More scary news from daycare centre

In today's The Star newspaper, yet another horrible death story of a 2yo girl found drowned in a bathtub. It happened in a daycare centre +_+ 

Before this case, there was a news about a young child was chocked to death while bottle feeding. Again it happened in a daycare centre. I know accident does happen, anywhere anytime, but if it happens in a daycare centre, does that mean the daycare centre is short of teacher/child care taker thus lead to these unnecessary raising death tolls of the innocent kids? It's really really sad to hear this kind of news. First thing comes into my mind is my own children. So many "what if" linger on my mind now, although my kids are taken care by my parents.

And this reminds me of a real story about my ex-neighbour, Mdm Chew. She has been taking care of her grandchildren for years, since they were born. When her 2nd daugther gave birth to her 2nd child, Mdm Chew also helped to take care of the newborn and live in with her daughter. One day, while she was preparing hot water to shower her grandson, (I'm not sure how old is the kid when this incident took place, but definitely above 1yo) the telephone rang and so she left the bathroom and answered the phone call. Within seconds, she heard a loud scream. She rushed over to her grandson, and found him got burn by the hot water. Due to this case, the relationship between Mdm Chew and her daughter turned sour. And Mdm Chew finally moved out from her daughter's house. Mdm Chew's husband has passed away long time ago. So she moved in to stay with her youngest daughter. I believe she must have a hard time to forgive herself for what has happened to her own grandson. Luckily her grandson still survive, though still suffer from skin burn (not sure how severe it was). See, this kind of accident can happen even from own family member, all because of careless mistake. 1 single careless mistake can really steal a person's life away. Always remember DO NOT take things for granted.

Registration - done!

Yesterday we visited the kindi, together with my mom and Smellybutt. We were greeted by an aunty, a chirpy aunty :) She is in charge of cooking. She guided us to tour the kindi and pointed to us the classroom for all ages. She will be one looking after the full day care kids too, with some helper as well.

Then my mom asked her again about the food menu. She brought us to the kitchen and showed us the menu plan for each week. In total they have 4 different set of menu for each week, thus they will have menu rotation so that the kids will not be eating the same food every week. Aunty (oh dear, I forgotten to ask her name!) explained to us that she has scrapped off the green vegetable dish because the kids didn't 't know how to eat it and mostly refused to eat vegetable. Thus the kids ended up not finishing their meal and wasted it whenever there is green vege. Aunty said that it'll be difficult if the kids refused to eat at all if she continues with the green vege. Hmm...although Smellybutt has no issue with green vege, I guess that we shall just feed her green vege from home. Aunty cannot be cooking green vege just for Smellybutt alone right.

The condition of the kindi is acceptable. It has been there for almost 5 years, so cannot have high expectation lah. Furnitures are still in good condition. Cleanliness wise, also not bad. There are quite a number of full day care kids in that centre. Most of them are 2yr++, some 3yr old too. Aunty still can keep the place pretty tidy with these active kids running and playing around.

Some of the hands on activities for the holiday program are gardening, games, hands on baking (cookies and pizzas), house chore, etc. I am really looking forward to Smellybutt bringing back home her own hand made cookies/pizzas! This holiday program is more to activities, group play and project work. Thus this will be a lot more fun for the kids especially for the beginners. According to Teacher Wong (just found out that she's the principle) they have planned for an Individual Center's project constructing work for the kids. This will need team work among the kids, which is good for them to know each other better too. I hope Smellybutt will enjoy herself there.

Montessori or not? Hmmm...

Lately I have been thinking whether now is the right time to send Smellybutt to a day care centre? My intention is just to let her mix and play with other kids. But of course while playing also will get to learn something from the teacher lah :) I won't expect her to know every single thing there, as she's only 2yr old. But whatever we taught her, so far so good, she's a fast learner. She loves to see other kids in the kindi nearby my mom's house. Every morning, my dad will bring her out for a short morning walk. They will surely pass by a kindi. My dad will stop at the kindi and tell Smellybutt that when she grows up later, she can go to the kindi and study just like those kor kor and jie jie too. And because of this daily routine, the kids in the kindi recognise Smellybutt already. The kids will run out from the classroom, stand at the gate and try to reach out to Smellybutt, and calling her siao mei mei or baby!! Muahahaha!! As if my lil Smellybutt is a superstar lah :P I don't know whether the teacher will be cursing us or not, for disrupting the class, unintentionally. My dad didn't mean to draw the kids' attention. He just wanted to show Smellybutt what the kids do in the kindi.

So as a start I might just send her there for half day only. I'm actually considering a day care centre with the Montessori concept. I've heard a lot about the Montessori thingy from my friend, as she has graduated from her study already. She often shares with me the benefits of Montessori learning. But the monthly fee is killing me, it is very pricey. Yesterday night, my sister told me that her colleague has sent her child to a montessori childcare centre with monthly fee of RM1,000++. My eye balls nearly fell off with that figure. That is just for half day only leh, from 8am-11am. I know I know, what you pay is what you get. Like the Chinese says "yat fan chin, yat fan for".

Last week, I dropped by at my aunty's house in Taman Kok Doh. To my surprise, I saw a newly opened childcare centre nearby. What caught my attention was the Montessori word on the big banner infront of the house. I find it a little bit funny, because that childcare centre was originally an intermediate unit double storey house. All this while I only see people set up the childcare centre/kindi using the corner unit, not intermediate lot. A corner unit will have more space for the children's activity. And I just get to know that 1 of the condition to set up a Montessori base childcare centre has to be at a corner unit house (correct me if I'm wrong). Hmmm...how come ar? That Taman Kok Doh Montessori childcare centre is in an intermediate lot? I'll try to drop by at that place today after work, want to check out the centre and the fees too.