Oliver is not exactly the most extrovert or expressive kid around. After Storycove and music class, Oliver has progressed to some theatre thingy that comes after Storycove, and of course he is now in the 2nd term of his music appreciation class. All these to get him more exposed to stuff so that hopefully, he can be well-adjusted and all-rounded, and become a gifted-programme student, then a scholar and eventually make lots of money.
I used to think that the word Enrichment is for kiasu parents and for tuition centres trying to make a quick buck.
But after hearing quite a bit of horror stories from friends about how their children couldn't cope in primary school, and how they load them with tuition teachers and enrichment classes, we are starting to panic. Just starting only.
We also realised that Oliver can't seem to pronounce some words properly. It doesn't really bother us, but we thought we should rectify it soon before it become a problem. For example, he would pronounce "tar" instead or "car". Or "tat" instead of "cat. Or "tite" instead of "kite".
His teacher, and his Storycove teacher, told us that he might not adequately curl his tougue to pronounce some of these words correctly. Actually he can if he try. But unconsciously, or conveniently, he would lapse into babytalk.
Last Monday we tried him out at this phonetic class at Tiong Bahru Plaza. Vivian used to attend the same one, but in another branch in Marine Parade. Unlike the music class, parents are not allowed into the class.
To my surprise, Oliver took on really well to the class! I expect him to cling on to us or cry, and I even preempted the ang mo teacher Jason. But somehow Oliver took on to him, and went into the class with 7 or 8 other new kids without too much of a fuss. Really steady.
So after the trial class, we sign him up and last night was his first session. Again, he went into the class and I could walk out leaving him alone. I think Jason played a part as well. He was quick to address each child as they walked in and talk to them to distract them, that helped.
There was also a trial dancing class called Dance bug yesterday. Eli, Shanice, Vivian, Boon Shuan, and a few others signed up for the trial class. We were there to see how was the class. Oliver seemed to enjoy dancing, and Eli too. If we were to sign him up, Mondays would be a very long and enriching day for him.
