Childcare or no Childcare?

[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!!

[cherrygal]

Fuzz:

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.

Your nephew went to the US rite? Can't he remain there for his schooling?

While it's great to teach kids to think and make decisions, the people down the line at our primary schools (or the whole education system) can't practise that. It is the vision of the prime minister or MOE to \"teach less, learn more\" and have a thinking nation etc but that is empty talk when they don't remove the regimented tests and exams. The teachers or worse, parents (since teachers teach less now) still gotta coach the kids to score at the exams. The kids gotta write what the examiner wants in order to score. Read the recent forum article on English comprehension... the kid got marked wrong for giving an answer that is similar in meaning to the model answer. Nothing's gonna change if change is only talk.

Our so-called elites are those who were picked for their good grades at the PSLE, O levels, IB or A Levels and University honors. These are all major exams!

[Fuzz]

Oh this is a different nephew, who went to a montessori here in singapore.

My sister’s kids are the ones in the US. And no unfortunately they’re only there temporarily cos she’s studying there, so they have to return to our school system.

Well our education system is not all bad. it has some gd points too. but i agree that it shouldn’t be just abt good grades, esp if the examiners and teachers are rigid, stick by the book and accept only model answers. This kind of system totally kills any love for learning!!

[foreverj]

Fuzz:

Well our education system is not all bad. it has some gd points too. but i agree that it shouldn't be just abt good grades, esp if the examiners and teachers are rigid, stick by the book and accept only model answers. This kind of system totally kills any love for learning!!

my dh used to be appalled at the ridiculous way the JC teachers mark his tuition student's economics papers. it seems that they can't accept anything less than their own model answer, and guess where they got their own model answer from? cut and pasted from the MAS website. so they rather mark the student's own well-thought answer wrong.

so dh always say he's prepared to go challenge dd's teacher if they so much as mark her answers (must be right in substance) wrong just becos its not the model answer! :lol:

[kiasu-tweety]

If both parents are working, putting their children in child-care is unavoidable. Unless grand-parents have the time & energy to help to take care of them. I do not recommend them to place their infants/toddlers with maids, especially if their children still cannot talk. Unless they want to install CCTVs to monitor their maids, while they are not at home.

[AuntieKiasi]

kiasu-tweety:

If both parents are working, putting their children in child-care is unavoidable. Unless grand-parents have the time & energy to help to take care of them. I do not recommend them to place their infants/toddlers with maids, especially if their children still cannot talk. Unless they want to install CCTVs to monitor their maids, while they are not at home.

Putting a child is a better option than kindergarten. Though the hours are long, they get to learn more things. Besides, most Ccs ready the children for P1 by starting them with subject knowledge in K1.