Budding Writer

Side Story
(Warning: I don't brag very often but this post required me to do so. If you think that's a lame excuse, feel free to skip the side story and jump into the main story.) 

I used to consider myself a budding writer. Way back my secondary school days, I'd join essay writing contests and end up bagging the first place. At one point, which I considered one of the highlights of my high school years, I was sent to a Regional Press Conference to represent my school for an editorial writing contest. The competition was very stiff as there were a handful of the best and most talented students from different schools in our entire region. It came as a complete surprise to me when my name was called to receive the medal for garnering the second place for the said writing competition.

Truth be told, my well-written editorial was a product of boring journalism seminars I attended prior to the contest. Although I kept frowning whilst listening to the lectures, I took all the pointers given by the lecturers by heart and applied them while writing my piece. In all honesty, I wasn't a gifted writer. Most of the time, I find the most appropriate words very elusive whenever I wish to describe what I feel or I want to transform my thoughts into beautifully and creatively worded article.

It also didn't help that my vocabulary isn't as rich as my mom's who is very good in writing articles using the most interesting words I never knew existed in a dictionary. It made me believe that anything (be it talent in writing, singing, dancing, etc) could be enhanced further specially when you are very keen to learn and you love what you are doing.

Main Story

About 11 weeks ago, my daughter who is currently in her last year in the primary school went home feeling very proud of herself. She enthusiastically announced to everyone that the article she wrote was hand-picked for publication in What's Up newspaper. I instinctively hugged and kissed her and told her I am very proud of her. After reading her published article, it dawned on me that I have a budding writer in the house. All she need is more encouragement from us, her parents and probably an English supplementary class to enrich her vocabulary, improve her English comprehension and learn to write more articles creatively.

Talk about perfect timing! A week after her article was published, the director of Creative Horizons wrote me a letter offering my daughter a term's worth (10 weeks) of free lessons. I wasted no time to search about the English enrichment centre located in the Orchard area where I work and found out that they specialise in Thinking Skills as a way of mastering language. Moreover, they are very involved in supporting young writers and their lessons are child-centred and participative. In fact, they run an annual competition called Paper Planes: A Creative Writing Contest since 2007.

I am totally sold! I signed up my daughter in a heartbeat and did not regret it despite the distance she has to travel from home. Week after week, she comes home with exciting stories about her featured works, her enriching class, her amazing teacher and her friendly classmates. In the span of 10 weeks, her work was featured on the bulletin board thrice and she couldn't stop talking how good her teacher was.

I could say she totally enjoyed the whole term, I didn't even have a hard time waking her up on a Sunday morning (I normally let her sleep in on weekends) because she always looks forward to attending her enrichment class at Creative Horizons. The best part? Her grades in composition writing greatly improved. I am so grateful to Creative Horizons for enriching my daughter's passion in creative writing. After the gruelling PSLE days (perhaps, when she's in Secondary 1 already), I will not think twice about sending my daughter to the centre for another enrichment class even I have to pay for it because it's just so worth it!

FYI:
Creative Horizons have a range of enrichment classes from K2 to JC2 and they have been inspiring young minds for the last 19 years since they opened in 1995. If you are interested in sending your child there, please check out their website or their Facebook Page for more information.