Families enjoy Goducate Academy’s Virtual Family Fun Day

Is it possible to do a family challenge without competitors seeing each other physically? Certainly, going by APIIS (Asia Pacific Institute of International Studies) Goducate Academy’s Family Fun Day held virtually on March 27.

Families were grouped into the following teams—Yellow Bees (Nursery Class), Blue Dolphins (Kindergarten Class), and the Red Tigers (Elementary Class).  Ten exciting challenges were given to each team, and distributed to the families within the team. Challenges included Egg Eating, Cookie Eating, Ball Catch, Tissue Relay, Tomato Relay, Coin Relay, Bottle Flipping, Longest I Love You, Paper Folding, and Cup Pyramid. If a team had fewer than 10 families, some of the families would take on more than one challenge.

Every family did the challenge according to the rules given. Families had been given sample videos of the challenge, so that they clearly understood what to do. Then each family recorded the video and submitted it, without cuts or any editing, to Goducate Academy. The team at Goducate Academy compiled the family challenge videos and edited them to see which family finished first.

A virtual cheering was also recorded by every family, and the videos of their cheers were compiled and made into one exciting cheering video.

On Family Fun Day everybody sat down, relaxed, and enjoyed watching the compilation of the creative videos they had submitted, and in which they were celebrities.

A virtual Family Fun Day is thus no different from a face-to-face one in that families can enjoy themselves and bond together whether they are taking part in an actual or a virtual Family Fun Day.

Our guest writer is Rebecca Depalubos, one of our Goducate staff.

How APIIS Goducate Academy videos teach mothers and children

Filipino mothers in the 21st century are not the same as those in the 1800’s, who only stayed at home and took care of their children. Present-day mothers pursue a career as well as manage their household. Thus APIIS (Asia Pacific Institute of International Studies) Goducate Academy designed an education system for children that busy mothers can apply. For the Goducate Academy team, the system involves the production of quality and interesting videos that the mother can play any time of the day and let her child watch it while she is busy working.

Moreover, the videos stimulate of love of learning in the child. Student M, for example, who is in the Rev Up class (a nursery-level class) likes playing games on iPad and did not want to go to school. His mother has reported that since being enrolled in APIIS Goducate Academy, her son is showing some changes. The once unmotivated child now loves watching educational videos, enjoys tracing lines, and is always excited to join the online class.

Student S, whose family lives in Thailand, has also improved with the Rev Up class. Her mother reported that at the age of two, S could only utter two words: “mama” and “papa”. The doctor told them that if their daughter could not talk at the age of three, they must bring her to a speech pathologist. After S joined the Rev Up class at age 4, her mother noticed that she became excited and interested in her lessons. She even reminds her mother “I have class mom”. Rev Up lesson videos, such as mountain-climbing adventures, give S the opportunity to learn new songs and words. She can sing almost all the songs that she has been taught. When her mother wanted to enroll her in a school in Thailand, S refused to go because she likes her current Goducate Academy online class.

Another kind of video that the Goducate Academy produces is the Parent Guide Video, which directs parents on how to teach their children. It includes instructions on some specific tasks that the child has to accomplish for the week – for example, household chores such as sweeping the floor, washing plates, tidying the bed, and folding clothes. The video also teaches a mother how to train her child to be independent and responsible by doing things all by himself or herself, such as brushing teeth, combing hair, and changing clothes. The children enjoy learning these tasks from their mothers, so the learning sessions become a good bonding time for mother and child.

P’s mother tells us that the videos are easy to access and the Parent Guide Video reminds her what to do next for her son’s lesson whenever she becomes busy at work and forgets what tasks her son has to finish for the week. The Parent Guide Video shows the tasks that the parent has to accomplish in a week. The video explains in English every task that the parent needs do to from Day 1-Day 5 or Monday to Friday.

Another parent has testified that the learning materials are great, they are not stressful, and her child is happily watching the videos.

The APIIS Goducate Academy team is thus creating more interactive and engaging videos that would help millions of Filipino children whose mothers can help to give them the best education and life that they deserve.

*Our Guest writer is Rebecca Depalubos, a Goducate staff.

Preparing Trainers for Goducate’s Sing Your English program in Malaysia

Learning English can be intimidating, scary, or boring for children, which is why Goducate developed the Sing Your English (SYE) program for use in Indonesia. SYE uses songs, games, and fun activities to teach English. Because of school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this program is being conducted online.

Goducate is now preparing to introduce the SYE program in Malaysia. It is doing so in partnership with The Blue Ribbon Global (TBR), whose principles emphasize the development of character values and harmonious relationships within a diverse community.

A training session was held on Zoom on March 29-31 for participants from two partners of TBR. Forty of the trainees were Burmese refugees from Ruth Education Center, and two were interns from the UCSI Vocational Internship Program (VIP). The trainees were taught the philosophy behind the SYE program, classroom-facilitation skills, and how to conduct SYE online through Zoom. In accordance with Goducate philosophy, the aim is that the trainees will later train others.

The trainers were a team from Singapore, Philippines, and Indonesia. The team has received feedback that the training opened the eyes of the participants to how to teach English in a fun and effective way. It would like to identify more potential facilitators and teachers for the program. The hope is that SYE can now be introduced to all refugee centers in Malaysia to teach English and build harmonious relationships there.

SYE Book 1 Demo Class
(L) Trainees doing worksheet
(R) Trainee doing speaking activity
*Our guest writer is Honeylyn Pereira, a Goducate staff member.