Tag: Preschool

The Ant

The Black Ant

I have been looking forward to this since the start of the week; K's first school performance! Prior to this evening, K only divulged that he will be dressing up as a black ant, then refused to show me his dance, but told me that he will be performing a dance to the tune of "Nobody". It was also the first time I saw him dressed up in his ant costume.

Dh and I did not get good seats in the hall, so this shaky and blurred video was my best attempt to capture scenes of his performance K is the 1st black ant on the left of the stage.

The Ants with Hi Ho and Nobody from Rachel T on Vimeo.

I did managed to squeeze myself to the side of the aisle during the finale and got better footage. K is the second ant from the right.

Finale : I can fly from Rachel T on Vimeo.

5 Comments by Rachel on October 23, 2010

filed in Experiences, Preschool

tagged Child, Preschool, Video

School dilemma

K almost did not need to go to school today…until next year January, that is.

Dh and I had a talk yesterday about taking K out of school, as dh felt that K was not really getting much out of school and his routines were badly disrupted after school. He will battle to take a nap during the late afternoons, and get extremely cranky in the late afternoon after school. Dropping his nap is not a solution as he will be very get extremely difficult and will battle to sleep early for that night. So the pros kind of outweigh the cons of attending school. I agreed with dh and was prepared to call the teacher this morning to let her know that we will be taking him out of school and will be on wait list for the morning session for Nursery in January.

Somehow, this morning I took my time to make the call. I had a feeling that we will be facing some resistance from the little guy. And I was right. When I told him that we will not be going to school today until next year, he asked why. Dh explained to him was that he will be going to big boy school in January and there will be no more small boy school today until then (at this moment, I nudged dh and reminded him that he should not lie to K).

I went into his room and wanted to put his uniform back into his wardrobe, but K got very upset. He took the uniform from me and insisted that he wanted to go to school and wanted to leave the house now. He was in tears and exclaimed, "I like school!" I gave in and got an earful from dh about not being determine in my choice and told me that in times like this we need to make the decision for him. Despite what dh said, I went ahead and sent K to school.

When we were in the car, he asked me, 'Will my classmates be in school today?' I answered yes to his question and he asked, "Why did daddy lie to me?" I managed a "Umm…daddy did not want you to go to school because he gets concerned that you always misbehave and refuse to take your nap when you come back from school." K look at me earnestly and answered, "I will sleep well, come back eat my snacks, watch tv and then take nap."

When we got to the foyer of the school, he was the first to enter the lift when his teacher arrived to gather the children to the assembly hall. And he was so determined that he wanted to attend school today, that he did not even bother to wave goodbye to me.

So K's going to attend school for another term.

How do you quench the enthusiasm of your child when he seems to enjoy going to school? Even if the enthusiasm only lasted for a day.

However, a hiccup has surfaced. He is on wait list for the school bus, and if he is not able to take the school bus to school, I might have to really take him out of school There is also this potential hiccup for next year; morning session for the nursery is full and he is on wait list at this moment. So it looks like I have to start to look for an alternative school, or just make that decision to home-school him for the whole of next year.

Parenting can be so full of mundane (perceived) issues, and these things can throw things off balance at times.

(Additional parenting note : I have learnt that no matter what the circumstance, we should never lie to our kids. We are not showing a good example to our child, and it confuses him when he is constantly being told that lying is not good thing to do).

4 Comments by Rachel on June 28, 2010

filed in parenting, Preschool

tagged Education, Preschool

Mr. B.L.X.

Don't be fooled by that mischievious glint in his eyes. Beneath that cheeky looking face lies a sensitive little heart.

K has a nick coined by dh; B.L.X, which is the acronym for 波離心 in han yu pin yin. Whenever he is disciplined for his mis-behaviour, he cries like it is the end of the world and it seems like we are such cruel parents. I always felt that he used his tears as a weapon to inflict guilt and make us go a bit easy on the discipline.

Since he has only joined his pre-school for about a month, I did not have to participate in the parents-teacher meeting and got a call from his teacher instead. Our conversation went like this :

Mrs Phua :

Mrs Ng, Kyle has adjusted very well to school.

He is a very sociable boy, extremely helpful as well, always offers to help the teachers in class.

(I was grinning from ear to ear when I heard this, but braced myself for what will come next. Preschool teachers are trained to manage the parents by first, sharing the good points of the child and then dishing out the not so nice things).

Mrs Phua :

You know being sociable, he tends to like to talk to his friends, likes to sits close to his friends and sometimes disturbs them (I expected this, since our Sunday School experience). But you know, some children don't like that (hmm…okay, he is a tad bit irritating). He tends to snatch toys when he wants to play with it, and the girl will be screaming at the top of her lungs (not a gentleman yet, I guess, besides boys are a minority in his class). So we will put him in the quiet corner for a few minutes However he does cry very easily when we do that, and he will always cry and say, "I will not do that again." Also he is quite active and tends to get very excited, so we will put him in the quiet corner to calm him down before starting the activity (already a frequent visitor of the quiet corner in just under a month?).

Me :

So after being at the quiet corner so often, is his behaviour improving?

Mrs Phua :

Uh uh…yes a little bit (this means that there hasn't been much change of behaviour). Don't worry we will continue to guide him and one more thing, he is also a very vocal child.

Me :

You know since he is an only child, he gets very little social exposure except those times when he is in school. I will really need your help to guide him in his social skills.

When I shared this with dh, his comments were "Mister BLX strikes again!" and when I shared this with Nana, she laughed out loud. I don't know where was the hilarity in it, maybe grand-parents really do see things quite differently. I have to see the positiveness of the feedback and remind myself that I have a real sensitive child despite his obstinate and strong-willed personality. As for his lack of social skills, I am not majorly concerned over it, as I think it will improve over time as he learns and develops empathy, as well as given more opportunities for interaction, guidance and role-playing at home.

6 Comments by Rachel on May 28, 2010

filed in Growing up, Preschool

tagged Behaviour, Child, Preschool

My 3rd Mother’s Day

My first mother's day gift and card from K. He came out of class this afternoon toting these two items in his hands and said, "Mummy, I love you!"

He probably had quite a bit of help from his teachers in school to put this together, but it sure warms my heart to be able to receive this from him for the very first time.

Here's wishing all moms a Happy Mother's Day for this coming Sunday!

8 Comments by Rachel on May 7, 2010

filed in Occasion

tagged Family, Preschool

His First School Excursion

K's second day at school was spent in a little boat/bus known as duck tours. It was an exciting experience for him, since he has not gone on any boat ride before in Singapore. The last experience I had on any boat ride in Singapore rivers (I don't think Marina Bay is considered a sea) was at least 4-5 years ago, in one of those bumboats from Clarke Quay.

So much have changed since then. So many of the sights that we saw from our ride like the The Float, The Singapore Flyer, The Double Helix Bridge (latest pedestrain bridge that links Marina Centre to Marina South) all seemed foreign. Somehow, landmarks looked strangely foreign when viewed from a boat in the river. It was like seeing Singapore in a brand new perspective.

K spotted a landmark that he could easily recognise, the Flyer, learnt about one of the key icons of Singapore, the Merlion and watched tourists take their quintessential 'I've been to Singapore' photos next to the Merlion.

For K, the novelty was more in being in a boat, rather than the sights we saw during our ride. The highlight of the excursion for him? It has to be the start of the ride when we got a little bit wet when the boat/bus entered the water, as well as towards the end of the ride when he got a little 'duck whistle' for a souveneir.

Overall, quite a fun experience except for the hot, hot weather. And I still can't help but to miss those weekday outings that we used to have before he started attending school.

3 Comments by Rachel on April 29, 2010

filed in Experiences, Preschool

tagged Preschool

School concerns

His first official visit to his school this morning. We were there to collect his uniform and settle some administrative matters in preparation for him to start school next Monday.

The verdict? He loves the playground, asked me "Where are the other children?" Inside the school, he inquisitively looked around, really keen to visit his new classroom and asked, "Why cannot be in school today?"

I am glad that he is so excited to go to school, although I have some concerns about his fussiness when it comes to his preference for specific types of food. I mentioned that he will have to eat his lunch in school and shared with him about the wide variety of food that the school will serve for lunch.

Mum : There will be porridge, rice with vegetables and meat, noodles and lots of other things.

K : No pizza? No fishball noodles?

Mum : No, but there will be lots of other types of delicious food.

K : Must ask teacher to help me remove the stalk because I don't like stalk (he only eats the leaves when it comes to vegetables).

Before I could add a comment…

K : But teacher will say eat the whole thing. So I will put the vegetables in my mouth and remove the stalk.

It's heartening to hear that he has already made plans on how to manage things by himself if he doesn't get the help he expects…looks like he's on his way to becoming one independent preschooler.

5 Comments by Rachel on April 19, 2010

filed in Growing up, Preschool, Talk

tagged Child, Preschool

Bored toddler with the bug

Kyle is down with the flu (again). This time round I am the culprit as likely the bug was caught from my recent visit to a student care centre last Thursday. I curbed the bug from ‘flourishing’ when I took some vitamin C when I started to experience some sniffles, however that did not stop it from infecting Kyle. Sigh, I wonder what can be done to prevent spreading those germs to him? Maybe taking daily doses of Vitamin C will reduce instances of becoming a ‘carrier’?

I really pity those mothers that have to put their kids in a childcare and the stress that they have to undergo, worrying for and taking care of a child that is ill. For some working mothers, the childcare option is the only choice available, especially when domestic help is so unreliable nowadays. Some of these childcare centres are breeding grounds for infections and it will take a child with extremely high immunity not to fall victim to these infections.

Lately, my mom has been telling me to put Kyle in school. Just because he seems extremely restless and bored during those hours that he is at mom’s place, when I have something to attend to. He often gives me that certain look when I have to leave for my lessons in the evenings or morning appointments, begrudginging waves goodbye while not looking at my direction.

Most mornings when I am at home with Kyle, we usually spend our time playing dough, bubbles, ball, reading, doing art..etc. And he seems content and not at all restless. It is simply not possible to ask for an alternate caregiver to keep the toddler busy with the same sort of activities.

I suppose toddlers this generation are demanding more attention and craving for more activities that will hold their interest. So unlike kids from my generation, when a simple toy set can keep us busy for hours and mom can just attend to her chores or take a breather by watching tv programmes. Must be due to the Omega 3 pills that mothers consume during their pregnancy.

Anyhow, the preschool hunt starts this week. I initially thought of putting Kyle in preschool only when he turns 3 in 2010. However, looking at the tight commitments that I will need to manage in his first week of school (which is also the start of my 1st week of my practicum), I have decided that he should start school when he is 2 and a half, in Q3 2009. So being a k.s. parent, the search has to start now.

Next up, a run down of my first preschool review : Arise Kindergarten at Hindhede Road.

4 Comments by Rachel on September 22, 2008

filed in Uncategorized

tagged Preschool

My kid is going to go preschool….in 2010

How many preschools that you know of that have teachers that have a genuine interest to nurture your child’s development? Too many, too few…the unfortunate truth is that there are many preschools with few teachers who are genuinely interested in the children.

In Singapore, early childhood education has been a career taken by many, when they are not faced with much options, i.e., just armed with an ‘O’ level passes and nothing more. Some don’t even see the need for further development and are contented with status quo. I think there is a cause for concern when there have been so much research written about the window of learning that can be maximised for the child between 2 to 6 years old.

As for the quality for preschool education in Singapore? There is little focus on learning through play and more focus on rote learning to prepare the child for primary school. It’s sad to think that this generation of Singapore children have hardly any childhood to talk about. I have to re-emphasise that children really learn the best through play in early childhood.

I am going to commence my search for that ‘perfect’ pre-school (which probably does not even exist) for Kyle from the beginning of next year. Yeah…extremely k.s. since he hasn’t even reach 17 months. I figured that my search will take some time, since I may have too high expectations and rigorous standards for the pre-school. I probably will drive the principal crazy with my never-ending list of questions, yet will choose not to let her know that I am a fellow childhood educator…

See I already told you, it is not going to be easy to convince my mommy!

Just thought I should also give some mothers out here some help on what’s make a good pre-school. since I have recently wrapped up an assignment on quality indicators for pre-schools. Click on this link in other blog to find out more details on the type of questions to ask when you meet the pre-school principal, http://parachutetime.blogspot.com/2008/08/questions-to-ask-when-you-meet-pre.html

3 Comments by Rachel on August 2, 2008

filed in Uncategorized

tagged Preschool