How does kid adapt to local Kindergarten ?

Further to ;y previous thread, we've visited local kindergartens yesterday in Western District.


We have a very good feeling about one of them, but it is full day only.

Am a bit worried this might be a lot to start with for our duaghter, especially as teaching medium is Cantonese. We are both French native speaker and we have a Philippino helper so only French and English are spoken at home.


So I would appreciate some feedback/opinions iro the following:

- how is it and how long does it take for a child to feel comfortable in a Cantonese school when the family is not Cantonese-speaking. Can a child really pick-up Cantonese this way ?

- is full day a reasonable option at 2 years and 9 monnths.


I would really appreciate if you could share your experience iro the above questions with me.


Thanks

Is there any 'non chinese' family who has sent out their children to local kindergarten ?

Or is there anyone on the forum who has a teacher has experienced 'non chinese' kid in a local kindergarten ?

Is it a bad idea to do that ?

I know of a mixed couple (father Australian and mother British chinese) who sent their children to a local kindy. Mother spoke chinese but was working full time and the language at home was mainly English.

As far as I know, both children adapted very well and are able to speak fairly fluent cantonese. I think the children are now teaching their dad how to speak cantonese :)

For Primary school, the eldest child is now attending one of the ESF and there doesn't seem to be any problems with the language transition from cantonese to English.

Because very young children absorb languages and information so much easier than us adults, they now have a very firm grasp of cantonese and it will always be with them and hopefully they will never forget it.

However, this education route taken by my friends was always what they had intended for their children so it wasn't taken lightly. They had anticipated facing problems such as the children not being happy because they didn't understand what was being said, but the school was very good and taught them at a slower pace and the children just took it in their stride and literally absorbed the language.

I think it's a great opportunity for your children to learn cantonese whilst they are in HK but at the end of the day, it really does depends on how you feel and what you want for your children.


Also, Yes I do feel that 2yrs 9mths is too young for all day schooling. Actually I find it quite unusual as most local kindies I know only have half days for children that young and only suggest full days when they are slightly older or know they can manage it. Poor thing will be so exhausted!

Hi, I teach in a local kindy but in the international two year old class, it is split into two international and chinese.

I think you will find that in the local system from my experience your child may not be doing well at school, may be crying all day, may be terrified and the teachers will all tell you adamently that she is fine and everything is okay. This is my experience of watching how the Chinese staff interact with parents. Here the idea is that children "fit in" and once they fit in and are being"good" ie. not crying or running around then they will do fine. However I see this process of getting a child to that place as extremely harsh and unloving not takinginto account the individual child and their personal temperament. Half of my class is whole day, and the Chinese staff don't want me to discuss their children with the parents because they know I would tell the truth. I had to go against this yesterday with a beautiful sensitive two year old boy whose behaviour had gone so far back since starting whole day school and who had turn from a confident boy into a terrified mess and tell the parents to pull him out immediatly because he cannot deal with so much stimulation and stress at this age. He is a special case but so are a lot of children and they are not cared for in this rigid system. The teachers do their best but I just think unless you have to because of huge work committments, can't you wait one more year to put your child in whole day school??? It is only a year out of your life and three or four is a much healthier age to be out of home for so many hours a day.

I also have to say children in whole day get sick more often because they don't get enough sleep at school and because they are in such close quarters with other sick children for such long periods.

In saying all this I am a morning teacher and adore teaching my class, I just wish parents could really see how much their children are hurting some days because I think they would want to know.

I have a 2 year old who stays home with his little brother and our helper and goes to the playground in the mornings while I go to work. He loves it and is very happy. We will probably do some afternoon classes next year for him as they are less crowded than morning sessions. I have 26 two year olds, and the Chinese class has 36!! It is a good school with a good reputation the teachers do what they can, but unfortunately it is a business first and school second. You need to be allowed to observe the teacher and the classroom before you make your decision because sooooo much depends ont he teacher.

Look into other options there are a lot of options out there if you look hard enough.

My thoughts as a teacher who loves loves loves kids and who does everything I can to make school fun and less stress for the little ones I have.

Hey I think I'd like you to teach my kid! mind if I ask what school you're teaching at? Sadly seems harder and harder to find teachers who teach because they love kids! you can email me at mixeymum@yahoo.com.au thanks heaps

We have some appointments with other local schools who offer half day at the end of the month. I think I would be a bit more comfortable with this schedule.

On the other hand this full-day school we visited is barely a 'school' for N1, I mean they have BF on arrival, playing, lesson, lunch time, story time, nap time, playing and tea break. For me it looks more like a 'creche' program than a school program.

My husband also keeps reminding me that if we were in France my daughter would have been in full daycare from the age of 4 months... Here we are lucky that so far she's been at home with our helper and her baby brother. But I am worried that she will get bored next year if she's staying at home. If I were not working it would be different I could spend some time doing some home schooling...

We'll see the other schools, I prefer the idea of half-day anyway...


We are looking into local kindergartens because some have very reasonable fees, whereas all the international kindergartens are really expensive iro school fees, not mentioning 'crazy' things like debentures etc... We cannot afford to pay so much for kindergarten, I'd rather save money for primary school since I definitely want her to join an international school for Primary.

SuzieW,

We also speak french and english at home and we would like our 2-yrs old daughter to pick up cantonese. Our son is nearly 8, goes to FIS and it's already difficult to make him learn cantonese. Luckily, he's doing mandarin at school.

May I ask you which local schools you have been looking at? Would you mind telling me which are the ones you would recommend? We visited Lingnan last week and are giving it a serious thought. Our concern is the long commute though - we live in Pok Fu Lam.

You can find a list of all kindergarten recognised by the HK gvt on the website www.emb.gov.hk.

We only visited schools in our neighbourhood like St Stephen's Church Kindergarten, YAN CHAI HOSPITAL KWOK CHI LEUNG KG, HKSPC THOMAS TAM NURSERY SCHOOL. And have made the decision to enroll our daughter at Yan Chai Hospital school, although our favourite one was Thomas Tan, but they only do full day and that was to much for a 1st year at school. Maybe the year after will be better.


There are some kindergartens in the Belchers area.

Have heard good things about the Lingnan school as well.

We speak english and cantonese at home we live in shanghai and we sent our 2 girls to school with the class pretty much being in mandarin but also english too. They both did full time from the start and they enjoyed it. They both cried the first day then after that realized how fun it as at school even if teachers and students only spoke chinese.



I am also a Kindergarten Teacher *teaches english* so i can say from having english and or french speaking children in the class at first they watch and listen and they know they dont speak that language but they adapt and within weeks child can speak some chinese. Children adapt pretty well as long We Parents dont make it difficult for them by pressuring them to speak the language or by over protecting them from the language or enviroment.



Which ever you choose whether half day or full day still benefits your child. Full day gives them more time to play and learn with the children where as morning usually is lesson time, eating and some play. Go to the school and watch through a whole lesson and see how the teacher teaches. If you feel comfortable with how that teacher teaches and the students in the class then im sure your child will also. There is nothing wrong with local schools. The child also gets to learn new things culturally which can later benefit that child.



Good luck!!!!

Thanks Verellene for your 'insider' feedback.

We are very happy for her to be in a Cantonese speaking environment and quite confident that being a very young child she will adapt anyway.

I'll let you know how it goes in a few months !

Hi SuzieW,


Sounds great! Let me know how she reacted to the cantonese and chinese children. Usually at first they might be a bit shy but over time "a month" they play and interact with the children just fine.


Good luck hun! :)

Hi, my 2.5 year old goes to a local school half a day from Mon-Friday.


I speak English to her at home and my local HK hubby + his family speak to her in Canto.


Before my little girl started school, she spoke mainly English. Hubby was only home 3 nights per week and she only saw her Cantonese speaking grandparents for an hour each day. She was exposed to lots of English from myself and my helper.


When she started at a local school, she made a 180 degrees change. She's now speaking Cantonese in complete sentences and teaching me words. In fact, she's more fluent in Cantonese than she is in English. Apparently she's even tried speaking in Cantonese to her English teacher. She's doing extremely well. Sometimes if she doesn't know something, she'd ask me, "Mummy says "bicyle", what does Pappa say?" and her dad would reply, "Tan che". And when we ask her, mummy says "flowers", what does Pappa say? And she'll reply "fa". She speaks so naturally in Chinese now, it is great!!! Every comment she makes now is in Chinese but when she talks to me, she adds in more English.


Kids pick up languages really well.


I understand that there could be issues where English speaking kids could be seen as "different" by the local kids and may feel left out. I hope that when that happens, I could explain to her and help her adapt.

My daughter has some chinese friends but who can also speak English, and by letting her learn Cantonese, I hope it will help her to integrate. I mean once she will speak the local language, I don't think she will be considered as 'different' by the local kids anymore. When we go to the playground I always see that some local kids who don't speak English want to play with her as well, probably because at first they are curious.