not the best Islamic montessori after all - Brainy Bunch

My son is 2 1/2 years old. We want the best for our son. After survey a few pre school in the market, we decided to go with **** eventhough it is quite far from our house and our work place. But we were willing to sacrifise for our little son. My hubby and I are working in the same place but for our son sake we were willing to make some changes and sacrifises just to see the output that the school can offer. My hubby will be sending my son by motorbike as the school situated in crowded area during peak times and I will be driving car to work. So there will be different transportation each day to work and to go back home. But wat the heck. Anything for our son. 

The fees is quite expensive than the rest of other pre school that we surveyed. We paid around RM1,000++ for yearly fee and monthly fee we took half day lesson it was around RM400 because we included with lunch. We can't afford to take our son at 12 because both of us are working and our lunch time is about 1-2 pm. The school doesn't give and take in this matter. I wonder why they don't provide an easier flexible time for picking up children. It is quite not convenient for us and I think other parents also facing the same problems. Unless you are a housewife or you have a driver to pick your children at 12. Anyway we try to accommodate to the troblesome rules. In the afternoon we will be sending him to nursery. We are paying for two things here. 

Now after 4 months sending my son, I have a few dissatisfaction.

1) the brunch that we send is a new place. I was glad because all the facilities are new. But, I was inform that the teacher for the playhouse is not hired yet. There are short of staff. How do I know this because I ask the caretaker what did he learn today. I appreciate the caretaker to tell me sincerely because they are taking care of our children. My son is my biggest priority in my life so I need to know everything going on with him. Anyway, i must say thank you for telling me the truth. But, on the other hand, we were paying a month without learning anything. It is only like a nursery. It was very frustrating because we were wasting on the petrol, energy and our time in the office. Sometimes, I thought we should be refunded. Dah laa mahal. We want to make our every cent worth the money for our son education.

2) From my observation, they are not good at taking care toddlers. Maybe, they are good at teaching but not taking care toddlers. For example, I received complaints from nursery that they don't change pampers and the pampers were very heavy. I told the school to change pampers before I pick my son. At first they always forget but after awhile they managed to do it. One of the incompetence that I can observed. Other than that, there want me to marked using a marker pen on my son bottle. It's not the outside part. The inside part. Because avent bottle have a little circle for not making the milk drip and to trap the air. It is ridicolous. I will not use any chemical on my son's drink. I would consider, if it on the outside. Even the nursery don't have problem with that. And the nursery never mistakenly switching bottles with other kids. The schools always have problem. tertukar botol la...tertinggal barang laa.. But now, there are getting better managing. Fuhh...make me all stressed up.

3) I don't expect to pay any hidden cost after we settled to pay the yearly fees. We already managed our financial and it is a strict one. The school wanted to do a sports day. Fine with that. But they asked us to pay RM100. We decided we don't want him to participate with the sports because the stupid RM100. We know the management is rich and they thought RM100 is a small value but for us, we could use it for something more important than the sport day for a 3 year old. The sport day was very extravanganza, I saw on the the school fb. For me, it is a waste of money. In islam we were enforced on sifat bersederhana. Saturday and Sunday was the sports day so monday there declared holiday because they said everyone already bersusah payah for the sports day. On Monday they only take full day children. Did you know, we had to send our son to the nursery and we had to pay for extra hours. Waste of our money some more. I think the school thinks if the half day children there have bibik at home to take care kot. Another thing, we did not participate with the sports day so we are not paying the RM100 but they still forced us to pay eventhough my husband said he will not be paying for that. Kang makan duit tak halal baru tahu.

4) The school likes holidays. Kalau cuti sekolah dorang pon cuti jugak. Why can't they consider this as work. You just have your holidays during public holidays not the school holidays. I don't think the children want the holidays tu sangat pon because they enjoy to go to school with their friends, they can play games, sing songs etc. I think yang nak cuti are the teachers. Boleh tak anggap ni bekerja bukan bersekolah? We need to pay extra to the nursery. Letih, duit parents nak tapi cuti byk lak.

5) The school have alot of extra co-curiculum like bengkel solat etc. But, most of it you have to pay extra. I can't be bother to join. I think if they really do as a jihad they should give it for free or very low price. And some more, I think, if your silibus are good enough, we don't need extra bengkel.

It is like, if the school teachers are good at teaching and the students understand the lesson very well you don't have to send your children to tuition pon.

6) There were once sambutan Maal Hijrah or something, can't really recall. They ask the parents to bring food for celebration. If the school wants to do extra activity they should be providing but there asked us parents to bring. Semua ni extra money kan. You should state in the fees. Senang parents nak budget. Pls don't say we are kedekut, we are the customer, you are providing the service. So we have the pengguna rights. Tak kisah sedekah tapi not like this. We are buying services from you so you should provide the service that we have pay for and not incurred cost some more. They asked us to pay for science apparatus, but I never see the tools. It cost like RM100. I feel they are only interested in our money more than berjihad.

7) There were time, my son have a bad diarrhea. I need to ask the care taker what did he eat, then the teacher respond in a quite defensive ways. "What are trying to say, is it from our food. Other children don't have this problem". I was quite surprised. I need to ask because I was sending my son to a nursery so I need to figure out weather the school or the nuresery food or home food. Yg tuh pon terasa. Not professional at all. My son is my best interested. Of course, I will asked every single thing...hmmm...

8) about graduation day. They held it in PICC. It was grand than it sounds. As usual, parents have to pay up for clothes etc. Siap ada scroll in a booklet form like in a university. All that costs the parents money. I think my son only was on a stage like a few minutes. not worth it at all. He did the fashion show and being guided by the teachers.

9) The science kit. urrghh...very disappointing. The quality of the toy is not worth the money at all. He got a float boat with an engine that have to be twisted. Tak sampai 5 minutes already broken. Wasting money.

My son don't talk alot. He follows his daddy. So it is quite difficult to ask what he learn from school. I had to depend on the teachers to give me feedback. So far I noticed, he can sing rhymes such as twinkle2 little star, baba black sheep, old mcdonald etc. How do I know because when I sing some of the rhymes he will do some of the actions or sing the last words. Doa makan also he can say the last words. I wish I could see how the teach my son. I don't know weather it is effective or not. Just to depend the output they promise through observing what my son action. This year is a trial year, if we are not satisfied, maybe we will not continue the following year.

This is my opinion in my personal journal.

I found this url. http://ainiprecious.blogspot.com/2011/08/this-is-my-post-kat-my-fb-sape2.html

If you are doing business these are the things you have to faced with. Takkan nak asyik kene puji. Kalau kene komen you need to accept it too. For me, it is a comment membina. You need to improved to succeed. I loved your school and the concept but there still rooms for improvement.