My friend had invited me to come over to her son's educational enrichment centre on Saturday. She and 2 other mums with their kids would be there. The other 2 mums are also friends of mine & were bringing their kids to the centre for an assessment with the teachers there.
I was excited to go. Partly because I hadn't met those friends for several months & partly because I'm interested in early childhood education. I didnt bring along my son as he was napping & I wanted to minimise his potential exposure to H1N1.
I didnt get to ask as many questions as I wanted cos I didnt make an appointment with the teachers, whereas the other mums had done so and I sensed that the teachers were tired & in a rush to call it a day.
The centre is divided into 3 main service offerings. First was a methodolgy from Taiwan for brain activity. Another was teaching kids to read using the phonics method. Lastly, was teaching chess to kids. I was interested in the first and second ones.
The Taiwanese methodolgy is offered in several countries worldwide. The methodolgy has activities for kids age 3-6, which are meant to stimulate & develop them in 5 areas: logic, intelligence, creativity, emotion & judgement. I only got to see one out of the 5 areas, as it was the one which my friend's daughter was playing with.
We did talk briefly about my son's condition & she seemed open. She was very patient with the little girl & also in accomodating my questions. I liked that the activities are done at the child's own pace & the teacher is there to guide (not spoon feed the answer or instruct). It's that sense similar to my own approach.
I'm keen on giving it a try. I'll need to bring my son in for an 'assessment' first - more like a trial class really. It's the type of games/activities I'd love to do with my son but which I lack the time & knowledge to do so. The activity that I saw seemed interesting, something I'd like to participate in. It requires thinking, observation, concentration & fine motor.
I feel he's grown to a stage where I now lack the skills (& energy) to take him further e.g. teaching maths, teaching to tell time. I do not know what sort of games 4 yr olds should play (apart from the gross motor, fine motor types). The activities I do with him at home have gone a bit stale, not much new stuff.
For sure I'll still have to do therapy type activites (which I'm fine with) & by God's grace, my creative juices are still running on that count.
Attending kindergarten would of course present him opportunities to develop new skills. But kindergartens can only do so much. The teachers are rushed for time as they have a syllabus to keep to & report back to the principal. There are so many kids in the class for the teacher to attend to - I think 16-18 kids enrolled with just 1 teacher & 1 assistant.
My son is a careful & cautious boy. He first thinks about what it is you want him to do (especially for new tasks), then cautiously does it. He is not the type of kids who rushes through things without giving much thought. Due to his fine & gross motor disability he would need more time to complete a task compared to his peers.
The center's charges are reasonable. It's also not too far from home. It's just once a week. If he's accepted, I believe she said that his class size will be small (just 2 kids, incl my son) since my son has special needs. I would really like to give it a try, even if it's just for a few months to see whether he likes it or not.
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