I am seeking some preschool and primary school recommendations for my girl who is nearly 3 1/2. We are currently looking for a new house and I see an opportunity to locate 'in zone' for an appropriate primary school and hopefully also be close to a better preschool.
My girl is a very energetic and talkative girl who loves imaginative play. She is very sociable but also quite sensitive and intense. I see she is starting to have trouble with bullying at preschool and is obsessive about her one 'best' friend. While she is advanced in language I think she may have asynchronous development as her motor coordination skills are not so good and this can lead to her getting very frustrated when she can't do something. I suspect she has inherited her dad's dyslexia.
I am becoming increasingly concerned that her current preschool is not meeting her needs and may actually be hampering her intellectual and social development. When I enrolled her at 23 months she was speaking complete sentences of about 7 words with good pronunciation and grammar. Now a lot of the time her speech is sloppy and her pronunciation is poor. I noticed some regression soon after she started at preschool and figured that was to be expected while she was working on other skills. We were also concerned that she develop with lots of opportunities for play and socialisation without academic pressure as we could see a perfectionistic 'fear of failure' streak emerging in her. So we kept her at her regular preschool but now with hindsight I think she has been bored much of the time and that this has also been behind much of the 'naughty' and inattentive behaviour I have observed at home. She has also become withdrawn and angry and I think she is struggling to deal with the violent behaviour of some of the older kids at preschool - who she idolises.
I would love to hear about your experiences with similar issues. I am hoping to find a preschool (and school) which will provide the necessary stimulation and support without the tendency to push kids in a competitive academic manner. I want my girl to value effort and challenge over outcomes, and not be hung up on how well she is doing.
I have been reading some older posts on here and saw Selwyn House preschool recommended. I am going to visit them this week. Can anyone give me an updated opinion on them?
I also have a 2 yr old girl who would ideally join her.
Thank you for taking the time to read my lengthy post.
I could have written this exact post 18 months ago, in fact I think I did.
Do you need DD to be in preschool for the purposes of childcare? If not suggest playcentre so that you can guide your daughters stimulation with the benefit of their resources, help and a social environment.
I was recommended Selwyn house too, and it does look amazing, however I know of one parent whose DD is HG/EG like mine and sends her DD there. Basically it's fine but doesn't challenge her daughter in anyway. It sounds to me like it would be brilliant for a MG though if that is where your DD is at.
You might want to look at small poppies as well, some have found it to be quite stimulating for their children, but also a valuable support network for the parents.
Thanks for your comments. What do HG, EG and MG stand for?
I am not currently working and don't need to have my kids in daycare for that reason. I do it to give them social interaction and me time for housework and dinner prep. I did do playcentre when they were younger but found it too hard with two kids 16 months apart, having no time to myself. I got very burnt out- and still am. I feel sad that i am not spending more time with my kids while they are young however i am nervous about going back to the chaotic stressful time before preschool. My oldest is intense and attention seeking non stop while my quiet younger one misses out and is lagging behind in her development.
Still, I am interested to hear about your experience of playcentre. My oldest did really enjoy playcentre and it would be easier now they are older. Maybe i could mix it up a bit and do playcentre some days.
We are off to a peek at a small poppies session this Friday. I do hope to meet some other parents as i am lacking that contact since the kids started at preschool.
Re: preschool & primary school recommendations in chch
Author: Maddy
Date: 16-09-15 10:44
There is a scale of giftedness, starting at MG for moderately gifted (IQ of 130), then highly gifted (IQ145), exceptionally (IQ160) and finally profoundly (IQ175+).
Those IQ figures are quite subjective depending who you talk to! :)
Thanks Maddy for explaining that - good luck with Small poppies - it was too expensive for us to keep doing but it was a nice unpretentious bunch in CHC. So nice to see the kids just being themselves
I highly recommend Selwyn house preschool. We had a range of difficulties with our DS when we first moved to CHCH with preschools not suiting him. He has been reading from 18m, now 4.5ys reading chapter books, spelling since 2, complex shapes, simple maths etc. etc. His previous preschool recognised he was "bright" and put him up a year but socially it was a disaster. Also once he had mastered all the activities in that class he was acting out (bored). Selwyn house preschool is structured, has a lot of class like activities and room to excel the child. I can't say enough about them they have been amazing for our boy, who has flourished.
Thank you for your comment on Selwyn House, Anon. Your son sounds to be very bright. I presume he will be attending primary school next year so can I ask where you intend to enrol him? Thanks in advance, Mary.
Re: preschool & primary school recommendations in chch
Author: anon
Date: 07-12-15 10:02
Ahhhh that is a good question Mary. We had been all for St Michaels, looked into it first when he was 2.5 years, then again last year and he has just had his school visits. Now I am not so sure. The principal has changed since our first visits. The new one had a rather awkward conversation with me (instigated by him) about their ability or capacity to cater to DS following his visit and I am now at a complete loss over what to do next. We have been told time and again we will need to be very careful selecting a school for him (with very little advice about how to do that), and felt like we had done all the right things. He is 5 soon and I am also now looking for advice on other schooling options, private & public, that would suit a gifted boy with classic gifted asynchronous development (reactive emotionally & strong minded). We live in upper Ilam, but are o.k with travel. If only Selwyn House was co-ed, the preschool has been so perfect for him and supportive of us (getting the schools gifted teacher involved and everything)!!
Thank you anon. I asked because we ourselves are in a very similar position. Our boy looks to be developing in just the same way as your son, but is a little younger...just turned 3. Currently he is also at Selwyn House and we are entirely satisfied with the outcome. No problems at all and he loves it there. How often we have made the same wish as you; that his early schooling could carry on exactly as it is now during his primary years, but we are new to ChCh too and are not sure how to progress beyond pre-school. I will drop you a note 'off forum' in the hope that you don't mind me doing that.
Those parents who have children at Selwyn House ... Do you think it's still as good as you once thought? I'm having doubts that they're still working to challenge mine - they seem more process focused now, less flexible and creative. I know they've had a huge turn over of staff recently and I sense they've lost a bit of that dynamic learning focus... Your thoughts?
Those parents who have children at Selwyn House ... Do you think it's still as good as you once thought? I'm having doubts that they're still working to challenge mine - they seem more process focused now, less flexible and creative. I know they've had a huge turn over of staff recently and I sense they've lost a bit of that dynamic learning focus... Your thoughts?
Those parents who have children at Selwyn House ... Do you think it's still as good as you once thought? I'm having doubts that they're still working to challenge mine - they seem more process focused now, less flexible and creative. I know they've had a huge turn over of staff recently and I sense they've lost a bit of that dynamic learning focus... Your thoughts?
