Cambridge English For Life

In my last post 'No Cosmotots. Take Cambridge CEFL & Home Tuition', I talked about my frustrations with Cosmotots and my plans for Ryan to reinforce his learnings. I discussed in some depth about Cambridge English For Life (CEFL) junior classes for preschoolers. If you are interested to know more, click on the link above :)

I was waiting for the centre manager to call me to advise the right level for Ryan. Should it be JE1 1st term or JE 1 3rd term (there are 2 intakes - Jan and Jun) or just rough it out for Ryan and get him to join JE2? I was shown the books for JE1 and JE2 syllabus. It looked like Ryan's level is actually between JE1 and JE2. So, I'm pretty unsure which one is best for him.

I managed to discuss with her today. Each level offers a full year program afterwhich the kids will move into the next level. Very much a class room based teaching but in very small groups. The one in Bandar Puteri Puchong allows a max of 9 kids for each JE1/JE2 class. I like that. At least, the teacher student attention would be better, hopefully. JE1 focus on ABC covering phonics sounds for single and double letters. Some light reading, some basic 1-10 numbers, even some light craft to spice up the lessons. The 3rd term for JE1 would go into sound blending. Some of which Ryan already knows but not all, and he is not exactly ready for the light reading.

JE2 goes into applying adjectives , more phonics, alternative vowels (sounds like ou and ow that have more than 1 sound - haha! I just learnt :p), words that phonics can't help such as two, even spelling and grammar. Much as I like to but Ryan ain't ready for this. I don't want him to withdraw and close up when he lacks confidence. Happened before. Ryan gets encouraged to learn with praises and progress. So, I have decided not to throw him into JE2 and let him swim ;p.

A 1 year program for each level with 4 terms. The Centre Manager advised me to go for 3rd term JE1. Not starting at the beginning since Ryan knows some sounds and blending. Luckily for us, this centre has two intakes, ie Jan and June. So they have a JE1 third term in Jan. I checked other centres; some only have 1 intake ie Jan. They follow school holiday schedule. So, most of the time, they have no classes during school holidays. What's more the JE classes are held on Sat and Sun. No need to rush from work to chauffeur my kids. Phew! But then again, we have to sacrifice 2 hours of our precious weekend for this lesson. Sigh! We can't have it all! Wouldn't it be great if they have weekday classes AND provide transport?! We can't have it all!

I'll discuss with my husband tonight to see if the timing works for us. Then, we will proceed. Very likely we'll go for it :)