When will you send your kids to nursery?

When will you send your kids to nursery?

18 months? 2 years old? 3 years old? 4 years old?

I made my decision to send my boy to kindergarten when he is 5 years old. Too late???

Hmm... Let's summarize what my 3.5 years old boy learnt so far. Share with me what your kids learnt in school? In order for me to justify whether is it too late to send him to school in year 2014?


Motor Skill

• He learnt to button by himself before 3 years old (video)
• He learnt how to take off and put on shirt and pants all by himself.
• He learnt to take shower by himself.
• He learnt to use scissors.
• He learnt to use cup. He uses cup to drink milk.
• He is diaper off since 15 months.
• He learnt to put on and take off the shoes and socks all by himself. He is learning how to put on shoes for his little brother now.
• He helps me a lot on the house work, eg laundry (video), hang up clothes & collect dry clothes (video), cleaning....

Am I missing anything? What he can learnt in school in motor skill?

Shapes
He learnt the basic shape - triangle, circle, square, star & heart shape at 17 months. He even learnt oval, diamond, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, trapezium etc.... NOW.
Are these the shapes the kids learn in nursery?

Numbers
He learnt all the basic colors at 2 years old (He knows colours by 18 months, now he even can "tell" all the colours (black, brown, dark green, light green, purple, dark blue, light blue, red, pink, orange, yellow, grey, white, beige))
He learnt indigo, violet, navy blue, maroon as well.

Games

• He likes to play dots to dots. He can finish 1-100 dots to dots!
• He likes to play puzzle (video), he can finish 72 pieces puzzle!
• He starts to in love with maze now.
• We play memory game every weeks.
• We sing and dance every day.
• We paint together.
• We play dough together.
• We go swimming together.
• He cycling every day.
• ..... and more ....

Numbers

Bryan can read and write from 1-100 in English and Mandarin; read 1-10 in Japanese.
This is the video he read numbers in different language -> video
Few weeks ago, Bryan completed 1-100 on his work book without any missing numbers! While I was taking my shower, he told me that he was boring, nothing to do. So I simply told him to write some numbers on his work book.
He surprised me by showing his writing (picture on the right) while I finished shower. ^_^

Alphabet
Bryan learnt A-Z since 19 months (video).
We play alphabet game every day. eg, name the animals/fruits/musical instrument that start from A-Z. This little boy can think of some name that I can't even recall!

Writing
I will not force my boy to write before he was 3 years old as I believed that kids fingers are fully developed after 3 years.
He can write capital letter and small letter from A-Z and a-z as well. But a bit UGLY. Haha... As I just started to teach him writing when he was 3 years old. So I have no worries on this.

Language - Mandarin
I teach him mandarin flash card using the material given by my sister.

Language - Malay
I just start to teach him Malay. ^_^
He learnt some animals name (kucing, anjing etc), numbers (satu - sepuluh) and colours (merah, hitam etc).
I admit I teach him lesser in Malay as I am not really good in Malay :P......



Reading
I read story book for him and slowly he learn to read by himself. Basically he can read simple story book in English. I taught him on phonics, which makes him read.
This was the video he reads "The Three Little Pigs" at his 3 years old (36 months). It's a LONG video, so the middle part I had fast forwarded. Hahaha......

So... Experienced mommy, am I made a correct decision to send him to school at his 5 years old? I prefer homeschooling my boy. But... Am I missing anything to teach him at home?

The PURPOSE of a Nursing Room

Parents! Do you really understand what is the main purpose of a nursing room?

A nursing room is for BREASTFEEDING mommy to latch on / BREASTFEED their babies/toddlers. 

A nursing room is NOT FOR BOTTLE FEEDING your babies/toddlers!!!!!

This time, I really MAD on this. Some more, this is not the first time experience carrying my HUNGRY babies/toddlers running around to look for empty nursing room. My 15 months toddler is more than 10KG!

But I really MADDDD when I've been waiting so loooonnnggggg outside the nursing room, ended up seeing a mommy holding a MILK BOTTLE coming out from the nursing room!

Why can't the parents feed their baby outside? Why you have to occupied the nursing room for bottle feeding? Or because you are bottle feeding, you do not think there will be any BREASTFEEDING mommies around?

Would like to take this opportunity to voice out! About nursing room in Queensbay mall, Penang. I experienced carrying my HUNGRY + FUSSY + CRYING baby running from lower ground floor up to second floor. But can not find a nursing room, either it has been occupied or the nursing room is WITHOUT A CURTAIN!

I do not request a luxury nursing room with proper air conditioning (most of the nursing rooms are HOT), proper sofa (some are nothing inside, like a fitting room), toilet paper provided, different bin for diaper, rubbish bin (some don't even has one) etc... Just the curtain!
Hope they will have some improvement soon.

I think will make up some review on nursing room from now on. Hope those shopping mall will improve their service and understood the PURPOSE of a nursing room!

Kindergarten Selection in Penang area

I started visiting some kindergarten around my area for my boy during September and October 2012. So far, there are only a few kindergarten in my selection, which fulfill my requirement.

After chit chatting with some parents and friends, I realized that most of them select the kindergarten according to the reputation / advertisement. Therefore, I would like to share more about how I did the selection.

First of all, I will visit those "famous" kindergarten website to know more about their background / origin before visiting. Yet, I will not make any judgement merely on the website. As they will do the BEST in website, no matter how, I will spend my time to visit personally. MOST IMPORTANT, I will not go along with my boy, as he will distract by those teacher and the playground outside!

During the visit, I will ask below questions:

1. School fees? (mainly to compare with other kindergarten)
2. Methodology?
3. Timetable? (is there any music session, gym, IQ game etc.) 
4. Play based or academic driven? (will not prefer purely academic)
5. Language used? (I will choose trilingual - English, Mandarin & Malay)
6. Ratio - Teacher : Student (will prefer 1: 10 or below)
7. Teaching method? (some kindergarten will use TV, which I definitely will blacklist)
8. Syllabus? Text book? (go through to know my boy level)
9. How often the parent can check out their kids progress / performance in school? (It'll be great if anytime ^_^)
10. Does the teacher identified the person who pick up the kids when the school over? (parents need to aware on this, as I saw some kindergarten just let those kids to go along whoever arrived the school and called the kids' name ONLY)

Besides all these questions to ask, I will observe the kindergarten as well. Below are the priority condition I will check out during the visit:-

1. Does the kindergarten locked the gate? (If the kindergarten simply open the gate/door, without asking me, who am I / the purpose I was there will be rejected)
2. Hygiene in the kindergarten? (This is quite subjective on every personal, I will check on the toilet and pantry, toys)
3. Child safety / proofing? (there MUST be safety gate at staircase)
4. Any child friendly facilities? (child toilet bowl & basin?)
5. Handle for kids on the staircase?

Herewith all the conditions I will check base on my own judgement and standard. Parents may take these as a referral but not a standard.

YET......

After visiting a few kindergartens, I made my decision to enroll my boy when he is 5 years old in 2014. 

WHY???

I will disclose on my coming post ^_^