What is an enrichment class?

So, I was having a chat with a Singaporean girlfriend who's been in the UK as long as I've been and is actually heading back to Singapore for an initial 6 months whilst her British husband's working out there. She's had to frantically locate some nurseries/playschools for her 4 year old and her 2 year old.

She reports that it's really quite expensive (even though we complain enough over here in the UK that for fulltime nursery daycare, it costs us nearly £800/month), she's going to be paying something like S$1500/10 weeks (£600-700/10 weeks?) for 3 hours of care per week. That's ALOT of money, given that that's only for 3 hours of daycare!!! hm. And apparently, if she wanted 'enrichment' classes, she'll have to pay extra. Apparently enrichment = art/music/singing/dance classes.

My question: Why is it that such classes are deemed 'enrichment'? Why aren't they part and parcel of the early-years curriculum? We're talking about a 2 year old and a 4 year old for goodness sakes. We're not talking about having to deprieve a school going child of his math classes just so that he can do a bit of drummming, or a bit of painting!!! Shouldn't this be offered anyway? not necessarily every day, or even every week but surely they could do it??

At G's nursery, he comes home with a report sheet everyday. Apart from recording his poos and wees, his naps and what he's eaten, we also get a record of what he's done. They tend to include singing, painting (they were making some collages, painting the hungry caterpillar), 'investigative' work (they found a spider and looked at it under the magnifying class, outdoor play, dancing, home economics (he makes his own puddings of biscuits, banana-choco, fairy cakes - yes, he helps to measure out the ingredients).... and so on. It's exhaustive! and that's NORMAL curriculum.

hmm.

MoE boo boo

I haven't decided if I should be gracious and accept that large organisations (even bureaucratic, 'well-run', 'cannot fail' types like the Ministry of Education in Singapore can make mistakes, or I should be cynical and suggest that the only reason they've apologised is because they've been 'caught out' (opps!). In this big bad world of the world wide web, one can no longer hide... for long!!!

The background: There's a conference for teachers happening in Sept 2010 organised in Singapore. They've invited one of the best teachers of the year from America and then within a week, retracted the invite coz she's 'deaf'. right, you read right. She's deaf. They've since said that the reason why the misunderstanding arose was because they thought she'd need interpreters (and well, Singaporean Deaf people can't act as interpreters???!! we don't have sign language experts??), and because they thought she only taught Primary School kids (and are primary school kids that unimportant that even if she did only teach such children, the fact that she's been nominated 'teacher of the year' is surely something to shout about and surely she's got tips and ideas to pass on and share?!?!?!).

In my opinion, what a load of Bull.
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Dear Pamela

I refer to your email to Minister. Thank you for your feedback.

The withdrawal of our invitation to Ms Susan Elliot was a mistake on our part. It arose from our misunderstanding about the need for interpreters and her professional experience. The chairman of the Organising Committee has since contacted Ms Elliot and spoken to her personally to convey our sincere apologies. We should have clarified these matters before making the decision. Ms Elliot has accepted our apology and the Organising Committee is delighted that she will participate at the Teachers' Conference in September. We look forward to her contributions in making the Conference a success.


Ms Sucillia Sukiman
Secretary
Teachers' Conference 2010 Organising Committee
Ministry of Education • 51 Grange Road • Singapore 249564 • http://www.moe.gov.sg
Integrity the Foundation • People our Focus • Learning our Passion • Excellence our Pursuit


Dear Minister
I read with fascination and horror about the going ons of the Ministry of Education - and I must say, if any of this is even remotely true, then I am most disappointed in the decision that your ministry has chosen to take.

You may wish to have a look at this blog and perhaps correct me if this is completely misdirected and 'miscommunicated'.

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teacher_of_the_year/2010/04/singapores_city_upon_a_hill.html

I await your reply, with interest.

Best wishes

Pamela Yeow Ph.D

heartbeat...

dum dum dum... I heard it for the first time yesterday (6th April 2010). I had my 16 week check at the midwife's at the doctor's surgery and I asked if we could try and locate a heart beat. And she found it almost immediately - which was reassuring to say the least!! :)

seeing that I've not really been paying much attention to the food intake (or rather, the type of food intake), I'm relieved that baby's still doing well in there (or I hope it is!).

onwards and upwards to the next scan, 6th May!
Pam x

BOB #2

so... baby #2 is on board!! :)

it's now week 15 (or 16 depending on whether we're counting based on scans, or based on period dates) and ETA is 16 or 22nd September 2010 which puts it as a Virgo-ean Tiger.

We've had pretty amazing scans and the blood test results are:
Trisomy21 (down's syndrome) is 1:5242
Trisomy13+18 is 1:43421
which is quite a relief since this is 2.5 years on from the time we had G. The nuchal fold measurement was also 1mm, which is great (G was 1.2mm).

Haven't really had the time to pay any attention to what I should or shouldn't eat this time round - which isn't great but there just isn't enough time in a day to work full time, have a toddler son, do housework (cook, clean and everything), let alone rub moisturisers into my belly (well endeavour to do that though!), on top of weekend stuff like swim classes, birthday parties to attend, food shopping to get in, and etcetc.

Next midwife's app is next tuesday 6th April when we'll hopefully be able to hear the heartbeat. And my next scan is 6th May which will put us smack in the middle of the pregnancy.

Pam xx