besides woodlands?

[1stimemum]

hi all. My son will be 1yr in Jan (its amazing how quickly it goes by) and I'm planning to send him to Woodlands preschool at Scenic villas (pokfulam) when he's 18mths old. This is accompanied by me, a stay home mum

The plan is only 2 X a week, an hour each time.
Cost is $2000 monthly for this.

I really just want him to socialise and for us to have some structured activities and for the helper to have more time to clean/ cook! its hard to get anything done when he's at home. He's very active!

I'm also currently taking him to Swim classes (1xweek) and 1 other activity ( eg Gymboree type)

my issue : for $2,000 a month, are they other playgroup/ school options that i can consider within the Pokfulam/ Central area? it just feels like a lot of money to spend... anything cheaper / different that I've yet to consider?

 

[yonge]

My younger son goes to Wisely Kindergarten on Caine Road. For HK$2,280, they'll take a child for 3 hours a day everyday. For HK$3,270, they'll take the child "full-day" which is 7.5 hours, including lunch and nap times. The parents do not accompany them after the first week. They take children in only during the fall and only when they're over 2, so I think this information is better for you for next year. Nurseries in Hong Kong generally only take children from that age, so the options before that age are very few.

You can look up the profiles of all the nurseries and kindergartens in Hong Kong here: http://www.chsc.hk/kindergarten/en/index.htm

Also, if your child is born in Hong Kong or a long-term legal resident, he is eligible to receive a subsidy for pre-school for up to 4 years:
http://www.edb.gov.hk/index.aspx?nodeID=5792&langno=1

We're an English speaking household, but we opted to put our younger son in a Cantonese/English/Mandarin nursery and our elder son in a Mandarin/English school as we think it's a great opportunity to learn Chinese as a language as opposed to a subject here. Good luck!