Monday, March 29, 2010

:: play school shopping ::

we have started thinking of sending the two kids to play school, most probably next year (after they're fully toilet trained). and surely, the mommy and daddy has started to scout around nak hantar dekat mana.

my wishes for their first year in school is very simple.
no. 1 : they learn how to socialize and learn how to share things
why?
being twin, they normally got stuck up together. no room for others to join in and vice versa. they have no other cousins that are of same age yang buatkan makin susah la these two boys tomix around. they can be very, very hyper when the parents are around, but become very timid when there are other kids around, eventhough that kid is pehaps almost 2 year younger than them.

no. 2 : they got to learn the fun way.
why?
i want them to enjoy their childhood, and i'm a big believer in learning through playing around. i don't want my kids to turn into a einsten wannabe, and i don't want them to be burdened with too much "extra classes" that they don't have time to enjoy their childhood. (cuba baca recent articles in newspaper) parents nowadays hantar anak2 ke macam2 kelas. sampai anak takde masa to enjoy the evening sun outside aight? but that's personal choice anyway.

no. 3 : let them learn simple, practical things in life
why?
i want them to be independent. i want them to be proud of themselves for being able to put their shirt on, buttn themselves up, tying the shoe laces, etc.

no. 4 : head start to pre-school years
why?
so that they won't have jitters, as i know my kids can be very clingy to their mommy and daddy when they're surrounded with complete strangers. i want them to open themselves up and let them be confident to mingle around.

so off we went to look for few kindy. and we arrived to one (which i totally fall in love with). tapinya, school fee mommy EXTREMELY TAK MAMPU nak bayar.. adoiiiiii. mengalahkan mommybeljar kat uni for years hokay! fee can reach 10K/kid for a semester that consist of 6 months. pengsan mak!:P camana tak fall in love??? hehe. terpaksa la mak lupakan.

my education plan for the kids is pretty much this way.

age 4 y.o - play school (i stress the word play school)

age 5-6 y.o - pre-school (sudah ada calon sekolah, sebabnya that kndy was my kindy and has been a tradition for the family to send the kids there.) alhamdulillah, that school boleh ensure kids will know how to read, write and calculate mostly within 3 months of schooling, and they instill discipline among students. teachers nampak garang, but dalam garang tuh ada soft spots, so that kids won't be too mengada-ngada and know how to behave. skolah tuh bukan islamic kindy, but they offer islamic education as well, where by the ustazah (according to my younger cousin) are from established university in islamic studies. it's a bit far from home, but they provde transportation as well. so not much of worries. some of the teachers dah lama gila kat situ (dari zaman i lagi) and that school now is 40 years of age if i'm not mistaken. tapi tatau la kan, kalau last minit OH ubah decision nak hantar tempat lain.

this is basically their pre-school education. dari segi rohani pulak, i'm thinking of starting to send my kids to mengaji, so lidah yang lembut itu dapat dilatih membaca ayat suci alquran secepat mungkin. most probably at the age of 6, i'm going to start them on formal mengaji classes.

but all these are plans. which i baru pikir2. belum 100% agreeable by my OH. he too definitely have his says in raising up the kids. hmm, so much of school shopping heh? :D

ps - i'm open for suggestion on where to send kids for all three purposes - play school, pre school and islamic studies, especially from those who're more experience surely!

2 comments:

~ shac ~ said...

sis, u are so have to check out IIUM Montessori. It's not that ridiculous expensive but yet it's pretty complete in it's own way. My fren was once teacher there and she highly recommended us to send kids when they're small (3 and above). Once they've reach 5, you can change to ordinary kindy because basically they just teach the students the same thing (get used to exams and so on).

Another one that I'm thinking of myself would be Q Dees. My niece who's going to be 4 this year can now read! How amazing is that!

Actually, we all pown dah start playschool hunting for Alya. Sbb die sgt lah x reti nak bersosial nyer.. She's either just play cool and monitor the crowd atau kalo die join, she'll a bit possesive and mcm nak tunjuk authority. Maybe because she's alone at home so she used to play everything alone and we've taught her that she musn't play what not belong to her. And the outcome, she understands that others are also not allowed to play what doesn't belong to them. And hey, once you've touched one thing, it has your name all over it and remember mama's rule, "What's yours is only yours".. Scary ok?

Last weekend, we've signed her up for a trial gym class (Early Romper) @ KidSport & Gym, One Utama. The class was just for an hour and she's pretty ok (after half of the session).. It cost @ RM 160/month with 2 classes per week (either weekend or weekdays). Masalahnye, bercinta la plak nak hantar die kat sana~

And so, here we are, still playschool hunting.. Keep us update ya!

p/s: there's one Montessori in Ampang yg cam menarik sbb ramai foreigners (which is a good exposure for Alya) tp x taw brape cost die. Kalo akak ada survey, tulis skali harga ek?

-M-E- said...

you might want to check out genius aulad? but i'm not sure they have it in your area or not :)