A seminar titling "How to Choose a Suitable Kindergarten and Analyses of Common Misunderstandings among Parents" & "Grooming an A+ child, start from an A+ Parent" was held on 16 and 17 July jointly organised by AMTD, a subsidiary company of Cheung Kong Holdings Limited, and Education Ladder.  The speaker was Mr. Chiu Wing Tak, an experienced educational scholar.  The seminar was welcome and applauded by parents. 

The seminar was started by Mr. Raymond Lam, Directorof AMTD, who gave a talk to parents on the importance of effective saving and accumulated wealth.  Lam said that in order to make children be successfully nurtured, it is indispensable to have ample money as it is too costly for children to study in private or quality kindergartens.  "For example, the annual tuition fee of Creative Kindergarten is about HK$80,000.  A large amount of money are required in the preschool education, let alone the tuition fee for study in university."  He added that only through effective financial investmentlike education fund savingwould enable parentsto make better preparation for the education of their children.

Apart from normal learning at classrooms, learning after school should not be overlooked as well.  In this regard, Director of Education Ladder, Ms To Ming Yan introduced a set of educational software namely "My Words Junior+" to parents.  Children can learn English vocabulary to enrich their English knowledge from a game through colourful and vivid pictures.  More important is that such a game will take a record on their performance progress and let parents know their child’s learning pace so as to make further improvement.  In addition to students’participation, parents can also take part in this game.  For example, parents can change or add in the English vocabulary according to their own needs and monitor the learning progress of their children at the same time so that their requirements on learning English can bewell traced.

Misconception will affect Selection of Suitable kindergartens

As pointed out by Mr Chiu, there are many common misunderstandings made by parents.  For example, parents wish their children to study in renowned kindergartens.  They have a common wrong concept that their children coming from renowned kindergartens will surely be admitted into renowned primary schools.  However, both of them are not linked up with each other.  Such a concept is a serious misunderstanding. 

Another example is that parents misunderstand that their children studying in kindergartens with difficult curriculum will relatively get more chance togetadmitted into renowned primary schools.  Parents always overlook that excessively pressing their children on studying will only lead to oppositive results, causing their children to be afraid of going to school.  Moreover, some parents only focus on the learning of English but ignore Chinese language, which is also a wrong concept.  There is no doubt that English is important but the importance of Chinese language cannot be overlooked.  It is ideal for children to learn two languages at the same time.

Select quality kindergartens by using "FIVE"

In order to help parents solve the problems of selecting suitable kindergartens, Mr Chiu provided a set of principles namely "FIVE". 

“F” refers to FUN.  Eating, drinking, playing and enjoying are the inherent natures of children.  All children like playing and having fun.  Kindergartens are the places providing preschool education for children.  Parents should allow their children to study in line with their inherent natures and select kindergartens which are full of fun for their children. 

“I”refers to INITIATIVE.  Good kindergartens encourage children to seek knowledge initiatively and allow them to develop their own interest so that they can more actively join the life in kindergartens.  “V”refers to VALUE.  Kindergarten teachers should make use of games to teach children to have such values as honesty, cooperation and the sense of having responsibility.  Good personality has to be cultivated at the stage of childhood. 

“E”refers to EMPATHY.  Kindergarten teachers should think and see from children's angle.  They should appreciate the strengths of children while accepting their weaknesses at the same time.  With such a perspective in mind, parents can select suitable kindergartens for their children.

The choice of selection apart from renowned schools

Finally, Mr Chiu reminded parents, getting admitted to renowned schools are important, but because of the fierce competition, winning with a track record is not an easy task.  He recommended parents can also make alternative decision by selecting the “hidden quality with coupon kindergarten”.  Though their reputation is not high, but they can win a good comment from Education Bureau, this can trace the quality of their education standard is not bad, and can offer parents more choice apart from selecting renowned schools.