sending child to nursery?!

M

mosmom

Registered User
hi moms
i'm curious to know whether you choose to send your child to a playgroup/nursery class when s/he is 2 years old!
my baby is one year old and whoever i speak to nowadays asks me: "have you applied for a kindie yet?" uhm... no.
what is your opinion, and what do you do?
my mind tells me that this is insane, and i don't want to be caught up in the hk craze of "educating" my child sooo early!
i was thinking of going to a playgroup with her maybe once a week next year, or attend a music lesson. and basically letting her play with other kids at home or outside. wouldn't that be enough?
i've taught in a kindie before (not on the 2-y-old level, though), and if i remember well, most of the time was spent bringing the kids to the wc, having them eat snack and letting them play smthg or sing songs..
or is it that parents simply want to have some 'time off' by sending their little ones to a nursery so early? thank you for your inputs :)
 
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Hi Mosmum

I sent my son to nursery once he turned two because
he showed signs he was ready (Secrets of the Toddler whisperer) as he was getting bored at playgroups. He started with half a day then later, he went on to attend full day once a week (afternoon sessions were with mixed age).


He LOVES school. Everyday that he doesn't attends school, he asks for it. It was definitely more than just about the WC, snack time, singing songs and playing. The school he goes to is unique though.

It was definitely NOT because of the pressure from the HK culture to start schooling early. He was simply ready for more. And it has been the best thing we've done for him. In fact, he loves being in school so much that we have enrolled him for full day nursery everyday in the new academic year.

I've made the decision based only on his needs.
 
It's Jing Jing International Kinder near Lingnan University in Tuen Mun. The principal and afternoon school teacher is an English lady, Mrs. McHugh. Small class size - 8 in a class.
 
mosmom said:
hi moms
i'm curious to know whether you choose to send your child to a playgroup/nursery class when s/he is 2 years old!
my baby is one year old and whoever i speak to nowadays asks me: "have you applied for a kindie yet?" uhm... no.
what is your opinion, and what do you do?
my mind tells me that this is insane, and i don't want to be caught up in the hk craze of "educating" my child sooo early!
i was thinking of going to a playgroup with her maybe once a week next year, or attend a music lesson. and basically letting her play with other kids at home or outside. wouldn't that be enough?
i've taught in a kindie before (not on the 2-y-old level, though), and if i remember well, most of the time was spent bringing the kids to the wc, having them eat snack and letting them play smthg or sing songs..
or is it that parents simply want to have some 'time off' by sending their little ones to a nursery so early? thank you for your inputs :)
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My understanding is some schools allow you to send in the nursery application form when your child has turned 1. This way you'll most likely have a spot at the school, as we all know good schools have long wait lists.

Hope it helps.
 
i had NO intention of sending my children to "school" before they were at least 4.

my son is 3.5 and he will be starting 1/2 day in september. he, too, is looking forward to "school". he's been coming with me to the playgroup that i run for the past few months and LOVES going "to school" as we call it. he now knows that at mummy's school we speak english, but at his new school the teachers speak chinese...

although he loves coming with me (and i love it too), my hubby and i decided that we wanted him in the chinese environment. i'm not interested in the homework or tests or any of the stuff that i encountered when i was teaching in kindergartens here... i just want the chinese environment for him.

you don't have to get stressed out about it if you don't want to. you can always find somewhere for your little one... it might not be the fashionable "brand name" school that everyone else wants into, but it will suit your purposes, what ever they may be.

good luck!
 
thank you all!

spockey
will read into the book, secrets of the toddler whisperer ;) thank you! it's great your son loves school!

carang
exactly! i always thought "NOT before 3 years of age". and now all these questions...

generally saying, i find it hard to figure out at the moment whether my child will be ready for school.. i mean, she can't walk and talk yet.. sigh! and i don't want to sign her up just for the sake of it and because 'others' do.
 
then relax about it. it will all work itself out in the end. be prepared for some to look at you as if you are nuts, though. there's no need to give in to the peer pressure.

at the age of two, what you should be looking for is somewhere to socialise your child. a place where your child can begin to learn how to share, take turns, listen to and take part in story time, a place that allows your child to learn how to use their imagination and where they can begin to show some creativity, a place that can help them develop their fine (finger/hand/eye co-ordination) motor skills and their gross (running/jumping/throwing) motor skills is FAR superior to somewhere the kids sit at desks and learn to read/write/recite (mathematics tables/nursery rhymes etc).

a playgroup is the ideal place for this.

for all of those who buy into the mentality that you MUST have the right pre-school, so you can get into the right kindie, so you can get into a good primary school & secondary school, so that your child will be guaranteed of acceptance into Harvard.... this is just not the case.

if your child is competent in expressing him/herself, is able to listen and respond appropriately when spoken to, is able to use their imagination when answering questions, is able to use their initiative when solving a problem you should have NO TROUBLE passing ANY interview for primary or even secondary school.

good luck! stay strong in your beliefs!
 
carang said:
at the age of two, what you should be looking for is somewhere to socialise your child. a place where your child can begin to learn how to share, take turns, listen to and take part in story time, a place that allows your child to learn how to use their imagination and where they can begin to show some creativity, a place that can help them develop their fine (finger/hand/eye co-ordination) motor skills and their gross (running/jumping/throwing) motor skills is FAR superior to somewhere the kids sit at desks and learn to read/write/recite (mathematics tables/nursery rhymes etc).
a playgroup is the ideal place for this.

for all of those who buy into the mentality that you MUST have the right pre-school, so you can get into the right kindie, so you can get into a good primary school & secondary school, so that your child will be guaranteed of acceptance into Harvard.... this is just not the case.
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I am going to agree with Cara here. I don't think going to school should be about trying to get into the best primary/kinder especially if the child isn't ready. But I do understand it from the local perspective though, many parents don't have a choice if you are going to use the local system. We don't have to and so we are fortunate enough to place him in a nursery that doesn't hothouse the kids in preparation for premier local schools here. Kids afterall are simply kids.

JYap, I really can't put my finger down on what was the exact signs but my son was just ready. He was ready for something more independent and we didn't want to hold him back. I think it was his independence more than anything else that made us decide that he was ready for school.

Mosmum, DON'T succumb to pressure! But having said that, like I mentioned, I do understand it if you are going to be using the local system and hoping to end up in the premier schools.
 
having taught here for 13 years+. i have had MANY students that have gotten into the "best" schools. i think it had more to do with the child's social skills and verbal abilities than which kindie they went to.

we may have to succumb to thet local system ourselves. i still do not worry about "which" school my children will attend. (personally, i would rather we were back in canada for their schooling, but sadly, i don't think this will be possible.)

i think a problem with the local system is that they all, parents, teachers, administrators pay significant lip-service to wanting the system to change, yet no one does anything to begin that change.
 
carang and spockey, thank you for your valuable inputs again!

what i WILL do is: send her to K1 when she's 3.
however, sending a 2-year-old to a playgroup on a day-by-day basis.. wow, my feeling already tells me this is wrong for us.
i can bring her to one playgroup 'class' per week, and maybe one music class (whatever we come up with, then). and besides these adult-organised activities, let her have time to play with her peers.

and i don't want to think about the next best thing, such as primary school, secondary, university, etc. she can continue according to her abilities and interests.
:thanks
 
oh, one more thing: somebody asked me whether i was teaching her phonics yet. i said 'no' and that my child is DEVELOPMENTALLY (!) not ready for it yet.
i know that this person teaches her son (18 months) the alphabet, the numbers and phonics on a daily basis in a systematic way. she's very much worried about his K1 interview which is coming up in september.
i just wonder why there is no (governmental?) body that educates parents about such issues.
why do parents need to worry basically as soon as their baby is born? and besides that, where are the parental instincts about these issues?

anyway, this discussion could go on and on..
SIGH!
 
I really believe that each child has his own UNIQUE developmental timetable, so one child might be ready for something that another child might not be. Just trust your instincts; you know your child best.

Let's not judge other parents who choose to introduce early learning concepts to their children... who knows, maybe their children ARE ready (or they--the parents, --feel that their kids are ready). Regardless, it's their kid/s and they get to live with the consequences (good and bad). :)
 
I agree that it really depends on your child. My girl loves going to school and is in a good mood for the rest of the day. But the important thing about teaching children is the love and interaction we give to them through the learning, so it doesn't matter whether you are trying to teach them to walk, speak, draw, signing or phonics, as long as you do it in a way that the child feels happy rather than pressurised and stressed, it's ok to start at a very early age.

There is a website www.brillbaby.com which has a forum for parents who discuss early childhood learning. It's a very interesting website and worth a look at.

I agree 100% that teaching them should not be because we want them to go to this school or that school, although being chinese, I can totally understand why local parents are worried.
 
sorry, buckeroo, i'm going to have to disagree with you to a certain extent.

it's the system that i judge to be so poor, not~ generally speaking~ the parents. it's too bad that the parents feel they MUST do this or their child's life will forever be ruined if they don't.

i have had to explain to parents that it is not natural for children to be learning grammar (not kidding) when a child is 2.5 years old, at least not in the traditional sense. i have had parents adament that i needed to teach their child verb tenses when the child could barely speak! it is not the natural way to learn a language and breaking through some of this mentality of the parents can be EXTREMELY difficult!

i do understand that every parent does what they believe is best for their child, it's just too bad that some are so misguided.
 
But the important thing about teaching children is the love and interaction we give to them through the learning, so it doesn't matter whether you are trying to teach them to walk, speak, draw, signing or phonics, as long as you do it in a way that the child feels happy rather than pressurised and stressed, it's ok to start at a very early age.
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I agree with Bubby that what's important in the learning is that your child is having fun while doing so --especially in the early years. Teaching them the alphabet could simply be stepping (or hopping) on a letter in those rubber alphabet mats that most parents have at home. It's so important to make learning fun... they're learning even without being aware that they're being "taught" something. :)
 
agree, any learning has to be fun...problem in hk is that many local parents don't understand that a child's JOB is playing. that's how they learn...

do you know the number of times i've heard "but all my child does is play!" (we're talking 2-3 years old here, not 7 or 8).

i have to explain that doing a puzzle is great for spacial awareness, sorting, colour recognition, pattern recognition as well as developing the fine motor skills.

i have to explain that playing with block is great for the same type of skills, plus learning about centre of gravity, balance etc.

many parents don't "get it" until i explain it to them and then they begin to understand that even when "playing" the children are in fact, learning.
 
Well said, Cara! There's a book "Einstein Never Used Flashcards" which delivers a similar message about the importance of unstructured play for children.
 
all that said, i do about 3-5 minutes of "flashcards" at my playgroup. the idea is not necessarily for the kids to 'LEARN' the words, only to introduce them to words they might not have encountered yet. we work around a theme for the month and many of the songs will have the words in them.

i use the flashcards as a talking point for the kids and we have fun with them.

i don't have a problem with a little structure. playgroups shouldn't necessarily be a free for all. however, the kids need to be left to play and figure it out on their own as much as possible.

i usually choose a variety of toys/games and put them out around the room, the kids are free to select what/whom to play with and then move on when they've finished. if i find that one toy is not going over so well one day, i will remove it and put something out in its place.

it seems to work quite well
 
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