Today marks a memorable day for Ryan and us. He attended his first day at a playschool today.

We have been looking around at several schools for him in preparation for next year. I asked around for recommendations and opinions on schools as well as doing some search on the internet to see what others have to say. I found several sites where some mummy bloggers have been extremely helpful by providing lots of information on various schools. I hope to do the same when I have more time on my hands, to write about what I think of the schools we visited and the fee structures.

When we visited the schools, what we typically did was to enter the offices to ask about the school system and fee structure. Some schools allowed us a tour around their premises, while some didn’t offer. For those that we didn’t feel we particularly liked, we didn’t even bother asking for a tour.

We visited 5 schools thus far, and still have some on the list that we didn’t visit just yet. But yes, you read the title right, Ryan is already attending one of the schools we visited. The reason is that it is the only one that allowed a child to join them anytime and not necessary to wait until the new term starts next year.

It is also very flexible in terms of how many days we would like to send him there a week, it doesn’t have to be the full 5 days from Mondays to Fridays. We like the flexibility of this system which essentially allows us to start Ryan off immediately to attend school. For us and also for Ryan’s sake, it is more of a trial so that we can gauge how he will do at school.

But more importantly, it is also a great way to gauge if Ryan likes this particular school. Incidentally, this school is the one we feel most comfortable with and we think Ryan feels the same. You see, for most of the places we visited, he would want one of us to hold his hand as we tour the schools. But at this school when we visited, he was comfortable enough to go ahead and join the other kids in their activities.

Ryan with his playmates on his first day at school

So how was Ryan’s first day at school? I personally think he did wonderfully. He didn’t fuss about much and he got attached rather quickly to one of the teachers of his playgroup. He held hands with her and was even carried around at times. The school offers a lot of flexibility to the children and we’re very glad for that.

We had a few funny moments watching him. We remained out of sight most of the time but we peeked at how he was doing every now and then. The funniest part was that he kept telling his teacher that she had sung the nursery rhymes wrongly just because the lyrics to the song was changed. He stood up, marched about the room and sang out the “correct” version for his teachers and playmates!

He must have enjoyed himself despite being rather sticky to just one teacher. When I asked him if he would like to go again tomorrow, he said yes. That’s music to our ears. We’re extremely glad that he enjoys school after just a day and wants to go some more.

To read more parenting related articles, click here: Life As A Mummy

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We’re planning to send Ryan to a play school next year. The thing is, I don’t know where to start looking for suitable schools. Should I just ask for recommendations from friends and then go to those schools to visit one by one? How did you get started looking for play schools for your kids?

I also have no clue as to what is the average fee for such schools. Any parents out there can help to enlighten me a little? How much do I need to spend on average for a kid going to play school at the age of four?

It didn’t seem this hard for me to find my own university back then, or even browsing around for Online Schools to pick up some additional classes. But when it comes to play schools and kindergartens, I seem so lost…anyone in the same boat? Come and join hands with me and hopefully some of the more experienced parents who read this plight will come to our rescue. Hehe…

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A few months ago we bought Ryan a book from MPH called Zoo Animals. It only cost me RM16.90 and it’s really worth its value in terms of providing education and fun for all of us.

This book teaches about animals and there are plenty of them to learn about. We adults learned something from the book too. We also discovered a fun part to this book.

There’s actually a little “treasure hunting” in this book. Illustrations of animals crowd the pages of the book and on each, the author slips in a little surprise by putting in things that do not belong and we’ll have to find them.

You’ll have to find hidden dinosaurs amongst zoo animals, flying objects amidst metal buildings by the park, mammals mixed up in aqua life, etc.

Some of them are easy enough to find at a glance, so Ryan can easily spot them too. Some are more difficult, even for adults to spot them, it requires lots of patience.

Nevertheless, we are still having fun with the book as we have yet to find everything we need to. Am thinking of going back to the book store to see if they have more of the same series. I think I’m more hooked on the treasure hunt than Ryan is!

Try out this book. And if I find more I’ll let you know again

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Ryan loves watching Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, the show about a little Chinese girl named Kai-Lan and her grandpa and friends. Actually I encourage him to watch it too because the show teaches children some basic Mandarin words one episode at a time. The songs are pretty catchy and fun too and he’s shown quite a bit of interest in learning them and even wants to find Ni Hao, Kai-Lan books to read.

Unfortunately, the show only starts at 10.30am on weekdays on Nickelodeon. It’s a bit too late for him to catch as we have to send him to the babysitter’s place so that we can get on with work. At the babysitter’s place, there’s no Nickelodeon channel for him so he tends to miss this show.

The only solution I thought of is to get him some Ni Hao, Kai-Lan DVDs so that he can watch them anytime he wants. The challenge is that I don’t see this show being sold at shops that offer lots of other children’s educational cartoons.

Anyone knows where to get this show on VCD or DVD in Malaysia? In a desperate attempt, I decided to buy from Amazon.com but upon check out I was informed that those particular items I ordered cannot be sent to Malaysia. How disappointing. So I don’t know where else to find it.

Hopefully someone knows and can share with me here…please leave me your comments here if you have the info. Much, much appreciate Love and thanks from Ryan and us.

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I spent the entire day away today, only coming home just after 5pm to spend the evening with Ryan. Though I feel some guilt sometimes for being away on weekends, but I know that taking this weekend away to learn something new and valuable is worth the sacrifice.

I attended a workshop that continues for another full day tomorrow. In this workshop, I learned about how we use the brain to our advantage. Although this workshop is for my work purpose, I found that it can be so easily applied to raising children too. And children will definitely have much to gain being trained from young to use their brain power to develop them into having a mindset that’s empowering.

So I’m going to implement it right away and make full use of it with Ryan. See, it really was a weekend well spent for the long term gains I get out of it.

I have to go to bed soon as we start again early tomorrow morning with the next session of the training. Don’t want to miss the start of it as we’re doing some interesting experiments first thing we get there. I’m quite tired out from the whole day sitting there and learning, so I think I’ll pamper myself with a sleeping mask tonight to relax. But before that, I need to get started on my new acne treatments tonight too. Don’t know why I’m breaking out slightly around my nose and inner cheek area.

Looking forward to yet another great day of learning tomorrow, not to mention practicing it too!

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