Can Enrichment Classes replace Kindergarten?
-
tamarind:
Many families can only afford CCs less than $500 a month, especially those that have 2 kids or more.
Although, it is true that schools which collect more school fees can pay more for teachers (hence perhaps getting better quality teacher) and afford to have lower teacher-student ratio, there are still good CCs which cost <$1000. At least, I am also not paying that kind of fees.keenDaddy:
[quote=\"tamarind\"] 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.
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.
It is difficult to find good CCs that cost less than $1000, those parents who have kids in good CCs tend to keep the secret to themselves and refuse to reveal the name of the CC
Personally I find that it is not worth paying $800 to $1000 a month just for \"social interaction\". If \"social interaction\" is really so important, paying $100 a month for half a day at a PCF kindergarten is good enough.
My kids never attended full day CC, they are more than capable of feeding themselves, dressing themselves, brushing their own teeth, bathing themselves, etc by 6 years old. In fact, my girl can finish a bowl of rice all by herself since 20 months old[/quote]I guess you are talking about fees before govt susidies?
After govt subsidies, my son's fees are about $500+, the price that one probably pay for a nanny care or 3to4 enrichments. Maybe if you consider child care env is just for \"social interaction\", then it may not be worth it. But, for us, it is basic care - meals, showers (as both parents are working) + structured kindergarten programmes + interaction and all the other intangibles which come with it, it is probably reasonable money to pay. I believe in taking full advantage of the govt subsidies if entitled to.
I agree that if taught properly at home, the kids will also learn. It is just that for both working and busy parents, it is tough at times. So, in our case, the kid is toilet trained, brush teeth, bathing primarily in the CC, and reinforced at home.
So I guess it differs for everyone, so long as that it works for you and your kid. But for my case, I am definitely a strong advocate of the child care setting, as I have seen the benefits for my son. -
tamarind:
Ya, I agree too, but I don't think all thinks the same. I know of some, in fact quite a number, who was actually expecting the pre-school to toilet train their kid(s)mum05,
I always thought that it is Mommy's responsibilities to teach these skills, not CC teachers
-
buds:
Hey buds, no worries(no need for naked buttocks spanking here, lolz), feel free to do so, esp when it's a discussion amongst the interested parties, :preen:
We're seriously OT. :offtopic:
I :spank: myself, mum05.
Sollie. :salute:
PS : Come to think of it, this is enrichment knowledge.
More ideas for home activities without daily kindy routine.
The way u post brings a cheer to this thread anyway
-
tamarind:
ya I know, I'll try my best. In fact, the recent home back-up job alr proven to me so. Hope I won't slack(that's why I know I still need to send e kid to enrichment to keep the momentum going), else jialat...mum05 and tweety17,
Besides attending enrichment classes, parents should take the time to practice with kids everyday. In fact, Berries has a notice telling parents that they must revise the lessons with the child everyday. So long as parents are able to do this, then attending kindergarten is not necessary. -
mum05:
Berries has a very high standard, I don't think any kindergarten can compare with them. Besides sending to Berries, I also use excellent resources from China :
ya I know, I'll try my best. In fact, the recent home back-up job alr proven to me so. Hope I won't slack(that's why I know I still need to send e kid to enrichment to keep the momentum going), else jialat...tamarind:
mum05 and tweety17,
Besides attending enrichment classes, parents should take the time to practice with kids everyday. In fact, Berries has a notice telling parents that they must revise the lessons with the child everyday. So long as parents are able to do this, then attending kindergarten is not necessary.
http://tamarindvillage.blogspot.com/2009/12/teaching-chinese-at-home.html to teach my kids at home. These resources are used by parents in China to teach their kids. I am very pleased with the results
It may seem tough to teach at home, but this is the only way to ensure that our kids learn best. There is no need to spend many hours, I normally spend about 20-30 mins for one language everyday. My hubby also helps out, so I can still go to sleep at 10pm every night
-
keenDaddy:
I guess you are talking about fees before govt susidies?
Many families can only afford CCs less than $500 a month, especially those that have 2 kids or more.tamarind:
[quote=\"keenDaddy\"]
Although, it is true that schools which collect more school fees can pay more for teachers (hence perhaps getting better quality teacher) and afford to have lower teacher-student ratio, there are still good CCs which cost <$1000. At least, I am also not paying that kind of fees.
It is difficult to find good CCs that cost less than $1000, those parents who have kids in good CCs tend to keep the secret to themselves and refuse to reveal the name of the CC
Personally I find that it is not worth paying $800 to $1000 a month just for \"social interaction\". If \"social interaction\" is really so important, paying $100 a month for half a day at a PCF kindergarten is good enough.
My kids never attended full day CC, they are more than capable of feeding themselves, dressing themselves, brushing their own teeth, bathing themselves, etc by 6 years old. In fact, my girl can finish a bowl of rice all by herself since 20 months old
After govt subsidies, my son's fees are about $500+, the price that one probably pay for a nanny care or 3to4 enrichments. Maybe if you consider child care env is just for \"social interaction\", then it may not be worth it. But, for us, it is basic care - meals, showers (as both parents are working) + structured kindergarten programmes + interaction and all the other intangibles which come with it, it is probably reasonable money to pay. I believe in taking full advantage of the govt subsidies if entitled to.
I agree that if taught properly at home, the kids will also learn. It is just that for both working and busy parents, it is tough at times. So, in our case, the kid is toilet trained, brush teeth, bathing primarily in the CC, and reinforced at home.
So I guess it differs for everyone, so long as that it works for you and your kid. But for my case, I am definitely a strong advocate of the child care setting, as I have seen the benefits for my son.[/quote]
I mean after subsidy. I live in the HDB heartland, many families have combined household income of only around $2000 to $3000. It is difficult to afford $600 to $1000 for a child, especially if they have 2 or more kids.
In fact, my older girl used to attend a kindergarten that costs $250. Her classmate's mommy told me that she cannot afford to send 2 kids to the same kindergarten, she pulled out both kids and put them in another one that costs $100 a month.
As for good CCs, there is no guarantee that those which charge more will be better. My friend sent her son to a CC that charges $600+ after subsidy, she said the teachers did terrible things to kids. My colleague told me that her son was previously in a CC that charges about $1000, she had to pull her son out after a few months. I knew another mommy whose son is in a brand name CC, she found her son in very wet pants for many hours and the teacher didn't care.
I do hope that the government can give more subsidies so that parents don't have to pay so much in order to find a good CC.
Also the fact is that parents don't know which CCs are good. There should be a reliable system for parents to find out about the quality of a CC, rather than having to send their kids there to suffer before they find out the truth. -
Wesim:
I was also wondering whether it is really necessary to send my DD for K1 & K2. I have been homeschooling her since she was 2 and she is now doing K1 & K2 assessment books (she is 3 now).
Currently she is attending Berries and Music for Young Children once a week. Will register her at CMA end of this year. Seriously, with all these enrichment classes, i doubt i will send her to pre-school as i do not want her to pick up bad habits/behaviour and viruses.
Talking about social skills, she sure can interact and tend to approach her classmates first. Really not the shy type.
tamarid,
is Morris allen good? She can read (currently at book 6a (ladybird), so i am now trying to find a good centre that can teach her creative writing (composition).
Your DD is doing very well for her age !
For Morris allen, it depends on the teacher. My boy likes his teacher, who has many years of experience teaching kids. I sat in her class before and I am impressed. There is no fun and games, and kids have to sit still and listen, and do their worksheets. Adults will find it very boring. But somehow my boy can stay focus for 2 hours and readily answers all her questions. I think other teachers may be different.
My boy is already very advanced in English, so I don't know whether Morris Allen is good for improving a child's English. I send my boy there only for him to have a chance to listen to how native speakers converse in English.
Morris Allen only have classes for creative writing at P1 and P2. I think they don't accept younger kids.
My advise is to let your girl read a large variety of story books (besides ladybird), and also make sure that she has a strong foundation in phonics which can enable her to spell effortlessly. Then just leave pencils and papers around (no TV and no electronics games). When she feels inspired, she will write. Take a look at these : http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2009/02/written-by-chloe.html. -
insider:
I agree with Insider on this. I think it applies to both languages depending on the family environment. When we were in China, my daughter resisted any efforts to learn or speak English.For K1 and above, those who are sending for only enrichment face a higher risk of child's Chinese progress is badly affected, esp on the part on vocab (referring to those who speak English at home and child has minimal contact with Chinese except for the enrichment class) and this risk will turn into a nightmare when the child starts P1.
Initially, I was deliberating if I should homeschool her in China so that the family can be together. But we realised an English speaking environment will be a better solution since we intend to let her attend primary school in Singapore, so I came back with her and enrolled her in preschool.
On the first day of school, when the teacher told her to sit down, she stared blankly at her and the teacher had to pat on the floor before she understood. Through daily interaction with her teachers and classmates, her fluency in English has improved tremendously, though she still needs to brush up on her grammar. And she's willing to speak in English to me and learn P&J from me. I highly recommend the latter as it's helped my daughter not only to read but also pick up grammar and improve her spoken language too.
For parents with a monoligual home environment, special efforts will have to be made for the other language if they decided to take the enrichment route. For English speaking parents, besides Tamarind's blog as mentioned above, they can also go to the \"Teaching Chinese at Home\" (started by Tamarind) thread in KSP. Many interesting tips from other parents. -
hquek:
Like Tamarind and hquek, my focus was also on languages as I think language is the cornerstone to life-time learning. The only Maths I taught her was counting up to 10 when we walk or climb the stairs.
From young, my main focus was on languages for DS1. I tried to coach him in maths (+ and - ), the effort was too strenous and meant too much screaming from me. So the end result is that I just let him be and get basic maths knowledge from his kindy.
When my daughter started N1, she came home and told me that many of her classmates could count to 20 and recognise the numbers. She was a bit discouraged and asked if I could teach her. I was also worried if many of them can do it, the teachers may spend lesser time to teach. (Like what we always hear in those top primary schools). So I started to teach her and ended up yelling at her. She was very upset and told me she HATED maths.
\"ιδΈζ₯ζ΅·ι倩空\", so I decided to stop all lessons and signed her up for her school's maths supplementary class in N2. After a few months, she came home, counting up to 20, recognising up to 10. I was very happy as she has rekindled her interest in maths.
Recently, she came home to tell me her classmates can count up to 100 and asked me to teach her. Sigh... -
sleepy:
I learnt from γε₯½ε¦ε¦θθΏε₯½θεΈγ, a Chinese parenting book, that we can play games to teach Maths. In the book, the author wrote in details the 'Mini-Mart' game. We will take turns to run a 'Mini-mart', with a toy cashier, Monopoly money, fruits, pots, toys, etc. (My daughter was very thrilled as that's what Peter and Jane did.) So after some time, my daughter learnt algebra 'accidentally'. My husband tried to act blur and asked 'I need to buy 6 fruits. I want 2 apples. How many pears must I get?'
Algebra is introduced since P1, although very very subtlely
orange = 3
apple + orange = 5
apple = ?
She replied '4.' and added 'You are my father, you should know. Are you faking it?' To that, my husband replied, 'You have to pretend I'm a customer.'
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 π
Register Login
Online Users
Statistics
Popular Topics
