School days
I don't know whether or not to send Sprog to school.
In Dubai they start school at 3 years old, doing KG1 or FS1.
2 weeks ago she started nursery for the first time. She goes 2 mornings a week.
The nursery doesn't do KG1 or FS1. It has no curriculum. They just have fun and paint and have a letter of the week and splash in paddling pools and decorate donuts and play on the slide.
This September she should start KG1. 5 mornings a week from 8.00 - 12.30, plus a 40 minute commute there and a 25 minute commute back.
I have been fighting to find her a school place since I got here. Now I think I may have got one and I've got cold feet.
She's two!
She's too little for school.
She could stay on at her nursery for another year and then I could try and get her in to KG2, without her having done KG1. She'd be behind then, the other children will have spent a year doing jolly phonics and writing their names and learning Arabic (yes, learning Arabic).
Or, I could put her into KG1 in September 2010, making her a year older than her classmates. Not ideal. There is a big developmental difference between a 3 year old and a 4 year old.
Or I could just accept that she has to go to school 5 mornings a week in September. It's 6 months from now and children change so quickly that perhaps when September rolls around both she and I will be totally ready for it.
She loves nursery. She was more than ready for it.
I don't know what to do for the best.
Comments
8-12.30 five days a week for 3 year olds??
God. I wouldn't be keen either. There's no happy medium anywhere? My daughter adores preschool, but the learning is extremely gentle and play-based.
O started school last year, aged 5 - in reception they do half an hour structured learning a day. Okay, he'd been at nursery since before conception, so he fitted in and could write his name etc. by the time he got there, but one of his best friends is almost a year younger than him (August birthday) - he shows no inclination to read or write but his mother doesn't mind because she's Danish and in Denmark children don't start school until they're 7.
I'm not sure what I'm saying, I suppose it would help if you could have a chat with the teachers to see how they teach or if the nursery teachers might introduce something equivalent for sprog if she stays on an extra year. O's school is very non-competative and they tailor teaching to each child and it's mostly through play so none of the children ever feel as though they're behind.
I'm trying to figure out how the commute thing works. Does the school travel towards you during the morning? Is it a floating school?
There's probably no harm in starting her there to see how she likes it. I am afraid to say that my own daughter would be thrilled to spend that much time away from me.
Is it a really structured-learning sort of place? It may not be so bad. I was trying to imagine earlier if Arab countries buy into all this 'learn through play' stuff that is gospel here, and I decided that they probably didn't. Then I wondered what Arab educators would think of people like Alfie Kohn and I laughed so hard I snorted.
Oh yay! People with small children to discuss this with. <weeps with grattitude>.
If she stayed on at the nursery she wouldn't be an exeption. They do have 2 classes above the one she is currently in. They do learn letters and counting and stuff, just not to any recognised curriculum. It's primarily a childcare solution, not a preschool. Although most of the children do go at least 4 mornings a week. Sprog is one of only 2 children to go part time in her class.
You're right in thinking that the schools out here are very academically focussed. That's the reason they start them a year early - to get ahead. Bloody ridiculous. Having said that, however, the schools and teaching are a really high standard and the KG1 & 2 are very much the modern school of thinking and learn through play. Some schools out here (the English language Indian schools) are more 'learning by rote', but I'm looking at Internation, Oz or British places.
There are 3 schools that she may get a place at. 2 are MASSIVE highschools, going all the way up to A-levels, with a frightening academic record and good reputations. They are quite close to us. The third school is very new (opened in September) so has no reputation good or bad. It is very gentle and play focussed. It is smaller. It felt like friendly local primary school. The headmaster (trendy vicar type) showed me round and waxed lyrical on the importance of social development and learning through play and other good things. It is further away from us. It is the one she is most likely to get a place at.
How old is E now Kate?
The commute - you can't turn left in Dubai, so on the way there I have no choice but to plough into commuter traffic, but on the way home I have more choice about the route I take. Plus I'm queuing with the rush hour on the way there.
The third school sounds pretty good to me. As long as it's all still about play, you probably don't have to worry so much about how much time she spends there. I don't think I'd fancy sending mine to a huge school with so many older kids - I don't know why. It just seems odd.
E is just about three and a half. She's still a little behind her peers in some ways, but in terms of time away from me and having her own life and little secrets, she's already a teenager. They don't start school officially here until age 5 - kindergarten - so the two years of preschool that everyone sends their children to is optional. I think children who don't get it, though, would be at a bit of a disadvantage, even though all that happens at preschool is that they spend two years singing, chasing each other around and learning not to eat sand.
"You can't turn left in Dubai". God. How clockwise of them. Why not?
School 3 sounds good to me too although staying on at nursery sounds pretty good too. There are advantages to living near the school; when O started, we were both introduced to the concept of 'play dates', which were non-existent when he was at nursery. But it really is a full-on thing - he went on 3 last week after school - I feel bad because it's hard to reciprocate working full time, but if everyone lives close to the school then it is easier to just pop your child off for a couple of hours.
I think E and J are only weeks apart age-wise? She just seems to learn how to dance to YMCA and do the Time Warp at her nursery.
I've come to a decision. What I want to do is change the entire school system in Dubai so she can start KG1 in school 3 in 18 months time and be with children her age.
Sorted.
Hello Lovely! Roit, this is my twopenneth:
1. S would kill to go to school. He would love it and I would cry and worry about all the learning and the other big kids and the structure and he would love it, love it, love it.
2. If you feel too crappy about it, then is it feasible to do nursery, with a bit of mummy/daddy tutoring to keep Pea abreast of the curriculum? Then she won't be too far behind?
3. Or, could she start at school after Christmas, delaying the inevitable, but for a little bit longer?
4. Accept a place at a school and then ignore the issue until the week before term starts.
5. Come home. (sorry)
xxx
OOh - just noticed you are posting again....! My two-penn'orth, for what it's worth.... I wouldn't send her to school yet. School 3 definitely sounds lovely but on the other hand I just think she's too little. My children both went (well, Ned still goes) to a State nursery where any learning is completely through play and frankly there isn't much learning (in any academic sense) at all. About 1/2 of Belle's peers at school went to similar nurseries and the other 1/2 went to a particular private nursery near her which is deliberately academic; they sit at tables, they do their phonics and their numbers, they learn to write etc etc. When we all started school (well, our children did lol) those mums were pretty vocal in their explanations of how well their kids were going to do compared to ours. And without a single exception those children are all in the lower "sets" now and doing considerably less well than our children. Not that I am saying it's cause and effect - I presume they're not doing worse because they were hothoused early, though they all seem to struggle with their attention spans and I suppose there may possibly be a link?? - but what I am saying is that I think our kids had way way more fun at nursery and they have still more than caught up and are doing fine. If it was me I'd get her to skip the first classes and just do stuff with her at home, phonics etc as a game as much or as little as she wanted and then send her when she's of an age you're happy with.....
;-) On the other hand changing the school system and the geography of Dubai also seems like a good option.....
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