Learn For Less

Cutting paper, searching for pictures of pretty things, and thinking about how to turn maths problem into fun stories are the last things on Alicia Hock’s mind when she comes home from work. But the 40-year-old polytechnic lecturer has to create learning materials for her son Jerome Kwek, five, because that’s the way he learns best.

“I’ve tried enrichment classes for Jerome but he didn’t benefit from them. The same happened when he went to pre-school. He could only pay attention for three minutes; he came back blank,” she explains.

“Compared to his sister, Chloe, I realised Jerome is a child who needs a lot of time, attention and consistent follow-up every day to be able to process and understand new information well. And he has to participate or his mind will wander. So, when he was three, I decided to make materials to teach him.”

Alicia limits her materials to plain paper, inexpensive coloured cards from the neighbourhood bookstore and some of Jerome’s toys.

Jeanelle Tan, in her 30s, is the opposite. Each of the 90 activities she created for daughter Ashlyn Faith Yeo, two, is fancy and colourful. This doesn’t require expensive materials. Aside from the ink cartridges and laminating pouches, nothing in Jeanelle’s resource cupboard – arts and craft cupboard, as she calls it – costs more than a tank of petrol.

Jeanelle says: “The trick is to collect stuff when you’re shopping for stationery, out with your kid or travelling. I bought things like key chains and collected seashells when we were in Phuket and Shanghai, and Faith is using them to learn to count.”

Whether you spend minutes or hours, Alicia says: “Materials are not as important as your method of teaching.”

Read the January 2010 issue of Young Parents for the full story, and to pick up more tips on DIY enrichment.