Now that M is 2.5 years old, she is beginning to show more willingness to play with other children. Hence, we feel she might be ready for independent classes. The obvious choices we have are the Playgroup (or Pre-Nursery or Nursery 1 – N1) programmes offered by kindergartens (governed by MOE) or childcare centres (governed by MCYS). It’s interesting that the ‘market leader’ in kindergarten education – PCF – offers this programme only in selected centres.
After studying the lists available from the two ministries, we confirmed our observation that there are more childcare centres than kindergartens around our place. Childcare centres generally offer full- or half-day services. On top of the ‘school’ portion, they throw in meals and child minding services. Even before the start of our search, this was already my preferred choice, since it would free up more time for me. But cost wise, it seems more pricey than kindergartens, mainly because we are looking at half-day care. We visited four centres and our top choice costs $410 per month after a $150 subsidy for their half day service (8.30am – 12.30pm).
As for kindergartens, those we sampled were 3-hour (eg. 8.30am – 11.30am) in duration. Because it was my less preferred choice and there was only one nearby that we liked, we did not visit it in the end. However, we did find out that it costs $216 per month, based on a 10-week term of $540.(Note: none of the PCF kindergartens in our area offer N1.)
After some consideration, we decided we’ll just go with the childcare centre and see how things turn out. Being relieved of taking care of M for half a day (including cooking lunch) will open up so much more opportunities for me to explore.
And hence, our search is officially over (I hope)!
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