Kumon Malaysia - Potential 2020 Issue 2

Australia | Brunei | Cambodia | India | Indonesia | Malaysia | Myanmar | New Zealand | Philippines | Singapore | Sri Lanka | Thailand | Vietnam

July - December 2020

KUMON feature

RESILIENCE::

BOUNCING BACK AND EMERGING STRONGER

parenting tips Get tougher, Go further

Tips to develop a resilient child

my life, my dream Joanne Hei

The shining star Wan Aliyyah Iesha Wan Amira Iesha Wan Adam Kamil Don’t Settle For Average, Always Aim Higher

editor’s Note

Welcome to the second issue of the Potential magazine!

Half the year has passed by so quickly. The past few months has definitely been a challenging time for all of us, not just in Malaysia but also around the world as we continue to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. While we are making progress as a nation, much effort is still required for us to fully recover.

As we continue to adapt to the new normal, we hope that our Instructors, parents and students will remain strong and be reminded that there will be a brighter tomorrow. On this note, we also want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your kind understanding and co-operation in adapting to our home study programme as we continue to provide worksheets on our Kumon Online Worksheets Viewing platform. At Kumon Malaysia, we will continue to do our best to provide a positive learning environment for your children.

In this issue, we are very excited to celebrate our 25th Anniversary with all of you. Our success is made possible with your continuous trust and support. Thank you for believing in us and the Kumon Method. Head on over to the Local News section to celebrate this milestone with us!

Following this, we would also like to share with you two stories from our students. Their success stories are truly inspirational. Find out more about Joanne Hei, a 9-year-old girl from Johor Bahru who is now studying 5 years ahead of her actual school grade! How amazing is that! Our second story discusses three siblings namely, Wan Aliyyah Iesha, Wan Amira Iesha and Wan Adam Kamil from Kuala Lumpur. The siblings will share with you how their hard work and dedication have paid off, as well as how the Kumon Method has helped them achieve much more than just academic excellence!

Last but not least, don’t forget to check out our Parenting Tips section as we have an interesting read on activities that help to build resilience in young children.

We hope you will enjoy this issue. Happy reading!

Love,

Contents

Kumon Malaysia

My Life, My Dream

03 The Rising Star 04

ON THE COVER Jul - Dec 2020 Joanne Hei

Joanne Hei

Don’t Settle for Average, Always Aim Higher Aliyyah, Amira & Adam

Features

06 Regional Article

Resilence: Bouncing Back & Emerging Stronger

Kumon Malaysia Have something to say?

Feel free to send us your thoughts on the newsletter!

Tel: 1 800 88 1010 E-mail: information@kumon.com.my Website: www.kumonmalaysia.com

08 Instructors’ Quotes

Regulars 10

Local News

11

Parenting Tips

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NOTICE The logos, graphics, pictures, design, and layout (“Contents”) of this entire newsletter are the exclusive property of Kumon Asia & Oceania Pte Ltd. The Contents contained in this newsletter shall not be reproduced or copied without the express written consent of Kumon Asia & Oceania Pte Ltd. © 2020 Kumon Asia & Oceania Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.

Kumon Malaysia Celebrates 25 Years!

Get tougher, go further – Tips to develop a resilient child

My life, my dream

J

oanne Hei began her Kumon

to develop the ability to self-learn, be

child to excel only on the academic’s

journey at the age of six. Within

resilient and have the confidence to

front. As the saying goes, “all work

a short span of three years

take on challenges.

and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.”

into the Mathematics Programme, Joanne’s determination and hard work paid off, as she began studying five years beyond her actual school grade. At the tender age of nine, she is currently learning form three mathematics.

Joanne’s mother, Mrs Hei, first got to know about Kumon from her sister. Mrs Hei knew that this was an opportunity for her daughter to improve her maths, as she is certain that it is a key subject that would pave way for success in learning. Having enrolled

Joanne is allowed a mobile phone and is guided to use it responsibly. She prioritises her school and Kumon work, before turning to her phone. Apart from academic excellence, Joanne also has a passion for art and cooking.

She hopes to open her very own bakery in the future. Indeed, Joanne

When asked about her experience

Joanne in Kumon, Mrs Hei began to

having joined Kumon, Joanne shared

realise that the Kumon journey is not

that she found it challenging at first.

limited to worksheets and classes

However, over time, she adopted the

alone. She appreciated how Joanne’s

At Kumon, we believe that every child

Kumon Method and began to observe

Instructor encourages Joanne not

has his or her own unique potential,

how this learning method transformed

to give up easily. Additionally, her

and at Kumon, it is our responsibility to

her learning process and experience.

Instructor also placed importance

help them discover and achieve their

In school, she is able to grasp complex

to communicate with Mrs Hei as this

limitless potential.

maths problems and she could also

helps Joanne to continue to progress

help her friends. She often received

in and out of classroom.

praises and encouragement for sharing her knowledge with her peers.

The Kumon Method has helped her

is one of our many shining stars in Kumon.

Mrs Hei expressed that it is important not to put too much pressure on a

Star

The rising Joanne Hei, 9 Achievement 5 years advanced

Ambition Chef

Jul - Dec 2020

3

My life, my dream

Don’t Settle For Average, Always Aim

higher

Wan Aliyyah Iesha , 16 Wan Amira Iesha, 14

Wan Adam Kamil, 13 Achievement 5 years advanced

Ambition Engineer

S

iblings, Wan Aliyyah Iesha (16 years old), Wan Amira Iesha

(14 years old) and Wan Adam

Kamil (13 years old) have been

Kumon students for over 8 years.

Their Kumon journey began when their father, Encik Wan Mokhtar,

was seeking for an after-school

enrichment centre that would be able to help his children build a strong

foundation in maths. He believes that having a strong foundation in maths would further hone their problemsolving skills, which is essential to excel in other subjects.

Aliyyah and Amira, who are both

school prefects, found Kumon to be challenging when they first started

especially as they needed to juggle

their time between school and Kumon work. This was particularly difficult

when Aliyyah was preparing for her

major Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 exams (PT3). Over time, Aliyyah began to

realise the importance in managing her time effectively. She adapted to planning ahead and began

prioritising her tasks. Eventually, she

was able to find more time to take up non-academic activities too!

4 Potential Malaysia

Inspired by her sister, Amirah started to observe that her

The siblings and their father have experienced and

also helped her in other subjects beyond maths.

As a result, Encik Wan Mokhtar highly recommended the

ability to adapt concepts through the Kumon Method has The youngest of the three siblings, Adam was once a quiet boy. He shared that because of Kumon classes, he is now more confident with himself and is also able to take on new challenges. Following his sisters’ footsteps, he too

balances his day between studying and completing his Kumon worksheets, as well as making time to play his favourite games.

The three siblings developed a special bond and

continues to motivate one another whenever they are

faced with difficulties. They encourage each other to give the best they can.

Indeed, Encik Wan Mokhtar has played an instrumental

role for his children. Shortly after they enrolled in Kumon, the Wan family moved to the United Kingdom (UK).

Despite this, he continued to enroll his children for Kumon classes in Malaysia to ensure that they would be able

to cope with learning different syllabuses between their education in the UK and Malaysia. Even though the

family was thousands of miles away from home, the

Instructor provided great support via email and other

online platforms, and ensured the children had sufficient

guidance and are able to do their worksheets accordingly.

witnessed tremendous success from the Kumon Method.

Kumon programme to his friends. He shared that the

knowledge and skills learned from Kumon is not limited

only to academic success but also relevant and essential

in their overall development. He further added that Aliyyah is now confident enough to even guide her two younger siblings with their homework.

Recently, Aliyyah has had the opportunity to participate in the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiad competition, competing with peers with the same level of learning! Throughout the competition, she applied the skills that she had learnt in Kumon classes and

successfully completed the competition. She became

more confident since, and looks forward to participating in other competitions in the near future. Aliyyah also shared with us that her ambition is to be an engineer! We are

certain that she is already on the right path to achieving her dreams.

As for Amira, she also successfully progressed and is

currently one year ahead of her actual school grade.

Apart from academic excellence, Amira excels in her

favourite sport - badminton, where she recently proudly represented her school at a district level competition.

Encik Wan Mokhtar knew that the Kumon journey was

All in all, the siblings truly believe that consistency is key to

hone critical life skills such as self-learning, discipline,

never underestimate ourselves as we possess our own set

one worth investing in as his children were also able to confidence and attention to detail, all of which proved to be essential in their overall learning journey.

achieve success in learning. In Aliyyah’s words, “We should of potential. Don’t settle for average, always aim higher.”

Jul - Dec 2020

5

Regional Article

Resilience:

Bouncing Back and Emerging Stronger

Life is full of ebbs and flows. It is inevitable that you will encounter some form of difficulties at some point of time. When such difficult situations occur, there are generally two options. One, is to let the disappointment, frustration or anger that you are feeling stop you in your tracks. The other; which it not easy, is to let the difficult situation that you have encountered, motivate you and serve as a chance for self-improvement. The ability to bounce back stronger from hard times, rather than letting failures or disappointments keep you down, is known as resilience.

Why Building Resilience in Children is important?

Resilience is an important trait for all of us, and an essential one for our children to develop. It helps to create happier, less stressed children wherever they are – whether in school, at home or attending their enrichment classes. Children are able to emerge from challenging experiences with a positive sense of themselves and their future.

According to a report by the World Economic Forum1, 65% of the children who entered primary school in 2016 will be in new jobs that have not been invented. Resilient children will find themselves better placed than their less resilient peers to gain the new knowledge and skills necessary for them to succeed in these newly invented jobs.

Now with the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the world, building resilience in children is more important than ever. Early this year, stringent measures and movement restriction orders were put in place around the world. As a result, schools and enrichment centres were closed and children had to adapt to a new way of learning – home-based learning.

6 Potential Malaysia

Home-based learning, being a different paradigm, poses different challenges to many children. Instead of the face-to-face learning in a physical classroom that they are used to, they are required to learn using a plethora of video conferencing and digital classroom applications. This has also exposed the learning to certain interruptions, including those from younger siblings and network outages. These are the uncertainties that require, other than support of the parents, resilience from the children to overcome emotionally and mentally.

As Kumon Centres are closed for in-Centre study, students now have to complete all their assigned worksheets as homework, instead of the usual routine that they are used to. Thankfully, Kumon is a programme that suits home-based learning. When students begin learning with Kumon, they are assigned worksheets, according to their “just-right” level, to complete daily.

They complete these worksheets, which are designed to take students through difficult concepts in very small-steps, by studying the examples and hints on the worksheets. They then attempt to solve the problems and complete the worksheets on their own. This continual exposure through challenges and self-learning develop the resilience, discipline, self-learning and problem-solving skills, which are integral to effective home-based learning.

Beyond the pandemic, the self-learning ability will help Kumon students in various pursuits outside the confines of the Kumon Centre. Mr. Toru Kumon, founder of Kumon, expressed this point when he wrote to the Kumon Instructors in a longstanding publication, Yamabiko, in 1986, “We hope they develop an academic ability that is solid enough to enable them to understand new content without having to be taught. Children who have developed the habit of self-learning will surely grow to become people who can continue solving problems in life on their own. They will be able to do this by continuing to read and learn through books, even after university and as they venture out into the world. This is why I want as many children as possible to learn with Kumon.”

1

World Economic Forum, Chapter 1: The Future Of Jobs and Skills, retrieved from

https://reports.weforum.org/future-of-jobs-2016/chapter-1-the-future-of-jobs-and-skills/#view/fn-1

Jul - Dec 2020

7

Feature

Instructors’ Quotes “There is never good enough. There is

“I understand that squeezing Kumon in

always something better” - Mr Toru Kumon

with school, all within the confines of home,

The Kumon worksheets were designed with

may be challenging for children and their

incremental difficulty in small steps which

parents. But children are using their time

help students to be resilient and keep

well to keep learning. In fact, many of my

on learning level by level. Eventually, the

students are actually asking for more

process helps to improve their skills and

worksheets as they have completed their

they can maximise their potential while

homework ahead of schedule. They are

learning through the examples provided.

also responding well to pre-arranged video

Many young children are doing advanced

call sessions.

study, that not only develop their academic

I see this is as my students showing a great

ability, but also produces strong progress in

deal of resilience through the pandemic.

terms of their independence, enthusiasm,

This shows to me that it is always possible

decision making ability which might help

to bring out the best in every child, in any

them in the future – thanks to the Kumon

situation.”

Method!”

Ms. Nurul Syamimi Pauzi Kumon Malaysia

8 Potential Malaysia

Ms.Krishna Sharma Kumon Australia and New Zealand

We have read that resilience is especially important during the Covid-19 pandemic.

How important is resilience in our children’s Kumon journey and how Kumon nurtures this essential trait in our children? Let us read on to see what some of our Kumon Instructors from around the region has to say.

“Some days, your child’s Kumon worksheets

“The Kumon Method provides students

feel super easy and homework is finished

a learning journey with lots of ups and

in 5 mins; other days, they feel challenging

downs. One of the skill set taught in Kumon

and even impossible (cue: tears and

Method is resilience, having the ability

tantrums). Through the Kumon journey,

to overcome challenges encountered

our students gain an important life skill -

from the worksheet and to keep on going.

resilience. We are committed to nurturing

Whenever students approach me feeling

your child to embrace the difficult or the

discouraged and unable to move on, I will

unknown in his/her worksheets and never to

always encourage and motivate them

give up when it gets tough. When a page is

with the following analogy, “Can a baby

full of errors, we figure out why, correct our

learn to walk without falling?” Life provides

mistakes and learn from them. Resilience

lots of opportunities and challenges and

gets us through Kumon which, just like life,

it is natural that we will face failures. Most

is full of ups and downs but ultimately an

importantly we should not be discouraged

enriching experience for all!”

and should persevere on and overcome them. We will never know unless we try!”

Ms Caley Lim

Kumon Brunei

Ms. Caroline

Kumon Singapore

Jul - Dec 2020

9

Local News

Kumon Malaysia Celebrates Since our inception in 1997, Kumon Malaysia has grown over the years to be the nation’s largest after-school evnrichment programme. We have impacted over 35,000 students and have recruited over 205 passionate Instructors and franchisees. Our strong foothold in Malaysia is attributable to the foundation built by our stakeholders - our franchisees, Instructors, parents as well as students, whom have all contributed to our success today. Sincerely, a big THANK YOU to our parents and students and KUDOS to our Instructors for your passion and determination in helping every student achieve their limitless potential.

As we celebrate our 25th anniversary this year, we are proud to unveil a special logo to commemorate this milestone.

Following this, we are also pleased to announce that we have recently launched our official Instagram account (@KumonMalaysia). We believe that it is timely to further enhance our presence in the digital space - on social media platforms via Instagram and Facebook as well as our website - as this will allow us to continuously share updates, insights and success stories with all of you.

We hope that you are equally as excited as we embark on our new journey via Instagram. We look forward to sharing interesting content with you and your children along the way. First up, we will be rolling out a Fun Fact live session every Friday. Additionally, be sure not to miss out on some behind-the-scenes snippets for every programme or activity that we will be introducing.

Head on over to our Instagram today to follow, and “heart” our posts!

10

10 Potential Malaysia

Parenting tips

Get tougher, go further – Tips to develop a resilient child “Oh, you want that toy? Okay, I’ll get it for you alright?”. It is easy fall into the temptation of giving in to the requests, or sometimes demands, of our little ones. Better to spend the money than having a

01

Read

A good read engages your children, but did you know that reading can teach your resilience too? For example, as

you read Sally’s journey to look for her missing son, explain

how she doesn’t give up despite the many attempts to find Spot, who incidentally, was hiding in a basket. If your child

is older, read about famous personalities who have had to experience failure before eventually turning out to be the

person we all know – Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo, JK Rowling, are some examples.

02

Play sports

Play sports with your children. Besides being a good

physical activiy, it helps to bond with your children and builds resilience in them. They will appreciate that they don’t always win – yes, resist the temptation to keep

meltdown right?

losing on purpose to make them happy; it’s about building

But much as we want our children to have that

ball around at home (be sure to keep breakable items first)

carefree childhood, it is also true that they will, at some point in their childhood, face disappointment and frustration. So rather than helping them ascend the metaphorical ivory tower, it might be better to help them become more resilient to setbacks in life earlier rather than later.

Here are some activities to help our little ones develop the mental strength to overcome challenges and bounce back stronger.

resilience right? If playing outdoors is not an option, kick the or just pass and roll the ball around.

03

Board, card or video games

Yet another activity to teach your child that they don’t

always win and another opportuity for some bonding time.

Encourage them when they lose and motivate them to try

again. While it’s true that they might turn cranky when they lose, it’s easier to teach them to accept losses in a game

of Snakes and Ladders or Monopoly than having to do it in more serious real-life scenarios.

04

Adventure Games

It gets you and your children moving while playing a

game. A simple hide and seek, or even a mini scavenger

hunt if you are feeling up to it. Apart from family bonding

time and resilience, such games teach children problemsolving skills as they work out where to hide or find their

target. They may potentially learn the concept of volume as they realise that larger objects cannot fit into smaller spaces.

Any physical activity involves risks and a seemingly save game like hide and seek is no different. It is important to mark out the play zone or safe areas.

Jul - Dec 2020

11

The Origins of the Kumon Method

After more than half a century, his philosophy still continues to help many children develop the ability to reach for their goals and dreams.

Kumon offers learning opportunities in more than 50 different countries and regions around the world.

Handmade materials created

by Toru Kumon for his son (Takeshi) in 1954.

Toru Kumon (Founder of the Kumon Method)