Valerie is Enrolled to Superfun!

OK, I'm simply estatic. In fact for the last 2 weeks I was thinking if I should send Valerie to afternoon class instead. And somehow my nanny is so pro-Superfun that I don't know why. She said her neighbours kids attended the kindy and it's really good. Plus it's only 5 mins away from her home. When I said there's no more spot, she asked me to call the supervisor or principal to fight for a spot.

I'm like.. huh.. do I really need to do that? It's just preschool, not even going into primary school yet. I know we need to 'fight' for a spot in Chinese school later, but not now. Anyway I resorted to leaving this entirely to God and prayed, if she's meant to go to Superfun, He would make a way. Else, Valerie would start at 5yo. Ivan agreed too.

About 2 weeks later after our visit to Superfun, I received a call from the kindy. The lady told me there is a spot available for Valerie and ask if I'm still interested! I was sooooooo excited, and said 'YES!'. That afternoon itself I went to register and made the payment!

Later I asked her is it because the kindy is opening a new class for 4yo. She said 'No' and told me one of the parents are shifting away so there's a spot available. But I said, I'm not the first in the list. She said she contacted those parents and they have registered their kids in other kindies. So I'm the next in line. In fact, she showed me the long waiting list and said one parent even attempted to jump queue to get my 'seat'.

I was kinda pleased. As we were walking out to get our car, Ivan was telling me he couldn't believe his 'baby' is going to school already and asked if we made the right decision. But deep down, I couldn't help but to think this is part of God's plan. He really did make a way so I guess this should be the right decision. Even if I doubt myself now, I couldn't doubt God.

So... our next challenge is... how to get Valerie to wake up on time for school?

Happy 3rd Birthday

We were thinking of whether to eat out or continue to have a family birthday party for Valerie's 3rd birthday. Since there were mommy's side and daddy's side to consider and which side would be celebrating with her on the actual day, we decided to throw another family party instead. No need to fight for which side getting to celebrate with her on actual day :P

We went around looking for a 'cute' birthday cake.
Turned out most famous cake franchises do not offer fanciful cake. They usually have those 'cartoon print-on cakes' or 3D cakes which were not what I wanted. So in the end we walked into one of those small cake shop and it seemed they are more creative / flexible with their cakes. We had to compromise on the flavours though.

The party turned out ok, nothing fanciful. We even dropped the idea of getting balloons due to not enough time although I think this is actually the age she would appreciate having balloons. Next time, no need to get balloons for 1st or 2nd birthday, too small to appreciate. Get balloons when the kids are 3 and above :P

Valerie with Daddy's side Grandpa, Grandma, Daddy and Mommy

Valerie with Mommy's side grandpa, grandma, aunties and uncles

Valerie with Daddy's side aunties, uncles and cousins

Singing Happy Birthday song to Valerie, she standing so straight, not used to be the centre of attraction

Blow candles time!

Open pressies time. This year, she's better at opening presents

Toys.. toys and more toys...

Her favourite of the night - A Doll House. The minute she opened this one, she was engrossed with the figurines and furnitures. Barely saying bye bye to all the guests leaving.

Kindy for Valerie?

With the new baby due next March, I was contemplating whether to send Valerie to preschool next year or not. Since she's a year end baby, she would only be 3 years and 2 months, while following the academic year, she should be in the 4 year old class. I thought it would be a better transition for her to start early next year, before the 2nd baby comes along, rather than to juggle with having another sibling and starting school altogether mid of next year.

While still thinking, I've decided to check out Superfun Learners near my area as recommended by my sis-in-law. When we reached, the lady at the reception was very nice and showed us around and explained their curriculum. I have to say the classrooms are filled with many colourful activities sets around which I could imagine keeping Valerie occupied. I was amazed that 4yo class even included Science and Computer labs. Gosh, I'm so outdated. This seems to be a norm nowadays. And she told me they would be teaching English and Mandarin for 4yo. Bahasa would only come in at 5yo as to avoid confusion with Englsh.

Then we were shown their homework. Another shock for mommy. They already learning how to write A,B,C at the age of 4?? And numbers too? And I had in mind, 4yo kindy was more like a playschool, just singing and dancing. One of the teacher later explained it's better to start training the kids' to do writing and colouring, so as to strengthen their fingers. In fact, a lot of their activities set are also to train the kids to have good control of their hands.

After showing us around, she told us the morning class was already full and only afternoon classes are available. I was a bit dumbfounded. I've never known even for a 4 yo kindy, you need to be fast to register, like somewhere in August? And I thought there would be plenty of seats left and was still thinking want to send her to kindy or not. Nevertheless, I put Valerie on waiting list (3rd one from the list) and went home.

Some of my friends told me to check out other alternative like MRC or Q-Dees or Montessori. But I don't know why, I seem to have my mind fixed on Fungates. Simply because my nephew who attended the same kindy told me 'Go to Superfun, it's a really really fun place you know.. '. Well, what could be more convincing than to have a kid himself telling you he really enjoyed his kindy? I just wanted a place for Valerie to take learning as something fun, just like how I've adopted Heguru methods.

I've also met another colleague at the Superfun Open Day and he strongly believes in this system. He told me he sent his first 2 kids to Fungates at Brickfields and it's all about fun learning. He did switch his daughter halfway to another system but later found it was too academic based and too much homework. In fact, parents were scolded for not helping the kids to finish the homework. Then he switched back to Fungates. So I guess this looks like the most 'fun' learning system around.

So, we'll wait.. and hopefully, there may be a spot for her.