First of all, many apologies for this long-overdue post. Life has been busy at the centre as usual but we haven't forgotten about updating our readers with one of this year's most important events - the annual Recognition Day for our ASHR students.
This year's Recognition Day was held at Lecture Hall 3, Hii Kah Tung Centre at Methodist Pilley Institute. The venue was chosen for its spacious hall as we needed a bigger space for the activities after the award presentation.
This year more than 80 ASHR students attended the Recognition Day together with their parents and family members to celebrate their achievements. We were happy for the big turnout although there were still about twenty students who could not make it to the event that day.
Most students and their parents had arrived at the venue before 2.00 p.m. for the registration process. They were dressed in formal attire and appeared very excited. Before the event started, videos from the 2009 ASHR DVD were played for the audience. The videos included sharing from Mr Akira Hamanaka, the president of KAO as well as testimonies from Kumon advanced students and completers. The videos were very motivating and inspirational.
At 2.30 p.m., the event started. All the ASHR students had been lining up outside the hall for the march-in. They were greeted with warm applause when they marched into the hall. It was indeed a proud moment for the students and their parents.
After all the students were seated, the event began with the opening address from the Instructor, Ms Penny Law. She encouraged the students to not give up, especially when they have reached ASHR because they are working hard for their future, a future that would be made easier by studying advanced materials at their young age. She also urged parents to support their children in their advanced learning so that they could gain valuable life skills.
Next on the agenda was the sharing from Mr Sunny Sin, the area manager for the Sarawak centres. He shared about some of the advanced students in Malaysia and encouraged students to keep working hard to reach their goals.
After the two speeches, a P3 Gold Mathematics student, Denver Goh, gave a solo violin performance. He performed five songs and although he was visibly nervous, he managed to play all five songs fluently and with good composure. Well done, Denver! Denver is currently in Level H for Maths.
Next was the highlight of the event - award presentation. Students who qualified for the June 2009 ASHR list each received an exquisite crystal plaque and a certificate from the Kumon Office. For most of the students, this was the second or third Recognition Day they had attended while for some, it was their first time. It was obvious from the children's beaming faces that they were happy and proud of their achievements. Their parents also shared in their happiness and pride by busy clicking away with their cameras.
After the photography sessions for the ASHR students, it was time for another student performance. This time, a 5-year-old Gold Mathematics and Gold English student, Emily Yong Han Hua performed worksheet reading. She read out 3 passages selected from Kumon English D1 & D2 worksheets. She was reading very calmly and fluently to the amazement of the audience. Well done, Emily! Emily is currently finishing Level D for her Maths and doing E1 for her English.
After Emily's performance, it was time to present the Completer's Plaque to the centre's first Maths Completer - Stephen Tang Bing Wei. The instructor, Ms Penny Law was very proud to hand over the plaque to Stephen, who had worked very hard to deserve this honour. He then proceeded to give a sharing about his Kumon journey to the audience. In his sharing, he detailed his Kumon journey and talked about how he overcame every challenge and managed to persevere till the very end. He was very proud to be the centre's first Maths completer and urged his fellow students to also persevere so that they could one day complete the program. It was indeed very motivational. We are proud of you, Stephen!
Students in the older group (aged 9 and above) were given a Kumon quiz to test their knowledge about their Kumon centre, Kumon in Malaysia and general questions related to the Kumon Method of Learning. It could be said that the students found the 10 questions harder to answer than their Kumon worksheets as they thought long and hard about the answers! After that, the students were divided into three groups for the Jenga Block Challenge. It was fun to see the children cooperate to think of the best strategies to win the game. Finally, the students were given a card to write down their aspirations. Doctors, pilots and teachers were among the most common occupations written down by the students. We hope you can all achieve your dreams!
After playing for more than forty minutes, it was time for some refreshments. It was great to see parents and students mingle around to talk to each other and to pose for photos with other students and assistants. Thanks to the effort of the centre assistants, the event had been a successful one. It was worth all the hard work and preparation when we saw how happy the children were. We look forward to organising next year's Recognition Day. We hope to see more students participate next year so please continue to work hard for this year's ASHR.
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