It was my plan to be my child's first teacher and homeschool her till she reaches Kindergarten. The reality is slightly different because I am not a full time mom and I cannot commit myself 100% to the preparation and execution of lessons for lil Joy. I have documented some of our lessons on my Dayre with username Fidesfloris if you are interested.
So by the time, Lil Joy was nearing 4 years old, we decided to send her to a nursery once we have moved to our new place. The disappointment during the search of the kindergarten was another story for another day. I actually documented the incident on my Dayre in one of the April 2016 entries. All in all, I felt so helpless after the assessment at another school on a Saturday afternoon because I was so sure that I have found the right school for lil Joy which turned out to be otherwise. I told hubby that I will knock the door of every kindergarten in the area that day to find the right one.
I saw a preschool a few doors away which I do not recall seeing it when I was doing my research online. I rang the bell although the door was locked and the lights at the main reception were out. I was quite relieved when a young cheerful lady, Miss I, came to the door, it was obvious that the school was closed for the day. I asked for some basic information and thought I might drop by again on another day. To my surprise, she invited us in to take a look at the premises.
When she opened the door to the one and only classroom, I cannot believe my eyes. All the toys, education equipments were laid out neatly on low shelves, very similar to montessori classroom. The classroom is an open concept for all the classes which means lots of room for the children to run about. she explains to me about the school uses a project based approach and they do use some Montessori method during their lessons but they are a not full montessori school. I cannot believe that I have stumbled onto a school that is using montessori method because a Montessori school would have cost a lot.
Miss I, graciously invites my girl to play with the equipments and toys and halfway through our conversation, another lady came back to the class, I would have expected the teacher to say hi and proceed to continue her work but instead, she promptly bonded with lil Joy and started to show her around and kept my girl occupied while Miss I and I have our conversations for almost an hour.
The friendliness of the teachers and the harmony that they work together and welcoming us to the school without prompting really leaves a very deep impression for me. I value a harmonious working relationship among the teachers in a school although I know it is not something that we can expect in all schools.
This happened in April 2016 which was almost a year ago and in October 2016, we enrolled lil Joy to the N2 class.
I will be doing a review about the school after she has attended it for 2 terms.
