Parenting Blessings

Yes. I am moving house soon. Moving from North to East part of the island. Singapore is a small island. So by right, shifting from one place to another which is 40 minutes away by car does not seem so terrible. Comparing myself to friends who move from Oregon to San Francisco, my shift is ” chicken feet”-Local term for minor issue.

The biggest weight in my heart is looking for the right school for my preschooler.  Planning ahead of 1 year. It is not just the kindergarten but the primary school when she is  going  when she is 7 years old. By the way, Singapore uses Bristish system so the grading is different from America.

My criteria for a good school may seems to be very different from majority of the Singaporean mummies. My priorities are also different.

First and most important, the preschool must be hygienic and clean. This is pertaining to health issue. Something I cannot compromise on.

Second, school motto and mission must include moral values teaching. School and its staff have strong moral values standards.

Thirdly, creativity must be promoted during the school cirriculum. Thinking out of the box, encourage questioning. Simple test like :  Colour  the Sun. If the child pick up a black colour and colour the sun, does the teacher say no, this is wrong. The colour of the Sun needs to be in yellow or orange ? 

In our society, academic seems to be the top most priority for many early childhood schools and insituitions. Many such insituitions are promoting” Best facilities”, “Best drama and speech class”, “Learn Mandarin Fast”,”Best score in PSLE “,  ” Guaranteed to go to top school in Singapore.” Is acadamic so important in the early childhood ?  Isn’t teaching children the virtuous way more important for character building in early childhood ? Well, I have countless argument with people on the importance of this versus focus only academic development  in early childhood (even with my own dad). To these group of parents, their views is that having a certification is the best way to provide for their children’s future, character building can come later. Have a good academic results, you will have money or can earn more money. Is this a right concept ? or a Fad concepts ?

As a working mum, I have much challenges. I am not able to spent huge amount of time each day interacting  and imparting my values to my child. Thus, my window of opportunities are only during weekends and after work when I have my own time with her.  Thus, choosing the right school and daycare as well as caretaker are my top priorities. The amount of time these people or environment interacts with my child have an impact on her characters. To me at this stage of  4-5 years, children are like sponge grapping every single drop of water and absorbing it. Wrong concepts and teachings are easily come to them if these have not been filtered.

So what are the usual thing that I do. I will do a background check on the school by asking parents who have sent their kids there on what they like and do not like about the school. Visit the school, speak to the principle or teacher, watching the classes being conducted etc  give me a glimpse or brief check if the school is meeting my criteria.

My daughter current teachers know that I am very concerned about her behaviour than her academic. So when I asked them ” How is Sammi doing ?”  They will usually tell me about how she behave instead of telling me how well she does her writing or singing. Similiarly, when I exercise  ” Corrective exercise for wrong behaviour ”  at home. I will also ring the teacher to share with her on the happening and hope she can observe and feedback on improvement of behaviour and attitudes. The teachers and I have good ” Working relationship ” on helping my child to grow and mature and expand on her potential and abilities in learning.

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