Hi,


Would appreciate some valuable advice from experienced Mummies/ preschool teachers. This is the 1st week of playgroup for my lil toddler (1+ year old). The 1st day was expectedly not that great with him crying intermittently for Mummy. Day 2 was slightly better with less crying but could tell he wasn’t happy (no happy smile which is unusual for my usually happy baby). Day 3 was worst off than Day 2. He started fussing the minute we turned into the school’s driveway and burst into tears when I handed him over to his teacher. Thereafter, I lingered around at the premises observing him (w/o his realization of course) for quite a while before leaving and I noticed that while he wasn’t crying like the rest of the kids, he looked lost and poignantly unhappy. Hence, Im wondering if there’s any way that I could make this transition from home to school less painful (for him) and heartbreaking (for me) .


-\tWill it help if I put him on half-day till he gets accustom to the preschool routine? Had it been a mistake to put him on full day at the onset?

-\tMy little one had nightmares after the 2nd day at school. Understand from the teacher that this is quite normal as some of the other parents had also commented encountering similar experiences with their kiddos. Hmmmm……… is this true or has the whole school experience been a tad overly traumatic for my little one. Feeling quite guilty for making him so unhappy.

-\tI tried introducing to him beforehand what school will be like through both books as well as real life experience (brought him to pick his cousin up from school). How fun school can be with new things to explore, new friends to befriend etc. is there more that I could have done?

-\tHow would an experience preschool teacher handle kids exhibiting separation anxiety as compared to an inexperience teacher? In my kiddo’s playgroup, essentially what the teachers do is to carry the bawling kid to sooth him and blowing bubbles to distract them. However with the no of bawling babies surpassing the no of teachers, Im wondering if there could have been a more effective way of soothing the babies. Is the school doing enough to ease the kids into school?

-\tThis question is probably subjective but how long will it take a child to settle happily into the preschool environment?

Would appreciate if mummies could share your views on the above as I really hope my lil one can be happy and enjoy the whole schooling experience.

Hi Bl8de,


It was given in the question that AD = AC = AB.

Since AC is perpendicular to BD, AC = KL (which in turn) = LM (as this is a square) = BD (question states that ML and BD are parallel).

Once it has been established that BD = AD = AB, triangle ADB is essentially an equilateral triangle. Therefore angle DAB = 60 degrees and angle DAC = 60 degrees / 2 = 30 degrees.

In view that triangle DAC is an isosceles triangle, angle b = 75 degrees and the required angle DCB = 75 degrees x 2 = 150 degrees.


NB: BTW, it was DH that solve the question for me. I was mulling over it for ages when he came over and solve it in 5 mins flat! I guess geometry is one of those questions that either you have the flair for it or you dont.

HI vfong1,


I ordered cupcakes from cupcakes divinity during my son’s 1st month and it was a HUGE hit with my lil guests. In fact, I didn’t even get to try it as they disappeared so quickly. I think at $2+ per cupcake, their prices are a tad high but I must say it was well-worth the money seeing the lil ones slurping it away. :love:

By the way, I got 50 of the individual standard cupcakes instead of the 3-D one. Nonetheless, it was very pretty all the same.

Hi Tamarind,


I've got 2 of the 4 titles (ie. 水滸傳, 三國演義) that you had mentioned. Bought mine from Popular West mall branch in early June. You can try calling and check if they still have stocks.

tamarind:

kaimono:

hi tamarind,
thanks for the chapter book recommendation - looks interesting with HYPY
is it also from popular ?

Yes I found it at Popular bookshop at Jurong Point, but I am not sure whether there are any copies left at that branch.

This series actually includes all the four great classical novels :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Classical_Novels
水滸傳
三國演義
紅樓夢
西遊記

All four books are in the same style, chapter books with cute cartoon pictures and hanyu pinyin for every word. I bought 水滸傳 and 西遊記, still looking for the other 2 books.

This children's adaptation of 西遊記 is the most exciting book for young children to read on their own, with the help of hanyu pinyin. The others may be more suitable for older children or teenagers.

acforfamily:

[quote=\"tamarind\"]I am looking for more Chinese chapter books for my girl. Any recommendations ?

My friend recommended me 小白龙 magazines. Said that a lot of kids found it interesting and funny. Easy to read with hanyupinyin below for the difficult words.

Anyone else seen this before?

I also have not seen this before, sounds interesting.[/quote]

Hi GTGT,


What are the merits and demerits of the place? Do you find the curriculum and environment adequately enriching? Hope to find a loving environment where my baby can grow up to be a confident, vocal and enthusiastic learner.

Mummies, please share with me your views as well.

NB: Do PM me instead if you feel that the information that you would like to share is sensitive.

Thanks in advance!

hugeclaw:

I've enrolled my son in Blk 125 Serangoon North Ave 1. Actually found out from the PCF head office that there's no such term as 'premium' program, rather they call it the 'spice' program which incorporated the speech & drama from julia gabriel. The school fees varies from different locations, ranges from $160 - $220.

From what I know, the pasir ris east & west + ponggol east centers do offer this spice program.
To find out more, it's better that you call the head office at 62444600, must look for the operations staff or else they won't know what you're talking abt coz I've a hard time trying to gather info from the counter staff.

Thanks for the details, hugeclaw mummy!

hugeclaw:

Thanks for your comments! Have surveyed a few PCFs around my area, and my gosh, they've very different syllabus and learning environment! Some teachers can't even communicate well enough to convince me to put my child there and some places are really old and doesn't look 'clean'. So far the best one I've seen is the one at Serangoon North Ave 1, it's one of the premium PCFs (anyway there're only 3 in s'pore). They're more academically inclined compared to the rest. Spelling and tingxie started in K1 and they've extra speech & drama classes from Julia Gabriels....I'm quite happy with the environment too, they're clean and new. Will bring my son there tomorrow to see the place, hope he likes it!

Hi Hugeclaw mummy,

Can you disclose here the locations of the 3 premium PCFs? Thanks in advance!

SBH:

My friend's 3yr old daughter is in TELC@SIM for 2years. Recently I heard from my friend that the school will be taken over by Cherie Hearts. Please confirm with them again

To mummies considering TELC,

I've called TELC and spoke to the administrator. It's confirmed that CH will be taking over TELC although she assured me that the curriculum shall remain unchanged. hmmmm..... too bad there arent many parents in this forum with kids in TELC or we'll be able to get 1st hand info if there has been any notable improvement/ deterioration to the school environment and curriculum as a whole after the new management takes over.

insider:

mom2boys:

chosen one of the franchise by chambridge learning centre..any feedback on this.


The curriculum is quite intensive and the teachers informed that from K1, children will hv spelling, writing etc...so my son (N2) is quite behind time

mom2boys,

Emmm….I take it that you are referring to Cambridge Child Development Centre as I have not come across a franchise system under Chambridge…

If you are referring to Cambridge, I know they have a full set of updated curriculum coz I managed to take a look at it when helping my friend to evaluate the centre that she is interesting in (think they just updated their curriculum this year coz I remember seeing the copyright statement as 2008). Really having a full set of curriculum is a very important criterion to me when I evaluate centre and so it scored points based on this (I get skeptical when principals can’t show me at least part of the centre’s curriculum or can’t even name the writer of their curriculum). My further dig into their curriculum shows that the curriculum was written by the management team in their HQ and its basically reggio-inspired (project based) with academic objectives weaved into it. A visit to their classrooms showed extensive use of mind maps / kids work and that’s a relatively good indicator that that centre that I visited is preaching what the curriculum says… (One thing that caught my attention was when I was told that Ms Tan, the ex principal of Nanyang Kindergarten, was among the management team and is one of the writers. I have heard many positive things about Ms Tan and so the inference maybe there that she will not generate rubbish…)

Personally, I prefer a project base centre than a thematic one. The first five years of my experience were on thematic and subsequently with the learning of new approaches in preschool education, I am more inclined towards project base as I have seen the greater benefit that a child can get in a project base one instead of otherwise. Nevertheless, a 100% project based centre is quite impossible in Singapore coz we have to prepare kids for P1. A 100% project base centre will not have spelling…

At what part of the K1 will the centre you visited start spelling? In the beginning of K1 or the later part of K1 (I didn’t see this in their curriculum)? I don’t quite like spelling in preschool years but can still accept if it is done after mid of a child’s K1 instead of the beginning part of K1 (too stressful for those just graduated from N2 to K1 to start spelling – not necessary).

Having said that, I am not saying that all Cambridge centres are good. It’s just that at least they have a full curriculum to begin with and the rest is pretty much in the hands of the staff of the individual centres (the theory vs application part). The rest of the considerations pls refer to my earlier post.

Insider, thanks for taking the time to share with us on the going-ons in the preschool sector. It has indeed been very useful and informative for 1st time clueless mummies like me.

However, coming back to the question posed by Chief Kiasu, can you give us some pointers as to what a full set of curriculum should comprise? How do I go about assessing the quality (ie. continuity, logic, 'comprehensiveness' etc) of the curriculum in the short span of time that I spend visitng the cc/ discussing with the administrator? Should I also make an effort to meet up with the principal rather than just the administrator only?