15 August 2014 by Adeline Lum CM-
On 9th of August, LifePoint Subang Jaya Assembly of God (SJAG) held a spelling competition called Shuffle Champ Spelling Competition, which drew more than 130 children aged 4 to 12 years old, from the schools and kindergartens in the nearby community area.
“It’s a creative way to reach out to kids. The Shuffle Champ Spelling Competition has its dual purpose of reaching out to the kids with the gospel and improving literacy in the community,” said Pr Petra Ho, creator of Shuffle Champ.
Held for the second time this year, Shuffle Champ is a fun game for children to learn spelling by stringing together cubes with printed letters of the alphabet to make the word they hear.
“I love to see children read at an early age. So, when I see children beginning to read at 2 or 3 years old, I get really excited! I am somewhat an educator at heart,” said Pr Petra Ho, whose passion budded from formerly teaching her own children and teaching at Rainbow Montessori School in SS18 and Tadika Tunas Didik in SJAG where she was the principal.
Shally Chin from Kajang AOG came to observe the competition, in hope to run this same event in her church. Due to the decreasing size of her children ministry, she desires to grow her church through community evangelism.
“We are looking for a program that is not threatening. We don’t want it to be churchy either. Because Shuffle Champ is a spelling competition for children, we felt that this is a good outreach program,” said Shally Chin.
Sr Pr Wong Yin Ming of SJAG added that Shuffle Champ is relevant to the community because education is very important for families with children, especially in mastering the English language.
“We are trying to build bridges with the community by having projects that are relevant to them. From this, we hope to build friendships and let them know we are here to help and serve, not pushing the gospel to them,” said Pr Wong.
While the children were competing, parents were treated to a Christian-inspired movie entitled ‘Fireproof’ in another room. Pr Petra shared, “Many parents found the movie touching and some were even teary-eyed. It was great to see parents coming out together with their kids to have a fun family time!”
There are nine categories in the competition, with prizes for children getting first, second, and third. Here are the first-prize winners for each age-group category:
- 4-year-old category – Lim Zi Yip
- 5-year-old category – Nathan Tang Yi Xiang
- 6-year-old category – Alexandria Ng Shu Lynn
- 7-year-old category Group A – Natalie Fong Su-Ling
- 7-year-old category Group B – Hong Yi Cheng
- 8-year-old category – Paris Chow
- 9-year-old category – Joanne Yoong
- 10-year-old category – Lim Jing Ren
- 11 to 12-year-old category – Ng Qian Xi
SHUFFLE CHAMP, a reading program cum word game, is available in Cosway and bookshops such as Canaanland and Burning Bush. It comes complete with seven cubes, a game board, blue and red cards, two read/coloring books, a learning DVD, and a brochure.
ABOUT Pr Petra: She is also the creator of the Bible Phonics Program, which teaches children how to read. Every lesson has a Bible story, a puppet skit, and an object lesson. The program comes with DVD for parents and a CD for teachers to print out teaching aids, flashcards, blending letters, word lists, sight words, matching activities, recording booklets, etc. Just by watching the DVD alone, children can learn how to read. Together with the bonus track, the Bible Phonics Program covers all the 44 sounds in the English Language.
Parents with children aged 4 to 6 year old can also enroll their kids for the Phonics and Reading Class held at Rainbow Montessori School on Wed, 4.00 PM – 5.30 PM beginning this September. This class uses the Bible Phonics Program as well as Shuffle Champ. For further information and fees, please contact Rainbow Montessori School at 03-56310171, located at SS18, Subang Jaya.
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