Lesson duration: 50 minutes of a mixture of 40 activities, and a 10 minutes of debrief for parents. The debrief is a guide for parents to practice mandala, writing, and other activities at home with their toddlers. The 40 activities include the following, among others: Flash Cards - The types/variety of flash cards shown to the toddlers were impressive. They include: alphabet flash cards (items that starts with A or B or C etc), phonics, usual pictures, multiplication etc. My girl love the flash cards session very much. Memory Link - There are over 70 picture cards and the teacher together with toddlers and parents would link the pictures using stories. Mandala – Patterns with colours are shown to us for a while, and we are supposed to guide our toddlers to draw the colours on the patterns. I suppose it is to train the photographic memory. Remember Numbers – Few sets of numbers are shown for a while, and we are supposed to guide our toddlers to write the numbers on a paper. Pretend Play/Imagine – The light of the room is changed for the pretend play/imagine to create the mood/ambience. For example, we are pretending to cook, stir, make juice etc. Matching – There is also a part where our toddlers are given a set of “cutleries” and match them to the board. Singing – This is no usual singing. The singing is very “chim” for exposure. Such as the constellation, aqueous solution (acidic alkaline boric acid). What I like about Heguru: - The variety of activities, meaning my toddler won’t get bored easily. - There is one instructor and one helper to help the instructor. - The sitting arrangement is rotated every lesson. My toddler gets very distracted when seated next to the teaching materials. - Convenient location above One North MRT. - “Mini playground” at the reception area for my toddler to play before and after each lessons. - “Briefing” session for new parents. - Lesson continues on Election Day (instead of cancelled like I heard in Sichida) - Helpful Management. - Refundable deposits as long as the parents attend a briefing and give one month advance notice of withdrawal. Possible areas for improvement: - As mentioned earlier, my toddler gets very distracted when seated next to the teaching materials. Perhaps the teaching materials could be placed on a table or a place unreachable from the toddlers. - Credit card payments should be accepted regardless of the number of months being enrolled. - No trial lesson. Maybe potential parents can view/sit in on one of the lessons to have an idea of how the lessons are conducted and the contents of the lessons, subject to a minimal fee, which is refundable should the parents decide to enrol their kids. Overall, it is definitely an activity-packed lesson which worth more than sending your kids to playgym/mygym.

My girl was initially with Shichida but switched to Heguru 3 terms later after we moved house and this is nearer to our house. I find both teachings quite similar in terms of the idea of exposing 101 things to a child to 'open' up her mind. Especially the use of flashcards and linking memory. Some differences include Heguru seated the children on the floor and Shichida are seated on chairs with a table between the teacher and the parents/ children. There are 2 teachers at Heguru to facilitate the switching of material used while there is only 1 teacher at Shichida in every lesson. I believe the greatest difference I find is that Heguru starts Mandela (I am not sure if this spelling is correct) at young age but Shichida slowly introduces it after 3 years old. Mandela is the recognition of colours and pattern at fast paced, my child finds difficulty to follow on this. Hopefully she gets better overtime. On and all, the 'ambience' in class, cozy feel and the use of lighting to create 'moods' etc fare pretty well for me so far. Tips for parents are provided at the end of every lesson, so we know what to revise with our children when we go home after class is quite helpful. It has only been 1 term thus far and will see how it goes, hopefully got improvement as she is a restless girl, cannot sit still type :)