Saturday, December 24, 2011
Should Fathers Be Involved In His Child's Schooling?
The answer is a big YES. Responsibility of children is always placed on a mother's shoulders which is quite understandable because children spend most of their times with moms than dads. This might be wrong in the West or America as mostly there,both parents work if not full-time, part-time.
Though mothers play a major role in a child's upbringing, fathers should be encouraged to be involved in the child's every matter and the matter I would highlight here is Education.
Mostly fathers tend to relax on a lot of matters related to their children as they are confident that they are being taken care of by mothers. True. But not always right. I think fathers should be equally involved special regarding schooling.
Children whose fathers are very much involved in their education have a successful outcomes as compared to children who are not getting the same attention.
Reasons as to why fathers should start taking interest in their kids' education :
1. Makes the father-child bond stronger.
2. Complete the shortcomings of the partner(wife) incase there are any. Mothers are humans and sometimes tend to neglect things unintentionally which can later be corrected by father.
3. Father will have awareness of what the child is learning from school and can always make it a point if he finds anything he doesn't like rather than blaming the wife at the end if the day for not telling him about what so ever.
4. Children feel very secure getting both parents' attention.
5. The child will always take his studies seriously even as a grown up as he knows that mother and father are there watching him and are having great expectations.
These are the top five of the few reasons I observed closely. Hope you would start thinking.
So ladies encourage your husbands, and guys, start opening your kid's books now and teach them something. :)
P.S I would like to thank McGee's for the photo I used. Just love it!
Bee Zee Montessori
There was a Pre-school sometime back named Bambini Montessori which was organized by two AMI trained Directresses on a partnership basis. Later on they split up. Bambini remained and the other one is now called Bee Zee Montessori.
My experience with Bee Zee has been very good. I won't waste too much time giving unnecessary details. To make it short , they follow the Montessori system and is a preparation center too. They have a number of successful students who cleared for the renowned school in the city.
When you get your child admitted in any school, the excitement at that time includes the change in routine when you would be teaching your child at home and monitoring his/her homework. But it's not the case here. The parents are strictly told not to teach the child anything at home since he/she will be confused which in my opinion is very true. Not unless you are sure that you are teaching the right thing,that is , it is what is being taught at school, then only you can help your child for homework. But since they don't give homework to avoid confusions, parents can relax now. So if you get your child enrolled in Bee Zee you will have to follow this rule.
From time to time they will send you an assessment sheet of your child's performance report. There's no hurry to make your child write since they will do that when they are ready.
Let's Connect on Facebook to share questions and answers.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Questions to be asked when choosing a Pre-School
If you are a parent of very young kids, you will find this question popping up your mind every time you think of sending your little one to school.
So based upon my experience as someone from school and as a mother of two kids who will be going to school soon, I thought of sharing this very important information.
What are the questions you should ask when picking a Pre-School for your child?
1. Do teachers stick around?
As this is a very common issue in our schools, that teachers can leave whenever they can and are replaced easily, this question, for me, is the most important. What I have observed is, children who have had several teachers in a short time , find it more difficult to adjust as compared to students having only one teacher throughout the year or Pre-school as they get used to her ways and become fond of her. Well, you cannot expect the same teacher from the begin of the Pre-school till the end, so you should be happy with the fact that your child will have the same teacher at least for a year.
2. How will the day be for my child?
Ask about the time table as most Pre-schools in Karachi have time tables. You as a parent should be aware of what your child will be doing in the school. Make sure it's not just study, study and study but a bit of free play and fun time.
3. Teaching Method
It's important to know what methodology will your child's teacher be using in the class. For this age group "learn through play" is the most effective.
4. Students- Teachers ratio, total number of kids in a class and the class size.
How many students will a teacher handle. If they say there are a total of thirty students and on teacher but the class is very spacious then you should understand that this is not quite good. A good pre-school will always have a teacher and an assistant teacher for help. Then in this case, thirty shouldn't matter.
5. Teachers personality.
A teacher should be well-dressed , neat and clean and have a pleasant personality. Besides this she should be talkative. Children learn a lot when listening to adults speaking.
6. Check the school's hygiene.
Keep looking around and observe the environment's as well as the staff's cleanliness.
7. Who will take my child when she needs to go to the toilet?
Besides the teacher, it's always good to see and meet the "aya" or nanny of the school. See and judge by her face if she is happy doing her job.
8. What is the school's approach to children's discipline and safety.
9. Availability of school bus.
10. First Aid Kits.
I hope the above questions might be of help to you. If you think I missed out something, please feel free to write them down in your comment for other parents to see. :)
Good Luck!