Singapore Expats

Hi, we are soon to relocate to Singapore with our 3 year old son and looking into nurseries. Can anyone share some thoughts on using local rather than international nurseries? As part of the Asian experience we would like our son to learn Mandarin and think that exposing him to the local culture would be priceless in the future. Also, do nurseries generally close at 3pm or are there any that are open until 6pm for working mothers? Many thanks in advance for your comments!

When the kids are 3-4yrs old there's not a huge difference in whether they learn to finger paint with blue paint, or with red.

Local kindergartens are generally pretty good and you can choose between those that are 'child care' type facilities that (almost) educate on the side OR actual education/play type centres.

The first can take your child from 7am to 6/7pm and have classes between 9am and 3-5pm depending on sleeping/lunch times etc.

The second can generally have classes from 9-12 or 9-3pm type of deal.

Mandarin is fairly standard in local kindergartens so in the end it comes down to location and what you're looking for. We never felt the need to pay extra for going into a so-called International Kindergarten.

My 2 year old son goes to Whitelodge at Eastgate and it's fairly mixed but there is a weight towards more Australian, American and British children, then the rest are either local Singaporean, chinese, malay, indian, Turkish etc. I couldn't really say whether it's classed a local or International School though.

There are so many pre-schools to choose from it blows your mind, but I would recommend finding somewhere close to where you live, unless you will be getting a car. The fees can vary dramatically too, so it's not until you get here when you start looking around them all that you get a feel for what you like and don't like. I saw about 6 different schools, mainly local actually as they are closer to where I live, before deciding on Whitelodge.

Just to clarify - there is a difference between "nursery" and "Kindergarten". I'm not sure if I've ever seen a "local" nursery - from my experience (2 children going through nursery here) there are some nurseries that are more "local" than others - and some of the major International Schools start a nursery program at 4. I agree with the previous post - find the nurseries that are closest to your home and go from there... but if you are planning on being here for some time then it is best to also check out the Kindergartens too - both local and International who will start to accept your child at their 5th year. Both my children went to a combination of "local" nursery for a couple of hours until they turned 3/4 and then an International School from 5.
Hope this helps.

We had a very good experience at Learning Vision at NUS. I think most of the facilities are above average--but it's like anything in Singapore, you've got to go visit to see for yourself. Good Luck!

thanks everyone for your comments. Boffenl, I see that Learning Vision also offers Chinese as a second language. Did your childeren take up this option? many thanks again.

Hi--yes, the have a good Mandarin program. Unfortunately, I did not enroll her until her last semester at the school. It would have given her an even bigger head start in Primary 1, but I just didn't know at that point. If I had to do it over again I wouldn't hestitate--all their "extra"s seem well worth it! Of course, she wasn't reading by herself when I enrolled her and within three weeks (given the other kids ewre doing it) she could also read to herself and to others. I was very impresses--of sourse all I had to compare was the university day care provider I used when I worked on campus in the US. Good luck!

thanks, will look into it!

My daughter attends Little Village on Grange Road and has an absolute ball! I would say it is a more 'local' nursery but with a good mix of expats thrown in the mix. She has 1 local 'english' teacher and 1 Mandarin teacher (speaking only mandarin) in class - she comes home having learnt some lovely songs in mandarin and after 18months there can converse quite happily with her mandarin teacher. It is also reasonably priced (compared to local Montessori in the same area) and has just a huge renovation. The school is all about teaching kids to use natural resources, recycling and has a great outside grass space where the kids do planting and can also play games etc. Well recommended.

Hey everyone thanks for the thread ! Learnt so much about the choice of schools ! Keep it up!