Preschool education advice

[MaryM]

Hi all,
We are arriving in early Jan and planning on living in Rangiora. We have 4 young children. I have the eldest (5 year old) pre-enrolled for Feb in a primary school but I also have a 4 year old and the next will be 3 in June.
I have recently become aware of the free preschool hours for 3 and 4 year olds in NZ. Here (in Ireland) I pay to send the 4 year old to a local Montessori for 3 hours a day and, if we were not moving, would be sending the 2 year old there when she turns 3.
My question really is - is the preschool/kindergarden a good set up for the little ones both socially and to teach them the basics of numbers, letters etc. I have been in touch with the local Kidsfirst facilities in Rangiora and my concern was the number of children per session - 45 to 3 teachers, at the moment they have 8:1 in the montessori school?
What do you think? Is this a good option or should I start looking for a private (paying) montessori for the 4 year old in preparation for school?
Any advice would be welcome as I reckon I will need to put my name down for either option well in advance.
Thanks,
Mary

[jubjub]

If you are willing to pay then you should be able to find a private kindy that has a higher ratio, if that is important to you.

My sons kindy has a ratio of 1:5, but it is privately run and will not offer the 20 free hours ECE, so we will just have to keep paying for it! or move him into the public kindy...

There are waiting lists, particularly for the kindys that offer the 20 free hours...

[dharder]

My question really is - is the preschool/kindergarden a good set up for the little ones both socially and to teach them the basics of numbers, letters etc. I have been in touch with the local Kidsfirst facilities in Rangiora and my concern was the number of children per session - 45 to 3 teachers,

Depends on what you want, and why you want it, I'd say. The ratio sounds about like we had here for kindergarten. But they didn't really teach anything, no numbers or letters. They kids had two slots of mat time, but apart from that, just roamed around and had free playtime, totally unstructured. I found the supervision somewhat lacking with the existing ratio, and if you have a very shy child, it may be difficult for them. It did seem a bit like a 'survival of the fittest' type setting, in part due to the very casual supervision.

All in all, I wasn't terribly impressed with the kindergarten here (compared to our London nursery, state school attached to primary school which was excellently run). However, my girls started school last week, and out of the 10 kids in their class, 8 of them knew each other because they went to kindy together.

From the social aspect, I think it has definitely beneficial. One little girl didn't know anyone, she'd been to a different daycare setting, and the first week must have been really hard for her.

So I guess from my personal experience, "academically", the kindergarten provided nothing, but the girls had a good time and started school with a strong social network. At their age, for me that counts for more than knowing numbers and letters.

Daniela

[marcia]

Another option if you want to get involved with your childrens education, would be Playcentre - try this link to get an idea of what Playcentre is about and see if theres one in the area you're looking at.

http://www.playcentre.org.nz/


They have low ratios, 1 to 5, but there are usually more adults around anyway becasue parents stay with children under who are under 2.5.

You will also be able to do courses and learn more about how children learn, and the stages they go through.

I hadn't heard of it before we came to New Zealand but have found it fantastic for us, as it gave me (stay at home mum) a chance to meet other mums and make new friends - (whereas if we'd gone to Kindy it would have been a quick hello at pick up and drop off to the other mums, and i wouldn't have really got to know people as well!)

Anyway good luck whatever option you decide to choose.

[Familyofmonkeys]

The ratio sounds about like we had here for kindergarten. But they didn't really teach anything, no numbers or letters. They kids had two slots of mat time, but apart from that, just roamed around and had free playtime, totally unstructured. I found the supervision somewhat lacking with the existing ratio, and if you have a very shy child, it may be difficult for them.

Same here......the 45 kids to 3 adults in the standard ration, although there are usually parent volunteers in addition to this. Kindy here doesn't 'teach' anything in the sense we were used to from UK pre-school.......they have a philisophy of learning through play and the children have access to a much wider range of activities and play equipment than we were used to from UK.

I think Daniela's comment about shy children is very valid. My daughter (now 5) is very shy and although she was happy being left at kindy because she's not clingy she didn't really thrive as she requires more adult ineraction than they were able to give her. Being very 'bookish' she would rather spend her time reading, drawing, writing stories etc but we found kindy didn't offer these kind of activities as there is the expectation that children won't be able to read until they go to school. We looked round a few different kindys and this was the same in all of them. On the other hand my older son (3 1/2) thrives at kindy....he is extremely outgoing and enjoys hands on learning experiences so kindy is exactly what he needs as a person.

Also remember that the 20 hours free doesn't mean it will be totally free. We pay a compulsory 'donation' of 50c per hour and they kindy have to raise an additional 25c per child per hour just to cover their costs....let alone buy any new stuff. We also found some of the private kindys that were offering 20 hours free would only offer it to full time children. We have 2 Kindercares very close to us ( http://www.kindercare.co.nz/ ) and they initially opted out of the 20 hours free. Once they started it, they stopped doing half days or sessions entirely to new children and they only offer 4 hours (of the 20 free hours) per day and you can no longer enroll for less than 2 full days.

[peebles16]

We live in Rangiora and our youngest attends five morning sessions at one of the Kidfirst kindys and it's certainly different from nursery in the UK. The ratio is indeed 3 teachers to 45 kids which is too few I think but they often have student teachers and parent helpers around.

There are a couple of pre-school centres that do offer 20 ECE hours but most having waiting lists. Also some ABC Learning centres again privately run and don't think they have the 20 hours. I think for Montessori your nearest option may be Christchurch but don't quote me on that....

I wouldn't say I was too impressed with the kindy set-up, as Daniela says, not a lot of structure or academic input and although there are lots of activities on offer the children are left to choose what they want to do with the exception of mat time. My son will play all day every day outside climbing/sandpits/jungle gym etc and do feel that he would really benefit from more structure and more inside time but at the minute kindy is the only option available to us. On the plus side it seems that the kindy staff are older (unlike the just past teenagers that looked after him in nursery ) and they do seem to know the children well

If you need any further details about other pre-schools etc give me a shout and I'll try to look out some details but if I were you I'd get on as many waiting lists as possible

HTH

Karenx

[Kerry and David]

I have just got my son in to the private Kindy here for two afternoons and they also have better ratios 1:7. They do offer the free hours but as others have mentioned it is not free, we just get a reduced hourly rate ( still expensive compared to the free sessions he was getting in the UK!).

I chose to do just two sessions as it is the 'older kids' sessions so hopefully he will mix and meet other kids his own age.

In addition to this I do Playcentre for two mornings (as Marcia mentioned above) which has been a great way for my son and I to meet other people in the community.

The mix of the two means that he still has his independance (he was used to doing pre-school so wanted to carry on with him going somewhere without me in preperation for school) but we also have alot of fun together at the Playcentre.

Good luck.

[thewoodies]

I have just read this with great interest , i didnt know about the kindys teacher ratio? I think the play centre sounds good . Now im worried as my three year old has already started pre school at the private school where i have been working - its great , she is also bookish and is very able to learn - i am now worried she will get bored and fall behind - looks like i will have to teach her myself? The play centre idea could tie in ? Perhaps not returning to work until they both start school will be for the best?

[JandM]

http://www.giftedchildren.org.nz/links.php

This may be of some help, depending on exactly what your child is like. I am hearing good things of the Small Poppies organization mentioned near the bottom of the page, which our grandson is attending.

[sizzlingbadger]

We love the kindy set up here, so different from the UK and based on what kids need at that age - social interaction and play - they're kids after all and learning can be done when they get to school.

Our local kindy has 45 kids to three full time teachers, 2 teacher aides, and a parent help, also special needs teachers are often around. The kids get a lot of interaction with the teachers when they need it.

All three of mine have been through kindy here and have gone on to school with no problems at all. In fact I think it's done them a lot of good in some ways, they haven't been pushed in to being told to read and write until they got to school. I'm no slack parent by any means, my daughter could hold an adult conversation at 12 months and she's in to her books and drawing which kindy helped with even more. She's now at school and doing better than ever, half a year at least above her age group. My eldest boy despite not being able to read when he started school (he's nearly 8 now) has a reading age of an 11 year old, something we never thought he was capable.

I have my youngest starting school in February and he started kindy back when he was 3. He seems to have got the most out of it and is very social, most of the kids he's friends with are going to be in the same class, think about 8 of them all start within the month

I would wait until you come over and visit the local kindy, it's pretty impossible to see how things work, I wouldn't go on ratios either as all the kids seem to get time with the teacher at some stage or other with the way activities are set out