In its quest for the best way of training its agents, an insurance company once divided its new cohort into 3 groups. The first group was given 3 months of formal training before being sent to the field by themselves. The second group was assigned a mentor each and they had to make customer calls with the mentor for the next 12 months without any training. The last group had to make customer calls with the mentor for the 1st 3 months before receiving 1 month of formal training and then sent back to the field by themselves. At the end of the year when the sales output of the 3 groups were tabulated and compared, it was the 3rd group that did the best, by far.

Learning efficiency increases if we have already experienced first hand the issues that courses are attempting to teach us. In the same way, as young adults, children also need the context of why they are learning something before they can fully appreciate what they are learning.  And the best way of getting context is to experience it for themselves.

Scratching your heads over what to do to entertain your kid during the upcoming March holidays?

Some suggested activities for parents to consider for the holidays include outdoor activities (such as park visits, in-line skating classes), art and other creative activities (such as pottery, art appreciation, dance and drama classes) and baking and cookery classes.

At Out of the Box Kids’ Club, our vision is Learning through Love and Laughter, where we aim to have our kids learn through fun activities.  We have planned an exciting week of varied and enjoyable activities for the kids. Our holiday camp incorporates educational activities that range from an outdoor garden tour to a kids’ fitness class to bringing out the artist, scientist as well as chef in your child!

“When the fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning. “  - Joanne E. Oppenheim (20th century), U.S. educator, author. Kids and Play, ch. 1 (1984)

Some people think of play as the opposite of work. To many, play is often associated with laziness, underachievement and frivolousness. This is probably why we, as parents, often jam-pack our children with activities, in and out of school, so that they could spend their time more ‘wisely’.

SOTA students admitted via what they call TAlent Camps or Talent Auditions ( Theatre/Music/Visual Arts/Dance) .This is conducted twice - once in March / the other in June.

Here's my experience on how my kid got into SOTA.

I went for one of their talks when she was in P4 or P5 to find out their requirements for admission (I had already read it on the website but wanted to hear it from them).

Art engages young children’s senses and unfold the creativity in them. When a child paints a picture, it is not just a fun activity for him or her. It involves the motor skills and cognitive development of the child. It is both a multi-sensory experience and an intellectual process. For example, when a child draws a firefighter who is engaged in fighting fire with a water hose, it involves going through his or her mental processes the motions of carrying out the firefighting task. Some form of strategic planning and thinking skills are needed in the above activity.