When it comes to enrolling your child into a preschool, many parents don’t actually know which aspect to look at and often relied on other parent’s reviews and recommendation when it comes to selecting a preschool. Well, now it’s the time to learn about the types of Malaysia Preschool Programs because what’s suitable for other children might not be suitable for yours.
Without further ado, let’s dive right into it.
One of the more common program in Malaysia is the Montessori program, founded by Maria Montessori, an Italian physician in the 19th century.
As a physician, she’s no stranger to scientific observation and examination. Using these skillsets in educating children, she soon realised that children in essence, possess natural curiosity and desire to learn. They absorb knowledge and info from their surroundings and environment, it’s like teaching themselves.
Upon discovering that children possesses the ability to self-learn, then it comes down to aiding these young ones by providing a conducive learning environment, appropriate teacher guidance, various learning materials for children to play with and experience on.
Teachers serve as a partner and guide learning around topics such as science, mathematics, arts and so on.
Parents sending their children to a montessori can expect alot of play based learning involved, young children will also be placed in groups to discover, learn and explore the world. Children that had gone through a montessori program are found to be :
Like Montessori, Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood learning is also founded in Italy itself by Loris Malaguzzi.
One interesting school of thoughts they operate on is the ” 100 languages of children ” which reflect their belief that young children communicate through more than verbal language itself. This is derived from Loris Malaguzzi, the founder itself, on how children are able to express, connect, and explore via infinite amount of ways.
Reggio Emilia gives freedom to children to explore topics of their interest to the greatest degree. Children are encouraged to explore, search and discover solutions to projects and open-ended topics to direct self-learning on their natural curiosity.
Parents sending their children to a Reggio Emilia school can expect their children to indulge into different learning activities everyday. There will be art, experiment, nature play and so on to allow children to fully express themselves.
Reggio Emilia school typically does not measure a child’s learning progress via examination or worksheet, but rather encourage them to learn on their own pace and via their own preferred channel and method. Children that had gone through a Reggio Emilia Program are found to be :
Waldorf Steiner ( Waldorf School ) is a schooling system founded on the educational principal of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian educator.
Waldorf Schools are rather interesting because it was originally developed for the children of the employees of Waldorf-Astoria company only but is later adopted globally.
Waldorf education system believes that children’s education should be divided into 3 stages, approximately 7 years each. During early years ( 1st stage ), Waldorf schools believe that young children from birth to the age of 7 are unable to understand abstract ideas and hence, focuses less on learning how to read and write.
Instead they are taught how to clean, bake, garden and other traditional life skills and activities.
Parents sending their children to a Walford school can expect their child to be trained and nurtured in a holistic manner. Children are taught to discover and explore, in freedom, what their interests are and develop their own unique potential as they are growing up.
Teachers often act as a friend in Waldorf school. Preparing meals together, garden, complete art projects as a team and so on. Parents that believe literacy curriculum at Early Years go beyond reading, writing and speaking can place their child in a Waldorf school. Children that had gone through a Waldorf Steiner Program are found to be :
In recent years, there are also more and more International preschool in Malaysia. Built on International framework such as International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC) and International Preschool Curriculum (IPC), these preschool methodology are often developed in the modern days and foundation is created based on education experts’ research.
As these programs often comes with a rigid education framework, children’s performance and achievement are often tracked and can be effectively measured. These framework are also developed with the purpose of providing holistic education to young children.
As they are modern developed preschool programs, large amount of data and research are made known to these program coordinators. They would know clearly what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to educating a young child.
As mentioned above, most International Curriculum programs has a solid education framework. They combine play-based learning with structural learning as well as art, emotional learning as well as other aspects.
As International Curriculum Program is more costly, Parents sending their children to a International preschool can expect their child to receive enhanced benefits as compared to other preschools. Gated and guarded environment, inhouse medical clinic, indoor pool, indoor garden, small student-to-teacher ratio are often some of the traits you would see in an International preschool.
Children will be placed into a variety of learning activities such as music, art, outdoor play, science, maths and so on. Parents can expect a very well balanced learning structure along with activities that promotes and nurture emotional and spiritual growth. Children that had gone through an International Curriculum are found to be :
Faith, it’s an awesome aspect of life. It guides us to be our better selves and one religion that comes into our mind when Malaysia is concerned – Islam.
Islam is the official religion of the Country, and is also the major religion practiced by our Malay friends. Islamic teachings can go a long way and is often taught to young Malay children so they can get to learn about the religion more – and it is also available in Preschool.
That being said, a religious preshool is not only about religious teachings. In Modern days, religion preschools are crafted in a way where children are also exposed to teachings such as maths, science as well as several different languages.
Modern Religion schools are also heavy believers of holistic education. While most Religious classes are conducted in Malay language, modern Islamic Preschool also offers other language classes such as Mandarin and English. There are also Mathematics and Science acitivities integrated which enables young children to explore different aspect of the world.
Parents do not need to worry that religious teachings/ classes will overburden their young ones. Modern Islamic Schools are just like any other preschools, except the fact that they integrated religious teachings into their preschool programs.
Expect your child also get their fair share of play-based learning as well as outdoor activities.
Gone are the days where education choices for your young children are made based on other parents’ reviews and recommendation. As a parent, you should also learn about the types of Malaysia Preschool Programs available and which one suits your child better.
After all, Early childhood education play a huge role in nurturing and developing your child as they prepare for Primary school. Picky wisely.
And while you’re at that, don’t forget to enrol/ enquire via ABCJunior.com as you will automatically receive an additional 10% cashback upon enrolment. One top of existing promotions and discounts given by an individual school, you get to save more!
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