Nursery or not?

Will you let your child attend Nursery / Did your child attend Nursery?

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Buckeroo

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Hi, my girl just turned 2 and I can't fully make up my mind whether or not to send her to nursery. I know I don't have to and I can sign her up for "activities"... but somehow I feel that she is ready for something more. She sees her brother off at the school bus every morning and she wants to go along. Every Friday, when I drive her to her Socatots class, we drop off her brother at school first and she feels right at home at the school and readily follows her brother to his classroom...

I keep going back and forth in my mind about this and I just want to hear how other parents are going about this and what your thoughts are, with regard to your own children going to nursery. Why are you "for" it or why you aren't...

Please let's keep it nice, folks. :)

Thanks for sharing.
 
Buckeroo, it sounds like it would be a natural progression for your daughter to go and what a bonus that she already feels comfortable in the school environment! Out of curiosity, what is stopping you from sending her?

My son is 16 months and when I return from the States this fall, I am most likely enrolled him in Tutor Time twice a week and then supplementing with other activities - socatots, music together, kindermusik etc...He will be 20 months then.

Personally, I think nursery (it's called pre-school in the US) is important because:

1) it's a good transition for the child for when they do get to kindergarten it's not a total surprise. they slowly get the idea of structure and learning how to be in school.

2) the social dynamic amongst children is different then in let's say socatots or kindermusik

3) the nursery engages my son in ways that I cannot whether it's because I do not have the equipment or the expertise to do so.

4) actvities and playgroups are great, but there is a different feel to nursery and it's really not the same as being in a music class for 40 minutes and then going home.

I believe my son will be learning a great deal, will be enagaged and will hopefully meet some new friends!

Hope this helps!
 
i think your child is more than ready to go to the nursery....it will not be a good place for her to meet other kids her age and mingle with them ina constructive educational kins of a way but also would also help release a lot of her energy in the right direction instead of aimlessly playing alone at home.......it would also prepare her for pre-school and when the time comes she would be more than readya nd happy to go to school instead of a regular battle.....u could start with thrice a week but i would start with 5 times a week since it would give her a sense of routine.......my elder son went to nursery at 1 year and 10 months and he really enjoyed doing so.
 
Hi. I was in exactly the same mind as you for all the same reasons! My daughter (20 months) went to a lot of activities and different playgroups, but I wanted to consider regular nursery also.

First I decided to first enroll her in a Sat class at our local nursery to see if she liked the enviroment, the teaching style and the structure.

She really responded to the activities and whilst the structure was new for her and she spent a lot of time wandering off doing her own thing during group activities, she very much enjoyed it.

Now I know she likes it, I've just moved her to 3 mornings a week - once with her dad, once with our helper and once with me. All going well so far!

My only condition was no 'commute' so we only looked at our local Woodlands nursery as it's a walk up the road, despite there being other options a short drive away.

Although I've just thought - do you mean proper pre-school without anyone going with them? I never know quite what the difference in terminology is between pre-school, nursery etc. here.

If you mean unaccompanied, I think she'll start that level when she's 2.5 or 3 - if I think she's ready. She'll hopefully be pretty comfortable in the environment as she's done the accompanied classes at the same school.

Hope that helps!
 
southside852 - I've PM'ed you.

mushi - Definitely food for thought. Thanks.

LeahH - I'm talking about unaccompanied. :) Yes, on the one hand, I think it's a bit soon. On the other hand, she seems to be more ready for it, given that she already sees her brother going to school.
 
Personally I think 2 is too young to go alone for 3 hours but many schools here in HK actually insist on kids going alone. Our son still goes accompanied 3 times a week and only starting next month he will go unaccompanied he will 2.6 months old.

We did 3 times a week the mother toddler class, we did scoatots, my gym, kids gallery so we had fun doing other stuff. I personally feel kids have to go to school on their own for the next atleast 18 years so what difference 6 months or 1 year makes .

Having said that we have seen many kids who are ready for school and being independant. I also have seen that girls are far earlier ready for school alone than boys.

also if your child doesnt have outings with kids his age then school is a good idea to get them more social.

Best of luck
 
We did the following with ours

Woodlands Wrigglers (18 months to about 20 months) - once a week, accompanied

Woodlands Playgroup (20 months - 24 months) - three times a week for an hour, accompanied

Woodlands Stepping Stones (24 months -2 years 8 months) -twice a week for 2 hours, unaccompanied

Stepping Stones usually asks for them to come unaccompanied from about the age of 28 months (2 years 4 months). But in our case the teacher said that our little one was ready for the independence! So at age 2 then we used to just drop off and pick up and it was all fine.

Why not start a nursery programme soon (maybe one of the summer fun things?) with your daughter and accompany her for a start with a view to her going unaccompanied shortly thereafter? That way you would get a good sense of what they are donig and how she's reacting/coping etc and then the teacher could let you know when she thinks your daughter is ready to come on her own. I think this is a good approach because much as we know our own child, teachers have seen so many and have a fairly good idea of what will work for which child - I was honestly quite surprised that our little one was OK alone at age 2 for a couple of hours and would never have done it of my own accord but it worked so well that I am glad we gave it a go!

Hope that helps with your decision.
 
My son started pre-nursery when he turned 2. He went to full day Mon-Fri. It started with few hours a day with accompany. After about 2 weeks, he officially started his first school life, all by himself.

He was very fine with school, generally no crying (only for a few days he cried for a few seconds when I had to leave him with his teacher, and now he says Goodbye with a goodbye kiss happily every morning). He has his breakfast, lunch and nap at school. He enjoys going to school very much. He can tell me the names of all his classmates, and he can recognize his classmates' parents. He sings his school song all the time at home.

I think going to pre-nursery is a GREAT choice for the kid. At school, they are attended by professionals, even though as a full time mommy, we can also teach our baby at home, but that is so different. They have so many group activities and a lot of sharing session (kids will bring their own toy/anything and introduce to his classmates), so learning is so much fun at school.

Going to pre-nursery has really strengthened his language ability. A lot of two-way communications now and I really enjoy talking to him.

So, I am a Pro-prenursery. Why not? Kids will get bored at home. Like my neighbor, they have a 2-yr-old boy, almost all day long stay at home with the maid. I feel really sorry for the baby.
 
One thing to add. The school uploads a daily report onto their website, so I can know exactly what happened at school, what they ate, who brought what back to school for sharing, what song they learned and even whether my boy had spoken out during class activities.

VERY satisfied with the school. but it is a local school, so I guess most of you won't consider.
 
Little Monster

Just starting my school research and this sounds great, what school is this?

Thanks
 
Nic,

it is a local school. Facility wise and language wise, I am fine for Pre-nursery ONLY. My son will go to another school for kindergarten.

What I expected when I first enrolled my son in pre-nursery are as below:
- to develop his social skills
- to have a sense of discipline
- to take care of himself (now he goes wash his hands by himself, goes to weewee himself (no more diaper even during nap time), and he asks me not to help and stay outside, he eats on his own too, no more feeding)
- to be able to communicate verbally. Now he talks all the way to and from school with meaning words, not baby language.
- to start to enjoy reading (I didnt expect this, but school will lend a book for a week to each student, and they are expected to read it every day, and at the end of the week, there is a simple report they hv to work on, and my son enjoys putting stickers on the report)
- to love school life.


anyway, for your info, below is the school site.

??????
 
i think it also depends on your child's personality and your living situation.

my son did not go to "school" until he was 3yr 7m. and only then because we live so far out that there were not many kids around to play with. it is possible for children to get all the social interaction they need from the playground, at playgroups and at home. i really didn't want him to go to school until he was about 4-5 years old, however, i sucked it up and sent him earlier. all of the kids in our village go to school and i thought he really needed more stimulation than just playing with his baby sister all day.

my daughter, i may send earlier, simply because she is a very sociable girl and LOVES going to classes. i'm going to check it out and maybe she'll start in September.
 
today my 2.5-yr-old came back from school, and he told me, "there is swine flu, remember to wash hands, mommy". hahaha.....I guess this is the merit of going to school early. much much much better than staying home with the maid.

again, my son really enjoys his school life.
 
My son starts going to Pre-nursery school at 2 years old. During the past few months, he has learnt a lot in the school. 1) he make some friends, 2) improved a lot of his social skills, 3) he can communicate in full sentence, 4) he can fully understand the class (in Cantonese, English and a little bit of Mardarin). In August, he will continue K1 at the same kindergarten but the class is in Mandarin + English.
 
Gabriel Ma - what pre-nursery/K1 is your little one attending? I would like to find one that is Mandarin & English also for my little one. Thanks!
 
Like Little ONster I am a pro -preschool mom, although part of the reason is that I work full time and I believe my son's time at school would be of better quality than if he was so stay at home. I think the socialising he gets with other kids is great, and his lanaguage skills has certainly developed quite a bit. Kids also come out more independant,and this is important for me as a working parent, because I know at home with the helper he gets things done for him.

He gets bored at home if there is no school, and he looks forward to going out of the house each day. he's not fully conversant yet so I can't really ask him how he feels about school but I truly think he is happy there. His school did a great job with separatio, and whilst there were a few days of crying , they do get used to it quite soon. he's just 26 months and now does 3 hours each morning by himself 5 days a week. For some kids who take the schoo bus, they do it alone without helper/mommy on the bus too - its pretty amazing how adaptive kids can be.
 
reei said:
hi gabriel,

how is the quantity of homework? is there any homework for k1?
Click to expand...

My child has 2 homeworks and 2 readings per week. One reading is selected by teacher and then we have to complete the worksheet. One week is English book and another week is Chinese book. Also, my child will select his favorite book. The reading scheme is very well planned. :swoman
 
my son gets a little bit of writing homework every day. usually only one of the bracketed list he must write (numbers, letters, chinese characters).

he occasionally gets a simple worksheet. matching, colouring, circling etc.

they have a parent & child read together programme, but don't expect the kids to be reading independently yet. (my son is K2)
 
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