For mothers like us with preschool-aged children, it can be difficult to decide whether to place our children in a pre-school to prepare them for kindergarten. For working mothers, it seems practical to send their children to preschool during work hours. For stay-at-home mothers, they may have different opinions. Whatever it is, searching and finding the most appropriate preschool can be a daunting task.
For me, I went through this situation last year, when Little Edison was 2+ years old. I couldn’t decide whether I should send him to preschool when he turns 3. By the time I finally decided to do so, I missed out big time. When I called various preschools around Sept last year, I found out that they were mostly full for year 2010 intake.
I couldn’t believe it. It’s only preschool! How could they take so seriously the enrollment of a 2-3 years old toddler? Some of the schools have waiting list, with more than 20 parents on the list. We had no choice but to put ourselves in waiting list and hope for miracle to happen. And it really did happen! We managed to secure a place for Little Edison in one of the preschool that we’ve shortlisted. We’re indeed lucky.
Now that it’s over, we’re so relieved that we found the right preschool and our little boy is doing fine at school. It can be an exhausting and time-consuming process, but at the end of the day, when we see our children loving his school, it’s all worth our hard works and efforts.
Today, I would like to share what I learned from my experience, and hopefully this will help you to plan for this process better.
1. Plan early and ahead
You need to start contacting the various preschools of your choice way before you decide whether it’s time for your children to start preschool. Remember – enrollment periods for these preschools are many months in advance. You may end up in the waiting list if you missed the enrollment periods.
2. Define your requirements
What you want your little one to achieve in preschool – learning the ABCs, reading and writing early, or simply to allow him/her to gain more social independence? What type of program or curriculum that you are looking for? Besides the curriculum, you also need to examine the costs, locations and reviews on the preschool by talking to your friends, neighbours or simply checking from the internet or forums.
Here are some useful websites that you can use as a reference:
MOE Kindergarten Profile – you can check the total enrollment and monthly fees.
MumCentre Preschool Locator – you can find preschools near your home or workplace by postal code or keyword.
Directory Listing of Kindergartens in Singapore from KiasuParents.com – you can search by name and address.
3. Start your search and visit the preschool in person
First of all, call up the preschool to inform them about your visit. If possible, bring your child along during class time (if they allow). See how your child react during the visit and what’s his/her impression of the school. Talk to the teacher or principal to understand the school curriculum. After the visit, ask your child if he/she likes the school, the classroom, the teachers or the children in the school. Their feedback is the most important!
4. Weigh all the options and make your final decision
This is the most critical step. Think about the curriculum, costs, school hours, logistics issues i.e. sending your child to and from school, location, the food provided by the preschool, teacher-to-student ratio, environment issues i.e. whether it is air-conditioned etc.
5. Actual registration
Make your registration with the preschool once you’ve decided. You are required to pay a deposit during the registration. The deposit is refundable (most of the time) but please check on the terms and conditions.
Once you have registered your child, you can start to gradually prepare him/her for the first day of school. Finally, be proud and confident with your choice! You certainly deserve a big pat on your back for spending so much effort in this activity. Even if you finally decide that your child is not ready for preschool, be assured that your research and consideration is what led you to the right decision.
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Last month, I wrote about why we love to visit the Changi Airport. We visit the airport almost every fortnightly. I love the place simply because it is clean, convenient and fully air-conditioned. Daddy V likes it because of its lower parking rates. Little Edison is crazy about it because there are lots of enjoyable activities for him in the airport.
These are our favorite places to visit in the airport:
1. Children’s playground, located at Terminal 3, next to the water fountain at the B2 Mall.
2. Rub it from Scratch, located at Terminal 3, in front of the water fountain at the B2 Mall.
Little Edison enjoys rubbing crayons over a white paper placed over the embossed woodblock to create pictures. The crayons and white papers are provided by the airport.
3. Zone X Games Arcade
This is a new outlet located at Terminal 3 #B2-23. Little Edison loves the basketball game and the candy catcher machine.
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In a shopping mall, a glamorous mother walks around, impeccably dressed, every strand of her hair is in place, every crease in her dress is perfectly aligned, with full make-up, lipstick, high heels, branded bag and so on. Walking behind her is a huffing and puffing maid struggling to push the stroller while carrying a diaper bag as well as shopping bags.
Oh well, this is a common sight in Singapore. There is no right or wrong with that.
Working mothers nowadays are so lucky to have a live-in maid who does all the daily chores including general housekeeping, cooking and taking care of children for them. Meanwhile, they only focus on important tasks such as character shaping, manners, education, enrichment etc. Even a stay-at-home mother would employ a maid to help her out and lessen her burden.
Without knowing it, we may become reliant on them. Our child may even develop a special bonding with our maid. Most of the maids that I see nowadays are more experienced, smarter and neater. In some of the extreme cases, they can even fit into a mother’s shoes. This situation really troubles me, and I’m doing my best to avoid it.
On the weekdays, I’ll wake up half an hour earlier so that I have time to feed Edison before I set off to work. Dinner time is when I enjoy my meal with my husband and parents-in-law. My maid will feed Edison in the garden while we dine in the dining area. At night, I’ll play with him for a while, and then we proceed with our reading and flashcards practice before we crash into bed (together).
During the weekends, I’ll do all the motherhood tasks by myself – including bathing, feeding, cooking a meal for Edison, cleaning his poo, keeping his toys etc. My maid can concentrate in doing housekeeping and laundries. My reason is simple – I don’t want to slip into laziness and overly dependant on my maid to take care of Edison.
When we go out, 80% of the time, we will bring our maid along. Of course, it’s easier to have an extra pair of hands to carry the diaper bag or pushing the stroller. Sometimes, we prefer to leave her at home so that we can have some private family times together. It maybe tiring and frustrating at times (without a maid), but we are willing to experience the joys and pains of parenting.
Mother-maid-child is a very unique relationship that we must always handle with great care.
Mommies, what are your thoughts on this mother-maid-child relationship? Do you have any experience that you want to share?
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Little Edison is now two years old and soon, he will start schooling. It seems like he has entered into an easy-to-look-after stage now. Except for his occasional tantrums, he is actually quite an easy boy. We have a good helper as well as parents-in-law to help taking care of him.
During the weekdays, we will send our helper and Edison to my parents-in-law’s house before we go to work. If we are busy, my parents-in-law will drive to our house to pick them up. After work, my husband and I will return to my parents-in-law’s house for dinner. Finally, we return to our home sweet home after Edison is fed and showered.
Our life in general has settled into a nice and manageable routine. Little Edison is happy. Every one of us has a fair share of time to spend with him. We have our personal time and we also hang out together as a family. It’s wonderful. The happiness that Edison brought into our life is beyond measure.
Each month goes by and we see our son growing up healthily and happily. Again, we come to a stage where we are considering the implications of having our second child. We had many rounds of discussion about this topic but we still cannot conclude.
If we have our second child, who is going to take care of him/her? Personally, I do not want to add anymore burden to my parents-in-law. They have sacrificed a lot of time for us and Little Edison. At their retirement age, they should be enjoying their freedom and social life now.
I am not keen to find a babysitter. Leaving my baby with a complete stranger is a big NO to me. Perhaps I can find a good infant care center for my second child. But if my baby grows up in the infant care center and Edison spends most of his time with his grandparents, there seems to be no bonding between them. It doesn’t make sense at all!
If I stop at ONE, Edison will get rather lonely when he grows up. I’ve grown up in a family of three kids. Even when I live far away from both of my siblings but when we do get together, the bonds that get renewed are so special and meaningful – our shared childhood memories, our similar viewpoints and understanding.
What about quitting my job? I simply couldn’t bear to leave this job as it pays well and I enjoy working with my company. At the risk of being labeled as a kiasu mother, I just have to say – I need an income so that I can give my children a good quality of life, i.e. good schools, private tutors, better healthcare, yearly holidays etc. Income equals security.
I’m still in a dilemma. Career or baby #2? There is a lot to think about.
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