Selection of Preschool

Preschool hunting like primary school hunting is part and parcel of the parenting woe. Building a strong foundation at a very young age provides a better head start, spearheads a holistical development of a child’s character and most importantly, unlocks his potential be it from cognitive to non-academic, which in turn will develop in him into a champion in any field of his interest.  

Upholding this belief firmly, my husband and I decide to send our boy to a school of substantial quality.  My husband and I have visited numerous childcare centers and Montessori schools in our neighbourhood. We even travelled to Bedok and Orchard to look at authentic Montessori schools. We finally decided on our final two.

At the age of 20^th mth, Issac attended playgroup at a nearby Montessori school. This curriculum is not completely Montessori based. The school incorporate other learning methods to teach their students. For a start, the duration of 3.5 hours was just right. The lesson started off with circle time, physical activity to Montessori time and ended off with lunch. All the parent-teacher conference enabled us to have greater awareness of his learning and development milestones. It was all fun till we realized our son was bored with school and showed little interest in attending his school this year in February 2012. We realized he was assigned to a smaller class whereby the students could not really focus and sit still. The friends, whom he used to hang out with were attending lessons separately. It was sad having to part with the school and playgroup teachers but guess it was time to move on.

On April 2012, Issac boarded the first school bus to Orchard Road for his lesson in his new school. It was a horribly long trip of 1.5 hours ride from Sengkang to Alexandra and finally to Orchard as it was showering heavily that morning. The teacher did a diagnostic test on his language and phonics awareness. There were a lot of songs with movement, stories and hands on session with the Montessori materials. It was a really enriching lesson as the children are constantly occupied in their tasks. The session ends off with a 30min mini-gym lesson with lots of free play and expression. By 12.30pm, all the children were famished and gobbled down their lunch hungarily. What really impressed me is the random seating arrangement of the children from different age group and level? One gal was sharing with me about the day of the week which her birthday fell on. The other children of different level quickly joined in this birthday “day” discussion. My boy got so inspired that he recited “Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday”. I was caught off-guard by his ability to do so. In fact, I was impressed with the students’ ability to generate interest and discussion among different age groups and ability. Nevertheless, the day ended really well for both of us.

He has settled down in his new environment really fast and we are thrilled to see him off in his school bus every morning. When he turned 3 in July, he was promoted to the workgroup which is nursery level. At this age, Issac’s speech development has gained unprecedented pace . He started forming sentences and asking more questions. Even his Mother Tongue, Mandarin, takes a different turn for the better. To me as a parent and teacher, the child’s eagerness to know, learn and ask is the greatest gift of all. Never undermine a child’s potential and ability to absorb information and apply them.

The general guide for choosing school is to physically go and visit the school. Tour around the campus, talk to the staff and teachers, observe the student's enthuasism in the class, get involved by opting a trial class. If the school culture fits your value and beliefs, most probably your hunt will be over soon.