For two weeks now, Trixie has been bugging me to bring her to school. I wonder if she really knows what a school is, but I guess my letting her watch Barney's "Let's Play School" somehow gave her an idea. In the show, Baby Bop was feeling sad because she can't go to big school like the other kids, so with her imagination, she goes to her own school with many cool stuff and things to learn (i.e. bubble machine that releases bubbles of different shapes). And so with the help of Barney, Trixie started wanting to go to school. Thus, my search for the "perfect" pre-school for Trixie became our project this week. Aside from asking around, I searched the net for progressive schools in the QC area and from there, I made my shortlist which is really not short at all; imagine, seven schools! They are the following:1. Kinderhaus Learning Center (South Triangle)
2. Kinder Minds Learning Center (QC Rotonda)
3. Mind Specialists School (D. Tuazon)
4. Cambridge Child Development Center (Banawe)
5. Little Sand Box (Sct. Castor)
6. CHILD Pre-school (Sct .Fernandez)
7. Gymboree (Trinoma)
Well, let me just state for the record that I'm no expert with regard to evaluating the quality of any school (and the opinions stated here are purely personal), but with the many pieces of advice from my Atsie (who studied Masters in Early Childhood Education in La Salle), I kinda have a picture of the kind of school I would like Trixie to attend. So this week, we've been doing school trips to find out for ourselves. So far, we have visited four schools and I think I'm close to making a choice already which I will reveal in Part 2 after Trixie's 3-day free trial in that school. What I want to share now is one school which I will NEVER let Trixie attend. (I think it's best not to reveal the school's name publicly, lest I offend any parent who has kids attending that school, but if you really want to know, just send me a personal message.) But just the same, let me tell you why I didn't like the school. We got to meet the school's Directress who was kind enough to give us a tour of the school. We got to see the toddler class in action and as expected, they have quite a number of students being a popular school. Although the school is inside a big house, I didn't feel quite at home at all. I felt that the classrooms were kinda "kulob"--- no natural light coming in and instead of an outdoor playground, they have a play area in in the lobby which was surrounded with many posters reminding everyone of their rules which monotonously start with a "No", e.g. "No shouting." Call it a fun place huh. And here's the clincher- the Directress was looking for Trixie's yaya and when we told her that I'm a full-time mom, she was overly surprised. And you call her the head of the school! She was even more surprised to find out that I'm still nursing Trixie. She kept on saying that it is difficult that I am a full-time mom (tell me something I don't know) because I cannot work anymore, but whoever mentioned that I am sad and lonely being a full-time mom? I love being a full-time mom and I would never trade places with anyone! I figure the school is full of children who are raised by yayas which is quite obvious--- they have a huge waiting area with cable tv for yayas-in-waiting and that Trixie, raised and nursed by her own mom is a rarity. Not that I am against yayas or working mothers, but clearly, the directress and I don't share the same parenting methods. That conversation sent us home, vowing not to enroll Trix in that school... ever!
More to come- the school that I really liked that Trixie will hopefully love too.
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