Childcare or no Childcare?

[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:

[sunny]

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:

hi foreverj
thanks for your advice. my dd is like working adults, looking forward to public holidays 'cos she doesn't need to go to school and we will stay at home with her. i am glad that going forward, i have more time with the kids.

do you think change in the principal matters, especially the new one doesn't have montessori cert?

[foreverj]

hi sunny


i have never placed my dd in a montessori school before although i’ve researched pretty extensively on this topic previously. in the end, i didn’t mainly becos could not find one which is at a convenient location n which is reasonably priced.

if i am not wrong, one of the main criteria on whether a school is authentically montessori, depends on whether the directress has a diploma/certification from one of the two established montessori institutes in the world right? one is AMI and the other can’t quite recall (sorry been quite a while since i last researched on this), buds wil be a better person to check wif on this topic since she used to be a montessori teacher.

actually when u said the new principal does not have a montessori cert, i guess it means she does not have montessori training. if yes, would it matter if the teachers already have the necessary montessori training cos ultimately the teachers r the facilitators for the children. did u check with the current principal why they have hired someone w/o the requisite montessori qualifications to be the principal? perhaps they feel the principal holds a more admin function.

since yr dd is already in the school for a while, u would know if the school is the authentic type of montessori school or a school that just conducts some montessori activities as part of the curriculum. if its the latter, i m not surprised they hired a non montessori trained person to be the principal.

one way for u is to gauge the situation first since u have less than 6 mths b4 your dd finishes n2. see if u r comfortable wif the new principal n does she effectively change the way the lessons are run becos she is not montessori trained. by end of the year, u shld be able to tell if its time for u to change school.

[Fuzz]

hi i was reading some of the posts here and would like to share some thoughts too.


my boy attends full day childcare n there are days when he will complain abt having to go to school too (usually monday blues - just like us working adults!).

my nephews also never really enjoyed school in singapore. but in the US, they love it. (they’ve been there for a year cos my sis is studying there n the whole family went along.) My sis says they jump out of bed every morning, ready n happy to go to school!! which is so different from back here. i asked her what’s so different abt school there, n she said that the lessons are v interactive n fun, there’s alot of time for play (outdoors n indoors) and they do projects, experiments etc. But it’s not just play. they read n learn alot too.

It made me think abt our education system n how we’re always so focused on marks, memorising things, doing assessments, etc. of course these are important too, but i think we need more balance. We don’t want to kill our kids’ love for learning! Esp at such a young age, i think it’s so important to find a school that believes in making learning a fun process.

[foreverj]

hi fuzz

Fuzz:

my boy attends full day childcare n there are days when he will complain abt having to go to school too (usually monday blues - just like us working adults!).

same as my dd when she woke up on a public holiday n dh told her \"darling, tell u good news tdy. no need to go to school cos its a public holiday!\", she was like :rahrah: and thruout the day kept asking dh to tell her the good news again :roll:

Fuzz:

my nephews also never really enjoyed school in singapore. but in the US, they love it. (they've been there for a year cos my sis is studying there n the whole family went along.) My sis says they jump out of bed every morning, ready n happy to go to school!! which is so different from back here. i asked her what's so different abt school there, n she said that the lessons are v interactive n fun, there's alot of time for play (outdoors n indoors) and they do projects, experiments etc. But it's not just play. they read n learn alot too.

It made me think abt our education system n how we're always so focused on marks, memorising things, doing assessments, etc. of course these are important too, but i think we need more balance. We don't want to kill our kids' love for learning! Esp at such a young age, i think it's so important to find a school that believes in making learning a fun process.

i m stil looking for such a school too. at least at the preschool level, i wonder if such a school exists? :?

[cherrygal]

I guess kids can play play at the playgroup / nursery stages but once they go to K1 and 2, it’s time to prepare them for boring / serious primary school life. If the kindy doesn’t prepare them and continues to play, the kids will get a shock in primary school and grow to hate primary school. The US preschool system can only work here if the kids go on to international schools and not the government ones. It’s a pressure cooker system that Asian countries use. Look at South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan etc… their educational systems are all so competitive. Not to say that our system is no good, in fact, some US elementary schools use Singapore’s Mathematics textbooks.

[Fuzz]

cherrygal:

If the kindy doesn't prepare them and continues to play, the kids will get a shock in primary school and grow to hate primary school. The US preschool system can only work here if the kids go on to international schools and not the government ones. It's a pressure cooker system that Asian countries use.

Cherrygal, unfortunately u're right. my cousin's kid went to a pre-school which was all play and all abt empowering kids to make decisions, do their own thing. He got a shock when he started pr school n couldn't adapt. It's quite sad.

Maybe i'm idealistic, but i still believe it's possible to have a healthy balance between being disciplined n doing well in our local school system, and yet making education an enjoyable process for our kids. I think some primary and sec schools are already trying. But i think it'll take some time, cos there are still alot of teachers n principals (and parents!) who are still stuck in the old mindset. Tests, assessment bks, memorise everything, don't question the teacher, teacher is always correct... Sadly, some of my colleagues (i teach, but older kids) are like this!!