Mandarin only pre-nursery or playschool?

[shine2313]

Hello all,

We just moved here from the US and I was hoping to get some input on potential mandarin only pre-nursery or playschools for my daughter. She's 14 months now and we're interested in both accompanied (starting now) and drop-off programs (when she turns >18 months). We started looking at some bilingual pre-nurseries but frankly, most of them seem to devote only a small amount of time to Mandarin. We speak mostly Mandarin at home to her and I'd like her to be exposed to it at school as well. A couple names that have popped up are Julia Gabriel and Buttercups but JG has a REALLY long wait list and Buttercups doesn't have any other kids enrolled in the group so it would be kind of lonely.

Any suggestions on mandarin-only pre-nurseries or playschools? Or even better, bilingual schools with a strong Mandarin emphasis?

Thanks in advance!

[carolynW]

Its kind of dismal here. The alternatives for your child are:

1.) JG
2.) Patschoolhouse, the level of chinese the children achieve are not bad... but you are already ahead if you speak to your child in Chinese. Am not sure what age they accept kids.
3.) the Chinese International School but your child has to be 3 years old. They will at least get 50 to 60% chinese. The chinese teachers are quite good but the school isn't for everyone.
4.) Hire an indonesian or thai maid that speaks mandarin (so far the ones I have interviewed are ok)
5.) Do a combination of Berries, the confucius institute, some local activities for that age group run by China nationals.

I don't know anything about Buttercup.

[efrog]

Actually most local childcare teach kids Chinese in the morning and English in the afternoon or vice versa. You may only go half day if you prefer.
Their English teachers are not as qualified as Chinese teachers to my oberservation. As most Chinese teachers are from Chinese with specific training for kids. They not only know dance, music, and how to teach yound kids. But local few local Singaporean are willing to be a childcare teachers.

[niceday0706]

, I suggest you may choose those nursery schools or I know a chinese auntie, she's a babysitter and tutor for chinese language. her rate is pretty reasonable.

She's chinese- speaking and am helping her to get more customers



fanshu0706@hotmail.com
call 81667535

[shine2313]

Thanks everyone for their help!

[Chey10]

You can try the enrichment class by Tian Xia for chinese

[sportycarelle]

heard there's a new mandarin based kindy in the east, and they offer a holistic curriculum that integrates Arts and Fitness components into the core pre school curriculum

Its called twinkle kidz preschool and the website is

http://www.tlc.com.sg/index.php?option= ... n;catid=63

you may want to check it out!

[kwy]

I can recommend Bibinogs in Serene Center on Farrer Road where my boy has been going.
They have daily Mandarin immersion classes for preschoolers (drop off) plus accompanied classes.
The drop off classes are 3 hours and the accompanied classes are 2 hours.
The teachers are from Beijing and speak little or no English.
I believe they are starting up Nursery 1, Nursery 2 and also Kindergarten 1 & 2 Mandarin only classes sometime soon.
PM me if you need more information.

[tryitmummy]

My kids have attended both Julia Gabriels Mandarin class and Bibinogs - and I reckon Bibinogs is of about the same standard as JG. Very good Chinese teachers and small class sizes.

[amberlm]

Hello,
We are also looking for a Mandarin only preschool. Did you find any Mandarin only preschool that you can recommend to us?

Thank you,

[kwy]

Hi Amberlm,
My boy is still at Bibinogs in Serene Centre and now in the Nursery Class.
They have recently started the Nursery Classes for the 3-4yr olds, and for the moment there are only 3 or 4 kids in the class depending on the day. So we are very happy.
I chose not to move him to an English or bi-lingual nursery because I worked out he is not missing anything by not learning in English and he loves going to Bibinogs. The only thing he doesn't learn there is the English alphabet and counting, (which he already knows) and eventually to read in English, but I figured I would be able to teach him to read at home.
PM me if you want any more info.

[Glow]

hey there,
I m nt sure if u'll find this helpful but I hav relatives who go to Glory Presbytarian Church nursery and kindergarten. It's a church on sundays and other days it's a school. I heard that it's is chinese speaking, so I think u may want to check with them (: In th future for primary school, try nanyang pri or other chinese named pri schools/ sec schools!

CHEERS xD

[ladydimante]

Holy Grace Kindergarten on Upper East Coast Road and Nanyang Kindergarten in Bukit Timah are the only 100% Mandarin pre-schools in Singapore that I am personally aware of. Most others are not pre-schools but enrichment centres offering 1-2 hour weekly programs.

[Mom933]

Holy Grace Kindergarten is no longer entirely Mandarin based. It boasts to provide 80% Mandarin in the Pre-Nursery level and then gradually decrease as they age to allow for easy transition into Primary 1, but my child is now attending Holy Grace and her Mandarin skills is much, much lower than that of my elder child when she was at the same level. The school has shifted directions, and it's not becoming better. Their Mandarin program has deteriorated under the "new" principle's (since 2014) leadership, there is no open communication between the school and the parents even when it involves the welfare of our children (virus spreading throughout the school, teacher-student ratio, etc), and instead of focusing their energy on making the school program more competitive they put in effort to creat problematic issues in administration for themselves and the parents. The school could do better. But first the management needs to open up its communication channels and listen to what the parents and children really require. As of now, being a parent with a child in this school is highly frustrating.

[Lisafuller]

Our daughter went to Yuquan bilingual school from her nursery days to the end of kindergarten. Although it is not entirely mandarin based, the teachers were very experienced and the language teachers were all from China. This gave our daughter a great foundation in mandarin. She is now 17 but speaks it fluently and can hold conversations effectively. Mandarin only may not be very practical considering how important it is to be effectively bilingual nowadays. It’s probably better to consider a kindergarten that instructs in both languages.