News / Nunn Road / 2008 / August 2008 (E82)

Dear parents,

Parents of 6-year-olds were busy earlier this month registering their children for primary school. Hence, the children started to discuss the schools they are going to attend next year. It is challenging whenever children need to adapt to new environments and start new learning processes. Parental support is essential for a smoother transition during the beginning stages. I am glad to inform you that we will organize a parents’ sharing evening to talk about how parents can support their children during this transition period. Mothers of the graduates from Nania will share their experiences with us. Parents with children aged 5 and 6 this year are cordially invited to meet on 16th September 2008 (Tuesday). Please come between 7.15pm and 7.30pm. We will share for about one and a half hours.

Recently, I shared with a few mothers that we discourage the children from bringing merchandise associated with TV cartoon characters to the class. I would like to explain further why we discourage this. Children below 7 have an innate ability to imitate as this is one of the ways they learn. Our young children learn to stand, walk and speak by observing and imitating the people around them. What has been observed by a child is often tried out by the child as part of his or her experiences. At Nania, some children often want to play out the TV characters. Their play in such cases is often loud and follows somewhat fixed roles and story patterns. The boys often imitate action characters, adopt aggressive fighting roles in their play, produce electronic type action sounds, short loud speeches in line with the popular TV cartoon character. Such play is somewhat prescribed, limited in scope and lacking in social interaction, imagination and speech formation.

At Nania, we tell the children TV cartoon characters live in their TV world and do not come to class. We direct them to play out less defined but more human archetypal characters such as Mother, Father, Doctor, Waiter and Waitress, Prince and Princess etc. When acting out such roles without a predefined script, the imagination of the child is free to evolve a different story each time and respond spontaneously to others in the play. I understand that the market is full with merchandise printed with TV cartoon character nowadays. We, the adults need to put more effort to minimize their influence on our children.

The school holidays are just around the corner. I hope you will have a wonderful time with your children. See you again on 2nd September (Tuesday).

Teacher Thian

The Moon Cake Festival
The Moon Cake Festival, a Mid-Autumn Festival (Chung Chiu), is the third major festival of the Chinese calendar. Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "Chung Chiu Jie." It is also known as the Moon Cake Festival because a special kind of sweet cake (yueh ping) prepared in the shape of the moon and filled with sesame seeds, ground lotus seeds and duck eggs is served as a traditional Chung Chiu delicacy. On that day children are told the story of Chang-O, the moon fairy living in a crystal palace, who comes out to dance on the moon's shadowed surface. The legend surrounding the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times, to a day when ten suns appeared at once in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, the Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill that would make him immortal. However, his wife found the pill, took it, and was banished to the moon as a result. Legend says that her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon festival.

Moon Cake Festival (12th September 2008, Friday) The teacher will tell the story about the moon fairy, Chang-o, on that day.  Later, the children will bring home a vegetarian moon cake.Holidays Monday, 1st September, is a replacement holiday for The National Day that falls on Sunday.We will be close on 17th September 2008 (Wednesday) for Nuzul Quran.