Playgroup 妹妹上学了

At a tender age of 1 year, 9 months, 6 days (not that I remember Mei's age by days, but the Lilypie graphic age timer tells it on the face of the blog), Mei started her first regular class at BEK Learning Centre. Mei has been attending KinderMusik since she was 10 months, and enjoyed it completely. But KinderMusik is very different. Key difference: Mummy is always there in KinderMusik.

One day out of nowhere, I decided to sign Mei up for the playgroup downstairs. I just signed her up, without even asking whether there is a trial class. I brought her for a number of other trial classes for weekly session. The last attempt was the trial with Julia Gabriel bilingual class. I couldn't get the preferred time slot, neither the preferred center, or the preferred teacher. So I gave it up..... and in the end I just went for the playgroup literally downstairs of my HDB flat, in the RC center where I serve.... it's like from a 5 star hotel to a ... YMCA hostel... While, not that YMCA is bad, it is value for money, it has all the necessities.... and the playgroup, I would say it is very much along the line.

We scheduled for her to start on 1 Apr. But Mei has had this fever (up to 40.3 degree, a new record for her), followed by allergic reaction to the antibiotics which lasted for almost 2 weeks. I wasn't as panic as the other time, but the high fever was very worrying and we went to Kinder Clinic for Dr Ravi. After 1.5 day, the temperature is down (I started antibiotics which was supposed to be a back up, for fear that the rocket high temperature might cause any damage). Then rashes appeared, eyes swollen, and we were diagnosed of either Roseola or Allergic reaction by Dr Terrence Tan who runs the clinic at night. All medicine stopped, it didn't get better and we went back to Dr Ravi who suggested that it is more likely to be allergic to the Augmentin. So, we started Zrytec again, and rashes getting better in the abdomen but appearing at limbs; rashes on limbs getting better, but running nose getting worse; running nose getting better, but ulcer in the mouth getting worse.... till today, she still has a sore at the corner of the mouth..

Enough for the illness. Back to the stocktaking of the playgroup, I went with Mei on Monday for the whole session (Chinese session every Monday), my helper went today, and I am going tomorrow to have a feel of the English teacher whom some of the caregivers commented as good.

+ Attractively priced, cost $120 a month (all in with other fees abt $150 a month), which runs 9am to 11am Mon to Fri, excluding school holidays and public holidays... if you have a pre-schooler, you would agree this is very reasonable;
+ Superb convenience;
+ some familiar faces in the cohort (Yi Xuan and Renee);
+ lots of songs either by lao shi or CD player, but all with lao shi's hand action; lots of Chinese nursery rhythm that I can relate to...
+ some craft works; simply folding / crumpling / tearing papers would help with fine motor skills... I can do that with Mei at home (or my helper can).

That's probably a exhaustive list of the plus... for now.

Here comes the list of minus....
- love... not there. There was this girl who cried almost a whole hour, stretching out her arms for a hug. The disciplinarian teaching assistant simply stared back with an intoning voice: Stop, No hugging, Stop, No hugging, Stop.... with finger pointing at her. I really felt for the girl and wanted to give her a hug. Meeting my eyes, the 40 plus assistant explained 'oh, she always cries for nothing', which is probably true, as I couldn't see any obvious reason for the crying.. The obvious reason is probably that she needs attention which was not given. Well, having said, like YMCA, it is nothing wrong with the approach, and probably will be applauded by the Tiger Mother Amy Chua.... but I am not follower of that school.
- patience... not there. It runs a tight schedule, so it rushes from hand washing (I suspect whether it is thoroughly washed as it took about 5 seconds for one child on average) to art works and tea time (Mei didn't finish her crumpling paper exercise neither does the biscuits). Well, I don't have a clean phobia, but doubts on hygiene standards keep swirling in my head. I prepared Mei with a pair of non-slippery socks, but was asked to take off. Everyone is barefoot, except for the teaching assistant who is on slipper. I do think they are slippers solely used in the center, as I went the way to count the number of adult shoes on the cabinet and to my relief, it totalled 3 pairs.
- tender ... not there. There was another boy who clung his hands together whenever he's asked to do something he didn't want to, such as washing hands or doing craft. The Lao Shi herself dragged, yes, literally dragged him by the arm to the basin and forced open the hands for washing. She said he always behaved uncooperatively. Ok. She is a fine teacher in terms the singing part, I really liked that.

Well,  5 plus, 3 minus, but 3 huge minus... Am I biased? I will give it another try tomorrow.

A paragraph on the parent's handbook which is bold and underlined:
Enrolling your child, then withdrawing too quickly without allowing the child to settle in will send a dangerous signal that the child can quit anything by simply refusing whenever he wants to.

Umm.. I made a hasted decision to sign up. My fault. Fearing the highlighted dangerous signal, I can't withdraw her if she cries when we stopped appearing in the center. or, Can I? Hope Mei will like it as Renee does. I figured out that, so long as you are not the troublemaker, you are safe....

学场老手， 哥哥牵着妹妹的手去学校；嘴角还有一点溃疡的妹妹；另一套制服

这个礼拜开始，妹妹去楼下的豆豆班上课。每天两个小时。穿着制服的妹妹好像一下子长大了很多，那个曾经完全依赖着我的粉红宝贝就要自己一个人去上学了。这个礼拜还可以陪，下个礼拜妹妹就自己去了。。。好像我们之间的一些弦有断裂的声音。。。