請問有沒有家長安排子女同時上兩間幼稚園?

mosesdaddy

如題. 為何這樣做?  有沒有經驗分享?  是否達到原來的目標?

mosesdaddy

The main objective is similar to the two real cases that Radiomama quoted - to have better language training to the kids.  Personally I have a friend who arranged his son to study the local and international streams of KCS (蘇浙) at the same time (I read a similar case in another thread here).  This will provide ample opportunities of English and Putonghua environment for the kids, I believe.

The so-called bilingual (Eng/Putonghua) kinder. may not provide the right environment and depth required of both languages.

In fact, my kid has been admitted to 蘇浙 K1 am class, and we are waiting for results from EFS, Small World and international stream of 蘇浙.

It seems a hard decision to make , given the great concerns from many of you (like insufficient rest time, play time, etc).  The time and energy spent on commuting between the two kinder. have not yet been taken into account.

What my wife and I think is that our kid can still play at school.  In fact, our kid has picked up the reading habits at a young age and he really likes to read (both English & Chinese books) everyday he wakes up.  He also likes me to read and sing Putonghua books/songs with him before going to bed.  We think he would love having English and Putonghua kinder. education.

Anyway, are we too ambitious ?  Could someone there be kind to share more experiences?

mosesdaddy

Dear AAA-Mom,

After reading your comments, which seem a bit too radical, I doubt if we have been too selfish.  

Well, we have never disallowed our kid to play "unmeaningful" games or be idle for some while.  We have close custody of how our kid reacts when starting a new/fun course (e.g. we discontinued the art class at Kids' Gallery since our kid did not show an interest in the way the class was delivered).

Our kid really loves reading textbooks (not just the pictures but the words).  He likes to repeat what we have taught him, e.g. several months ago, when I took him to the kids playground, he stared at the words and said, "This equipment is designed for children of age 5 to 12.  Adult supervision is recommended...."  He seemed to want to tell me he knew these words which my wife taught him previously.  I was quite astonished because he was about 20 months old at that time.

Last night, he did not want to go to bed (around 9 pm) and yelled at us, asking for some more reading time...

My wife and I have NEVER thought we need to hard press our kid to be a great man of significant achievements.  Really!  But we strongly believe that kids are like a sponge - he keeps taking in the stuff and knowledge he can acquire through games and books, family and intimacy, etc.  This is very true esp for kids of age 6 or below (as we read about the relevant researches).  They have a great quest for new things and it's just very natural for them to learn in an interactive and suitable environment.

It will be a regret if we miss the golden opportunity before our kid reaches the age of 6 (currently he is 2 yr 3 mth).  Yesterday we got the chance to talk to our friend whose kid is studying K2 of both KCS and KCIS and she shared and confirmed our belief of the speaking environment her kid gains.  Now her kid can freely express himself in both English and Putonghua, and is not shy in doing so.

Of course, if subsequently our kid cannot cope (e.g. insufficient rest time or even deteriorating health), we hope we can be able to spot the problem and remedy the situation early.

We still have faith in the arrangement of two kinders. for our kid.

Any others out there to share your (or your friends') experience?

mosesdaddy

gxjl02,

I remember that my wife was advised by the KCS/KCIS that if we opt for both KCS and KCIS, we should choose KCS for the am class, so that they would take care of our kid in respect of lunch and sleeping arrangements (and they would wake up our kid for class at KCIS).  Therefore, I believe KCIS is still recruiting students for the 2008-09 session.

I will ask my wife whether an interview is required, since the application was all along handled by her.

mosesdaddy

gxjl02,

My wife was informed by KCIS that no interview would be required.

mosesdaddy

ShatinMaMa,

My wife and I visited Small World with our kid several months ago.  We are impressed because:

1.  it has considerable emphasis on bible teaching (you may refer to its website) (it's good for us as we are Christians)

2.  its teaching is modelled on Montessori philosophy - to encourage the kids to explore by themselves

We also hear the comment from parents of the kinder. who feel the kids are very disciplined.

However, the following need to be considered:

1.  it is very inconveniently situated (we are still hesitating to send our kid there because of its "remote" location)

2.  its outdoor playground has lots of mosquitoes (perhaps due to promixity to trees and plants and because it's the summer season we went there)

Fyi, we'll have the interview in late Jan.  What about you?

mosesdaddy

原文章由 rainy0429 於 07-11-10 02:06 硐表
其實樓主寫得一手流利英文~做乜唔響屋企製造全英文環境呢? 讀國際咪得囉! 用讀另一間學校嘅錢黎私人補習普通話都得啦~
係~小朋友係海綿~我都非常同意!但學習都有好多方法架嘛...
如果唔係工作所需要讀全日班,何苦要 ...

rainy0429,

你過獎了，我的英文算係咁，我響屋企通常都用英文同普通話與小兒交談，最近幾天小兒更常常主動拿中文書嚷著要爸爸以普通話跟他一起讀〔他一向只肯主動要媽媽一起讀書，但可能覺得爸爸的普通話較媽媽好，所以選擇了我。太太事後都跟我講，話阿仔終於肯跟我〕。至於你提到「用讀另一間學校嘅錢黎私人補習普通話都得啦」，我覺得讀蘇浙扣減學券後亦只須幾佰呅，而且效果應更理想。

最重要係：若小朋友讀得辛苦、不開心、甚至身體不能應付的話，我們作為家長肯定要即時調整和安排，放棄同時讀兩間幼稚園。

mosesdaddy

OKmom & joeyeddie,

I also agree to your points.  After all, as parents, we just wish to provide the best we can to our kids WITHIN their manageable talents and abilities.

joeyeddie, our case is quite similar to yours:  our kid attends a bilingual kinder in the morning (Mon to Fri) and goes to Montessori class in the afternoon (Wed to Fri).  According to my wife, he enjoys very much in both schools (esp Montessori).  

mosesdaddy

OKmom,

From the experience of our friend (whose son is studying in both KCS & KCIS at the same time),

1.  yes, his classmates are mainly Asians/Chinese looking

2.  but she told us at KCIS, the teachers would remind the class to speak in English when they hear the students communicating in Cantonese

Our friend's background is similar to ours (and to yours I guess): with Cantonese as the mother tongue.  But if there is 3-hour of PTH (with English lessons) (KCS) and 3-hour of Eng (with PTH lessons) (KCIS) for five days a week, I trust small kids just learn and pick up the languages naturally.

Up to now, we haven't made up our mind as to which primary school is our dream school.  We used to think of DBS, but heard of instances of the need to donate large sums of money (we are no rich people).  Also, we are afraid our kid will get undesirable peer influence like brandname craze (assuming DBS students most come from rich families).  On the other hand, we wish our kid to continue his ability to read and write Chinese (not just verbal PTH fluency).  So the chance to send him to ordinary IS may be low.  It depends on the growing trend in some IS that starts to put a heavier emphasis on PTH edu. (like Renaissance College).  VSA may be another choice (as I read from another thread that VSA gets many good comments).  But I haven't checked its academic track record.  So may be we'll probably put our son to a not-so-bad local school, with PTH as the medium of instruction in teaching Chinese so that what has been mastered in KCS won't be wasted.  Still has to do a lot of researches.  

If you have any ideas, pls share your thoughts too.

原文章由 OKmom 於 07-11-9 13:18 硐表
We are cantonese speaking family, and we want our 2-yr-old girl to befluent in both chinese and English.  We did try a bilingual pre-nurserybefore but  the classmates there are all cantonese and they communicatewith each other in Cantonese only, so now we switch my girl to an Intlpre-nursery to brush up her English. For our case, a bilingual kindercannot provide the language environment we want, therefore we want toput our girl in 2 kinders in the coming K1.

We want to choose the right kinders for our girl. In many threads, Ifound many parents are chosing both KCS and KCIS, and this school onlyprovide PTH (no Cantonese) and English class. My concern is, for thoseparents (like our case) speaking minimal (or none) PTH and non-nativeEnglish,  how can they support our children who learn two 2nd languageat school? Also, there is no interview held in KCIS, will the class endup in all/most children are Cantonese?  Pls share.

Any successful cases here, pls share your experience. Also, what isyour choice of primary school(IS, bilingual, or local) in order to keepboth languages.

mosesdaddy

原文章由 Radiomama 於 07-11-11 16:31 硐表
OKmom and mosesdaddy,

To be honest, it's not easy!  For the students in IS, they would have many projects and reading tasks, so....still not enough time to join ECAs!  And it's not easy to learn chin ...

Hi Radiomama,

Yes, my son is called Moses.  Salute to Joshua (and thanks for leading the Isralites to the promised land ) !

You mentioned about your friend's kid quitting KCIS after 1 month of study.  Could you elaborate why?  You also gave hints on noting the teachers' qualifications, curriculum, etc.  I really have limited info in these respects (I only heard that KCIS follows the UK curriculum and that's it).  My basic requirement is to let my kid be exposed to the English speaking environment.  Perhaps I have assumed that KCIS, being an IS, would be relatively freer and more open in its way of teaching and curriculum design.  Really have not much clues!!  Could you pls share what you know, or give me some pointers of info?

These days, I've been thinking about "creativity" - i.e. whether KCIS could foster a learning culture that helps to enhance the creativity of the kids.  The reason why I have this thought mainly stems from my kid's interview at the Victoria kinder. (CWB) on last Saturday.  You are welcome to share your views in this aspect too.

Sorry for asking so many questions