 4 years old as Kumon really helps in providing the right foundation and shaping her daughter’s attitude. At the age of 9, Thareni is already focused on what she wants to achieve in life. Other than that, she is also very much organised in managing her own life including Kumon and school. At school, she has no difficulties in answering problemsolving questions as she knows how to tackle the questions, thanks to the learning method that she has learned from Kumon. Flashing back to the earlier years in Kumon, Thareni faced difficulties in adapting with the Kumon Method which required her to do the worksheets daily. However, with the
support and encouragement from her parents especially her mom, she now knows how important it is to have consistency in life. Other than Kumon, she also has other activities to attend to which are piano class, speech & drama club, choir and recently, she has taken a challenge to join the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiad (SASMO). During her first participation, she won bronze medal and that helped to bring up a good name for the school as well as her family.
As Thareni enjoys her learning in Kumon, she never misses and always asks for extra worksheets during holidays. She loves to occupy her time by doing meaningful activities including Kumon worksheets even when she goes back to her hometown. Thareni’s effort in doing the worksheets however received irksome remarks from the people surrounding her family as they believe holidays were supposed to be her ‘free’ of academic tasks. Her mother who is clear of what she wants proudly replied that she knows what’s the best for her daughter and she supports her daughter in doing Kumon worksheets as she knows this will help her in the future. With the consistency in doing Kumon worksheets and having a high level of discipline in life, the Kumon Method has proven to be effective for her. We wish Thareni all the very best in her future undertaking and we will continue to inspire more and more students to pursue their potential to the greatest extent.
Thareni Thayabaran , 9
》》》》》
School Grade
P3
》》》》》
Subject
Mathematics
》》》》》
》》》》》 》》》》》
T
hareni Thayabaran, started Kumon at the age of 4 after the mom realised she has the ability in calculation. Her mom, Mrs Subhashini, sought out education programmes that would help to enhance her daughter’s skills in numbers. She then discovered that Kumon programme could help her daughter to build strong foundation
My life, my dream
Ambition
Pediatrician 3
My life, my dream
from zero to
HERO Nur Iffah Insyirah Muhamad Hanafi,9 School Grade
Ambition
Subject
Interest
P3
English
》》》》》
Doctor
Reading Swimming Drawing
“We want our daughter to be good at English and achieve her dream”
T
hat’s the hope that the father kept when he enrolled his daughter in Kumon. From the sincere hope, now his daughter has achieved good experience in English as well as in her life. Nur Iffah Insyirah, a nine- year- old girl from Batu Caves, Selangor has always shown her interest in English. Since young, she has an interest to communicate and be friends with other children from overseas and from other races where she gets to utilize the English language. Even though she had little knowledge in English, she was confident enough to mingle around at that time. As the parents had always want
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》》》》》 》》》》》》》》》》 》 the best for their daughter, the father told the mother about Kumon as he heard about the effectiveness of the Kumon Method which the mother agreed. They enrolled their daughter in Kumon when she entered Primary 1 as a supplementary class to compliment her learning in school. The father, Muhammad Hanafi who is a driver came to know about Kumon from his superior. He used to send his superior’s son to Kumon Centre and he could see his improvements. He could see that the boy enjoyed his learning in Kumon and improved a lot in English as well as Maths. With recommendation from his superior, he finally enrolled his daughter in Kumon with the belief Kumon is not just a learning centre, Kumon could also help in building up life skills such as discipline, independence and responsibility in children. Insyirah’s mother also added that she heard about how effective
also become more responsible as she knows she has daily homework that needs to be done. Her ability in reading has also improved a lot as she can read English books with many words and can understand the story really well.
A girl with 》》》》 》》》》》 a proof Kumon Method was from her mother who is a kindergarten eacher. One of her student who was not able to read, improved dramatically. The student can read fluently by just attending Kumon. For this reason, she knew Kumon method is effective and it made her believe in Kumon as the best learning approach. Before attending Kumon, Insyirah was just a normal, playful girl who loved English language. When she was in kindergarten, she always took her study lightly as the teacher was her grandmother. However, right after she joined Kumon, her parents were surprised with her changes. The changes are not just academically, she has also transformed to be very matured and disciplined. The father said, her thinking now is more matured and she is much more disciplined in managing her life. Every day, she will allocate time to do Kumon homework after dinner. She has
Undeniably, during her initial stages in Kumon journey, Insyirah had faced difficulties in doing Kumon homework. She always asked her parents to help her and was not willing to try. With the advice from her Kumon Instructor, the parents did not give the answers straight away but they encouraged her to find the solution by herself. Being a child, sometimes she would also throw tantrums when she did not want to go to Kumon classes. The parents once gave up and wanted to withdraw her from Kumon. However, she remained persistent and still continue her learning as she knew that she wanted to excel in English and achieve her dream of becoming a doctor. Gradually, Insyirah could adapt to the learning approach in Kumon and now, she is more determined in facing difficulties doing Kumon worksheets or school homework as she will attempt to do on her own. The perseverance and willingness to face the fear has shaped her in becoming who she is now. At school, the teacher also feels proud of her behaviour. Unlike other children, Insyirah loves to spend her free time by reading books and would sit obediently at her place whenever her teacher is not around. She is matured enough to behave accordingly at school. During her second year with Kumon, Insyirah has become the best student in her school and scored 100 marks in English subject for all the exams. Her parents and the teachers
are really proud of her achievement. Her father said, ‘her improvement is more than what we have expected, and I will be forever thankful to Kumon’ Besides reading, Insyirah also loves to draw. What makes her drawing interesting is that she likes to use her imagination in making stories with her drawing. The mother admitted that this skill came after she joined Kumon. She has become brave enough to try new things. She likes to draw comics and her favourite character is a horse. She will draw and create a story as one of her ways to relieve her stress in school. Having a number of hobbies, which are drawing and swimming, she manages to have the balance in her life between study and her interests. Not taking her studies for granted anymore, she is now on the right track to have a bright future. In essence, the Kumon Method has proven effective not just for Insyirah but many other children as well. A girl who came from zero has now become a girl full of aspirations. The true effectiveness of the Kumon Method lies in transforming average children into outstanding students.
*illustrations by Insyirah
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Regional Article
“Your children need to improve their work skills”
If
you are scratching your head hearing this from your children’s Kumon Instructor, wondering what this means, you are probably not alone. This is, after all, a term specific to Kumon. Being a Kumon jargon, do work skills only benefit our children in Kumon? Probably not. Let us discover this concept of work skills and how it can benefit our children in Kumon and beyond. Sometimes, we see our children lose concentration halfway through a worksheet, or before turning to the reverse side. Sometimes they run to the candy jar or grab a snack before continuing with the worksheet. Some of our children write with handwriting
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that is only legible to themselves. The above examples, that some of us may resonate with, are examples of poor work skills. “How then do I know if my children have good work skills,” you might ask. When students have good work skills, they can do their assigned worksheets with speed and concentration. As a definition, work skills refer to the ability to concentrate on a good amount of worksheets and complete them quickly without stopping. Children enrolled in the Kumon programme develop good work skills – ability to complete their class work within a required time. They
have a high level of concentration keeping their eyes on the worksheet at all times, and flipping to the reverse side of the worksheet, or the next worksheet immediately after completing a page. To further illustrate the benefits of work skills, let us look at an example featuring the time when a person started to learn to swim. For example, a man, John, took up recreational swim after ploughing through hours of instructional videos on YouTube. When John started, he managed to complete one lap in three minutes. Finding himself breathless after mindlessly trying to propel himself forward, John would always take a minute’s rest before
kicking off the wall for the return lap. John started to enjoy gliding through water, breaking through the shackles of gravity and feeling himself surrounded by water. As he hit the pool more, his technique and, resultantly, his timing improved. He could complete two laps in four minutes and upon touching the wall on the other end, he could immediately flip and kick off the wall for the return lap. Relating back to the topic, John’s work skills improved and he could quickly move on to the next lap without stopping. As a result, his completion time improved from two laps in seven minutes to two laps in four minutes.
The benefits of the work skills actually transcend beyond the boundaries of the Kumon Centres. Good work skills can also be beneficial in school work and exams. Some students struggle to finish their examination papers in time. Of course it could be attributed to the lack of understanding of the concepts. But if a child starts fighting Lord Voldemort in his mind when he should be concentrating on his exam paper in the “muggle� world, then a plausible reason would be the lack of work skills.
designed to improve their work skills, concentration and confidence before they tackle more complex concepts, whether it is advancing to the next level, tackling the school grade level, or even grappling with materials that are beyond the school grade level. As parents, we can help our children by gentle reminding them to stay focus if they notice concentration begin to slip. We can also encourage them to complete their work and praise them when they do well.
When students enrol at Kumon, the Instructors often assign the students to a starting level that is lower than their grade level in school. This is one of the features of the Kumon Method
Improving the work skills of
Kumon Students
7
Feature
Instructors’ Quotes
e Ms Yasmsiina
Ms Nita Shivdas Kumon India & Sr
ani
i Lanka
ay
Kumon Mal
tial the essen is one of s ill k er to s rd o rk dents in inion, wo In my op ed by stu d e e n s . ill term cant sk the long and signifi tors’ further in h Instruc g u progress ro th d e p lo e v p e u port d , home s s can be struction Work skill in g in ssigned. g a encoura rksheets o w f o l e clear and ght lev handle nts and ri skills will y from pare cient work ffi u ed as the s e h p s it w tum and n Students e ts m e o e m h s h of work ts with hig ig volume rtably workshee ed with b in a ing comfo tr p o n c e re a y e have be th while beginning levels. from the with easy
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It has been our en deavor to work tow ards the Kumon philosoph y “Every Student beyond Grade Level”. To achieve this milestone, it is imperative to develop the wo rk skills of every ch ild when they begin their Kumo n journey. In order to motivate children, progress goals are set and ind ividualised instructions are ca rried out to help the m achieve these goals throu gh working on the ir worksheets with concentratio n, improving menta l calculations and complete co nscientiousness. Im ple mentation of these enhanced work skills ensures tha t students are able to progre ss through their wo rksheets with ease and stu dy beyond their sc hool grade level. By develop ing these skill sets for students, we would be contr ibuting to the socie ty and developing millenn ials who are ready to be in a dynamic environme nt and have the ab ility to handle challenging situa tions.
Having just read what work skills meant, let’s have a look at what some of the Instructors from around the region has to say about what they think about work skills.
Ibu Sri Lestari Kumon Indonesia
The Kumon features that I like most are the daily hom ework and repetitions. Stu work skills will be automat dents’ ically developed if they kee p on doing their homework daily basis and do not give on a up even when they have the same sets of worksheets give by Kumon Centre. Work skill n s is developed through stud y and effort, and it cannot happen overnight. While ther e are no overnight miracles , the features I mentioned above are designed to form the skills. Through the Kum on programmes, we develop work skills needed in order to gain success in academ ic life.
ur
Ms Kit Ka
lia & New mon Austra
Ku
Zealand
their key ring this time ild’s life as du ch a of l ca iti . e formed g the most cr ds learning ar ars are amon y, because habits towar d The early ye an gs in nd e 21st centur understa portant in th im ly al d learn. ci an pe e children liv learners is es the way our of skills in early k ct or pe w as g t getting y in Develop rtually ever a task withou s changed vi d complete ha an gy te world. lo tra d no en ire ch w nc te n in today’s ability to co s re n’ ild re ch ild re ch rtu w we nu s refers to work skills. As work skill mindful of ho ild students’ ed to be very eal way to bu ne id e an w , is ed ch ct distra il approa per-and-penc Kumon’s pa ve lie be ly ng ro
I st
9
Local News
Advanced Student Forum 2019 Inspiring Students to Achieve Their Dreams
At Kumon, students who are studying at least 6 months ahead of their school grade level are recognised as “advanced students”. With more than 30,000 Kumon students in Malaysia, nearly half of them have achieved this status. With the new implementation by Kumon Education Malaysia last year, the cut-off date for ASF has been changed from June to December. We have invited 5 years ahead achievers and completers to attend Kumon Advanced Student Forum 2019 to celebrate their achievement. The event was held on 20th April 2019 at Putrajaya Marriot Hotel. 771 Kumon students from over 200 centres in Malaysia received the recognition for their exceptional performance together with their parents as well as Kumon Instructors. Dato’ Dr Sheikh Muszapahar, Malaysia’s first astronaut and also a father of two daughters, whom are currently attending Kumon Mathematics and English programmes, was invited as the invitational speaker for the event this year. He inspired the audience by sharing his real-life journey to success having fulfilled his lifelong ambition to be an astronaut. During the session, he shared about the challenges he faced to excel in his academics and eventually graduated as an orthopedic surgeon. The full day event ended successfully and we hope more students will be able to experience the joy and benefits of becoming an advanced student every year!
Highlights of Kumon ASF 2019 YOUNGEST MATHS AWARDEES (PRE-KINDERGARTEN) LEE YAN TONG FELICIA PHUA YING JING
YOUNGEST ENGLISH AWARDEE (KINDERGARTEN) FONG YU HUI 10
YOUNGEST MATHS PROGRAMME COMPLETERS (PRIMARY 6) WONG LI SONG HOOI ZHANG CHENG
YOUNGEST ENGLISH PROGRAMME COMPLETER (PRIMARY 3) FONG JU EE, ZOEY
Parenting Tips
How much SCREEN TIME should your children under 5 get?
In a recent report1, the World Health Organization (WHO) has prescribed recommendations on how much sedentary screen time2 caregivers should give to babies and children under 5 years old. Screen time refers to the time spent watching television programmes, watching videos or playing video games on computers, mobile devices. According to WHO, children under 2 should get no sedentary screen time, while children between two and four years old should not be given sedentary screen time of more than 60 minutes.
“Achieving health for all means doing what is best for health right from the beginning of people’s lives,”
RECOMMENDATIONS AT A GLANCE infant Less than 1 year old
0 minutes
children
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
“Early childhood is a period of rapid development and a time when family lifestyle patterns can be adapted to boost health gains.” 1 2
1 year old
0 minutes
2 years old
no more than 60 minutes
3 - 4 years old
no more than 60 minutes
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311664/9789241550536-eng.pdf Screen time only refers to sedentary screen time
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