The Curious Academy

We can't comment on the quality of the classes as we did not have the luxury of time to go for any trial lessons. But, in terms of facilities, I would say it is very up to the mark.

What we think… As much as I would love Hercules to learn Mandarin, this is clearly not the right environment for him. Following Doman’s instructions – learning should be joyous and your child should demonstrate an eagerness to learn, otherwise you should stop. Since Hercules is clearly disinterested in Mandarin, we should not force it. We still have the flexibility to continue his Mandarin sessions on Little Chinese at home where I can run the program following his interests so I’m not too concerned. In the English class, he knew all the words they flashed (because we’d already done them on BrillKids Little Reader). I was a tad concerned about the amount of repetition they did for the flash cards (since we follow the Heguru/Shichida philosophy at home which calls for less repetition of the same set of flash cards). I suppose that is the limitation of a Doman class as opposed to a regular at home program run by parents – the teachers only have two sessions a week to work with the children so they try to maximise the time with extra repetitions; in the home program, parents can do the program daily as and when the child is ready for it. At home, if your child is not interested to do lessons now, you can always come back to it later when he is ready so there is no pressure to get things done according to a set schedule. What I really liked about the Curious Academy was the physical component of their class. It was the perfect program for Hercules and I wished they would offer it as a stand alone. While I can do a reading program and a Chinese program with Hercules at home, I cannot replicate the physical program because I don’t have the equipment. For now, the only way to take the physical class is to sign up for the core program. Once your child is taking the core program, you can also sign up for the other add on programs – climbing, cooking, art, swimming, etc. In addition to the programs, they also have a couple of free play areas that are really cool. Outside, there is an obstacle course (currently not open yet), and inside, next to the reception area, is an indoor play area. So if you sign your child up for classes, you will also have free access to these terrific play areas outside of class time. I confess I’m tempted to sign up for lessons for Hercules just so he can play in their free play areas!