For progressive schools

When my 2nd daughter was 3 1/2 years old, I enrolled her in a low-budget preschool (about $300/year - I live in the Philippines, by the way). Boy was I shocked to find out they taught the "traditional" way! That is, every day was lecture day. They were 40 pupils in the class. There was no play-time, no story-telling time, no physical exercises even (and forget about the field trip)! You'd think my daughter was in grade school instead of in nursery.

Guess what, my daughter had no motivation to go to school at all. Sometimes she'd only attend classes twice in a week. And I wasn't surprised that by the end of the school-year, she only learned the vowels. That's it. Not even the whole English alphabet! She didn't even learn the shapes.

I was the one who learned my lesson. So the following school-year I enrolled her in one of the small "progressive" pre-schools which implement individualized instruction. They charge about a little less than $1,000/year. Not bad for a progressive preschool.

What do I mean by "progressive"?

• There were only 10 students in her (kindergarten) class;
• Two adults supervised the children, so the ratio of adult to student was 1:5;
• Thus the children are very closely supervised - giving meaning to the term individualized instruction;
• The children progress at their own pace. If a child has not mastered the consonant sounds yet, then they do not begin reading C-V-C words yet. He or she is not "forced" to progress beyond his/her readiness.
• The 3-hour class is divided into different segments such as quiet play time, circle time (where the children and the teacher form a circle and the teacher may tell stories or "lecture"), work time (where they are supervised while answering worksheets), game time, and sometimes, physical exercise time. This breaks the monotony of lecture;
• Finally, the icing to the cake, they have a culminating activity every month, which is really just a fun activity. It may be a cooking activity, planting, visit to the fire station, pajama party, costume party, swimming party, or field trip.

These are just some of the benefits for going "progressive". And my daughter almost never misses a class now. She now loves going to school. And what's more, she has learned to read and write, and add and subtract. The $700 difference was definitely worth it.