Can Enrichment Classes replace Kindergarten?
-
mum05:
i enrol my elder boy in full-day pre-school since he was 20 months old (now he's 40 months old) because both of us are holding full-time job. To maximise his time in pre-school, we enrol the boy with enrichment classes in the afternoons. My boy is also taking musical lessons on weekends. Pre-school is so far so good as we felt that the teachers are responsible enough not to let the toddlers and kids pick up undesireable habits and train to have good manners. The concerns here however is, my boy although is 40 months old (in N1), but still can't recite the ABC to Z, and can't count hardly to 10's. It's worrying at times...
...
Oh man, our kid's already counting up hundreds and can even recognise that 1,000,000 as a million. In fact, our kid self-taught on the ABCs during Pre-N time too (when the school hasn't even started any). I really don't see much of what the school/teachers had taught our kid,
(my hubby always seemed amazed how our kid is learning things and they're not taught by the school). They don't even know how to blend words now! and if it's not because of our kid's constant request to learn how to read, I wouldn't have known and I have to start teaching myself as much as I can.
.... -
[/quote]i enrol my elder boy in full-day pre-school since he was 20 months old (now he's 40 months old) because both of us are holding full-time job. To maximise his time in pre-school, we enrol the boy with enrichment classes in the afternoons. My boy is also taking musical lessons on weekends. Pre-school is so far so good as we felt that the teachers are responsible enough not to let the toddlers and kids pick up undesireable habits and train to have good manners. The concerns here however is, my boy although is 40 months old (in N1), but still can't recite the ABC to Z, and can't count hardly to 10's. It's worrying at times...[/quote]
Actually, yr son's 'school' is actually a childcare centre. All childcare centres these days provide full or 1/2 day care and are equipped with pre-school curriculum. However, their main/core concern is the looking after of the children, thus one really cannot expect much from the teachings. The 'better' ones(more costly) may have more teachers/helpers, to take away some part of the responsibilities - showering, etc and thus the teachers maybe(only maybe) able to concentrate more on the teaching part. My child has been through both pre-school and CC system and we do not like the latter, thus I'm back to being her core-caregiver, :P.
Those whom are attending preschools are already needing enrichment classes and I guess that's why so many of my friends who prefer to continue working, they have to sacrifice their whatever time left, to coach their kid(s) when back home in order to supplement(cos there's only 2 wkend each week, how to do all?). So perhaps, u'd like to do abit on that?
I know I can't, I'm not that hardworking in that sense, hahaha. Plus my child pick up the ABCs from the kiddy laptop, heeee.
As for the picking up of bad habits/languages, it's hard for the teacher(s) to control that when the kid grows older(usually K1 onwards) and the children play so much together since they spend more time in a CC environment, it's really not easy to prevent.
Juz my opinion based on what I've experienced... -
I agree that if you find a good CC or kindergarten, enrichment lessons are not so important. In the first place, ain’t enrichment lessons supposed to supplement what is missing in the CC/kindergarten which most children will typically go through? For me, i would rather to send my child to non academic stuff such as music, swimming etc, provided that the child has a keen interest.
A good CC (not just confined to the very expensive ones) definitely does not take care of just basic needs esp for nursery levels and above. Its curriculum shld try to cater to the all rounded development of the child. I also remembered in Nursery, my son was still not well versed esp in writing his A-Z and the school also only teaches 1-10. However, on understanding a bit more from teachers, the curriculum was purposely made the way e.g. for maths, it focus on 1-10 and its application like 4 is greater than 2, simple addition and subtraction. Point is that understanding the concept and application of using 1-10 is definitely more valuable than able to recognise and recite from 1-50. Also, the school emphasises on readers’ program which they introduce the child to recognise high frequency words at different stages and not the traditional "know as many letters as many that starts with say A". Through interesting repetitive reading, I realise that my son at K2 now able to recognise more words as we pick up a book and read to him at home. This is again definitely more practical and valuable.
Hence, for my case, I felt that my son has benefited in a CC environment. Apart from the curriculum, the CC also cultivate certain good disciplines e.g. in eating - not to be selective about food, bathing on his own, duty roster to help the teachers with simple chores etc, keeping mattress when they wake up. Such training is unlikely to happen in enrichment programs and most kids are nowadays too pampered at home. My son has this naughty boy in his class who always disturb the rest, initally he always complain about him, but one day he said something which amazes us "it is not that we do not like "Tom", it is just that we do not like "Tom’s" behavior." This example makes us comfortable about the school and that the teachers are imparting the right values to the young ones. -
[quote]
If a child is bright, don't need tuition/enrichment also can score well. Tuition/enrichment maybe can improve by another...maybe...0.5-1%? or maybe can handicap/hinder the child's actual thinking/planning power?
If a child is average, tuition/enrichment maybe can improve by another...maybe...5-10%?
If a child is below average, tuition/enrichment maybe can improve by another...maybe 50-100%.
So tuition/enrichment benefits those below average children most... [/quote]My opinions are different :
If a child is bright, she only needs very little time to study. In fact, 2 hours a week, or 15 mins a day is all she needs. Putting her in a full day CC or kindergarten for a few hours a day may be a torture for her because most of the time she is waiting for other kids to catch up. I believe that playing freely at home and reading whatever books she likes are more beneficial to her, don't forget that free play and day dreaming are essential for childhood.
If a child is average, when given one to one attention every day by a dedicated teacher(like mommy), he can be trained to do very well. But you can never expect one to one attention in any kindergarten or CC.
If a child is below average, one to one attention is even more important. Without this, it can be quite hopeless. -
keenDaddy:
You are very fortunate. My neighbour's little boy goes to a CC. He cannot feed himself, and the teachers didn't care, so he is now very pale and skinny. One day when his grandma fetched him in the evening, she found that his clothes were very wet. It turned out that teachers let kids \"bathe on his own\", and he did not know how to dry himself. So he put on his clothes when his body was still wet.
Hence, for my case, I felt that my son has benefited in a CC environment. Apart from the curriculum, the CC also cultivate certain good disciplines e.g. in eating - not to be selective about food, bathing on his own, duty roster to help the teachers with simple chores etc, keeping mattress when they wake up. Such training is unlikely to happen in enrichment programs and most kids are nowadays too pampered at home. My son has this naughty boy in his class who always disturb the rest, initally he always complain about him, but one day he said something which amazes us \"it is not that we do not like \"Tom\", it is just that we do not like \"Tom's\" behavior.\" This example makes us comfortable about the school and that the teachers are imparting the right values to the young ones.
Yes it is important to find a good CC. But a good CC cost about $1000 or more ? Many families cannot afford that. Even if we can afford to pay that kind of money, there are no good CCs in our area. -
mum05:
I did not actually do much teachingOh tamarind, I've read abt yr 'teachings', u're good and I doubt I'd be able to do what you did/are doing. I just bought some workbooks and yet, I was lazy(esp. when the kid felt tired after musical instrument practice), thus the idea of enrichment schools.
My younger boy has very short attention span, I cannot make him study more than 30 mins a day. But my methods are effective for him. I feel more tired sending him to enrichment classes. He is the kind who does not learn well even in enrichment classes, that is why I need to teach him at home.
Every child is different and parents should find the most suitable ways to teach them (one to one/enrichment/kindergarten, etc). Most parents will tell you that kindergarten is important. But note that MOE says that kindergarten is not compulsory, so there must be some good reasons why they do so. -
MMM:
Yes, I did see some children crying on the first day of school. But what shock me more was one mother actually feeds the child during recess. To make the situation worse the grandmother keeps nagging at the mum by saying things like \"look at all the children here can eat by themselves but you still need to feed her (the granddaughter), you have spoilt her at home.....\" I really pity the mum at that moment.Just curious. Have you seen a P1 crying on 1st few days of school? :?
In my impression, this must be a rare sight since kids are exposed to school nowadays prior to P1.
But I did see a couple of them while helping out as a PV during 1st few days of P1.
I am not saying that kids who don't go to daily kindy will find difficulty adapting. Frankly i am just puzzled on why some kids still cry on 1st few days of P1. My point is that things like that still happen.
I'm not sure did the mum send the child to pre-school. But if she did I'm sure the child can eat by herself. -
tamarind:
My opinions are different :[quote]
If a child is bright, don't need tuition/enrichment also can score well. Tuition/enrichment maybe can improve by another...maybe...0.5-1%? or maybe can handicap/hinder the child's actual thinking/planning power?
If a child is average, tuition/enrichment maybe can improve by another...maybe...5-10%?
If a child is below average, tuition/enrichment maybe can improve by another...maybe 50-100%.
So tuition/enrichment benefits those below average children most...
If a child is bright, she only needs very little time to study. In fact, 2 hours a week, or 15 mins a day is all she needs. Putting her in a full day CC or kindergarten for a few hours a day may be a torture for her because most of the time she is waiting for other kids to catch up. I believe that playing freely at home and reading whatever books she likes are more beneficial to her, don't forget that free play and day dreaming are essential for childhood.
If a child is average, when given one to one attention every day by a dedicated teacher(like mommy), he can be trained to do very well. But you can never expect one to one attention in any kindergarten or CC.
If a child is below average, one to one attention is even more important. Without this, it can be quite hopeless.[/quote]
agree with tamarind. I have also encountered children who attended pre-school/childcare and still cried on the first day of school.
For children who are able/unable to carry out basic functions like eating on their own, I think the parents played the most important part, regardless of whether the child is exposed in a pre-school/childcare or home environment.
I think the ultimate decision lies in the resources that one has. There are pros and cons in all decision, for some, the pros of sending the child to pre-school/childcare outweigh the cons, then, it is better to send the child to pre-school/childcare. However, if one has the resources to teach from home and reach the objective of preparing the child well for P1, then, its ok not to attend kindergarten. -
insider:
jz fyi, our kid can count from 1 to hundreds, not juz recognising 00 as hundred and 000 as thousand, 000,000 as million.The thousand and million are not important to young children but the base 10 is. With a solid ground with numbers 0 to 10, their subsequent grasping of the concept of multiples of 10 to whatever number will come easy.
There are so many things to cover for just these 11 numbers and several other maths concepts such as the greater/lesser, x number more/less, before/after, ordinal positioing, number bonds (8 is made up of 8/0, 7/1, 6/2, 5/3, etc), multiples/sets (of 2, 5, 10), arranging numbers from big to small and vice versa, odd/even, simple fractions, tell time, symmetry, grid, bar chart reading, money, subtraction (which is always more difficult for young children than addition, just like multiplication is easier than division for them). Then you have to teach about simple problem sums which include identifying key words in solving simple problems. Exposure to thousand and maybe also million is ok but not so necessary if the base 10 concepts are weak. Solid grounding of these 10 numbers will let a child sail smoothly through P1 usually...
that's precisely what want for our kid to learn, number bonds, etc etc, the school doesn't teach at all. Not saying that our kid is smart nor am trying to boost, but as a mother, I understand that our kid can do more than what the school is doing, comparing their school work to the worksheets I've bought from retail bookstores. Thus the want to go enrichment routes since they'd be more concentrated or rather, specialised in the appropriate manner and progress according to each child's ability rather than being too advanced or too slow(to have to cater to all other kids & then still pay for enrichment classes).
As for their English, cant imagine most still can't read, and those who can are those whom are attending enrichment classes from other resources since nursery level.
I'm considered late in considering to enrol our kid to these enrichment classes and this is becos we do not with to stress the kid too much plus it'd be straining for me due to the rush. But since there's such need to do the enrichment as not much/enough is achieved in the Kindy, we're considering this 'better learning' route...
Oh dear, I see that my post is also digressing alittle to other areas like some had, lolz... Probably better try to stick to the topic?
-
my 4 yr old goes to 3 hr daily nursery, plus 2 enrichment classes on weekends.
He’s an only child. his 2 cousins are at least 2 years younger and they don’t see one another frequently. there are no children on our floor though we sometimes invite neighbours from another block to come to our house to play.
because of our situation, i feel that he benefits from the daily interaction with his peers in nursery. his class has 20 kids, so not only does he have fun playing with his friends and learn how to interact harmoniously with the other children, we also took the opportunity to teach him other self-care skills like how to ask for the teacher’s assistance when he needs help (eg. asking for more food serving or to go to the toilet). He is still learning to speak up louder and be more persistent with his call for help than at home since there is a roomful of kids running around vying for attention. we also reminded him to do whatever he can on his own like how to clean his mouth properly after lunch, wipe his own nose etc instead of waiting for an adult. i think these developments help to improve his confdence and independence, and are easier to train when he is in a daily classroom setting on his own.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login