Seeing red is not the same as seeing pink

There’s this thing that her teachers tell her: We are not angry; we are upset. Teacher J is upset with RZ because she doesn’t say goodbye to her mummy every morning. She said loudly to RZ, “I am very upset with you.” RZ cried. Was she angry with RZ? No, she was not angry. She [...]

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Rip them off!

Chinese is priceless When I first enquired at the school, I was told that there were 2 Chinese teachers — the Malaysian teacher taught PG and N1; the teacher from China taught N2, K1 and K2. She went through N1 with the Malaysian teacher. When she reached N2, I received a letter from the school: [...]

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Sleep is for babies, hygiene is for the weak

Sleep is for babies The school did not encourage the children to take an afternoon nap. In fact, it seemed keen to do away with the afternoon nap altogether. N2, K1 and K2 Chinese classes and enrichment classes were scheduled right after the children’s lunch and shower. By the time they were done with these [...]

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What Montessori? What Chinese? What childcare?

What Montessori? The school purports to provide a Montessori education. By the time she left the school in the middle of N2, she had only mastered the spindle exercise. She had yet to be introduced to the large movable alphabet. This means, at the age of 4, she had only been taught to count from [...]

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It’s up to the teachers’ sole discretion

To feed your child junk food Recite this, and you get a gummy. Answer this, and you get a chocolate. Keep quiet, and you get potato chips. To call your child names Teacher S tells her to go to the classroom upstairs to fetch her work. She totters up. Teacher E sees her and asks, [...]

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Who cares?

Because dengue fever’s a whole lot of fun aka Because 3-year-olds are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, that’s why I send her to childcare The school had an outdoor playground infested with mosquitoes. I found that out during the 1st week when she returned with 6 big bites. I asked about mosquitoes control. [...]

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It’s alright to leave the gates unlocked. Even if you’re next to the main road.

The school had 2 gates: 1 tall main gate that stands as barrier between the school and 4 very busy lanes of traffic, plus 1 small short gate that separates the inner compound of the school from the driveway that leads to the main gate and out to the roads. In addition, there were 3 [...]

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Wrong School

The school I invested so much effort in and spent so much time finding turned out to be wrong right from the start. All the hints that it was an unsuitable school surfaced on the 1st day, during the 1st week, throughout the 1st month. We tried to be positive. But the issues of concern [...]

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4th Birthday (Part III)

It poured cats and dogs on the morning of her birthday party in school. I decided to wait it out because there was no way I was going to be able to carry her plus 20 something party packs from the car into the school without getting them soggy. Half an hour before the start [...]

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You know you’re feeding your child too much chocolate

1. When her friends chorus: “CHOCOLATE AGAIN?” 2. And one of them informs her: “In this school, you cannot bring your own breakfast to eat. You have to eat the same breakfast as us.” 3. And yet another one of them dissuades her: “I told my mummy you eat chocolate for breakfast everyday. She said [...]

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