Interview: Kindernomics

Why should parents send their kids to Kindernomics?
We provide an education that is relevant to a changing world, and teach critical life skills for primary school preparation and beyond.

And the life skills you speak of are rooted in economic concepts?
Yes. We feel that it is important for children to learn to make their own choices from early on, understand trade-offs in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of certain choices, and think faster and smarter. We [Yeo, Chia and Chan] realised that an economics curriculum was a great platform.

What is the mantra for Kindernomics?
We are all co-learners and believe that learning should be fun. For effectiveness, learning should be done through experience. Children also need to have a supportive environment to build confidence, and they need both life skills and academic knowledge to achieve success in whatever they choose to do.

Do you – the founders – do the teaching at Kindernomics?
No, we hire experienced, MoE-certified educators who are passionate about teaching children. They have a minimum of six years' experience in teaching pre-schoolers and have attained [at least] a Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education.

Who designs the classes?
Early childhood educators with more than 30 years of combined teaching experience and five university degrees between them.

And the animation?
We create all our animation internally, because we want to create a seamless and integrated curriculum to reinforce the understanding and application of concepts explored in class. In addition to our animated videos, we also develop our own interactive games and e-books.

How big are your classes?
Our class sizes typically range from eight to ten students, and we can have two to three classes conducted at any one time, depending on the schedule.

What is your target age range, and why?
The target age group for our regular classes is children from 4 to 6 years old. Economics is about the sharing of scarce resources among people, the trade-offs that they have to consider and the choices that they make – so these are the right ages to begin.

What does Kindernomics set to achieve?
We help children learn to make independent choices and acquire essential life skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and how to apply academic concepts in real-life situations.

In an economy and a business-driven society like Singapore's, do you think Kindernomics is emphasing the importance of money too much?
Money is only a small part of our curriculum, and we emphasise the value of money as means to exchange for our needs such as food and shelter, not the importance of money for its own sake. For example, we take five weeks to explain clearly the concept of needs and wants to the children. In addition, we also cover other character-building aspects such as distinguishing between what is fair and unfair, the importance of hard work, and caring for family and friends.

What programmes have you lined up?
Our regular classes are held once a week and each lesson lasts one and a half hours. Parents can sign their kids up on a term basis, with four terms a year, each term spanning ten consecutive weeks. We also hold camps over the school like a three-day MovieStar Camp and a one-day Natural Resources Camp.

What else should we know about Kindernomics?
We believe that parents are the best educators of their children, and act as a vital bridge between school and home. We respect parents as partners, and support their participation in the child’s educational journey through the use of an online teaching tool-kit, MyKindernomics.

Kindernomics, #11-01 Forum, 583 Orchard Rd (6591 8748, www.kindernomics.com). For a trial class, visit here.