Scheduled my First Tour......to a childcare centre

Wow my first tour! How exciting!

But where to?

We will be heading to Kinderland Pre School at Marine Parade.

This school provides

• Pre Nursery (Toddlers) Programme (18 mths – 2+ yrs )
• Nursery 1 Programme (2 yrs – 3 yrs )
• Nursery 2 To Kindergarten 2 Programme (4 yrs – 6 yrs )

Some parents may be looking at Infant Care. This is not available at Kinderland Pre School at Marine Parade.

The centres that provide Infant Care services are:
Kinderland @ SengKang
Kinderland @ Republic Polytechnic
Kinderland @ Hougang
Kinderland @ Ministry of National Development

Introduction to ECDA

How I came to know about ECDA weblink?

Well, the story goes...

In my list of childcare centres, My First Skool at Parkway Parade and The Little Skool House @ Outram were our top in the list.

But little did I know, I was so late.

Having registered my interest with The Little Skool House in February 2017, I was told M is in the waiting list 20 in the Q, excluding siblings of existing students.

As for My First Skool, the kind administrative staff told me to look elsewhere as there may be no vacancy for the entire year 2018. I was astounded! I couldn't believe my ears.
It actually made me panicked. It dawned to me that I should have started my search for childcare centre when M was born or maybe earlier - when I was in my third trimester!

It is as if the admin staff can sense my anxiousness, she introduced me to ECDA ChildCare Link  where I can register my interest up to 10 childcare centres. The centres will contact me and follow up on the vacancies and schedule tours etc. Excellent! Why didn't I know this? It would have save me alot of trouble.

So any parents to be, please register your interest as soon as your child is born to avoid disappointment.

Cheers!

Journey to Find the "Perfect" Childcare

Finding the right childcare centre for our little ones can be exhausting. 
For some parents, its just as simple as the nearest will do. For others, a little "detective work" is required before deciding. 

As for us, Mr W & I fall under the category of parents who will do "detective work". I did lots of googling on the childcare centres, for any reviews and even finding out more from my friends on the centres their children are attending. 

First hand reviews from friends are rare to come by, especially when its the same centres that I am considering. 

As all of us knows, nowadays there are lots of franchises.
Under the same franchise, the standard of the centres also differs. 
From the most physical - the facilities, location; to the quality of principals and teachers.

I know it is very difficult to find any reviews on certain centres. As such, I have decided to start a new blog to document my journey to find the "perfect" childcare centres. 

One may ask "Perfect"??? There is no such thing. Absolutely not. But it has to be perfect in the eye of the beholder - the PARENTS. 

Perfect in the sense of security the centre give the parents.
Perfect in the sense of comfort-ability of the centre.
Perfect in the sense of happiness parents can see from the little ones. 
Perfect in the sense of genuine love to be with children from the teachers.

Many may not agree with me. But these are relatively important. 

Long story short, we have filtered and zoom down to 7 centres. 

1. My First Skool @ Parkway Parade
2. The Little Skool House @ Outram
3. Kinderland @ Marine Parade
4. MapleBear @ Havelock
5. Carpe Diem Springs @ Spottiswoode Park
6. Mulberry Learning @ Tanjong Pagar
7. Cherie Hearts @ HarbourFront
8. St James' Church Kindergarten @ Gilstead
9. Tots & Teddies

It is not accordance to our preference.

Thus far, for the month of October, we have visited 5 centres (No. 3 to No. 7).  Many of which have minimal to zero reviews from parents. So I hope that by penning down our visit to these centre and our first impression to second; will help parents have a little knowledge on what our observations are.