Prep prior to Nursery - Dadzone

[Mikisteel]

Our son shall go to a local nursery for 3 months beginning October but the plan is to move him to a better one next year. Just want him close for those first couple of months:

 

We have been prepping him a fair bit but I'm after more info from other parents here in los.

 

He's 2.5 years old so:

 

He wears 1 nappy a day and rarely soils it. Down from 4 nappies everyday for 2.4 years (saves us about 30 baht a day)

He wears pants this last 2 months he has trouble pulling them down so he panics his mom for help.

We have a mini kids toilet, great device.

 

He knows the English alphabet visually and chronologically through sight, he probably can remember half from memory it's not something we looked at much.

 

He can recognise 5-6 Thai alphabet letters we began prioritising this just last 2 weeks. We do not teach him all letters at once. We just do 2-3 at a time and repeat. 

 

We do that alphabet training just before lunch and dinner every weekday.

He knows numbers upto about 9 in English

 

He knows numbers upto about 6 in Thai

 

He does not talk too often but he can sometimes babble on and he has a very good grasp of words.

 

Colours, cars, trucks, animals, fruits, he has a lot in English. 100+ words easy.

 

In Thai He speaks the colours perfectly. 5-6 colours. A few words hut more English I think.

 

He is just learning to share.

 

He understands the word naughty and responds to this when he is naughty.

 

He wais on request or whenever he wants something. 

 

We cut his phone time down as he was not learning anything new and once he figured out how to change the video we noticed this was affecting his attention span. So he does not see a phone until 1.5 hours before bed now. Blippi on YouTube is pretty good.

 

Initially, the phone really helped him pick stuff up.

 

Things he has not began include crayons and colouring pens. He types and speaks letters on my pc but it's a fun thing nothing serious good for repetition.

 

He goes to the local park for 1 hour with his mom every day.

 

We have him in a routine which is good for both him and mom IMO.

 

8.30 he gets up.

Washes face, wee, drinks milk

8.45 eats breakfast

9.15 Toilet

9.20  Play for 20 mins

9.40  10.30 reads book with mom

10.30 10.45 playtime

10.45 11.30 reads more and a little snack.

11.30 playtime with cartoons on whilst mom prepares their lunch.

12 12.30 alphabets and then lunch

12.30 12.50 - playtime

12.50 14.30 sleep

14.30 toilet

14.35 14.50 milk and watch cartoons

14.50 15.45 reads book with mom

15 45 16.45 playtime 

16.45 17.45 park with friends

17.45 18.15 relax with dad

18.15 alphabet

18.20 dinner

18.50 shower

18.50 20.00 relax with dad

20.00 - 21.30 phone time

21.30 bedtime

 

We created this system a month or so ago and he has been great, it was the phone and ease of changing videos. Since then I've seen him adapt and soak up so much info.

 

I think this routine is important and will prepare him for nursery better but I'm open to any ideas or learning materials.

 

I'm not interested in giving the kid a break or his mom.

 

They both need systematic approach. 

 

One thing he struggles with is chewing, he was never given a dummy so maybe this is a cause.

 

He has a gag reflex or more recently will pick food out his mouth.

 

I'm not too concerned I see a small improvement. He eats loads but always mushy stuff.

 

I would love to hear from other guys with the same junctions or previous journeys here in Thailand.

 

Questions I have:

 

Anything catch you out when your kid went to Nursery? Learning etc?

 

Extracurricular stuff: when did your kid begin learning stuff in a group like football, boxing etc?

 

Our child has never worn flip flops should we begin this was it difficult for the child?

[FritsSikkink]

I think you should plan a lot less and give him some freedom. When he goes to nursery he will need to go to bed a lot earlier.

[richard_smith237]

Your Son's development seems spot on - you have nothing worry about.... 

 

The only difference we made was not to have the 'screen time' (phone time) too close to bed time. 

Our Son (now 5) is permitted a device as and when its convenient for us (especially on flights, in the car etc and sometimes in a restaurant if he's been well behaved and we're dragging on a little with friends etc)... but if he shows any form of behavioral change towards the iPad (i.e. demanding it or becoming dependent etc) we cut the time down - he usually gets about 30mins to 1hr per day on a tablet (iPad) depending on our activities. 

- Our son used to love Blipply, In the Night Garden, Bing, Pocoyo, Peppa etc... 

- Or son also loves things like Ryans Toy reviews + plenty of other learning Apps and YouTube shows... there are a lot out there (some of it rubbish, some of it excellent). 

 

Nursery / Kindergarten is excellent for kids - from 2 yrs old our son went to a local International School for 3 mornings per week which increased slowly to full time by the age of 4. 

He starts this year at a Major International School (Bangkok Patana) for which he required an assessment for entry, he seemed well prepared and appears to be looking forwards to starting his Year 1. 

 

Extra Curricular: Since the Age of 4 our son has done after-school football, Swimming and Lego, recently he wanted to do cooking. 

Our son has also attended Extra curricular Thai classes for a year now (once per week which we will step up to twice per week this year).

 

Flip Flops: They'll get it, we only wear these when heading to the pool etc...  

Never worn crocks (never will !!)... wears trainers etc or solid footwear when out (for escalator safety etc).

 

Car - Car seat 100% of the time (when traveling out and about this becomes tricky, but a device called a Mifold (portable car seat) is small and convenient). 

 

 

 

[Mikisteel]

Just now, FritsSikkink said:

I think you should plan a lot less and give him some freedom. When he goes to nursery he will need to go to bed a lot earlier.

Regarding bed time: obviously if he has to get up earlier we can tweak his bed time to ensure he gets 12 hours.

 

Freedom - he gets freedom to do as he pleases at playtime and park time.  This structure is to ensure he can adapt to the nursery structure easily.

 

 

[JaiLai]

Is he going to be a soldier, his routine seems very 'regimental'