Childcare or no Childcare?

[Pen88n]

It is hard to trust a maid with a baby at home, esp. if you do not know the maid too well. Infant care is good, though expensive, and you will have the problem of having to take leave in case your baby is ill.


Another alternative is babysitter. Choose a reliable one that has a decent family unit - I personally prefer SAHM who are educated with school going kids. You can propose leaving the baby with the babysitter, and send the elder one to childcare. Pay the babysitter a little more to take care of your elder one after the childcare - bathe and provide dinner. In case of elder kid sick and not able to attend childcare, the babysitter should be able to tend to him as well. In this way, you need not rush back in the evening to pick up elder kid and cook dinner, and take leave in case of little illnesses.

Hope this helps.

[phoebe_goh]

My girl is currently 19 months and i realised that she is very keen to learn new things. Everyday, she will take her books to read and ask people around her to teach her to study. Currently, my parents are taking care of her. Since she is so keen to learn, I think of sending her to school to learn but not sure where to send her. Anybody got any advice or suggestion?

[DesertWind]

phoebe_goh:

My girl is currently 19 months and i realised that she is very keen to learn new things. Everyday, she will take her books to read and ask people around her to teach her to study. Currently, my parents are taking care of her. Since she is so keen to learn, I think of sending her to school to learn but not sure where to send her. Anybody got any advice or suggestion?

Hi Phoebe!
Wow, your girl so young already so advanced! Less than 2 yo still young, I only send my boy to childcare centre at 2 yo. At such young age perhaps convenience is the word ie. the childcare, enrichment class should be nearby. Since taking care of by your parents, you may wish to start going around the nearby places to ask what the centres have to offer. I presume you are only looking for those a few hours type of enrichment classes? One suggestion is to go to a good Montessori enrichment centre who can give your girl some individual attention.

You will really need to do some homework and go down personally to talk to the teachers and look at the school. Most important lesson I learnt from my experience is that if the childcare centre / enrichment centre is not suitable for your child, there may be more harm than good for the kid ie. may stiffle their growth instead.

All the best!
:celebrate:

[phoebe_goh]

Thanks for your advice… I was thinking of montessori enrichment programme… Do you have any idea where there is good montessori?

[DesertWind]

phoebe_goh:

Thanks for your advice.. I was thinking of montessori enrichment programme... Do you have any idea where there is good montessori?

Hi Hi!
Unfortunately I am not familiar with Ponggol area so not able to reply. You may wish to google search for enrichment places near your area in this website!
:celebrate:

[GROW]

My girl is 4 years old & she read a lot, as such at age of 4 she already knows a lot. I don't know which K1 to send her so that she won't feel bored. any one can help. I am staying at the east............. worry mum

phoebe_goh:

My girl is currently 19 months and i realised that she is very keen to learn new things. Everyday, she will take her books to read and ask people around her to teach her to study. Currently, my parents are taking care of her. Since she is so keen to learn, I think of sending her to school to learn but not sure where to send her. Anybody got any advice or suggestion?

[sleepy]

GROW:

My girl is 4 years old & she read a lot, as such at age of 4 she already knows a lot. I don't know which K1 to send her so that she won't feel bored. any one can help. I am staying at the east............. worry mum

I sent my kids to kindy for social interactions, learn how to make friends easily, listen to teachers' instructions. So it doesn't matter which kindy since I do not rely on kindy to teach them the academic stuff. They do not feel bored at all since there are other activities like crafts work, exercise, storytime, playing & chatting with friends. Those simple stuff taught in kindy, just treat as revision

[stallion]

We are about to enrol our little boy(18 mths) into CM @ Pasir Ris.

But saw some mentioning of unhappiness which we panicked.
Visited the centre and they told us things have changed for the better.
Any parents still have their kids in CM@PasirRis? Could you feedback?
Thanks alot.

[sunny]

hi

sometime ago, i posted here that i was sending DD to cc.

now, she has been with a montessori cc for slightly more than a yr. (she’s now 4.5 yo.) We switched her from half day to full day early this year. till now, she will still tell me that she doesn’t want to go cc for full day. i have been asking her for the reason, no exact answer from her… i talked to the principal and the teachers, all of them mentioned that DD is doing and coping well in cc. Everytime when I pick up my gal, she looks happy and keeps telling me what has happened in cc. I really scratch my head…

And, i am not working soon so that I could spend more time with the children… thanks to supportive DH though we know that financially, we will be very tight. I will be doing some home based work to pay some household expenses.

with my gal’s frequent requests of not going to full day cc, I am thinking of 2 options: (1)let her go for kindy to see if she prefers kindy environment and DS (2.5 yo) goes to 2-hr PG which is different timing with DD… or (2) switch DD to half day cc to minimise the disruption to her due change of environment especially she’s going to K1 and DS goes to half day cc together as well.

Initially, we wanted to take 1st option. Today, the principal told me that she’s leaving the cc and the person who’s taking over her position has no montessori qualification. This makes me think twice again…

sorry for the long post, can anyone give me your view, pls?

[foreverj]

hi sunny


actually not wanting to go to school is something many kids complain abt. does not necessarily mean they really hate it. my dd n her frens look forward to weekends every week cos \"no need to go to school\" but when i ask her y she dun like sch, she also can't pin-point - just say \"boring\". so when i ask her shld i switch her school, she dun want leh, she wil stil dun want to go to school cos \"can't see mama\" :roll:

so dh and i concluded that its likely the hours - time away from the home envt for a whole day, 5 days a week. in your case, if u can cope, y not switch her bk to half-day cc (to minimise disruption for her). if your ds is starting half day cc soon, that means easier for u in terms of transporting them. bring both to sch in morning and bring them back after lunch. save your time to cook lunch for them too since we adults can just packet lunch home.

having said the above, ultimately u may have to assess if the cost of half day cc is worthwhile given its slightly cheaper than fullday cc only. a kindy's fees may be more worth it (depending on which kind of kindy) but just that kindy has june and dec holidays. u need to see hw u can fill up both their time.

hope the above helps! :celebrate: