* Back-dated post: Found this long draft today. I wonder why I didn't post this up? I wrote this end of last year, when Tara was about to progress from Playgroup to Nursery.
I'm not sure if other day care hold as many meetings as this one. Yesterday, I attended the fourth parents-teachers meeting. I'm not complaining though. I wish to be as involved as possible, and I'm really glad that the school's holding these meetings to keep the parents up to date on their kids.
Let me see, the first meeting I went to, Tara was only in school for 3 months. As newbies, they got a lot to adapt to, and the teachers gave us updates of how the little ones are getting on and how they have adapted to the new environment.
The second meeting, we (Bob and I) were involved in the activities that the kids do day to day. We sang with them the songs they learned, did art and craft together. I ate an egg sandwich made by my little girl and she even served us milo! At that time, my heart was just bursting with pride, and I was so touched I almost tear. That was 6 months since she attended school.
The 3rd meeting, was the first time that we did a one-to-one. Not like the group meetings before, this one was just us with the teachers. The teachers spoke at length about about Tara. Their observations about her and such. How has she grown, the vast improvement in her languange, how she interact socially. I even know how well she slept during breaks! I was able to ask a lot of questions and it was really a productive meeting for me.
And this 4th meeting, held just last night, was a whole different one. Tara has been attending daycare for 11 months already (God! Time flies!) and she will be advancing to Nursery next year. This meeting was an introduction to her Nursery teachers (different set of teachers for each level). There will be 55 children in Nursery next year, but there are 6 teachers and 1 auntie taking care of the whole brood. 4 English teachers and 2 Chinese teachers. The English teacher touched on the program they will be teaching next year. What kind of approach they will be applying. How the kids will benefit. And how the parents can play a part in further reinforcing the teachings.
During the whole briefing by 2 of the teachers, I was nodding my head so much I'm surprised I didn't sprain my neck. I'm so glad (I think I said that before), that I managed to find a school which is totally in tune with my beliefs and expectations.
Basically, next year's program will still be adpoting a thematic approach, but it won't be structured, like it was in playgroup. The teachers will see how the children will react to a particular subject or theme before they map out what they will teach the next class or next term. Instead of telling the kids what something is, for example, an ant. They don't say, this is an ant, it has how many legs, simply throwing facts at the kids not knowing if they absorb anything. The Creative teaches will instead, guide the kids through their thinking process, and kids at this imaginative stage, will spurn out lots of funny and interesting thinking. For example, the ant. The teacher will ask, what do you think this is? Where do you think it's going? Where does it come from? Do you think the ant has a home? Where do you think it's home is? Through these, the teachers will spark the kids' interest in the ant and whatever the teachers will tell them later, they will absorb with relish. The K1 students actually managed to write a book about a monkey. Imagine that!
The teachers heard about this monkey which somehow ended up in the Creative grounds, they grouped the kids together and wanted to bring them to see the monkey, but the monkey was caught and sent away before the kids laid eyes on it. They were so interested in the monkey and the teachers, through the who, what, where, when and how, guide them into writing a story about this monkey they didn't see.
This is what I usually do with Tara. I read from somewhere that parents should always put the kids in a thinking process and ask them back the same question they ask you. For a kid who always get answers straightaway, they lose the opportunity of thinking and they also lose the interest in that object, thus losing the chance to learn more about that object.
And at Nursery level, the teachers concern is not on how many words the kids can learn at the end of the year, how well they can write and read, how pretty their drawings are or how nice they can do their colouring. Their concerns are more on building the kids' character (something that I've been emphasizing on from the day I gave birth to Tara), their social interaction skills, and self help skills.
The Chinese teacher said something which I agreed totally, she said most people will say, don't lose at the starting point. But to her, it's no big deal losing at the starting point, education is a long road, what matter most is you win at the finishing point. She actually is saying, don't be kiasu and make your kids learn a lot of things they are not ready for.
