Carpe Diem
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evelynseet:
When I visited the CD/JJK, they employed many china nationality and my hb notices that these teacher looks very tired and restless. For that matter of fact, we decided to register my K1 daughter and 2 years son to a nearby CC called Childrenworld Montesori. It is a small scale but I feel very comfortable.I been to Watten Estate-Carpe Diem. Centre not bad. But somehow those teachers dun seem impressive to me.
In the end, I actually enrol my kids to Barker Road Methodist Church Kindergarten. So far, my kids enjoy going to school everyday. -
How old is ur girl?? There is one Glory Kindergarten aroung Bukit Timah Mkt, I heard tat this school is v good…
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Yes I wud love to enrol my daugther (K1) to Glory Kind but they don’t have full day care. Currently both kids are under the baby sitter care.
Daughter is attending every day zoophonic. We are moving in June fm the Pasir Ris to this part of Singapore. Alot of changes, need to find house, engage a DH and a good full day childcare (which I am never in favour). Being a working mum, these changes is definitely going to build my patience and train my management skill in all aspect.
We have visited so far few CC… must say that I want to enrol both kids in Caterpillar clove but son will be on waitlisting… and no transport (as we don’t drive)… visited JJK Carpe Diem but I really feel that place is so cluster and the caretake/some of the teachers looks abit restless and tired.
I found this place CW montessori hillview which I like the teacher Sophie and I feel that the kids look happier and more calm. -
My kid has been with CD-JJK for awhile. It’s pretty much of a norm nowadays for CC to engage china nationals as Chinese teachers - which in my opinion is good because they are native speakers. For English teachers, I noticed a handful of S’poreans (based on their accents) and a Filipino (I think). I felt that their english competence is reasonable. We had visited a few CCs before CD-JJK, and we found that the levels of English competence of teachers really varied widely. Notwithstanding that, I do noticed that CD-JJK newsletters can be filled with (plentiful) grammerial errors. I have not feedback to them though.
CD-JJK has different enrichment courses for Monday to Fri. To enrol one for all enrichment classes offered would cost parents an estimated $400 per month. I thought that might be as well, because usually in the afternoon (for full-day childcare), the childrens don’t have much activity either. However to be frank, till now I still don’t know what’s this "Character Development" enrichment class about.
I did have a concerns over the longer period of bathing and napping before. Lunch starts at 11.30am followed by a shower, and then nap time from 12 to 3. In total, 3.5 hours are "wasted". However, a doctor friend advised that kids at this age need plenty of rest and napping in order to grow - and urged me not to always use us "adult" standards to guide a kid’s.
As both of us (and grandparents) are working, we have no choic but to put our kid in a CC. We have a maid, but we reckon that it would be safer to put our kid in a CC than with our maid alone at home. Ideally, we thought that our kid(s) do half-day pre-school, with the another half day in another hlaf-day programmes such as "Zoophonics" or "Creative Thinkers" etc. But the problem is the travelling between the two pre-schools.
We live in Bukit Batok East. Appreciated it if anyone knows of a good (or bad) CC (based on personal experience) kindly do PM me. While we think that CD-JJK is good for now, we would consider to switch if a good CC is available. Some CCs that we are thinking of are:-
a) Learning Ladder (pros - Teachers who are native english speakers)
b) Babies Inc (pros - offer 2 kindermusik & 2 gymborree lessons / week) -
[quote="kiasu_pig"]
As both of us (and grandparents) are working, we have no choic but to put our kid in a CC. We have a maid, but we reckon that it would be safer to put our kid in a CC than with our maid alone at home. Ideally, we thought that our kid(s) do half-day pre-school, with the another half day in another hlaf-day programmes such as "Zoophonics" or "Creative Thinkers" etc. But the problem is the travelling between the two pre-schools.
quote]
I am with you… I would rather place my kids with CC than having them with the Dhelper. My daughter is currently attending the daily Zoophonic K1, she has learnt alot than I expected from cannot read till can read after 3 months.
Well, Initially we thought that ideally is to send from Zoophonic to CD-JJK (and let my girls to attend their afternoon half day enrichment class). But after much consideration n sharing from our friend… this is not a good plan. So that is why I am putting them in Childrens world Montessori hillview. -
[quote] Well, Initially we thought that ideally is to send from Zoophonic to CD-JJK (and let my girls to attend their afternoon half day enrichment class). But after much consideration n sharing from our friend... this is not a good plan. So that is why I am putting them in Childrens world Montessori hillview.[/quote] My kid is attending the weekly Zoophonics session on sun, but I doubts my kid can learn much given that only 90 mins session once a week. Can I check how you arrange the logistics of ferrying your kid between zoophonics (Beauty World, i suppose) to Children World's? And what's the afternoon cirriculum in Children World's for Nursery class? Do they offer enrichment classes as well? And if so, what are they? Do PM me if it's not convenient to disclose this info on this forum. Thanks in advance.
* Got a friend who recommend that I check out \"Gloryland Learning Centre @ Toh Tuck\" - one of its attraction is the use of \"Letterland\" system to teach phonics. Hmm... * -
kiasu_pig:
My kid is attending the weekly Zoophonics session on sun, but I doubts my kid can learn much given that only 90 mins session once a week. Can I check how you arrange the logistics of ferrying your kid between zoophonics (Beauty World, i suppose) to Children World's? And what's the afternoon cirriculum in Children World's for Nursery class? Do they offer enrichment classes as well? And if so, what are they? Do PM me if it's not convenient to disclose this info on this forum. Thanks in advance.[quote] Well, Initially we thought that ideally is to send from Zoophonic to CD-JJK (and let my girls to attend their afternoon half day enrichment class). But after much consideration n sharing from our friend... this is not a good plan. So that is why I am putting them in Childrens world Montessori hillview.
*[/quote]
Sorry if I was not clear earlier.
My initial plan was that my girl (K1) continue to attend 9am-12.30 pm zoophonic (beauty world) together with my 2 yrs old son (must be accompanied by a caretaker) and the school bus will then send my 2 kids kids to CD-JJK (Half day PM session) for rest and afternoon enrichment. Yes, I know what u might be thinking… $$$...
Zoo fee - abt $380/month
school bus - abt $70 to-fro
CD-JJK fee of $450++
Expediture is high per child at $900 x 2 = $1800 (which is equalivant to Caterpillar Clove cost after subsidy).
So, I continue to look around, closest I can find is CW Montessori childcare… I informed the principle my earlier plan… The principle advises me that it is advisable not to confuse the kids with 2 different curriculum. My spouse and I decided to let my Girl attend full CW Mont CC together with my son (2 years old).
My girl loves zoophonics and my son (sat enrichment) seems to enjoy it too. So we reckon that we can continue to attend zoophonic on Sat until they get use to new environment (we will be moving fm West to upper bukit Timah in june) -
kiasu_pig:
... The school does not teach \"phonics\" specifically; but it teaches the pupils on how to read using books from the Readers series of \"Edverture Resources\"...
While fetching my kid from JJK yesterday, was told by my kid's teacher that JJK is sending their english teachers for phonics classes so that they would introduce phonics as part of their english cirrculum soon from N1 onwards, while still relying on books from Edventure Readers as reading materials. I tried probing more information on the phonics system to be adopted but the teacher was not clear either, only causally remarked that phonetic sounds be taught in N1 and blending be taught in N2 onwards. Well, glad that JJK has finally takes concrete actions to suggestions made by parents to introduce phonics into their english cirrculum.
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[quote]hi kiasu_pig,
...
They are strong in their speaking although i found that writing part is yet to be improved as compare to e systematic way of montenssori. Yes, systematic teaching of Phonics->word blending->reading i think is a must.
I met a parent said she agreed the speaking part is strong as compared to her ex-montenssori school.
...
[/quote]Actually to be frank, when I was told by the teacher that JJK is going to introduce phonics in their english cirriculum, I was rather skeptical and wonder why the management had not thought of it previously - especially nowadays where phonics seem to be the indispensable skill to mastering good english? Also, I had wondered how long before the english teachers are competent enough to master phonics before they would teach the students? I'm still very skeptical about it, and would still look around ...
Nevertheless, I must admit that the teachers in JJK are nice people, in particular those from N1 ... so that makes leaving the school .v.e.r.y. hard.
btw, did you attend the Carpe Diem family Day at the Bird Park last saturday? -
[quote]somemore, my girl said: \"i like Ms xxxx' the kindermusik teacher and she enjoys too some other enrichment classes in the school... Her confident level is increasing recently till when in a outside baby music class, when teacher asked:
who wanna come out and row e boat with me? she go out immediately .
who wanna hold the duck picture? (while e rest is singing) she go out immediately. When asking who wanna hold e second picture..she said loudly \"is not my turn!\" ....[/quote]I think my boy is in the same kindermusik class as your daughter ... Whenever I played the Kindermusik ABC music - he would \"wash, wash, wash!\" so cute!
[quote]i wish i could cos before she go pre-school, my other enrichment classes are all fixed and scheduled on Saturday fully pack for both my girls... can share with me what's up there tat day?[/quote]
First thing 1st, the weather was HOT! Other than that, the event was pretty .. well .. eventful. There was a magic show for the kids while concurrently a parenting talk for parents. So the teachers took care of the kids, while the parents enjoyed the very informative parenting talk. Packed lunch was nice - yummy. But as all events, the family day would really be improved. There was no group photos, at least they should have one for the same school.
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