Posted On: Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I’ve been planning on sending my son, 2 years and 10 months old now to kindy since the beginning of this year. In Malaysia, they count the age by year so even though my son turned 2 years old only last october 2006, he’s considered 3 years old at the start of the year. Somehow we kept on postponing in sending him to kindy because we think he’s still too young to go to school.
Then i met a mom who suggested of sending him to playgroup instead… in kindy… he meets all different kinds of kids, be with them everyday… get bad influence from them, or worse, bully him. She then said, “you don’t want your son to be bullied at his young age, do you.”
That scared me. So i decided to send him to his once-a-week playgroup – which is great – and postponed his kindy till next year, when he’s 4 years old.
I took video of Schenker during their water play session in “Sonshine Playgroup”. He goes to this playgroup once a week, every Thursday. In addition to Gymboree classes on Saturdays and Sundays. They have water play every 2nd week of the month. Here’s how it looks like. This is gonna be his last water play for this year, I guess, coz we’ll be staying in the Philippines for a couple of months… or more.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ4fE0Eo1Ug]
I had some talks with a few moms last Thursday. I asked them which kindy they send their older kids. They told me… but of course, I wouldn’t know where they were. So I asked about Montessorri coz there’s one nearby. One of them answered that it really depends on what type of things I want my kids to learn. In Montesorri, they emphasize the learning of practical life skills, in other kindies, they strongly emphasize on academic. Here in Malaysia, competition in schools is so tough that even in kindy, kids are already pressured into reading and writing and what not.
I have talked to one of the mothers who sends her daughter to a kindy. The daughter is only four years old but can write her alphabet already. I was impressed. But the mother said she’s considered slow in the class. What!!! I panicked!
So now, we’re taking it seriously. We’re going to send our boy to kindy next year!
Categories: Schenker
Hi Janet, kids really get so much pressure nowadays. It is a far cry from when I was in school. My sons have homework almost everyday. It’s really a difficult descision to make.
I’m pretty sure most kidsin the US don’t read or write in till they are 5or 6, but there are always exceptions. I think we only have them small once so we can cuddle and love them as much as they let us when they are small and the learning comes whether we worry or not.:>,
mixednuts – so i guess it’s everywhere eh? really tough to decide to send them to kindy at such a young age and if we don’t, once he gets to primary school, he’ll definitely be left out.
marcia – yeah, you’re right. so right now, what i do is cherish every moment while he’s at home.