Social side of Pre-schools

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saralee

Registered User
Hi! My daughter is currently attending the playgroup at Victoria Nursery in North Point. I am really happy with the standard of care and the way things work there. I want her to learn Cantonese so their bilingual programme suits our needs. She absolutely loves it at Victoria and as a result she is going to start Pre-Nursery 5 afternoons a week in August.

At the weekend I was talking with someone about their daughter's experience at Victoria and she also had great things to say about the school however she pointed one thing out - from a social point of view, there was no real socialising of the kids outside school. She would invite all her daughter's classmates to her birthday party but no reciprocal invitations were ever received. Is it the case that local kids don't do birthday parties with classmates? Also, is playing with classmates outside school the norm?

I really want my daughter to get a headstart with Cantonese and learn to integrate with local kids but at the same time don't want to insist on a bilingual stream school at the expense of her meeting new friends and playing with these friends outside school. I am contemplating a move to another pre-school.

What are your thoughts, experiences with the non-"academic", social side of pre-schools in HK? Any feedback would be grately appreciated...
 
Hi saralee,
Playing together with classmates out of school hours are not common in HK, I guess it's because either the kid will attend other classes after school hours, or unless the kids live near to each other, we rarely will make effort: my son also studies at Victoria, and since my friends who have kids live in Kln side, and all mums are working full time the kids rarely get together. And that's why I enrol my son to other classes so that he can socialize with other kids.
Are you full time mum? and how old is your kid?


Regards,
csy
 
One of my neighbours also had her little girl at Victoria in Aberdeen, and I remember her saying they'd never received a bday invitation either. I think csy is correct, most kids have activities in the afternoons and don't have time to play
 
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Try to find a park or playground where kids go out to play.

In my housing estate (apartment complex) kids will tend to come out to play in the late afternoon or early evening (between 4:30 pm and 7pm).

That's how my kids do most of their Cantonese language socializing.
 
This is funny, I just received an invitation for a birthday party from my son's classmate at Victoria today. So I think it really varies on the parents and kids whether they socialize outside of school.
 
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