mid price schools for a 5 yr old?

[Nervous_Dog]

It does, will give them a call tomorrow

[limbo]

Be interesting ND, heard a lot about Mont schools but don't really know exactly what they're about. It's a different approach to trad schools, that's all I know.

[Bembaman]

For Pattaya try looking at Int. School of Pattaya/Wuttichot Bilingual School. Both schools run from the same site. ISP is totally English from day 1 but it is not necessarily farang only, anything but in fact. The pupils for both schools are largely from long stay foreigners, many with businesses and committed to the area. Wuttichot Bilingual teaches 60% English 40% Thai and is a truly mixed bag of races, Thais, many luk krungs, Europeans, Indians, Koreans. The teachers are farang assisted by Thais apart from the Thai taught subjects.

 

We have been looking into this extensively for nearly a year. An interesting model people follow is to put the child into Wuttichot early on say until grade 6 whereby they embed some Thai culture and learn the language, then for grades 7 - 12 put them into ISP to follow an international curriculum. Grades 10 to 12 are under application right now but the school will have no problems getting the approval from the ministry and this is not an issue for young kids who are years away. For long stay people with luk krungs or non-thai kids who nevertheless recognise the need to know the culture vthey live in, this seems a good idea. I have met the teachers twice and they seem very good and interested.

 

As for Montessori, on the village we live 2 parents have pulled their kids out dissatisfied. I left a business card one day there as it was closed when we went to look. I got a call about 10 days later from a farang senior member of staff who basically said 'term starts tomorrow, cost Bxx call me if you are interested' they couldn't wait to get me off the phone. It was outrageous as I had made it clear when I left my card and a message i wanted to talk about the deeeper elements of my child's education and Montessori is a bit different and I wanted to know more.

 

A very difficult subject as everyone will have their own views on a particular school.

 

We went to another one with a seemingly good reputation, Aksorn something or other i think, only to be told they stopped at grade 9. It was a lovely school to walk around and looked well equipped. When I asked why, they said they had so many problems with pregnancies, boys getting into gangs, fighting etc that they gave up on those grades. What an advert!

[whosyourdaddy]

Yes St. John's programs have some serious problems when it comes to teachers and curriculum. Stay far far far away!!

[Nervous_Dog]

The Montisori school didn;t sounbd like it had a lot of teachers, ideas sound good, price was god, but was on the wrong side of town for me, being near SUIk and I am at Ari.

 

BTS not a option for a 3 1/2 year old.

 

The current school ios crap but will have to stick with it for a few more terms.

I find it rediculaous that food, school, bus comes to 80 000 baht a term, 3 terms a year.

 

Total rip off compered to many other countries, but what do you expect in a country where educatioon is so lowly valued.

 

DOIG

[whosyourdaddy]

Yes I heard some good things about that school (Montisori )

[Nervous_Dog]

So have I, however the one I contacted after seeing the add was just opening, first term ever.

 

The owner/head was trained 6 months in Sillypore I think, and had worked in "Education" for15 years, but dodged the question had she been a teacher.

 

Honestly,. I wasn;t so concerned that she may or may not have been a teacher - rather the fact she dodged the question bothered me.

 

DOG

[redwood13]

In the seventies my daughter went to Montessori schools in California, starting at age 2 1/2, until she entered high school. The classes are usually of mixed ages (3-6 yrs, 6-9 and 9-12) with the older kids helping teach the younger ones. They use a number of teaching tools that appear to be toys, blocks, sticks, cards and so on but are in fact teaching tools that are used in a highly structured way. The following is a lengthy description of one activity that a child might work at. This is from a Google Group http://tinyurl.com/cysb6 (#2 in the thread). He writes:

 

"The term "Montessori" encompases a lot including different materials the child uses, the environment that is set up, and the philosophy behind it all.

 

If I had to pick one thing that separates the Montessori style of learning from the traditional style of learning, I would say it is the process of learning is taught so much more strongly in a Montessori environment.

 

As I hear more traditional teachers talk, mostly hear of them talk about things like:

 

--"How do I get my children to learn how to count to 10?"

--"What age should children be able to do (insert academic activity here)?"

 

What they fail to realize is that they are missing at least half the point of education. In Montessori, each activity has a specific order to it. That statement is true on many different levels.

 

There is an order to the activities from easiest to hardest. The environment needs to be set up so that it reflects this order.

 

But there is also an order to the way the activity is done. It differs slightly on how it is done from teacher to teacher, but there is an order in the way the materials are taken off the shelf, layed out in their work space, and completed.

 

That order is important because it develops concentration, but it also exercises specific learning techniques.

 

Take, for example, a preschooler that is learning the 50 US states. Some people wonder why we are "pushing" these kids to learn the states. We're not. In fact, it's generally a work they chose to do. However, the child is not learning the 50 states so they can learn the 50 states and be able to brag about doing it at such a young age. What the child is doing is practicing their memorization skills.

 

This may differ between classrooms, but here are the steps they take:

 

--Get out a rug and find a place for it. Then lay it down and unroll it. (The rug is the child's own working space. Nobody else is allowed to touch anything on the rug since it is not theirs. This also has the side lesson of learning how to respect other people's work and working environment)

 

--Go over to the maps and find the United States map. Take it to your rug. (These are fairly large and awkward maps. It takes a lot of control to carry it to the rug without spilling pieces, dropping it, hitting people, etc. So the child is learning how to control the things they are carrying.)

 

--Go find the control map for the 50 states and take it to your rug (the control map is a laminated cardboard/paper map that the puzzle pieces can be moved to)

 

--Depending on where the child is with this activity, they can either move specific pieces or all the pieces to the control map. This is part of the memorization skill where the child starts to get focused on the work and also re-familiarizes himself with the different states. Even if the child does not remember any of them, that is ok because they are doing the process of seeing it again.

 

--After the pieces are in the control map, have a teacher check it. (This not only causes the teacher to see if anything was glaringly obvious and needs correcting, but also slows the child down, helps them stay more focused on the process, enables them an easier step after a long concentration as a break, and

enables the teacher to see that they have done the work so far up to this point)

 

--The child goes back and puts the puzzle pieces back in the map. (Again, the child is familiarizing himself with the puzzle and different states)

 

--The child gets the teacher to go over some of the states. They review all the states they know first (the child pulls them out one at a time and says their name). This reinforces what they already know as well as lets the teacher know what they are struggling with, if anything, on this map.

 

--The teacher works with the child to learn maybe 2 or 3 more....or review the ones the child is struggling with.

 

Now, parents get excited because "my son learned the 50 states" or "my daughter recognizes and understands numbers up to 9,999" or whatever the case may be. But they are missing a big part of the point of those activities if that is all

they focus on.

 

The point of those activities is just as much to exercise the learning ability needed to master them. What most

traditional educators do not understand is that if you exercise that ability, the actual learning of it will come naturally and a lot stronger.

 

Notice the steps the child took for the map. They learned:

 

--respecting work space,

--controlling something while walking,

--taking things one step at a time, --re-familiarizing themselves with the

material,

--keeping focused on the work,

--reviewing the things they are already familiar with, and then

--going on to new things or reviewing what was forgotten.

 

If they can learn how to do those things, I am not worried about whether they remember the 50 states once they reach 1st grade and after they leave our school.

 

What matters is they have a set way to practice that skill."

 

-redwood

[Nervous_Dog]

Thanks redwood, really appreciate that! I think I need to do more study on the montisori system!

 

DOG

[limbo]

Very interesting redwood.