Welcome Back To School!

Assalamualaikum all!

It is time for the new school year! You have your school bag ready, your pencils and eraser, your ruler and pencil case, school shoes and new socks... so. Are you ready for school?

I am sure both parents and children are feeling anxious and excited - which is absolutely normal :) To ease the anxiousness, let us go through what will the first few days look like at Genius Aulad.

School starts on Thursday 5th January 2017. This also marks the first day of orientation for the students. This is the time when students familiarize with their teachers and make new friends. They might be a little reserved or even cry on the first day, but don't worry - they will warm up inshaa Allah :)

Orientation week will last until Friday 13th January 2017. There are many activities lined up for Orientation Week to retain the students' attention and develop their interests;

• The Ice Breaking session includes a tour of the school, explanation on classroom rules and toilet sessions, and fun activities like Story Time, Songs & Movements, and also Circle Time.
• The Creative Session involves more artistic activities such as paper cutting/tearing, smart folding, manipulative (sorting, matching, stacking, etc) and also playing with Play Doh.
• The Islamic Exposure session will have basic Islamic activities involving hafazan, fardhu ain, and solat.

Masyaallah, sounds like a really fun and educational orientation week. May the students benefit from the activities, learn to be independent and get along with their teachers and their friends, and make memorable moments during their first few days in school. Inshaa Allah :)

See you on Thursday, and may Allah bless our efforts and deeds.

5 Sebab Anak Tidak Menangis Pada Hari Pertama Sekolah

Assalamualaikum all!

An article of ours have been kindly published by TheAsianParent Malaysia, an online community targeted at urban parents and parents-to-be, who live in Malaysia. So motivating, alhamdulillah!

Check out the article here, or you can read it below:

5 SEBAB ANAK TIDAK MENANGIS PADA HARI PERTAMA SEKOLAH

Musim sekolah kian tiba – sungguh cepat masa berlalu! Setiap tahun, anak-anak kita akan memasuki alam persekolahan dengan perasaan yang bercampur aduk – ada yang sedih berpisah dengan ibu bapa, dan ada juga yang amat gembira dan tidak sabar untuk memulakan fasa baru kehidupan bersama rakan sekolah.

Anak yang enggan ke sekolah bukan perkara yang baru dalam masyarakat kita. Mereka mungkin berasa takut kerana mengalami persekitaran yang baru dan asing. Anak juga mungkin sudah terlalu selesa berada di rumah dan keberatan untuk meninggalkan atau mengubah rutin, misalnya seperti menonton televisyen dan bermain game.

Ada beberapa faktor yang boleh mengelakkan anak menangis pada hari pertama di sekolah:

1. Pastikan anak rasa selamat dengan persekitaran sekolah
Perkara pertama ibu bapa harus mengenal pasti sebelum menghantar anak ke sekolah adalah keselamatan (sense of security). ‘Selamat’ di sini adalah dari segi fizikal (bangunan yang selamat digunakan, persekitaran sekolah yang ceria dan cantik) dan juga mental/emosi (anak berasa selesa untuk bermain dan belajar, anak tidak ragu-ragu untuk memberitahu guru jika sesuatu berlaku). Lebih baik jika ibu bapa melawat sekolah dan lihat sendiri sebelum memasukkan anak.

2. Ceritakan pengalaman hari pertama di sekolah
Anak sangat suka apabila ibu bapa bercerita tentang pengalaman kita dalam sesuatu perkara. Ceritakan pengalaman kita pada hari pertama sekolah dulu – bagaimana kita ke sekolah, baju dan kasut yang kita pakai, bagaimana guru di sekolah, kawan pertama kita di sekolah, apa yang kita buat pada hari pertama, dan macam-macam cerita lagi. Berikan gambaran yang positif kepada anak tentang sekolah. Boleh juga lukiskan atau lakarkan pengalaman tersebut - taktik bercerita yang lebih menarik :)

3. Kawan/adik-beradik berada di sekolah yang sama
Apabila anak kita tahu kawan ataupun kakak/abang mereka akan berada di sekolah yang sama, mereka akan lebih bersemangat untuk pergi ke sekolah. Ini akan secara automatik mempercepatkan proses penyesuaian anak dengan persekitaran sekolah tersebut (sense of belonging). Anak akan lebih yakin dan tenang apabila mereka tahu seseorang yang mereka kenal akan bersama mereka. Galakkan juga anak mencari kawan pada hari pertama. Sambil mereka berkawan-kawan, anak akan lupa ketakutan sendiri, inshaa Allah.

4. Anak seronok dengan aktiviti di sekolah
Kanak-kanak tertarik dengan aktiviti yang seronok. Sebelum hari pertama ke sekolah, ibu bapa boleh perkenalkan dan dedahkan anak pada aktiviti-aktiviti yang akan dianjurkan oleh pihak sekolah seperti program lawatan sambil belajar dan kelas tambahan seperti memanah atau taekwondo. Lawati sekolah terlebih dahulu, buat pertanyaan tentang program-program yang akan datang sepanjang tahun, dan ceritakan kepada anak supaya mereka berasa teruja dan ternanti-nanti untuk ke sekolah.

5. Guru sekolah senang didekati (approachable)
Guru memainkan peranan yang sangat penting di sekolah. Apabila anak di sekolah, tanggungjawab terhadap kebajikan anak tersandar 100% pada guru, dan anak akan berada di sekolah bersama guru selama beberapa jam setiap hari. Kita boleh lihat betapa pentingnya guru yang senang didekati (approachable). Pada hari pertama di sekolah, persepsi pertama (first impression) anak terhadap guru akan memberi kesan terhadap minat dan motivasi anak untuk ke sekolah. Contohnya; jika anak mendapati gurunya rajin bercerita dan bersikap peramah, dia akan lebih suka untuk ke sekolah.

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds, inshaa Allah :)

2017 Registration is OPEN!

Assalammualaikum all!

It is mid of December and I am sure a lot of mommies and daddies are excited to send their children to the next phase of life - preschool! Oh what fun and joy it would be to start school, especially when the school offers a conducive environment for learning in and beyond classrooms.

Not sure where to send your child yet? Now is the best time to register your child to enroll in Genius Aulad! Wait no more and register online.

Here's a step-by-step guideline for online registration:

Step 1: Go to www.geniusaulad.com.my

Step 2: Click on 'Online Registration' at the top-right corner of the website

Step 3: You will be directed to another page called ASIS. Choose which centre you wish to register with.

Step 4: Scroll down for more centres.

Step 5: Click on the centre of your choice.

Step 6: You will be directed to the 'Genius Aulad - Online Registration' page.

Step 7: Fill up all the relevant information. Do note that fields with asterisks* are mandatory fields to fill in.

Step 8: Once you have filled up the online registration form, tick 'Confirmation' at the bottom of the page

Step 9: Click 'Send This Application' to submit the online registration form, and you are done!

It. Is. That. Easy!

Still unsure on some matters pertaining to online registration? Check out some of our FAQ's below:

I can't seem to register online, there seems to be an error when I try to click 'Online Registration'. 

Oh dear, maybe the system was down. No problem - just email the centre you are interested in about it. Remember to provide essential information on the child and parents/guardians, and the respective centres will get back to you soonest possible. 

How do I know that my application has reached the centres?

Basically, once you have clicked 'Send This Application', the online registration form will go to the respective centre's email. For each centre, there might be lots and lots of application at a time. It takes time to go through all the online applications, but if you would like to find out, you can call the centre directly and inquire about your online application. 

Where can I find contact details of all the centres?

You can find contact details of all the centres from our website. Go to www.geniusaulad.com.my, go to Contact. You will see and interactive map. Click on the location of the centre you are interested in and the contact details will be displayed on the left side of the page. 

In the online application form, there is a section for both Father and Mother, but I am a single parent. How do I proceed?

No worries - just fill in both the Father and Mother sections with the same information :)

Well, hope this blog post will help Mommies and Daddies out there on how to register online. Hope to see your child at the nearest Genius Aulad centre soon! 

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds, inshaa Allah. 

Train Hard, Train Smart!

Assalamualaikum all!

How has the school holiday been so far? We hope you are having a beneficial and exciting holiday before starting school in January. Some of us are travelling to places near and far. Some of us are learning new things and taking lessons. Some of us are even catching up on reading that book we bought 3 months ago!

While we are relaxing and having fun during the holidays, our teachers at Genius Aulad are busy busy busy! Our dear teachers have training sessions lined up all month long, mashaallah. Not only are they energetic and hardworking during lesson time, they are also extremely dedicated in preparing and getting ready for their upcoming lessons. Go, teachers, go!

For Genius Aulad teachers, we have two types of training; one is professional training, and the other is in-house training. For professional training, we have professionals from all over the world to train our teachers, such as Mr.Roger Jenkins, the international award-winning storyteller, and the wonderful team from Red Bubbles who conducted the "Beyond Clowning" workshop.

"Beyond Clowning" - A fun workshop that teaches interactive entertaining techniques

For in-house training, our teachers are trained by HRDF-certified trainers to maintain our quality of teaching. This is to fulfill our teachers' goals to nurture children into becoming adventurous, bubbly, and confident young Muslims with English fluency.

There are several in-house training sessions this December, which includes Bijak Bahasa, English at Ease, Islamic & Arabic Funworks, and the exciting Circle Time & Assembly. All these training will provide the teachers with ideas and guidelines on how to conduct their classes to be as beneficial and fun to the students as possible.

Our cheerful Islamic Education Principal sharing great teaching tips in the Islamic & Arabic Funworks training session

Teachers super focused during the Bijak Bahasa training session

Alhamdulillah, training sessions are currently on-going as we speak. The whole planning and organizing of the training sessions is all thanks to our beloved Training and Education team. They have worked very very hard in making sure all teachers have the opportunity to go through the training sessions and apply what they learn in lessons to come. The team has also contributed so much in ensuring the quality of our teachings is maintained and inshaa Allah improved. Nice work, team mates!

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds!

Lunch & Learn Cyberjaya!

Assalamualaikum all. 

We are excited to announce our 55th Genius Aulad centre has opened at Cyberjaya! The centre is looking pretty good and almost done, alhamdulillah. 

As a introductory step, we are having a Lunch & Learn session at the centre TOMORROW! If you are a parent interested to send your child here, or if you are simply interested to know more about the centre or about Genius Aulad in general, come and meet us there! 

Two awesome reasons why you should go tomorrow to our Lunch & Learn session:

1. The Lunch & Learn session will be a sharing session with the Genius Aulad Founder and it will be based on the topic "Teaching at Home: Peparing Young Children to be THINKERS!", which is an extremely good topic for parents, inshaa Allah. 

2. FREE LUNCH! Now who would turn that down? :)

So come and find us. We are at Fiesta CyberSquare, Jalan Teknokrat 6, Cyberjaya. Inshaa Allah, see you there! 

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds :)

Let's Read! Mari Membaca!

Assalamualaikum all!

Not sure what to do during the school holidays?
We at Genius Aulad have exciting reading activities lined up for you!

We are having a one-on-one mentoring session for English, Bahasa Malaysia, and Little Qari. The program is a reading recovery program for children who need personalized help and coaching. Each child will explore the three learning styles of Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic learning through various reading activities.

For more details on the different packages, contact our Headquarters at 03-80512376 or 03-80655150 and book a slot now!

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds :)

Why Are Children Easily Frustrated - Part 5

Assalammualaikum all!

We have come to our fifth and final point of the "Why Are Children Easily Frustrated?" mini series, which explores what triggers the issue, and how can we as adults and parents help with the situation.

Let's have a look at the final point!

Play time is a crucial time for children's development as this is the time when they mix around with other children and practice social skills. It is especially important that children are given the opportunity to play outdoors and benefit from nature's unstructured environment. According to Kathleen Alfano, Former Director of Child Research at Fisher-Price®, playing outdoors allows children to explore their environment, develop muscle strength and coordination, and gain self-confidence. These are developments that are important in a child's well-being. 

Thankfully, developing social skills is not limited to outdoor play. There is also no specific 'guideline' to what a socially competent child should be. Nevertheless, children with better social skills tend to be better at making friends and communicating with peers and teachers around them. When children find it challenging to communicate effectively with people around them, they will get easily frustrated. 

What can we do to help with our children's social competency?

There are various ways that we can teach social interaction to our children. One important element in social interaction is the ability to have proper eye contact. A good, solid eye contact shows that we are interested in what the other person says and we are also listening confidently. Explain to your child the importance of eye contact, and then practice, practice, practice! Every time you speak to your child, look him/her in the eye and encourage them to do the same.

Another crucial social interaction skill is saying the magic words - 'please' and 'thank you'. Good manners is extremely important as this will shape our children into more polite and approachable people, inshaa Allah. Parents would need to be role models to children and demonstrate good manners. Encourage children to say 'please' and 'thank you' whenever they can, and praise them when they do - they will be motivated to continue doing so!

Alhamdulillah, this marks the end of our mini series "Why Are Children Easily Frustrated?". We hope the series have given much benefit and enlightenment to all readers, inshaa Allah. We hope to continue this initiative and help our children develop into admirable future leaders.

May Allah bless our efforts and deeds.