Creative O

[cookiecreature]

Han Seo:

I am an early childhood lecturer. I take my pre and inservice teachers to visit the centre as it has one of the best practices in early childhood education in Singapore. Their practices are very much in line with the principles of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). The learning of academics is embedded in projects which is very much in line with how young children learn.

Dear Han Seo, hv u visited Caterpilla Cove, if yes, wud u be able to share if they are having the same concept as C'O
Tks,

[Han Seo]

Hi Cookiecutter,


Yes, I have heard of Caterpillar Cove. I have attended their open house 2 years ago but other than that, I don’t have first hand information or knowledge about their curriculum. Sorry, I can’t help you much here.

[sumo22]

Hi everyone,


My K1 son is at Fairfield Methodist Church Kindergarden now & I am switching him to full day at Creative O starting Jun 09. The reason is becos I notice the standard of Fairfield has declined (after some good teachers left & existing ones don’t seem to be that motivated) & in addition, my son spend the rest of his days after school doing nothing at my in law place.

May I get any valuable opinion if this would be right move?

Thanks!!

[cookiecreature]

sumo22:

Hi everyone,


My K1 son is at Fairfield Methodist Church Kindergarden now & I am switching him to full day at Creative O starting Jun 09. The reason is becos I notice the standard of Fairfield has declined (after some good teachers left & existing ones don't seem to be that motivated) & in addition, my son spend the rest of his days after school doing nothing at my in law place.

May I get any valuable opinion if this would be right move?

Thanks!!

My opinion is that you should go for Creative O because my best friend visited their premises to check out more after I share with her. from educational point, nothing to fault them. Very good learning style. Alot of field trips. Most of the K2 kids end up prefects & monitor in primary school. Alot of Leadership qualities. It is amazing how enjoyable these kids are. Best of all, you will laugh if I tell you this. They offer whole meal gardania bread for the kids. But the principle said that the fee will be increased by end of this year due to rental increased.

[cookiecreature]

I am staying in upper bukit timah and I don’t drive… so I am still working on the logistic part.

[sumo22]

hi CookieCreature,


My only concern is whether my son will be provided the foundation for P1 as the person in charge told me the children at Creative O are not given any work or home work at all - zilch. Though I like the project-based approach but I’m also concern of the total lack in academic curriculum. Has your friend enrolled his/her child there? Would you pls elaborate more on what you mean about educational point nothing to fault them?

Anyone has kiddos at Creative O to tell us more before I decide? Thanks a ton.

[ctcc]

Juz 2 examples to share :-


Early this month, 1 of the K1 group teacher talk them abt butterfly lifecycle and then show them a real tiny egg… ask for what do they think will happen… many answer from the children and she get them to draw it down… then the next few days they observe …. Real Caterpillar ……real butterfly. The children really excited to see it and they set free the butterfly.
The teacher there will always ask chn what they think. They will not immediately say that it’s wrong, they will say maybe, why don’t we try, etc… From the abv case, I think the chn now can remember better and the thinking process is very good.

Last mth, 1 of the nursery group went outing. When parent get the consent form, the consent form mentioned to parents that chn will be taking bus to science centre but the seek parents co-operation not to tell their chn abt the science centre cos all chn only know that they are going to take bus. There’s direct bus to science centre direct but the teachers actually took the chn to take a feeder bus to interchange then to science centre. Many may think why? Waste time? No, chn all happy, they learn more things beside science centre.

True that they don’t focus on doing worksheet, spelling but they have their way of teaching and it really bring out chn confidence and make their enjoy learning.

[cookiecreature]

ctcc:

Juz 2 examples to share :-

True that they don’t focus on doing worksheet, spelling but they have their way of teaching and it really bring out chn confidence and make their enjoy learning.

What creative O is trying to do is to learn from play. This is the best way of learning for kids. They register in their mind for life. Beside this the way of rope for life. I like the concept whereby the teacher does not provide direct answer but allow the kids to be inquisitive and pose questions at any point of time. I think kids learn alot from questioning. They will learn to think out of the box.

Too bad I just called them, K1 last vacancy taken up.

[summer]

They have just expanded the preschool last year to increase the intake of children. I like the field outside the preschool, so are the children. Children are always having their happy time or 体能课 there.

[sumo22]

My son is starting with Creative O next week & I just attended the orientation. Met up with my son’s teacher & I realised that she is a very strong advocate of thinking skills & a non-believer in academic learning.


I shared with her that my son tried to pronounce the word "second" & pronounce it as sec-cond. She said we should not correct the child as it will dampen the child’s exploratory nature. Even when the child write a word with wrong sequence in letters, we should not be concern.

Can anyone comment if this is the right approach for a k1 child? I’m just not sure if not "correcting" the child will help the child to learn.

My friend’s son is in Creative O K1 & he does not know how to write his name independently. They do not have worksheets totally & the children usually write on blank A4 paper so that they can express freely.

Can any parents comment if the approach might impact the child’s learning & readiness for P1.

Thanks!