Heguru Education: What Goes On In A Heguru Class
This is part two of The New Age Parents and Heguru Education series. I’m sharing my Lauren and Georgia’s learning experience at their weekly Heguru classes.
Attending lessons at Heguru Education
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| My toddler, Lauren is in the Genius Bee class. The door is clearly labeled with the teacher’s and assistant teacher’s names. |
I still remember my shock during my first trial class. The lead teacher who greeted me sweetly when I arrived, started the class with exuberant cheers and claps. Her voice must have gone up a few decibels too. I was taken aback by how quick the lessons were going. I now learnt that the lessons should be fast-paced and conducted by a teacher with a strong voice. The speed helps to stimulate the right brain while the strong voice helps in maintaining the children’s attention for the entire duration of the class.
Class time and teachers
Both classes run for 60 minutes, with two teachers assigned to each class. This is to facilitate a seamless transition of activities and maintain the high energy level. There are usually 4 to 5 students together with their parents.
I must say the teachers play a big part in making sure the atmosphere and the learning environment is conductive and enjoyable. My girls’ teachers are always very welcoming and look genuinely happy to teach the kids. Despite the high speed lessons, the teachers are observant to each child and quick to call them out when they are losing focus. I should know, because my younger girl Georgia sure gets called out a lot.
What goes on in a typical Heguru Toddler class
The objective of the class is to input a stream of information at rapid speed, until the left brain is unable to process the massive influx of data in such a short time. This causes the right brain to be “activated”. Hence, there is a great deal of stimulation happening in that one hour.
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| Recognise own name card and take seating position accordingly. |
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| Flashcards! Lots of flashcards! The teacher covers each card in a split-second speed, using a loud, dynamic voice. |
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| General knowledge on art appreciation. Getting to know Mary Cassatt and her paintings. |
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| General knowledge on world heritage. Getting to know famous landmarks. |
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| Link memory. Remembering the picture in the correct order by associating it with a make believe story. |
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| Iroita for Lauren. Meanwhile in Georgia’s baby class, they use tangram, a bigger wooden blocks in different shapes. These activities reinforce a variety of skills such as fine motor development, mathematical concepts and their ability to problem solve through trial and error. |
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| Linguistic developement. Learning to count in a different language. |
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| Counting 3D blocks. This helps to develop their counting skills as well as their visual and spatial awareness. |
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| Song and movement. Here’s the teachers showing how to sing the Aqueous solutions song. |
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| Phonics and writing. This heightens their language capability and word recognition. |
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| Physical exercise |
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| Puzzles |
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| Story telling |
A range of holistic activities (motor, linguistic, musical, spatial, mathematical) are covered in each class. All in all, we do 40 to 50 activities per lesson.
Yes, we go through all that in one class. When I said the pace is fast, I wasn’t kidding. But don’t worry about the children not being able to follow the lesson, some of the lessons repeat every week for a month or a term so that the children can learn and absorb much better.
Towards the end
At the end of every class, the teacher goes through a quick ‘Parents’ Lecture’ handout explaining purpose of the special activities conducted, how these activities aid in your child’s development and how parents can replicate the same teaching method at home. For a mother like myself who sometimes has no idea what to do with my girls, I find this to be extremely helpful.
As for Georgia’s baby class, the flow and the pace are the same as Lauren’s class. Some lessons like art appreciation, flashcards, songs and story telling/imagination are also the same but the level of engagement and expectation from the children differs between the two ages.
My Children’s Progress
I must say Lauren has grown leaps and bounds since we started Heguru 4 months ago. From an extremely shy girl who didn’t like strangers looking at her, she is growing out of her shell and becoming more confident. She gave both teachers big hugs after just one class! Now, she is participating enthusiastically in class and will even speak out when she knows the answers to the activities.
She is extremely good with puzzles and activities related to visual memory, and enjoys going up to the class during peg memory exercise.
Lauren has also become a better reader. She now reads by using her finger to lead and point at the words, a technique she picked up during class. Whenever we read at home now, she would point at the words and try to read along too.
As for me, besides my daughters learning new things every week, I’m most pleased to see them enjoying their classes. They get very excited every Saturday when we tell them it is going to ‘school’ day and they can’t wait to get to classes.
I’m scratching my head on what to write in part 4 of the series. Please help me by leaving me comments on what you’d like to know about Heguru Education in Singapore. Thank you in advance!
This article first appeared on TNAP e-magazine, Dec15/Jan16 edition. This is the second part of The New Age Parents and Heguru Education series.
In the next post, I will go in-depth into how some of the lessons are conducted and ways to replicate these lessons at home.
HELLO! I’M MICHELLE.
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I confess that I'm rather skeptical of right-brain toddler classes! Have heard some feedback from friends who attended. Not sure if the pace and constant stimulus is a good thing. But I guess at that age, playgroups are always fun!
Lauren looked like she had fun!
Wow, the number of activities done in an hour is loads! I'd be so lost with the fast paced too. Glad that the girls are enjoying the classes and are progressing well 🙂
She sure did. She loves going to class!
I was a sceptic too but I gave it a chance and turned a believer after a few classes 🙂
I know right? Only them young brains can process such information so quickly. I'm looking forward to them being able to speed-read and summarise books for me. Not asking for too much, right? Haha.
It's a good exposure for the right brain stimuli while they are younger, Heguru lessons seem so interesting and fun!
Wow, they certainly pack in a lot of activities into one class.
I saw their trial class during one of the events and personally thought it is too fast to understand and rather mugging up.
I know what you mean. I thought the same. Surprisingly the kids got it (young brains!) and enjoyed the classes. So I continue taking my kids to the weekly classes.
I know what you mean. I thought the same. Surprisingly the kids got it (young brains!) and enjoyed the classes. So I continue taking my kids to the weekly classes.
I know right? Only them young brains can process such information so quickly. I’m looking forward to them being able to speed-read and summarise books for me. Not asking for too much, right? Haha.
I was a sceptic too but I gave it a chance and turned a believer after a few classes 🙂
She sure did. She loves going to class!