Choosing PreSchool Again
My boy has settled down at his new school but since we are moving, he will have to change to another school again. I have been searching high and low for suitable schools but I haven’t visited any of them. It’s going to take time selecting the school that works best for my kids and me, and I try not to rush for it since both of them are still very young.
I found that I wrote down a few points some time ago on how will I evaluate a school and I’m going to share the keypoints here.
To me, here’s how I’ll evaluate a kindergarten:
1. Caring teachers who pay attention to ALL children.
2. Safe and clean environment, which means the tables and chairs, teaching aids, staircase, toilets, and etc are suitable and safe for children.
3. Easy to leave and pick up children, where the kindergarten has a good “Come and Go” system for vehicles.
4. Easy to access or talk to the teachers about our children, if necessary.
5. Besides academic or homework, there should be some activities which emphasize on a child’s well-being, like teaching them how to dress up, pretend play, sports or outdoor activities, songs and dances, and MORAL too.
6. Not too many children in a class. I think 10 children to 1 teacher ratio is good enough. If the number of children exceed 10, then there should be an assistant in the class to help out.
7. Please don’t force children under 3 years old to write, they’re not ready.
8. Homework is given occasionally and reasonably, not to scare children or kill their interest in learning by piling them with lots of writing. spelling test or exams.
9. No labelling of children and arranging their class by academic performance (this is very common)
10. No enforcement of children should stay back at school for tuition class, as most kindergarten teachers would “force” the parents to leave their children for tuition class, if not the kids won’t be able to catch up.
But things might be different now as my kids will be going to international schools. I guess they won’t have much pressure in academic as comparing to studying here in our local schools. Once they have settled down, I will start planning for myself. I can’t just sit there doing nothing when my kids are at school. A friend of mine suggested that I should set up a webstore since it’s not not to find wholesale fashion jewelry and clothes in Bangkok. So, I will think about this thoroughly.
