Ms.Alison Euler Interview - Founder of Baby Buddies and Alison's Letterland (Part 2 of 4)

The Unique program that are available here at Alison’s Letterland and Baby Buddies

A = founder, Alison Euler

J = host, Justine

J: Do you want to talk about any unique program that are available here at Alison’s Letterland and Baby Buddies?

A: Yes, for sure. We focus on our language and literacy programmes, which is the Letterland Phonic Programme and also the Get Reading Right Programme, which is used in the majority of international primary schools out here in Hong Kong as well and it really gives the children a kick start to their early reading and writing skills. For our Mandarin programmes, we have something called the Go Chinese, which is fantastic. It’s actually tailor made for us at Baby Buddies and Letterland. It’s set on the computer, it has Mandarin teacher’s songs, stories, action games, and it translates automatically from English and Mandarin. The best thing about this programme is, as well, that the families can follow it throughout at home and then they can just enjoy the Mandarin learning journey together as a family. We also have some traditional anthem songs that we sing at Baby Buddies and Letterland, such as our tidy up songs, our snack times songs, our please and thank you songs, which are a huge hit with all our families; and our Sticky Kids exercise routines that we use every day that get people geared up to start with us at Baby Buddies and Letterland.

J: How about we have you speak a little bit about what a day at Baby Buddies and Letterland is like? What do the students and the children here get to experience while they’re here?

A: Well every class that we conduct, it must include all the 7 areas of learning related to the Early Years Foundation Stage. Also, they’ve also got different levels of education, because obviously we’ve got younger children and older children. But our timetables in all our settings are very, very similar. So the children will come in and the first part of the day is always playtime, to give the children a chance to warm up. They can choose from any activity they want to play with. Then we tidy up and then we have group time, which is a lot of language experiences. So we have singing, story time, and obviously for the older children, we have a group discussion and we talk about what we are going to be doing for that day. Then we start out first activity time. Now for us, with international schooling, the arts and crafts is such a key part of learning for children. Even when the children are 1 at Baby Buddies, we really get them to engage in this experience. They get to put their hands in the paint or whatever. So that’s a bit about our arts and crafts activities and we also do a lot of texture play as well, which can be jelly, shaving foam, custard powder, chocolate sauce, and the children just love these activities. We know as educators, that it just helps the children with their basic mathematical skills and most importantly, about logical thinking as well. So when we’ve tidied up all our messy activities then we’ll have a snack, which is some fruit and water. Then after that, the children have the opportunity to have quiet time to look at books with the teachers and with their peers. Then after that, we go onto the next academic activity. Now this is, the academic side for us, the most important part, is the practical side of learning for preschool children. We do encourage them to color in an activity sheet, for our older children to start doing creative writing. But whatever our children put on paper, it doesn’t matter what it is, they get so much praise from us because obviously it encourages them to come back and do it again. Now the end of the day, we have some songs, some action games, and then each child gets a sticker, which has a star on it. It’s all very positive reinforcements to say what a great day they’ve had. You know, we can’t wait to see them again the next day to have another great day with us. So it’s all very, very positive. Each day they may have a language literacy, and then they have like, one day it’ll be mathematics, one day will be about knowledge and understanding of the world. So they have different kinds of activities going on throughout the days.

J：不如向觀眾分享你們有什麼特別的課程呢？

A：好的，我們注重我們的語言和生字課程，我們的Letterland發音課程，和獲取良好閱讀的課程。這是主要用於國際小學在香港給孩子開展他們的早期閱讀和寫作能力。對於我們的普通話課程，我們有一些叫作去中文，這是奇妙的。是實際為我們學校度身定制的。在電腦上有普通話老師的歌曲、故事丶動作遊戲，並有英語和普通話的自動轉換。課程最好的是家長能在家中使用，然後他們可以和家人一起享受到普通話學習之旅。我們也有一些傳統的唱遊班在學校，譬如我們有收拾歌、零食時間歌和感謝歌，這是很成功在所有的家庭，以及我們令小孩緊貼練習，為我們每天的開始做好準備。

J：不如分享一下學校是怎樣的？學生的一天又是怎樣？

A：每一個早期基礎班都包括七個元素，他們還有不同的等級，因為有不同年紀的小朋友。但是每天都課程都是相近的。他們每天一開始都是玩樂時間，給小朋友去為一天的學習熱身，他們可以選擇他們想做的事，玩完玩具就會執拾，一班小孩就會一同練習發音，會唱歌，講故事，他們年紀大的會討論今天做什麼，接下來就開始第一樣活動，因為在國際學校，藝術創作是小朋友學習是很重要的。他們一歲時已開始這套學習模式，他們就會放手進顏料，以及他們會質感體驗，是一些啫喱、剃鬚泡沫、吉士粉、朱古力，小朋友都很喜歡這個活動。我們是一個教育者，這能幫助小朋友學習基礎數學技巧和邏輯性思考，他們就會清理麻煩後，就會吃水果同渴水。之後小朋友就會有寧靜的時間和老師或同學看書。之後就開始學術的活動，對於學術最重要的是實用，他們就會填色，年紀大的小孩就會寫一些東西，無論小朋友在紙上做了什麼，都會給他們鼓勵，就才會令他們每天都繼續做。在最尾時，他們會唱歌和玩遊戲，每一個小朋友都會有一個星星貼紙。就會跟他們說一些今天在學校發生的美好。我們不能等待明天再見到。這是很好。每一天有不同的學習的課題，譬如語言、數學、了解身邊的事物，我們每一天都有很多不同的活動。