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Parents
are generally concerned about placing their children in childcare
centres. Here are some questions and answers, which may be areas
of concern for you, such as nutrition and meals, staffing, programmes,
emergency procedures, safety and child management.
WILL
MY CHILD BE GIVEN ADEQUATE AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD?
Childcare
centres must follow the nutritional guidelines set by the Ministry
of Health. This is to ensure that your child has a balanced diet
and sufficient nutritional intake. Centres will display the four
menus on their notice boards for your information.
Your
child will eat his meals in a group. Watching other children feed
themselves will encourage your child to do the same. Our staff will
assist children who need special or personal attention but generally
we encourage independence. Your child may request extra servings
at mealtimes and we will accommodate that.
ARE THE STAFF TRAINED?
All
childcare staff are required to be trained in early childhood care
and education. The extent of training they undergo will depend on
their level of responsibilities. Our centres also provide regular
supplementary training to enhance the quality of care. No child
will be left alone without adult supervision at any time. Each centre
will comply with the staff: child ratios prescribed by the Ministry
of Community Development and Sports.
These
are:
Age
Group Ratio
Above 18 months - 30 months 1 teacher to 8 children
Above 30 months - 3 years 1 teacher to 12 children
Above 3 years - 4 years 1 teacher to 15 children
Above 4 years to below 7 years 1 teacher to 25 children
HOW CAN THE CENTRE HELP MY CHILD TO LEARN?
Young
children learn through play, which allows them to discover their
world, discover how things work, develop skills in problem solving,
rehearse adult roles, rehearse adult roles, and acquire interactive
and social capabilities.
Child
under the age of six are usually too young for formal lessons and
homework. There is no need for homework as there are ample opportunities
provided by the childcare centre for a child to learn at his or
her own pace. Children are intrinsically curious about their world
and as such have a desire to learn and will do so if they are not
forced or pressurised. Each child grows and learns at his or her
own pace and forced learning on very young children can do more
harm than good.
Our
childcare centres have a variety of toys, puzzles, art, educational
materials and other resources to promote exploration and discovery.
These also allow children to develop an understanding of the world
around them. Children can discover that books can be a source of
pleasure and information by having adults at the centre and their
parents read stories to them. They will eventually begin reading
on their own and respond comfortably to instruction.
DO CHILDCARE CENTRES PREPARE MY CHILD FOR SCHOOL
THE WAY KINDERGARTEN AND NURSERY DOES?
Our
childcare centres provide age-appropriate activities for the development
of children. For older children, more structured programmes are
incorporated into their daily activities as part of their preparation
for their entry into primary school. We have bilingual programmes
and our curriculum is geared towards the total development of the
child.
WHAT HAPPENS IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY?
When
your child is registered, the child care centre is required to receive
specific instructions from you as to who we should contact in case
of any emergency or if your child falls ill. The centres are required
to have, at any time, at least one staff who is trained in first
aid to deal with emergencies.
If
a child is sick and but does not require immediate medical attention,
the centre will contact you to bring the child home. If urgent medical
attention is required, it is the practice of our centres to send
the child to the nearest medical facility and to inform parents
immediately.
IS THE ENVIRONMENT SAFE FOR MY CHILD?
Childcare
centres are required to comply with the guidelines for safety by
the Ministry of Community Development and Sports. The Ministry's
officials make periodic checks to ensure that our centres are safe
for your child. However, we encourage parents to give us feedback
on any concerns that they may have with the centre's supervisor.
HOW DO TEACHERS DISCIPLINE MY CHILD?
Our
centres subscribe to the approach that children learn far more effectively
through rewards than punishment. Encouraging desirable behaviours
and showing less attention toward undesirable behaviour is often
the fastest and most effective way to teach a child appropriate
behaviours. Corporal punishment is not permitted in any of our child
care centres.
Punishment should never be an avenue a teacher should take, as it
will only result in humiliation for the child. Rather, the preferred
choice is discipline. Discipline does not equate punishment. Discipline
is helping the child to learn skills of self-regulation.
However,
If you have a specific concern about the discipline of your child,
talk to the teacher about it. Discipline of your child is more effective
if you and your child's teacher work as partners in working through
a concern.
WHAT IS MY ROLE AS A PARENT WHEN I PLACE MY CHILD
IN A CENTRE?
When
your child is in the childcare centre, he or she will experience
group interactions through playing and learning with other children.
As a parent, you can complement this by giving your child individual
attention at home through play, storytelling, and by showing them
love. Bear in mind that children learn best by doing things of their
desire and they want to do the things that you do. So allow them
to help with chores, such as washing, shopping and ordinary home
routines.
It
would be helpful to talk to the teacher about what your child has
been doing at home and while under your care. The centre can then
reinforce their home experiences in class. The childcare centre
should be seen as a continuation of the care and education provided
by you for your child and vice versa. This way you can be assured
that your child has rewarding experiences both at the childcare
centre and at home.
Get yourself involved, whenever possible, in the centre's activities.
Know that your child's learning can be optimised through a partnership
between you, the parents, the teachers in the centre and of course,
your child.
What are some of the teaching methods adopted
by teachers at the CCDC?
We
use a range of principles and methods by a variety of theorists
in designing our curriculum. For example, we adopt Piaget's theory
of stages that children go through in cognitive and social skills
as they mature, Parten's belief of the four stages of different
play skills that children master, Vygotsky and later Brunner's theories
of learning and scaffolding, Chomky's theory of children's acquisition
of speech, and Bronfrenbraneur's ecological system that basically
teaches that each child's learning is affected by his or her environment,
directly and indirectly.
As
Hillary Clinton said in using a traditional African proverb, "It
takes a village to raise a child", so too we use a wide variety
of theorists that influence our curriculum.
Our
approaches in carrying out the curriculum is very hands on and it
is also designed around themes. Children at a very young age need
concrete experiences that will give meaning and understanding to
their learning. They need to feel, to touch, to smell, to see, and
finally to explore.
Our
thematic approach is fundamentally designing our curriculum around
a particular theme for a duration of time. For example, young children
are very much at an egoistic stage, they have to learn about themselves
(intrapersonal skills) before they can learn and understand the
world around them (interpersonal skills). So our themes would include
topics like myself, my body, my toys, my hobbies, my family, etc.
What are some of the activities that the youngest
age group of children do and how do this encourage learning and
participating in them?
The
framework and content developed for the younger children seek to
guide teachers in meeting the needs of toddlers in every aspect
of their experiences in CCDC. It is therefore not just the activities
but also the specially designed environment, the quality of teacher-child
interaction through the day, the knowledge the teacher has of the
children, the pace and the way in which routines are carried out,
that make the whole curriculum.
They are also taught skills to enable them to be independent. These
activities help children learn self-help skills (eg, eating on their
own, tying their shoelaces), social skills (eg, making friends)
and language skills (English and Mandarin).
How
do you get young children to pay attention and to like learning?
CCDC's teachers are dedicated and trained in the profession of early
childhood education. They are also warm and caring. In addition,
all our activities are aimed at allowing children to develop creative
thinking while having fun when learning. Our activities are challenging
and interesting, which captivate the children's attention and appeal
to their natural curiosity.
What do teachers do if the child's attention wanders
or he/she refuses to sit still?
Teachers
can engage in simple methods like bringing the child's attention
back to the task at hand, through asking him/her, "Are you
ready?" or call on him/her to do something that would be of
interest. The teacher may sometimes have to speak to the children
in a firm but kind voice if they refuse to sit still. That is, the
teacher tells the child that at that point in time, his option is
only to be attentive to what the teacher is saying or teaching.
Of course, children's ability to be attentive is also in many ways
attributed to the skills of the teacher, such as, is the lesson
interesting enough to sustain the attention of the children, is
the activity age-appropriate, or does it appeal to the child's natural
curiosity.
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