I enjoy sending Little Edison to school every morning – although I have to wake up as early as 6:30am. The traveling time is about 20 minutes; I can’t speed because of the heavy morning traffic. On the way, we will chat about his school, teachers and classmates. To him, the school is always a fun place.
To me, going to his school is like revisiting the fun part of childhood. In fact, I fell in love with his school the first time I saw it. The classrooms are spacious and air-conditioned; they are not just tidy but spick-and-span and nicely decorated.
There are interesting corners in the classroom for the children to roam around. On the left hand corner, there is a kitchen-play set-up – complete with kitchen toys, fruits, vegetables, as well as a fruit stall. I wonder who is that ‘fruit seller’. Could he be my boy?
On the right hand corner, there are puzzles, wooden toys, play-doh and blocks. There is also a play mat on the floor, so that the children can sit there and play. At the center of the classroom, there are four tables and 16 chairs. The children are seated in groups of four, according to the name tags on the table. That’s why Little Edison always says, “Jeremy sits next to me.”
There is also a mini-library in the classroom, with many interesting story books and board books. On the walls, the teachers put up the drawings and crafts made by the children. I spotted some of them made by Little Edison. All in all, I was charmed by their children-friendly set-up and holistic approach to learning.
An enjoyable childhood must also include lots of outdoor play. The school has not only one, but two playgrounds. The outdoor playground has a climb-and-slide play area, rocky horses and a few Little Tikes playhouses – which are definitely our boy’s favorite! The indoor playground is a sheltered play area, with various types of ball games, push cars, bicycles and tricycles.
Mmmmm, I wonder how the teachers can handle 16 children in the playground. I guess the most tedious part must be to tell them “Time’s up!” and bring them back to the classroom. What do you think?
There is another corner next to the outdoor playground worth mentioning here. It’s the sand and water play area. There are buckets, pails and shovels for the children to play. Once a week, Little Edison gets to play with water and sand. He will definitely wet his school uniform and the teacher will change him into the set of spare clothing in his bag.
On rainy days, the teacher will bring them to the gym on the second floor. There are big mirrors on the walls. The children will jump, exercise and stretch themselves in the gym.
These are all the extremely fascinating activities in his school, and hopefully, it is one of the joyful moments that Little Edison will grow up remembering. It’s priceless, really!
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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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Little Edison is about to complete his half a year in pre-school now. I can’t believe how quickly time flies. June school holidays are just a week away from now.
Last month, I received a letter of notification from school about our first parent-teacher meeting that has been scheduled on 29 April 2010. It was our first parent-teacher meeting at Edison’s school.
Of course, I was anxious and excited. I’ve been counting down to this special day. I suppose it will be interesting to hear from the teachers what my little boy has been doing in school for the past four months.
The teachers, principal and other staff members of the school are very friendly, patient and caring. Daddy V and I are happy that Little Edison is in good hands. Every morning when I drop him off at school, his teacher receives him with a warm and cherry smile. Occasionally, I get updates about his progress at school from the communication book and through phone calls. This parent-teacher meeting will be our first face-to-face meeting with the teachers to discuss about his performance in school.
In general, Little Edison is adapting well at school. He is displaying most of the milestones of a 3-year-old. He is very alert and he has strong observation skills. He can adapt to the structure of the typical school day, understand rules and regulations if these are explained clearly to him. He is also confident to try out all indoor and outdoor activities at school.
One thing that really took me by surprise is that he is rather quiet at school. On the other hand, he prattles away non-stop at home. He can speak fluently and appropriately with us. The teacher has commented that his silence at school probably arises because he is not yet fully at ease with the other children and adults. She will continue to encourage him to be more vocal in class.
He spends much of his time on his own activities rather than playing with others. The teacher described it as “solitary play” which is quite normal for children under the age of 3. It takes time for a child to master the art of playing with other children and demonstrates social behaviors. We were relieved when the teacher mentioned that he didn’t display negative behaviors like hitting other children at school.
There are lots of everyday challenges that he is expected to manage on his own (although still under supervision by the teachers). For instance, he needs to be able to attend to his toileting needs independently. These include knowing when to use the toilet, be able to pull his pants down and back up again tidily as well as washing and drying his hands afterwards. I was impressed when the teacher told me that he can very well do it on his own.
To us, every little achievement he has made at school is as remarkable as setting foot on the moon. We want him to have a good time at school, enjoy his company of friends and develop a love for learning.
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Today is the first day of another brand new month. Little Edison has been attending his pre-nursery class for two months. Initially, I wasn’t very keen on sending him to school until he turns three. But on the other hand, I felt that he needed more stimulation and interaction than we could provide at home.
The first two weeks were very stressful for all of us. Little Edison was crying badly at school. It was also a terrible heart-breaking moment for us every morning when I send him to school. My mind was full of uncertainties, I was contemplating whether to stop sending him to school but I persevere.
It has paid off finally. He is now comfortable at school; he starts to interact with other children and he is also doing much of his works by himself. We observed that he is slightly more independent now. He wears shoes and takes them off by himself. He carries his own bag and water bottle. He is learning to eat on his own too.
At school, the teacher commented that he likes outdoor activities very much. He will run and climb – up and down until he sweats out. The teacher will have to change his clothes after the outdoor activity. Every morning, the children will sit in the hall and they are taught about Jesus in a fun loving environment. Besides singing and story-telling, they do a lot of hands-on crafts too.
These are some of the hands-on crafts that our little boy did at school. Every piece of them is a gem to me.
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Noddy Fun Book is a comprehensive brain development tool that emphasizes on logical thinking skills, develops hand-eye coordination, fosters observation and concentration skills as well as stimulates artistic senses. It was introduced to us during our last few lessons in Shichida Method.
Oh, did I ever tell you that we have withdrawn Little Edison from Shichida Method brain-training class in Dec 2009? Perhaps I’ve forgotten. We left in Dec 2009 after completing 6 terms. Main reason is that Little Edison started to lose interest and concentration in the class. I felt that the lessons are getting too advanced for a two-year-old, and that caused him to lose interest. He spent more than half of the time wandering at the back of the class instead of participating.
This Fun Book uses one flip grid and twelve numerical plastic boards to develop into mathematical and logical challenges. A wide selection of topics are being covered including numeral, mathematics, shape, color, time, animal, plant, weather, upper and lower case, daily life and so on. There are three different levels of difficulties in various topics catered for different learning ability and progress.
What is inside the Noddy Fun Book?
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10 colorful fun books
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A flip grid
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12 numerical plastic boards
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1 parent guide
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Color markers
How to use it?
- Step 1:
Open one of the fun book and the flip-grid. Take out the number pieces and put the empty grid on top of the book so that the lines in the book correspond with the squares on the grid. Place the number pieces on the left-hand side of the grid in sequence (from 1 to 12)
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Step 2:
Follow the instructions on the top left corner of the book. Take a number piece from the left-hand side of the grid. Look at the pictures on the right-hand side and find the matching picture. Place the number piece in the empty square of the matching picture. Repeat the same with the other number pieces until all the 12 number pieces are transferred to the right-hand side of the grid.
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Step 3:
Once you have completed, close the flip-grid and turn it over. Check whether the color combination on the flip-grid is the same as the answer key in the upper-right-hand corner of the book.
Noddy Fun Book contains 150 games. You can also derive new games using your own creativity. This product is patented by Learning Age International Co., Ltd. (Taiwan). I bought this set from SMH Bulk Purchase at $70+.
When I played this game with Little Edison for the first time, it was quite a challenge getting him to listen to my instructions. He was too excited and started putting the number pieces all over the places. Nonetheless, we still managed to complete one game. For the second time, it was a whole lot better. Now, he understands the objectives of the game and he is able to concentrate and complete two or three games at each session.
All in all, I think that it’s a really great product.
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