dokomo:Regarding the colouring part, its true its the lazy way out for the teachers. One colouring was held during the english time slot and another colouring held during chinese time slot. Plus the teachers just dump the papers and crayons to the kids and let them colour by themselves without much explaining what is the meaning of the picture or the words that come with the colouring sheet. Then the teachers will be bz with more cleaning up again.
Wonder if i am expecting too much or if this is the norm cos my nephew at another ccc also does a lot of colourings.
Hi dokomo, 2 hour playgroup and enrichment sounds good. I would do something similar if I weren't working full time!
Regarding twice a day colouring, I definitely don't think you're expecting too much! My boy attends childcare and they hardly do colouring. I have a few friends who are in the childcare industry and I've seen their weekly timetables and asked them about their daily activities (when I was researching for childcare for my son). Never seen colouring twice a day!
But it's true that quite alot of the time in childcare centres is spent on sleeping, eating, bathing. After all, the kids are there for the whole day, so no choice.
The actual amount of time spent on lessons is similar to half day childcare or kindergarten - about 3 hours. For me, it's important to find out what the kids do in the afternoons. They shouldn't be just watching tv or colouring. And many centres actually have quite good afternoon programmes, like art and craft, music, gardening, etc. They're fun activities but also allow the kids to learn something.
I would much prefer to send my boy to kindy and plan activities for him in the afternoon or send him for enrichment. But unfortunately I don't have much choice. For now. I'm exploring options to work part time, as we're now trying for number 2. Hope it works out!