Urgent: start school Apr or Sep

S

Sandrine

Registered User
My daughter is given a place for Kowloon Baptist Church Kindergarten to start in April but I'm afraid she's not ready to start as she still needs the maid to stay with her in the YMCA playgroup. Most other kids let their parent/maid stay outside but my daughter just wouldn't and she would cry very hard.

She was happy during the interview at KBCK and she even let the interviewer take her hand and "joined" the class but it was only a temporary separation and mom and dad were around.

If she starts in April, she will be one of the youngest in the class as most other kids started in Sept last year but in the coming Sept, she will be one of the oldest in the class. This arrangement let her learn from other older children now and help the younger in the next session. But will it be better for confidence building if she just starts in Sept this year instead? I'm not sure what to do.

Another hard decision is, we'll have to choose between KBCK and YMCA if she is to start in September.

Both schools seem good. YMCA doesn't require the child to be fluent in English but KBCK does as an entrance requirement and so I think KBCK provides a better English environment since the children there are English-speaking. However, YMCA has phonics teaching with Letterland in K1 and Jolly Phonics in K2. KBCK has no phonics teaching. YMCA is a lot closer to where I live. Its fees are $1,500 per month higher than KBCK though. My child was comfortable with KBCK during the interview there but I think she'll need less adjustment in YMCA as she has been with their playgroup for a few months. YMCA has K1-3 whereas KBCK only has K1-2. We haven't decided which primary school to send her.

Any advice is appreciated.
 
from my own experience, i'd say wait till Sept. at the beginning of a new school year. i put my son into K1 second term (Feb.) when he turned 3 - he is a january child. i wish i had of waited till the sept. to put him in, at 3 he wasn't really ready and was the youngest in his class too. he has come along way today and is still the youngest in his class but doing well. at some point he needs to repeat a year anyweay and from what i hear from my friends that'll make him more confident for future studies.
 
shaz,

Thanks for sharing your experience. My daughter will be almost 3 when school starts in April. She'll promote to K2 in Apr 06 and to P.1 ESF in Apr 07 or repeat a few months for another school in Sept 07. Do you think a child will be happier and more confident if she starts school a bit later then, when she can do most things that other children can do? Perhaps you're right as I always heard my child say things like, "I can't do that" for example when I helped her tie her shoe laces, or when I gave her a book, she'd say, "Mommy I can't read." and asked me to read to her. I've heard her say, "I can't do it." on many many occasions when she wishes to do something that others can do and she can't.
 
every child is different, but from my experience my son was not ready at 3 to start school. he started in the local system and whether this played a role i don't know. now that he is in an international kinddie he couldn't be happier and more confident than before. he is in K2 equivalent now (he should be in k1) but if he goes ESF it doesn't matter, he can do k3 next year and move onto primary the year after. if i send him to a local english medium schools such as DBS he'll have to repeat a year somewhere so he is 6 to go to primary. you'll know if your child isn't ready and waiting till sept. isn't a bad thing, she'll have some confident by then and she is in playgroup now and taking in everything. good luck!
 
this is an honest question and not meant sarcastically in any way...

why does your child have to go to school at all... she's only 2 or 3 years old? in canada, when i was a child, we started at 4 or 5 years of age...had one year of kindergarten and then proceeded straight to primary 1...i turned out ok (2 uni degrees)...

is it a british thing to have the kids off at school at 2 years of age?
 
no, the british way in uk anyway is to start our kids in primary at 5.
but we are in HK were the competition is high and everyone is strieving to get there kids into the best schools, have an early education to get into the best primary schools etc. etc. if i were in UK my ds wouldn't start till he was 5. HK does this to you.!!!!!!
 
ah... good to know.. i still think that i'll keep my boy home until he's 4 (hopefully by that time i'll be back to canada after 15 years here...)
thanks!
 
Carang
If you are still here when your son is four you might like to consider the Canadian School near Aberdeen. The children start at four in the reception (half day) and move to Prep the next year (full day). The school is beautiful and has a very friendly atmosphere. The school follows a Canadian curriculum.
Barb
 
i think that if we are still here, he would definitely be going there, thanks for the input...

i've been here for 10 years already and have worked as a private tutor for most of that time and i still have a hard time with sending kids off to school at such a young age....to each his own, i guess, but it seems to me to be a money grab by kindergartens rather than for the benfit of the kids...my personal opinion though...
 
I think that the early schooling of children in Hong Kong is much more complicated than to blame the kindergartens. They are there to fulfil a need many parents here have.

Nearly 85% of first time mothers return to paid employment after their babies are born. Most babies and young children in Hong Kong are looked after by a grandmother or another relative. There is often pressure to institutionalize the children at a young age to free up these caregivers.

As only just over 10% of households in Hong Kong actually have domestic helpers often staying at home with someone isn?t an option. Thus kindergarten is the preferred option.

So as children grow older most enter a nursery or kindergarten. Many of these kindergartens open as early as 8:30 am and close at 6:00 pm allowing mothers to get a full day?s work in.

Then there is the social pressure of the parents with more money who want their children to have the very best start in life and believe that this includes sending children to learn as young as they are able. I think, however, these are actually in a minority but somehow the pressure is there and many parents do bow into it and send children to school before they are ready.

This is, of course, a difficult thing because although everyone can say that ?all children are different? not so many parents are confident enough to believe in their children rather than comparing them with other children of the same age. But the truth is that children are ready to go to school at different times ? and if your child isn?t ready he or she is better not going.

I have four children and all started school at different ages. The latest to start school was my younger son who started at four and wasn?t really ready to go ? yes even I was under the social pressure to send him. The earliest to start school was my younger daughter. She is a very sociable child who loves following instructions and joining in with a large group ? ideal school material. She started at two and a half years old. It was ideal because, to be honest, she was getting bored with me.

One interesting study I read from England concluded that children to better at school if they have been to a nursery or kindergarten. But not because of any academics or social skills they had learn at the pre-schools. The reason was that when children first start to enter society they tend to pick up a lot of germs and so are ill a lot. The children who go to kindergarten miss kindergarten and not school through illness whereas the children who didn?t go to kindergarten missed school.

I don?t know if this applies in Hong Kong as we all seem to live on top of one another so much more. Maybe children are introduced to lots of germs here whether or not they go to kindergarten.

Barb
 
my 2.5-year daughter just began to go to the kindergarten on 1 March. I just want her to have more little friends to play with in the kindergarten, but not play with my helper all the time. Most of the time, she stays with my helper because my hubby and i work full time. Only on weekends we accompany her. And i have found she like playing with kids at her age quite much, but i can't find such kids to play with her often. And she seems afraid of meeting strange adults. she does not respond to strange people depite that they are friendly. I feel she needs to expose more to the outside world, but not always home. That's why i decide to send her to the kindergarten now. And she can handle many things by herself already. So i just give her a chance to try. If she is ok, then go on, if not. i'll wait for a few months untill this August.

the past few days, she seemed doing well. the 1st day, my helper and i went to the kindergarten with her together. She was in the class for one hour as advised by the teacher. The first half hour she played there without any problem. but during the break when the kids went to the washroom together, she did not want to enter it and cried. So my helper stayed with her in the second half hour. The second and the third day, she stayed in class for more than one hour. Today, she stayed there for the whole morning without my helper there. The teacher told me she's doing well. Sometimes she looked for my helper, but after being comforted by the teacher, she was ok. So next Monday, the teacher will let her take the school bus to return home.

I hope she will love going to the kindergarten because it must be more fun than staying with my helper at home. However, if it turns out she does not like it after a few weeks' try, i'll stop her to attend the class. All i want to do is to make her happy.

Vivian
 
We decided to let our daughter start school in September rather than April as we don't want to push her before she's ready. We've told both the schools already. I'm not sure how my daughter can have a nap if she goes to afternoon classes (12:30-3:30pm). Does she nap after school? That will make her sleep late and wake up late then.
 
Hi Sandrine,

How are you doing? I'm totally agree you let your daughter start school in coming September, she may feel more comfortable to go to school starting on Spetember.
You can let her take a short nap less then an hour then she won't sleep late ok!
 
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