sending child to nursery?!

[carang]

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.

 

[mosmom]

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

 

[mosmom]

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!

 

[Buckeroo]

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).

 

[Bubbly]

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.

 

[carang]

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.

 

[Buckeroo]

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.

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.

 

[carang]

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.

 

[peainpod]

Well said, Cara! There's a book "Einstein Never Used Flashcards" which delivers a similar message about the importance of unstructured play for children.

 

[carang]

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