Why are so many teacher-moms signing up their own children for Dim Sum Warriors?
Did you know that many Dim Sum Warriors parents are themselves teachers?
Why would so many teacher-moms choose Dim Sum Warriors?
The answer is in the scaffolded learning combining bilingual comics, reading app, and cartoon draw along that makes it feel like play rather than class. Teachers know very well that developing positive feelings for a subject is much more effective for learning, in the long run, compared to showing achievement in the short time, but breeding resistance and resentment.
Denise Yong, for example is an Early Childhood Educator and mum of three kids. She’s also a blogger and teacher at Bloom’s School of Music and Arts. You can read her story as a parent trying to teach her children Chinese when she herself is struggling with Chinese.
Like many parents, she tried the rote learning path to get her own children to study Chinese but realized she didn’t like the resentment the children were feeling towards Chinese.
“I tried being the parent who forces the kids to do rote learning and you know what happened? That backfired on me. I got a lot of resentment from the kids. Especially with Chinese.”
Dim Sum Warriors became an attractive option because it opened a welcoming door to Chinese – infused with humor, casual language, and drawing, all elements that her children enjoy. When layered onto their experience of Chinese, it transformed their relationship to the language.
“My children and I have a lot of fun with the stories on DSW, and the Comic Jams! I’m happy to see that my kids are now more receptive towards Chinese, unlike in the past, they would be completely closed off.”
Jocelyn Sara Lim-Tan, a seasoned teacher and education researcher enrolled her two sons in Dim Sum Warriors and found that the multiple resources, which include stories, drawing sessions, quizzes, vocabulary lists, all work together to allow her to build a stress-free daily Chinese learning routine that’s joyful not just for the children, but also the parents and grandparents.
Learning Chinese wasn’t something that only the children did, but something that the whole family could share in.
“… my boys love drawing. They feel a great sense of connection during the LIVE sessions, where it is very interactive and there’s a lot of to and fro. The Mandarin dialogue is also casual; everyday Mandarin they can easily pick up and use.”
Jacqueline Yee, a former pre-school teacher, believes that learning should give kids the confidence to express their own ideas. She chose Dim Sum Warriors initially because her son found the stories funny.
Because the Dim Sum Warriors stories aren’t graded strictly by levels, she was worried that the vocabulary would be too hard for her son, but she realized that because it was in comic form and there is bilingual support, her son started using Chinese words that expressed his ideas but were certainly beyond his level. This really surprised her.
“We read the stories in the Dim Sum Warriors App and now have the print books that we keep re-reading and he’s laughing and laughing at the stories every time. (My son) will use the App for voice practice. He is always happy if he can get 3 hearts. He jumps for joy! It really encourages him to dare to speak up.”
No wonder – because look who the creators are!
It is not surprising that the Dim Sum Warriors is particularly attractive to educators for its unique method of teaching that relates strongly to children. It is created by a team that’s deep into the arts and pedagogy.
In fact, Founder, Dr. Woo Yen Yen is also the Programme Leader, MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice at Lasalle College, University of the Arts Singapore. She is steeped in pedagogy with a doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University and cares deeply about joyful learning.
The creative team also includes renowned children’s book creator and illustrator, Josef Lee, whose work has been selected in the prestigious “The White Ravens” list of international children’s books; and Colin Goh, much–loved Singaporean cartoonist who has made award-winning films and illustrated for New York Times best-selling books.
It’s no wonder that Koh Leng Leng, Faculty of Languages from ACS International (Singapore), another teacher-mom, says:
“My children love the stories and drawings and I find the quizzes and worksheets very helpful for learning. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the videos too. Comic characters that came out from our daily life, that’s something that kids can really connect to!”
