國家地區媽媽會 今日: 0 | 主題: 20250

積分: 1760

2781^#

發表於 09-2-21 10:45 |只看該作者

zic,

good to hear from u!
hope you have a wonderful life in HK.

yeah ... i'm still a fans of BK although i don't come here as often as before.

私人傳訊

積分: 1760

2782^#

發表於 09-2-21 10:51 |只看該作者

rose-mag,

i agree with yr husband. i would also pick the 3rd one (assume that the school environment is safe and clean). as u don't drive, it's not easy to go out with two little ones by bus. at least i wouldn't do it myself.

私人傳訊

積分: 172526

2024年龍年勳章 2024勳章虎到金來勳章牛年勳章 15週年勳章親子王國15週年勳章 2018復活節勳章畀面勳章有「營」勳章好媽媽勳章醒目開學勳章環保接龍勳章大廚勳章親子達人勳章王國長老 BK Milk勳章 hashtag影視迷勳章最關心BB問題熱投勳章開心吸收勳章

2783^#

發表於 09-2-21 16:28 |只看該作者

SY_Mom,
好似你話嘅一樣，如果第三間係安全嘅，我都想揀第三間，今朝同老公相量，我叫佢打電話俾第二嘅校長，再問ｄ問題，因為昨日有d問題問漏咗. 另外打俾第三間嘅校長,睇下可唔可以今日老公去參觀吓,因為老公今日放假, 佢又未入過去睇過,點知第三間個校長未返到,老公想留電話叫佢覆番,聽電話個職員唔識聽英文,老公d台山話佢都唔識,最後要我同佢再講一次

到差不多9點,第三間嘅校長打俾我,問我有咩事,我話我老公想今日去學校睇睇,點知佢話每個family只係會俾我地去一次,我老公冇去就應該由我轉述俾佢聽,咁我話俾佢聽我老公concern safety,因為佢個front yard 果fence只係半個大人咁高，佢即刻好ｄｅｆｅｎｓｉｖｅ咁話係，佢都知好多家長好擔心，因為學校過一條街就可以上ｆｒｅｅｗａｙ，只要有一個人好快手捉走一個小朋友，放上車就好難追，又多ｄ亂揸車嘅人，好易有意外，但佢唔可以加高個ｆｅｎｃｅ，因為ａｒｏｕｎｄ個neighborhood有人反對,我唔知真定假,佢仲話放小朋友入學校最緊要家長安心,如果家長唔comfortable,最好都係搵過間啦，咁到而家開咗咁耐都冇事發生. 咁我話另外間學校好細,我想老公去睇下其實都係ok架,點知佢講"係呀,我地間學校真係細架,我地係一間neighborhood　ｓｃｈｏｏｌ，同其他ｐｒｅ－ｓｃｈｏｏｌ唔同，如果你想大嘅，可以去ｘｘｘ學校啦，我地只係收３６個學生，佢地收到成百人架”，當我想再問假期．．．佢話唔好意思，有家長嚟ｖｉｓｉｔ要收線，叫我番去自己同我老公講清楚．．．

我打俾老公，同佢講番以上對話，我老公覺得佢係佢係講大話，只係因為貴而唔加高個ｆｅｎｃｅ，而且佢嘅態度同答案都好有問題，邊有人叫人去第間讀架？我知佢唔休收唔夠學生，但好似而家佢咁講，我仲同仔仔囡囡去咪好傻，最怕日後點溝通

後來我老公同第二間個校長傾過，原來老公識佢爸爸同ｕｎｃｌｅ，仲有其他同間學校有關嘅人，個校長都話聽過有ｄ家長提過第三間學校嘅安全問題，有ｄ都係因為咁而唔去，其他問題佢個答案都係ｏｋ嘅

我唔知係唔係我地太緊張，又或者我講錯嘢，唔應該話人地間學校細同唔安全，但我真係要知道仔仔同囡囡去返學係安全嘅，而家咁睇，我地會今年俾仔仔去第二間學校，出年再俾囡囡入讀，到時叫我細佬或者媽咪幫手湊返學，放學我同老公一齊去，另外，我會快ｄ考車牌，起碼如果天氣唔好都唔駛怕仔仔囡囡太辛苦，唉！出年又要搵ｋｉｎｄｅｒｇａｒｔｅｎ，之後又小學，我估我地都好難買屋，而家ｄ屋價跌我地都唔敢買，因為兩個學費加月供真係唔見大部份收入啦．

花旗太太生活在花旗國，留意時差，你問我未必即時答到。

私人傳訊

積分: 7794

2784^#

發表於 09-2-21 21:58 |只看該作者

rose-mag
so, you had made your decision la..
as you don't like Number 3 school. sure be a bad one for you.

原帖由 rose-mag 於 09-2-21 03:28 AM 發表
SY_Mom,
好似你話嘅一樣，如果第三間係安全嘅，我都想揀第三間，今朝同老公相量，我叫佢打電話俾第二嘅校長，再問ｄ問題，因為昨日有d問題問漏咗. 另外打俾第三間嘅校長,睇下可唔可以今日老公去參觀吓,因為老公今日放假, 佢又未入 ...

私人傳訊

積分: 172526

2785^#

發表於 09-2-22 04:50 |只看該作者

原帖由 Nillie_Mami 於 09-2-21 21:58 發表
rose-mag
so, you had made your decision la..
as you don't like Number 3 school. sure be a bad one for you.

Nillie,
Sort of. I like the 3rd one and it's close by, easy for us to handle. However, safety comes first. We had dropped by the school one more time today (of course, the school was not opened) and my husband actually went down and looked at fence which is only up to his hip. Anyone can just give a treat to the kid and attract him to come over, then he can grab the kid and go easy.

Moreover, just like what you say, if we don't like it, it's definitely is not the one for us. I worry about how my husband can communicate with the staff there if the one who always answer the phone cannot speak English. And, I know that my hubby would like to contribute to the school activities and to know the progress of the kids' development. With the 3rd one, I'm not sure he can do that, especially he's a very straight-minded person and he does not fear of confronting with anybody. I don't want to end up pulling our kids out from the program because of difference of views. We're positive that Spencer would be happy in the 2nd school, just need to work a bit more on discipline.

花旗太太生活在花旗國，留意時差，你問我未必即時答到。

私人傳訊

積分: 7794

2786^#

發表於 09-2-22 22:22 |只看該作者

Good on you... in this case, go for it.. because you and your husband feel comfortable with School # 2.

we are facing the same problem here as well..
the past whole week.. it is the holiday for the public school. so Amanda had a week off.. she went back to the day care where she was, (and where Gabriel is in now)..
Kids can sleep at least 1.5 hours more in the morning, and went home at least 1.5 hours earlier. For the gas.. I used to spend 1 1/5 tank of gas per week.. but after this whole week.. my gas tank still have 3/5 left.. as I did not need to send Amanda all the way to Manhattan, then drive back to brooklyn and work.
this coming Sept, Dept of edu will offer Amanda the gift program in staten island, however, it is just a program from the regular school. that's mean, she is in a regular class with extra help.
I hate the concept here that.. 1 teacher teachs all subjects, I bet not many of thoes teacher can do a good work. 佢哋只會張張刀, 冇張利 plus about 30-45 students in 1 class (compare with Nest+M--which is 21 students :1 class teacher and assistant teacher+ all different subject teachers), therefore, kids have so much homework after school in regular school. and here in the gifted school which Amanda is studying, every subject with a separate teacher. Math teacher teachs math, chess teacher teachs chess, spanish teacher teachs spanish. And Amanda loves it that way very much.
應該為"可以瞓多的同慳油", 還是"為Amanda嘅前途/happy childhood"著想?

原帖由 rose-mag 於 09-2-21 03:50 PM 發表

Nillie,
Sort of. I like the 3rd one and it's close by, easy for us to handle. However, safety comes first. We had dropped by the school one more time today (of course, the school was not opened) ...

私人傳訊

積分: 172526

2787^#

發表於 09-2-24 02:02 |只看該作者

Nillie,
應該為"可以瞓多的同慳油", 還是"為Amanda嘅前途/happy childhood"著想?
Yes, this question also bothers me too. Even though we have made up our mind, I still always can't help to have 2nd thoughts and wonder if it's the better choice for Spencer. Every school has its pros and cons and I am also sometimes feel puzzled on what should be more important. Safety, of course, comes first. Should the next one be his happinese/liberty? Or, discipline/ academic performance?

The 3rd one offers little space indoor and all the curriculums are teacher-led, 12 per class with a teacher and a shared edu aide for all 3 classes. Surely, Spencer can learn to behave and the principal seems to be proud of her students being so bright and good in English. My hubby met her in our fd's son's graduation party before and this principal appeared to be so self-confident and she only agreed on what she believed. I did not have very good impression on her at that time but she seemed to be nice when I visited her school. But, she's a bit sour when I talked to her on the phone and it turned out that we are not the only one who concern about the low fence around the front yard playground.

The 2nd one is definitely a happy place for Spencer to go. But, we concern about the learning trigger and the question of discipline. I don't know if Spencer is good to go to a school which is play-based.

Honestly speaking, the 1st one may be fit in between, highly secured, half play half teacher-led. However, Spencer needs to be 100% potty-trained including clean himself up which I'm not sure now. Also, the population of this school is Chinese in majority with 70% of them come from low income and new immigrant family. I don't mean to be discriminating but my friend who has put her kids there before told me a lot of stories about the kids' hygience problems and parents' low class attitude.

My hubby and me believe that we send kids to school to learn knowledge and socialize skills but we cannot rely on the school to teach our kids.

Go back to your question - I would sacrifice my sleeping time and gas bill to give my son and daughter a happy and rewarding learning experience. Your case, if Amanda likes it and you believe that it's the best way for her to learn, I would say just keep Amanda in the school in Manhattan. We, as parents, always think of our sweethearts first, right?

[ 本帖最後由 rose-mag 於 09-2-24 02:07 編輯 ]

花旗太太生活在花旗國，留意時差，你問我未必即時答到。

私人傳訊

積分: 1760

2788^#

發表於 09-2-25 01:42 |只看該作者

nillie,

i totally understood your concerns.

for myself, i'd set the commuting limit up to 30 mins driving time each way to/from school. even now it usually takes about 20 mins (about 16 miles each), sometimes i felt it's too far when i was tired that day.

now we'd applied another school for our son next year. the school is almost 40 miles away from home and takes about 45 mins to 1 hr commuting each way. now we still don't know if he'll get in or not. looks like the chance is not very high - they only take 2 more boys and 2 more girls for 1st grade next year. obviously there are more boys applied (maybe becoz more boys were borned in 2003 in our area) and they all passed the IQ test and are gifted. if he's lucky to get in, we'll either give up the opportunity or move closer to the school to shorten the commute time up to 30 mins. however, we have to be completely trust and feel comfortable with the school; otherwise, we might need to move again.

so, if i were u, i would try to move closer to the school or look for a workplace where to closer to the school. i know it's expensive to live in Manhattan, but u don't have to live in that area and u could just move closer to the area to shorten the commuting time.
frankly, i would spend the 3-hr commuting time to have more quality time doing other things instead.

btw, in bay area here, there are some public and private schools where they also have special subject teachers for art, music, PE and even for math, science, language arts (english), foreign language. and in after school clubs, it's common to have chess, karate, etc. for public schools, usually it's suggested to donate a few hundreds to a few thousand dollars per student per year.
if you like the concept of having special subject teachers, u can also try to look for those kind of schools in your area.

私人傳訊

積分: 1760

2789^#

發表於 09-2-25 02:10 |只看該作者

rose-mag,

i also understood your concerns, becoz those were also my concerns when picking a preschool for my son when he was younger.

i had also been to some schools where they had lower fence or with gate unlocked. that's true for some pricey schools too (some with security guards and some without). but when i thought it this way - the little kids are always supervised with adults at school, so it shouldn't be a problem. so ended up that the preschool that our son went to for the past 2 years has an unlocked gate. we picked that school mainly becoz it's closer to where we live. that school was not prefect but was ok.

now i always told my friends when picking a preschool. if they plan to send their kids to public elementary school later, they should send them to the developmental preschool where they can play more and learn about social skills. however, if they consider sending them to the pricey and picky private academic elementary school later, they should send them to the more academic and disciplined preschools starting from 3 or 4 yrs old. those pricey private elementary schools look at both academic and behavior of the kids as well as the family background.

btw, back to yr school #1, i think i know what kind of school you're talking about although i don't know exactly which school it is. i have an older friend at church that is a public preschool teacher in oakland for 28 yrs. she is fully credentialed and has a master degree in education. once i asked if she's interested to be the principal at my son's preschool. she said even the salary of a principal at an independent preschool is much lower than her current salary. however, as it's a government subisized program, most of the kids are from low-income families. i always joked with her that it's so unfair that the kids at their preschool paid nothing or much lower tution than we did but the preschool quality was much better than ours. if we could pay for a higher tuition and they let our son got in, we probably would assume that it's not too far from our home.

well ... even some kids from the rich families also have discipline or hygiene problems. most of my son's classmates live in the areas where the average house price is at least $2-3m (but not us). however, some of them still have discipline issues or even hygiene problem becoz their nannies are not doing a good job taking care of them.

sometimes u really don't know if a school is a perfect school for yr kid until s/he has been in the school for at least a few months.

[ 本帖最後由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-25 02:16 編輯 ]

私人傳訊

積分: 172526

2790^#

發表於 09-2-25 03:10 |只看該作者

SY_Mom,

45min-1 hr driving is quite a long way. It means total 1.5-2 hours on commuting everyday, right? Since I live in SF City, taking a bus is quite convenient here. People living and working in the city won't drive to work usually because of difficulty in finding parking. So, I find that 30-40 minutes commuting time to take Spencer to school is not too bad, just that the fact that we need to take 2 buses and it would be a bit hard on raining days or winter.

I agree that if you find a good school which is far away from home, you should consider moving close to the school. We are still doing calculation on our money and see if we can afford to send our kids to school and to buy a house at the same time. The market is good for buyer very soon and if we miss this chance, I'm not sure if we would buy a house later. But, there're just too many things in our minds.

花旗太太生活在花旗國，留意時差，你問我未必即時答到。

私人傳訊

積分: 172526

2791^#

發表於 09-2-25 03:27 |只看該作者

原帖由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-25 02:10 發表
rose-mag,
i also understood your concerns, becoz those were also my concerns when picking a preschool for my son when he was younger.
i had also been to some schools where they had lower fence or wi ...

SY_Mom,

I agree that we cannot find the perfect school. But, the low fence and the small playground plus the location of the school nearby the freeway really bother my husband. We have visited 5 preschools and the #3 is the only one with a unlocked low fence. We really concern about the safety of our kids although our neighborhood is sort of peaceful and safe. You'll never know how much the risk we are taking and it only needs 1 incident that end up to be totally messed up. With the current economic situation, there's increase of crime in here. Even the best neighborhood cannot guarantee anything, there's a serial robbery in St. Francis Wood before CNY and it's the first time that happened in such as good neighborhood.

True, being rich or poor would not equal to good at hygience and discipline. I know that the teachers in school #1 is very good (some of them work there for 14 years, 20 years) but it's far away from my home as compared to school #2.

花旗太太生活在花旗國，留意時差，你問我未必即時答到。

私人傳訊

積分: 1760

2792^#

發表於 09-2-25 05:07 |只看該作者

rose-mag,

yes, 45 mins to 1 hr driving from our current home. when i applied for that school, my husband said no way and it's crazy. he asked why i didn't apply for any schools out of state, coz we'll need to move and he'll need to commute far to work anyway. however, that's the school that his customer strongly recommends. she said it's extremely hard to get in (esp. for 1st grade in our case) and that we should kiss the ground if our son is luckily enough to get in. so now it seems like my husband might not totally turning down if we're lucky enough to get a spot there. meanwhile, i'm looking at other options. worse case is that we just let him stay at his current school and keep having the heavy homework daily.

well ... actually i heard a lot of good comments about the preschool section of my son's current school. however, we think the elementary school might not be a good fit for him.
they just opened up a brand new campus in S.F. last fall. if u're interested, i can "pm" u the info. three of my friends' kids currently go to preschool at different campues and they're all happy there.

btw, i totally understood the parking issue in the city. when i worked in downtown SF, i took the bus to work and i only drove during the weekends.
it would be great if u can find a job which is not in downtown so the employer might offer parkings for the employees.

[ 本帖最後由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-25 05:18 編輯 ]

私人傳訊

bunnymonkey

別墅

積分: 781

2793^#

發表於 09-2-25 14:17 |只看該作者

Talking about pre-school. I went for a preschool school tour yesterday and register today because they only have few space left for the 3 yo class this Fall. The class room of this school is not very big and also with unlocked gate as well. But it's a Christian school. The teachers that I talked to are nice. One major reason I pick this school is because of its location. Also, it's a Christian school (I'd like my son to grow up in this environment) and tuition is cheaper than other preschools that I have visited. I am not sure if it matters much for a 3 or 4 year-old to attend a very expensive academic-heavy school. I guess like Sy Mom said, depends if the parents want to send the kid to private or public school in the future (which I am still not sure yet... guess depends if we will move to other good school district area later).

Hopefully, this school that we signed up would be good for my son. BTW, this school also have classes till 5th grade. We will see if we will keep my son to study there till 5th grade. I haven't check if they do well academically for elementary school...

I got tired to visit more schools... I only visited 2 Stratford @ different campus, Yew Chung, and this Christian school so far.

Sy Mom: please check your PM

原帖由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-25 05:07 發表
rose-mag,

yes, 45 mins to 1 hr driving from our current home. when i applied for that school, my husband said no way and it's crazy. he asked why i didn't apply for any schools out of state, coz we ...

[ 本帖最後由 bunnymonkey 於 09-2-25 14:29 編輯 ]

私人傳訊

積分: 1760

2794^#

發表於 09-2-25 14:52 |只看該作者

bunnymonkey,

i also only looked at christian schools when i tried to look for preschools for my son. i didn't plan too much ahead for elementary school at that time and all i care was if the teachers were caring and the playground safety as my son is always a wild and rough little boy. i only checked out one christian preschool and i sent him there as soon as space was available. at that time he was in his early 2s and still not potty trained, so not too many choices. by the time he was 3 and potty trained, we'd checked out another 2 christian preschools in our area and we switched him to a christian preschool where is closer to where we live.

it's true that the tuition at most christian schools are cheaper than the non-religious private schools. also, i realized that most christian elementary schools require the teachers to have teaching credentials while most non-religious private elementary schools only require a minimum of BA degree only.

btw, pls check yr PM.

私人傳訊

積分: 7794

2795^#

發表於 09-2-26 09:18 |只看該作者

SY_mom,
in staten island, they don't have such a option. they only have catholic school or PS. and they do not offer gifted program for kids like Amanda.
the only program we can have.. is in Manhattan.
now.. anyway, Amanda will sleep inside the car.. on the way to school or go back home.
it is not the problem that the commute is long or not, .. just if I can tolerate to send her to school or not. How much I can handle....

原帖由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-24 12:42 PM 發表
nillie,

i totally understood your concerns.

for myself, i'd set the commuting limit up to 30 mins driving time each way to/from school. even now it usually takes about 20 mins (about 16 miles each) ...

私人傳訊

bunnymonkey

別墅

積分: 781

2796^#

發表於 09-2-26 09:33 |只看該作者

Thanks Sy_Mom.

I guess we will let my son go to this Christian school that we signed up. But we are still open to switch to other school later if needed.

原帖由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-25 14:52 發表
bunnymonkey,

i also only looked at christian schools when i tried to look for preschools for my son. i didn't plan too much ahead for elementary school at that time and all i care was if the teacher ...

私人傳訊

積分: 1760

2797^#

發表於 09-2-27 01:16 |只看該作者

nillie,

well ... at least in NY, there are gifted program at public schools starting from kindergarten or 1st grade. here in CA, most of the public schools don't offer gifted program until 3rd or 4th grade. also, mostly they don't do "pull out" for the gifted program, and they just mix with the kids in the regular class but just doing more challenging supplemental works. in some smaller school districts (usually top ones), they don't even offer gifted program, becoz most the kids there are doing really well in academics. if they do offer gifted program, a lot of them might be qualified. and for those who don't get in, they might not be happy about it.

actually i know quite some highly gifted kids who scored 145+ in the WIPSII IQ test went/go to regular public schools and just joined the gifted program at 3rd or 4th grade. but i think their moms might have done extra works for supplements/enrichments for them. for the grown-up ones, now they are in the top colleges.

sometimes i think i'm not as good as those moms, becoz it seems like i haven't done much for my son compared to them.

like you ... you're a super-mom to me! i wouldn't be able to sacrifice that much for my own kid. if i didn't sleep enough, i would be very cranky. and same for my husband and my kid.

私人傳訊

積分: 7794

2798^#

發表於 09-2-27 05:57 |只看該作者

SY_mom,
I hate to give up my sleeping time.. but.. since I was a breast feeding mom.. sleeping good is not an option for me since I decided to be a BF mom.
so, it was quite difficult for me to cope with at the beginning. and now.. anyway, we all go to bed at 8-8:30pm. so, sleeping quality is better then before. also, I gave up the job in hospital and chose a job that work mon to fri 8:30am-4pm which suit my children schedule.
I don't know much I can do for them. I will not have children if I planned to live with my previous living style.
I wish that the way I did, will make Amanda feel good. feel that she is in love. and at the same time, to make Gabriel feel good and in love as well.
therefore, sure I won't have more than 2..

原帖由 SY_Mom 於 09-2-26 12:16 PM 發表
nillie,

well ... at least in NY, there are gifted program at public schools starting from kindergarten or 1st grade. here in CA, most of the public schools don't offer gifted program until 3rd or 4t ...

私人傳訊