To Send or Not to Send

I was sure that I wanted to enroll Lil Shauna into a BASC when she enters Primary One, all the time thinking that she would be in the morning session. I wavered on learning that she will still be in the pm session when she starts school next year.

After visiting the centers, I sort of re-convinced myself that Lil Shauna should start getting used to the idea early and should still go to the center despite being in the pm session. The center will help to instill some discipline in her. There will also be “teachers” – though I am not very convinced of their qualifications – around to help with her homework and also enrichment classes. Daddy Lim and I even started discussing on the transport arrangement and I have started to practice driving in anticipation of the need to take the car in the future.

However, during a casual chat with Auntie H, I started to waver again. Auntie H thinks that it is actually very tiring for a kid to be out 12 hours every school day. I couldn't agree more and that has always been the reason why we didn't send the kids to a childcare centers all these years. She also suggested that we could delay sending Lil Shauna to the center until she goes into morning session. Afterall, we have help at home. By then, she would also be one year older and could probably adapt better. 

I started a whole round of discussion with Daddy Lim again. The advantages of keeping her at home are:

1. She could sleep in later (having to wake up later) and we would have more time with her in the evening/ night and helped with school work;

2. She could spend more time at home and get to rest more;

3. She could take a school bus and that will not disrupt our current work travel arrangement for another year; and

4. Lil Isaac would have jiejie as his playmate in the am before school.

The disadvantages:

1. There would be plenty (and probably nothing much else) of TV watching every morning before school; 

2. We will have to do homework and spelling and whatever else with her after work since it is impossible for Popo to help (she doesn't help now and it wouldn't change in the future); and

3. We will still be very much reliant on Popo, which is something that I had been yearning to break out of.

I don't know which is better. It may be sad to have her spend 12 hours a day in school and BASC every school day but one year later (in P2), it would surely happen. When she is in the morning class I cannot imagine struggling over homework with her after work. By then, she would have been exhausted having woke up early and spent her entire afternoon playing or watching TV. She would need to go to bed early too. There is also never a too young age to start BASC. Didi would be in the morning class when he is in Primary one and he would go to BASC when he is in Primary one. Moreover, there are thousands of kids in Singapore who started childcare at a much younger age.

Thankfully, we still have some time to think about it.

Mummy Lim