My son is now three and a half and we are planning for him to start school next June. This is our first child and I’m not in any rush to get him out of the house – in fact I’m dreading the day. I notice that some people seem to send their kids to school earlier to a pre-anuban. I was wondering at what age others have sent (or plan to send) their kids to school. Is there really an advantage to sending them earlier?
What age did you send your child to school in Thailand?
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I am going to be curious to see the answers to this one. My daughter is 18 months, and people (both farang and Thai) assume that she will be going to school soon (though it's more like what we would call day care in the US). For me it feels waay too early, both because I enjoy being with her, and also because she is happy hanging around the apartment and playing with other kids in the building. So I don't feel like it's the right choice for her at the moment, but I want to hear from other parents about how their kids have responded to pre-school (I know some kids really thrive). Also, if you've got another baby coming, I can see the appeal...
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I like the idea of sending kids to school roughly 1 day per week for their age. For me that meant that for both my kids, I took them to playgroups at least once a week when they were 1. I sent my older child to school on his own two days a week when we was two (actually he was almost three when he started), three days a week when he turned three, etc. to build up to going every day by age five, but it seems not many kindergartens here allow for part-time enrollment. My daughter started at 3 days a week at age 2 because her kindergarten stopped allowing 2-day enrollment by the time she started. After one term she moved to 4 days a week because she loved it so much and was getting bored at home. Since so many people start their children at school at a young age, I found that by age three if they aren't in school, they won't have any playmates because all their friends will be in school.
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Hi Laura, you make a good point about not having playmates. We do try to bring him to places where other kids play but he tends to ignore them. He is still very possessive over his toys and is scared that other kids will want to play with them - hopefully that will change once he does start school.
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Hi, I have just been exploring this topic at the moment with a few friends.
My daughter is 17 months, and I can't even count the amount of people who have asked me which kindergarten she goes to- at first I thought it was because she's tall- but the more people asked the more I realized no- it seems normal to send your 16/18 month old to 5 days a week morning class!
I am a teacher, and have been in Asia for more than 7 years, and it always concerns me that parents are made to feel they must send their children to school so early ( of course I understand some need to due to work etc), but given the choice we are finding playgroups and regular outings are working well! If anyone wants to join us on our regular Monday jaunt to the aquarium- we'd love the company- we go 10-11:30 Mondays! -
It's definitely a tough one! My daughter is 19 months old and I've thought from early on that I would like to send her to an early years pre-school as I think she would thrive in that sort of environment. She has lots of friends of all ages and loves the social interaction. She's just started to love the independence of going to the next door neighbors house to play without me hovering over her. Regardless, I don't think I'm actually quite ready to let her out of our eye sight/ear range but I like the sound of Laura's 1 day per year method. I'm quite interested in the Montessori method for toddlers and think that I'll look into into for 2-3 years old (but may definitely change my mind once we get to that age!). Not everyone is lucky enough to have the option to care for their own children during the day so it's nice to know there are lots of options out there.
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