Preschool Education In Chiang Mai - Parents Views Please

[rakchaingmai]

Napa and Nava are 2 different places Nava is a language school .

[elektrified]

We send our son to NAPA. Although it advertises as bilingual it is heavily Thai based and a child with no Thai may struggle. The standards and facilities are good and the care for the young children is excellent. The education is very much 'old fashioned' so standards of behaviour are taught which we very much like but others might not. Our son is 3 years old and equally proficient in both English and Thai having been . The school educates the children as well as giving play and creativity.

May I ask what the tuition is? Thank you.

[james24]

Napa and Nava are 2 different places Nava is a language school .

yes thats true, Nava is an "apparent" language school but like I say not too hot

[bluweyze]

We send our son to NAPA. Although it advertises as bilingual it is heavily Thai based and a child with no Thai may struggle. The standards and facilities are good and the care for the young children is excellent. The education is very much 'old fashioned' so standards of behaviour are taught which we very much like but others might not. Our son is 3 years old and equally proficient in both English and Thai having been . The school educates the children as well as giving play and creativity.

May I ask what the tuition is? Thank you.

The tuition is a now 1.5 hours a day English (previously 1 hour a day) numbers, alphabet, colours, simple words etc. There is Thai language including reading and writing.Creativity (arts and crafts) Computer skills and sports and of course play. In the earlier years it is social stuff like cleaning teeth..I think it is maximum 8 children per teacher, the day starts with breakfast, includes lunch and a sleep.

It is not for everyone (and some people think education at this age is unnecessary but each to his own views) and we supplement our son's English ourselves with reading but overall we are very pleased with it and my son loves it. Outside of the English lessons nearly all conversation is in Thai.

[elektrified]

We send our son to NAPA. Although it advertises as bilingual it is heavily Thai based and a child with no Thai may struggle. The standards and facilities are good and the care for the young children is excellent. The education is very much 'old fashioned' so standards of behaviour are taught which we very much like but others might not. Our son is 3 years old and equally proficient in both English and Thai having been . The school educates the children as well as giving play and creativity.

May I ask what the tuition is? Thank you.

The tuition is a now 1.5 hours a day English (previously 1 hour a day) numbers, alphabet, colours, simple words etc. There is Thai language including reading and writing.Creativity (arts and crafts) Computer skills and sports and of course play. In the earlier years it is social stuff like cleaning teeth..I think it is maximum 8 children per teacher, the day starts with breakfast, includes lunch and a sleep.

It is not for everyone (and some people think education at this age is unnecessary but each to his own views) and we supplement our son's English ourselves with reading but overall we are very pleased with it and my son loves it. Outside of the English lessons nearly all conversation is in Thai.

Thank so much for that. What is the cost per term or per year?

[bluweyze]

We send our son to NAPA. Although it advertises as bilingual it is heavily Thai based and a child with no Thai may struggle. The standards and facilities are good and the care for the young children is excellent. The education is very much 'old fashioned' so standards of behaviour are taught which we very much like but others might not. Our son is 3 years old and equally proficient in both English and Thai having been . The school educates the children as well as giving play and creativity.

May I ask what the tuition is? Thank you.

The tuition is a now 1.5 hours a day English (previously 1 hour a day) numbers, alphabet, colours, simple words etc. There is Thai language including reading and writing.Creativity (arts and crafts) Computer skills and sports and of course play. In the earlier years it is social stuff like cleaning teeth..I think it is maximum 8 children per teacher, the day starts with breakfast, includes lunch and a sleep.

It is not for everyone (and some people think education at this age is unnecessary but each to his own views) and we supplement our son's English ourselves with reading but overall we are very pleased with it and my son loves it. Outside of the English lessons nearly all conversation is in Thai.

Thank so much for that. What is the cost per term or per year?

It is about 73000 per year (36500 per term).When we joined there were no joining fees, I'm not sure of the current situation.

[tango]

My granddaughter is attending a Thai-government pre-school in a village. She will be moving to Cmai as soon as her father sorts out a new house. Pre-schooling is a great head start if one gets the right school, so I thank you all for your comments.

I suggested that it might be worthwhile to enroll her in a Chinese school such as the school on the super highway to Bangkok, just as you leave ChiangMai on the right. She already knows Thai ( as much as a 5-year old can), she can practice English at home, and Chinese Mandarin for example might be an even bigger plus in a few years.

Is anyone aware of suitable Chinese-centered schools catering to pre-schoolers, plus any pros and cons?

As an aside, I've recently visited friends who have a Thai-run pre-school/child care/baby care house across from them in their housing estate. It runs from 8AM to 5PM five days per week and seems to be essentially a baby-sitting establishment. It is very noisy, especially the 'staff/care-ers' shouting out the Thai alphabet, etcetera with the children replying in chorus. From 12 to 3PM there is not a sound nor movement from anyone including teachers - no conversation, no radio, no TV, no 'teachers' leaving for lunch and returning,... nothing. Shortly afer 3PM there is an explosion of activity as the children start to play outside, and the staff begin hanging bath towels to dry on the balconies.

Is this what Thais term a preschool?

Is there a stipulated 'curriculum', lunch time, sleep time for all such pre-schools?

[DavidOxon]

My little darling goes to a delightful Thai school on the canal road that teaches maths and science in English (along with English of course!) Nearly all Thai kids with a few thai/farang kids.

Baan Khun Mae it is called

David

[nikster]

FWIW we still love the CM Montessori school, now that we've evacuated to the south our son is asking about it every day, he's missing it so much.

I guess it would go a bit too far to discuss young children's education here but it always amazes me that people apparently think it's important they learn maths, and oh the ABC, all the time, because if they don't learn it when they're 3 years old they'll probably never learn it right? that's the fear... Or maybe if they learn it at 3, they'll be super geniuses. Either justification seems absurd to me, yet that's what parents want - maybe because they like simple, countable results.

I think the most important thing to teach children is creativity, to think freely, and to become no-limits people - people who are better at creating their own rules than following others'.

As for the montessori approach it's certainly an interesting one - some take their kids out as they think it's not serious enough - they are too much in love with the ABCs which they also learn at montessori but at their own pace, rather than rote - I sometimes think it might be too serious. Recently my wife bought a puzzle game for our 4 year old - not too complicated, maybe 30 pieces. He sat down and after about 5 minutes of concentrated work (this is what they learn at montessori) he had solved it. So we got him a much bigger one. This is a 4 year old mind you, and like any 4 year old he likes to run, scream, jump on the furniture, and cause all sorts of havoc. None of that, he was working on this puzzle unattended for about 30 minutes and finished it. I am happy he's smart enough to solve puzzles - but I am truly amazed he'd actually sit down and concentrate for that long. That's something he learned at montessori, no doubt.

As for teaching and learning skills - I think they've got far more important things to learn at this age, things that are not easily categorized. I saw a talk recently about toddlers developing, testing, and dismissing theories about how things work, and these toddlers did this at a rate that would make any scientist jealous. The young brain's development is WAY more sophisticated than memorizing facts.

"Babies and young children are like the R&D division of the human species," says psychologist Alison Gopnik. Her research explores the sophisticated intelligence-gathering and decision-making that babies are really doing when they play."

The other end of this argument is various videos I found of young babies - and these seem to all be Japanese - doing things like: Playing the Violin (at 2). Doing Math (2). Writing (2). Google it, there's videos to prove it. The point is you can make your babies do all kinds of unbelievable things at a very young age - but while doing that you're preventing them from learning more important (and age-appropriate) things that the would learn when they play...