We have finally confirmed Little Twinkle's playgroup! Just
made the deposit payment yesterday... Wow, suddenly feels that she's really
growing fast.
The decision to put Little Twinkle at the playgroup is a last
minute one. This resulted because the contract of our helper is expiring soon
(beginning of Oct), thus we need someone to help to take care of Little Twinkle
from the time our helper leaves until Little Twinkle starts pre-nursery at the
church kindergarten.
We've been to this childcare 3 times. On the 3rd visit, we decided
to place Little Twinkle in the playgroup but there was no vacancy then. And
just happened they have 1 slot currently, which is very lucky for us. :)))
Things we like about this childcare:
- Big
outdoor playground - as usual we think it's
important for toddlers to run around and have fun, instead of sitting
around indoors.
- Bilingual -
they have 1 English teacher and 1 chinese teacher for every class. Both
will always be around to speak to the kids in respective language. Thought
this is better for toddlers to learn the language through their daily
interaction, instead of just 1 hour chinese lesson everyday.
- Cozy
setup: teachers
and principal seems to know the kids well
- Variety
in kid's lunch menu: I'm rather impressed with
their lunch menu which sounds sooo yummy, even for me. Each meal includes
protein, carb, fibre. Another childcare that we visited last week offered
3-in-1 milo for all breakfast/lunch with nuggets/ butter cake/ soon kuey /
steamed bun etc.
- Near
our house: 8
mins car ride
Things
that made us reconsider for this childcare:
- Close
by 6.30pm latest: not very ideal for dual
working parents as most workplace end at 6-6.30pm. This also assumes that
one can leave on the dot everyday, which seems unrealistic in our society.
And I was told that the kids in Little Twinkle's class mostly leave by
3pm, so most likely Little Twinkle will be without friends from 3pm
onwards. I still feel that childcares should operate until 7 or 7.30pm so
that working parents have sufficient time to pick up the child after work.
- Inconvenient
location: the
childcare is about 600+ meters from thr MRT station based on street
directory. So it means I have to walk 1.2km (600 m back and fro) to fetch
Little Twinkle. So I will walk 2.4km everyday. And I have to walk fast
enough to be able to catch her before 6.30pm which means I need to leave
my workplace early by 5.30pm assuming I need 30 mins to travel via mrt and
30 mins to walk. Sigh....
We have considered putting Little Twinkle at the childcare
opposite my workplace, which will be super convenient for me. But the quality
is really substandard and the price is more expensive....
- Cramped
place: like
a small office setup
- No
outdoor playground
- High
teacher-to-student ratio: 1 young teacher to 9
students
- Unconducive
language learning environment: they have only 1 teacher
currently and who speaks only singlish to the kids (we do speak
singlish as well, but I don't expect a teacher to do that since she's
supposed to educate the young kids.)
- Not
ideal lunch menu: the lunch menu is the one I
have described earlier with the 3-in-1 milo and nuggets etc.
So my colleagues were saying it's better that the parents suffer
(walked 2.4km daily), rather than kids suffer (un-conducive environment). I
guess they are right. Hopefully Little Twinkle will be happy in this childcare
that we have painstakingly decided. Haha...
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