Today mothers are often strong role models for their children’s achievements and chosen career paths. When the time came for the passing of the torch at Tadika Sinar Semarak, Ms. Angel Pong assumed the mantle of principal with seamless ease. It almost seemed as if she had been groomed for this role since birth.
Madam Chew, founder of Tadika Sinar Semarak, has been working in the early childhood education industry for more than 30 years. She began working as a kindergarten teacher back in her hometown in Pahang and developed a passion for teaching. After she started a family and moved to KL, she found that she did not have sufficient time to lavish the care and love that she felt her young family deserved. That day a seed was planted and that seed came to fruition with the founding of Tadika Sinar Semarak in 2004.
In its 13 years of existence, Tadika Sinar Semarak has encountered hardships and experienced struggles and has overcome them all. Today it is a dynamic and flourishing preschool at the forefront of early childhood care and education in Saujana Puchong.
Nowadays Madam Chew has taken a step back from the daily running of the preschool. Today she retains an honorary title of “Principal Mentor” and her daughter, Ms. Angel Pong has assumed the mantle of principal. Under the guidance and nurturing influence of Madam Chew, Ms. Angel has also developed a love for nurturing young children. She’s obtained a diploma in early childhood education and is now pursuing a degree in early childhood education.
Tadika Sinar Semarak curriculum covers basic subjects such as English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mathematics, Science and Mandarin. Soon they will be implementing a phonics based program to teach English. When it comes to teaching Mandarin, however, Madam Chew has a special method that piques the interest of students and children very quickly learn to recognize the Chinese characters. First, she would demonstrate how the Chinese characters depict the objects they represent, this is known as the Chinese pictogram; coupled with a brief introduction to Chinese history, students are able to recognize the Chinese characters easily and reading becomes a breeze.
Learning at Tadika Sinar Semarak isn’t confined to the textbooks and just recognising words. Everyday there would be an hour of thematic approach of teaching specially designed by Madam Chew and Ms. Angel. The themes usually revolve around everyday life, such as plants, animals, occupations etc. By having related activities such as role-play, craft work or educational videos, children would be able to explore, experience and understand the world around them.
Besides that, twice a week there would be a mental arithmetic class slotted into the timetable of the 5 and 6 years old children to teach mental addition and subtraction within 100. Ms. Angel calls this finger arithmetic, because instead of using an abacus, 10 fingers would be sufficient to do the arithmetic within 100. Taught right, this is a very powerful method to learn maths and at the same time it stimulates children’s left & right brain and even helps with their finger motor skills. Tadika Sinar Semarak takes great pride in this. They have even made it one of the programs in their annual concert for students to demonstrate mental arithmetic on stage.
It doesn’t stop there. Computer classes are included in the syllabus as well. Recently they have set up a learning lab, where different stations would contain different materials and activities for the students to learn and explore. While allowing the students to play, they would also learn to share, gather and process information and cooperate with their peers. Every morning the children would be outdoors for physical activities and every Friday the children would be allowed to use the outdoor pool while being supervised by teachers.
During school holidays there will be holiday programmes, holiday camps and parenting workshops to allow the children as well as their parents to enjoy the holidays to the fullest. “This is a time of bonding for all, students, parents, teachers and caregivers, without the pressure of lessons and classes,” says Ms. Angel.
For our Tadika, I would like for us to grow and to learn as a community from each other’s varied experiences and to encourage each other by positive reinforcement. Personally, as has my mother before me, I would like to challenge myself to be a principal who makes a difference – who teaches with love and nurtures with kindness Angel Pong, principal of Tadika Sinar Semarak
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