Experts Sharing

Parents are our forever role models! According to Mr. Ringle Leung, Director of HealthyMind Parents Academy, children are constantly – even subconsciously – tuning in to their parents’ behaviour, attitudes, and feelings. This makes it crucial for parents to manage their own emotional responses. Mr. Leung suggested the following useful tips on managing emotions for positive parenting in the video:

1. Identify and express emotions: Many studies show that pinpointing our emotions accurately can considerably reduce the intensity of our negative feelings.
2. Do deep breathing exercises: Deep breathing exercises, mindfulness and mediation courses can help us relax and ease our tension.
3. Apply multi-dimensional thinking: Helplessness arises when the only solution we can think of fail to solve a problem. Thinking from different angles may be a remedy in such cases.
4. Express emotions in appropriate ways: Different people express themselves in different ways (e.g. talking to others, being alone) to release pent-up feelings.

Stay tuned for updates on when EduMakers App will be open to all parents, ensuring that everyone can benefit from its valuable resources and opportunities.

(The opinions expressed by the interviewee do not necessarily reflect the views of the organiser.)

Communication is a key aspect of childhood development and building positive relationships. Ms Ms. Angel Chow, Speech Therapist and Founder of Bright Talk Development and Therapy Centre, shared three simple yet highly effective tips for parents to strengthen children’s vocabularies and communication skills in daily conversations:

1. Generate conversation topics that interest children
2. Narrate children’s actions to enhance language input and engagement
3. Broaden children’s horizons to categorise learnt vocabularies and phrases

Ongoing interactions and communications are keys to instilling a passion for speech in children!

(The opinions expressed by the interviewees do not necessarily reflect the views of the organiser.)

Dr. Sham Chak-on Philip, Specialist in Paediatrics at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong shared vital insights on supporting children’s physical, mental and social health at a special EduMakers Voices Parents Seminar held in Victoria Playpark Centre previously:

1. Remind children to wash hands frequently and avoid touching their eyes and nose, to prevent the spread of bacterial infection
2. Get influenza vaccination
3. Avoid smoking to safeguard the health of the entire family
4. Launder bed sheets at 60°C water weekly to eliminate dust mites and other contaminants
5. Boost immune system with vitamin D supplements

Dr. Sham also explained the importance of monitoring children’s emotions, particularly when they feel physically unwell, and always ensure children receive sufficient nutrients and energy for their sound growth and development.

(The opinions expressed by the interviewees do not necessarily reflect the views of the organiser.)

Education is a lifelong journey and starting off on the right foot can have a profound impact on your child and their futures!

To help parents gain a better understanding of how our curated early childhood education programme facilitates children’s smooth transition to kindergarten, Dr. Richard Wong, VEO Early Childhood Academic Advisor, conducted a special information webinar on 7 March 2022.

In the webinar, Dr. Wong explored how the Preparation Class in April – July 2022 introduces the IB Inquiry Cycle and Learner Profile and lays the foundation for children’s attempts at independence, self-management, and communication with their peers.

Webinar key takeaways:

• The programme is designed to help children acquire knowledge, values, skills and competencies, so as to develop their independence, confidence, self-management and communication skills.
• The IB’s Inquiry Cycle and Learner Profile are integrated into the theme-based and trilingual teaching approach to nurture children’s curiosity and passion for learning.
• Class activities, classroom rules and timetable arrangements were modelled after the PN/K1 programme to help children adjust to their new environment.
• Developmental Report Cards*, Learning Portfolios and feedback within lessons will be provided to recognise each child’s unique growth and development process. (*upon continual 4 months’ enrolment in VPP)
• There will be a graduation ceremony (replete with certificates and photos), festival celebrations and monthly birthday parties.
• To let children meet their kindergarten friends earlier, we will try our best to place students from the same future VEO campuses to attend the Preparation Class together.

We are proud to be working hand-in-hand with parents to prepare the next generation of students for future success, and we look forward to seeing you all soon at VPP!

Due to the current Covid-19 situation with clusters of cases involving the Omicron variant, Victoria Playpark is now closed through the Lunar New Year holiday. During the closure period, we are implementing our online learning programme in order to maintain children’s learning momentum and agility during in-centre class suspension.

To allow parents to have a deeper understanding of the online learning programme, as well as to answer parents’ enquiries, we hosted a webinar on Monday, 17 January 2022, 1–2PM, to be led by Dr. Richard Wong, Academic Director, CTF Education Group (Early Childhood) and Academic Advisor, Victoria Educational Organisation; and Ms. Cass Hong, a teacher from Victoria Educational Organisation, in Cantonese and English. In addition to the detailed online learning arrangements, Dr. Wong and Ms. Hong shared lots of tips about how to prepare the children before, during and after seeing the learning videos and attending Zoom live lessons; how to balance the screen time with free play; and also how to motivate the children to enjoy the online lessons.

We look forward to seeing you and your children soon in the Online Learning Programme!

There is a Chinese proverb that says: “Play is not good for children” and many parents rarely associate “play” with learning. Yet, many recent academic studies report the contrary: Play is actually the key to learning.

It is our honour to invite Professor Doris Cheng , Professor of Early Childhood Education at Tung Wah College, for our Expert Talk held on 21 August 2021, to share with our parents on the benefits of “Play” and how meaningful and powerful it is for children to develop skills such as inquiry, expression, experimentation and teamwork.

Stay tuned for more and more talks to come!

Guest Speaker:

Professor Doris Cheng, Professor of Early Childhood Education at Tung Wah College, and Former Professor of Department of Early Childhood Education, Education University of Hong Kong

Professor Cheng is Ex-Center Director of Childhood Research and Innovation at the Education University of Hong Kong. Her research and publications focus on early childhood curriculum and pedagogy, including teaching and learning through play and the impact of play on children. She publishes widely on early childhood education, especially on teaching and learning through play. Recently, Professor Cheng has been working to establish a PlayLab focusing on evidence-based play programmes for children in Hong Kong.

Professor Cheng has also been active in promoting play internationally. In 2014, She was invited to be the overseas consultant in a ‘Play and Learning’ project at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. She has been invited to be the core team member of the ‘True Play’ Alliance of the Anji Play in China. She is currently the core advisor of the Global Research & Innovation Network on Learning through Play organized by LEGO Foundation and has been involved in the Netherland’s NUFFIC project on the capability building of early childhood education in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania.