As I was waiting for Kylie to come out from her class, there were a few other mothers around. One mother turned to me suddenly and asked me if my girl can read all the alphabets. I thought only my girl couldn’t read all the alphabets. I have difficulty teaching her how to write her name also.
Then this mother said that the Fungates system is not good, only can hear her daughter making sounds of the alphabets like a mute girl! I didnt agree with her on that part. Learning to pronounce and make sounds from the alphabets is important but the child must also learn which alphabet sounds like wat la…I reckon the teacher didn’t do a good job in teaching but the other mother doesn’t agree. She kept insisting it was the Fungates system. I have seen many schools adopting this system but I reckon the school should not follow the syllabus so rigidly.
Now I am in a dilemma, whether to let her continue with this school or switch….how ah???
21 responses so far ↓
Sabrina // October 7, 2009 at 11:53 am |
How old is Kylie? My son is almost 5 and so far he’s good with his alphabet and able to write his own name. I am quite satisfied with his progress since I registered him with this new place. Luckily, in this small town, I am still able to find a good place for him
Elaine // October 7, 2009 at 1:25 pm |
In a true Montessori system, the child is taught letter sounds and not letter names. The reason is that the child not only can read but also be able to spell and decode words so that the child can read independently and spell with ease in future.
I suppose Fungate also apply this kind of phonics method.
khongfamily // October 7, 2009 at 2:34 pm |
I agree with Elaine. That’s what Brae is taught in his school now – phonics. They are supposed to learn the letters sound instead of how to say the letters. This is how they prepare them on how to pronounce the whole words.
I heard of Fungates and I never heard of negative comments about it. No worries lar, Kylie will learn eventually…just give her some time
.
Annie Q // October 7, 2009 at 2:38 pm |
hmmmm….i am not sure what is this “fungate system”.
My boys write their homework twice a week so i “guess” my boys pick up the alphabets from there? Now both of them can write their own name and sometime when they read the book they spell the word for me and ask me how to read that word.
Don’t worry la, i’m sure Kylie will pick up very soon.
familyfirst // October 7, 2009 at 4:20 pm |
Aiyoh, I am intending to visit the open day this sat for a fungate kindy near my new house! Nevertheless, will still check it out.
How old is Kylie? Bryan is 2.5 yrs old and can recognise and recite A-Z easily but he does not know how to spell or pronounce the phonics yet though.
Does fungates got lots of christian elements in them?
chanelwong // October 7, 2009 at 5:07 pm |
Each system has the strength n weakness..it is the ability of the teacher to use the system and modify as required…
this is my personal opinion as my mom has been in kindy industry for quite some time..she will usually modify accordingly…
shern's mom // October 7, 2009 at 5:08 pm |
In my opinion, fungates has a very good learning system. Shern is also in a fungates school and he now can read and sound almost all the 3 letters words, even some 4 letters word, which really amazed me.
No worries, give Kylie some time, she will pick up eventually.
jazzmint // October 8, 2009 at 6:52 am |
faythe is in fungates system too…from what i see she learns the sound as well as the actual alpha at the same time, cause sometimes she reads it as a sound, sometimes as the alphabet. I’ve not heard much complain bout fungates either, only thing I don’t quite like is the lack emphasis on mandarin.
diff kid progress differently, don’t worry ya
.
Olive // October 8, 2009 at 9:24 pm |
SP is also with Fungates. I think the phonics system is good. Once he mastered the phonics, he practically could read already. It just happened like that. Kylie will be reading in no time too…just give her some time to master the phonics first….by the way, I don’t think their Mandarin syllabus is that great tho’.
huisia // October 9, 2009 at 4:00 pm |
jo was with Fungates before, actually he didn’t learn anything from there so i transferred him to Smart Reader after that. I am not sure whether was the Fungates problem or was my Jo’s problem, in fact i have been hearing a lot of positive comments about Fungates, so perhaps just my Jo was not suitable with their system.
however, don’t worry, i believe Kylie will be reading in no time, it’s just a matter of time.
kat // October 9, 2009 at 4:06 pm |
W (he’s 5 this yr) learnt reading through phonics. And I have never heard him recite ABC like how we were taught (he doesn’t know the singing Ay-Bee-See-Dee song) and he was never taught in sequential order of the letters either.
I personally think phonics is better because he can form the sound of the letters and read the words himself. Most 1-2 syllable words he can read.
I was pleasantly surprised when he read the mail in the Wii message box this morning.. o.O
NomadicMom // October 10, 2009 at 9:37 pm |
When i saw the title of your post…..EDUCATION was certainly NOT what that came to my mind.
First…was something to do with Fungus.
Second..I thought something notti relating to F*#k
hahahhaha….
Judy // October 12, 2009 at 5:26 pm |
All moms get concerned when their kids seem slow to pick up something others already can do well. Don’t worry. The kids will figure it out.
My son went to an old style (not Montessori) kindy where they kinda taught phonics, but I teach both my kids the sing-song ABC ryme we all learned yonks ago, at home. My son is in Std 2 now and came out #39 in his standard of 400 pupils (Chinese school) and my girl, 4, (finally) can give me the sounds of letters. She will go to kindy next year. Cheers!
etceteramommy // October 13, 2009 at 10:27 am |
I guess it is frustrating when you don’t see progress after so many months. I echo your thoughts. Learning the basic phonics is important – it goes a long way. In my boy’s school they teach both. Eg. They will say ‘A makes the sound of AH..AH.. )
… in SG, kids start going to school at the age of 3. So the first year was mainly to learn the letter sound. By 4, they learn words blending.
.. in KL, I think usually kids go to school at 4? One year to build up their phonics foundation is ok la. If by 5 still not much progress then I guess should raise an alarm.
2ma // October 14, 2009 at 1:13 pm |
shan leo’s kindie uses the fungates system too. so far, he has no problem reading, etc…
Angeleyes // October 14, 2009 at 10:04 pm |
Maybe you should spend some time reading together with her??? Do some exercises to spur her curiosity and get her excited about learning. i often do that with Darrius.
Each kid learns differently and they decode in their own way so sometimes we can’t really tell which system work best… we just got to try and try…
Don’t worry too much, Kylie will come around real soon…
KittyCat // October 14, 2009 at 10:04 pm |
Fungates seems to be a Malaysian-based franchise preschool programme. From your description, it sounds like they are using the phonics approach to teach children how to read.
The phonics approach is VERY popular because the child can ‘read’ aloud beautifully from a young age from sounding out the letters of the alphabet. However, when you ask the child if he/she understands what’s read, chances are they’ll say NO
As a former English teacher and reading advocate (LOL, sounds like I’m making a speech…), I suggest complementing the preschool’s sytem with letter and keyword recognition.
Read aloud with your child using books with picture books and simple storylines. Encourage the regular way of recognizing letters as they are i.e. A, B, C, D not ah, buh, kuh, duh and picking up keywords by sight e.g. and, I, book.
Popular books for keywords are Ladybird and Dr. Seuss. That way, your child will have a balanced approach towards reading i.e. reading aloud well and understanding what he/she reads
Big Pumpkin // October 19, 2009 at 11:19 pm |
I cant stop laughing at Nomadic Mom’s comment – LOL That woman ah? she has her head in the gutter!!
Phonics is the best way for children 2 learn how 2 read d proper way. Have u got d Ants on the Apple CD? if u play that in d car, then Kylie will learn her phonics easily. Get books with 3 letter words so u can teach her d sounds C A T, for example.
zmm // October 26, 2009 at 2:52 pm |
I don’t know about fungate, seems everybody is so pro-fungate. My kids don’t go to fungate kindy.
They are doing well though. Zaria knows the name of all the alphabets and also the sound. That’s what the school taught them. The name of the alphabet is WHT, and this alphabet make the sound WHT. I teach Zara this way (at home) as well before when, she was in her previous kindy and didn’t really pick up much.
What about numbers and all? Her overall development?
Twin // October 30, 2009 at 5:01 pm |
hmm i dunno .. denisha is fr fungates but i transfered her out after half a year cos she’s quite a fast learner. somehow she gets confused with their reading. she’s doing great in montessori within a week in another school. so i suppose it depends on the kids. some could be better in other systems. darien joined his sis too in this current kindy and now he knows all alphabet sound and he’s already doing story books. i’m quite happy bout his development. no worries bout kylie .. time will tell. i’m sure korkor can help her too.
flowsnow // November 2, 2009 at 2:44 pm |
I just have to add my 2 cents worth. Phonics approach is good to teach children to read. My youngest boy who is 5 – goes to a traditional kindergarten. Not a montesorri. He came home memorising what he read and appeared good in reading but when you actually point out the word, he can’t read it. So I sent him to a reading class. He only started to understand the concept of letter sounding by the third month and now (approx 6-9 months later) he is able to read simple short stories. He is even more fluent in reading then his older brother (differnet conginitve make up) – as he tends to memorise the words and becomes lazy to sound it out. The sounding helps with spelling. This you will notice with Kieren – as you mentioned previously that he struggled in his spelling in school. Again, I would recommend both – the child to read by word and also sound as depending on sound alone took my youngest a long time to gain the confidence. Believe me you will see the change in Kylie once she can read. Mine is a show off in reading
But struggles with spelling as he is lazy to sound it out. So a combination of letter recognition and sound is a pre-requisite. Look at us (speaking for myself), I can’t read big words as we were taught in school to memorise words and not sounding……grrrrrrrrrr……