Separate the sheep from the goats

..I'm not referring to the sheeps or the goats that are being sacrificed for the Qurban season. Although we are expected in Tangkak over my birthday weekend for the Qurban feast. I'm excited because Arissa will have her first taste of village life and being so hooked on the Upin & Ipin series, I'm sure she will enjoy it.

www.upindanipin.com.my

Just have to bring lots of clean clothes for she will get dirty and muddy running around chasing chickens.

But I digress. What I am referring to is separating the good childcare centres from the bad ones. You know, the bad ones are those where the teachers smack the kids around or smear their faces with chilli to get them to behave. Grrr...

Being a Nov baby, I forget that soon after turning 2, Arissa will be regarded as a 3 year old in 2009. Time to take the huge leap- for Mummy and Daddy that is- into school life. I'm still uncertain I will be able to leave her with a bunch of strangers while I head off to work but the apron strings have to be loosened at some point and Mummy just has to deal with it. After all, she is striking up conversations with kids her age at department stores or lift lobbies (gibberish aside) and loves to colour and read her story books (gibberish aside too).

So I drew up a list of criteria and right on top of my wishlist lies:


1) Location- Must be near mum's (in case of any emergencies)

2) Must be muslim centre (because I went to a Christian kindergarten as a child and accidentally ate a ham sandwich there).


So with the help of a very useful link (http://www.childcarelink.gov.sg/), I got one childcare centre that fulfils the top 2 criterions- rather sad really.

I called up the centre and the teacher on the other line sounded very professional and eloquent- pretty impressive. Fees are surprisingly fair, they have a mix of Muslim and non-Malay students hence a more secular education and I needn't worry about Arissa eating pork sandwiches- ha. Their curriculum includes art & craft, alphabet tracing and music amongst others.

I've fixed an appointment for Saturday to view the facilities and talk more to the teachers. If everything pans out, Arissa would be well on the road to lifelong learning by mid 2009. And then Mummy can start thinking seriously about Baby No 2.. *faints*