Sonia has a post up about how she is being questioned by strangers as to why her 2.5 yr old is NOT going to any preschool. I thought I will throw in my 3 cents about the topic as well. I have been wanting to write about co-op preschools. A co-op preschool is very different from the regular preschool. You dont just walk your child to the door, hand her over and come back in 3 hours. Not in a co-op preschool, you are the janitor, you clean bathrooms. You are the teacher, you lead science experiments. you are the chef, you have snack projects. You have to be comfortable around kids and their parents. You learn how to make 3 yr old share. Co-op is not for everyone.
I started co-op with Avasha. That co-op was a lite one compared to the current one. My current one, parents work one day in the class, There are jobs that every parent has. Not to mention the 12 volunteer hours the parent HAS to fulfill.
There is something very interesting I noticed with all th years of co-oping under my belt. I am almost always the sole Indian parent. One of the biggest reasons I think is because most co-ops follow a play based philosophy. There is very little or no writing or reading. There are stations set up, play dough, an easel and paints, outside area with bean bags, dress up area with costumes, kitchen with pots and pan and I can go on and on. The kids are allowed to go from one station to the other.
This is why Indian(Asian) parents tend to shy away. Most(I am not saying all but most) want the kids to do reading and writing. They want the kids to have homework. They dont want the play based programme. I understand wanting to give your child the best educational edge there is but to put pressure on a 3-4-5 yr old is something I am not willing to do. They learn in so many ways that one is required to sit down and do actual reading and writing. For example, my dentist has a basket of dino toys to give out as treats and she was so impressed that Samar knows the difference between a tyrannosaurus and a broncosaurus.
Tell me what you think about play based preschools versus the more traditional preschools.
I personally like a happy medium. Last year E was in a community preschool at our rec centre and it was fantastic. She went 5 hrs a week ( starting at just shy of 3 years of age) and it was mostly guided play but somehow without pressuring the kids at all they worked in letters, phonics, manners, citizenship and all this in 2 languages! I never once felt she was being pushed or it was at all heavy handed. By the end of the year she was writing her name, cutting out shapes with her scissors, and above all else in love with school and learning. This year she has been in our towns pre-k programme, and while its fine, I find it inferior to her experience last year.
This year she brought home homework for the first time ( just once, but still….shes just turned FOUR!) and it was a hellacious task to get her to do it. She could do all the exercises, it wasnt that, its simply at four I dont believe they are ready to sit still at home and focus on it. And to be honest I think it was for the parents benefit, I think parents expect to see homework and can maybe better keep track or judge the scope of their childrens progress by seeing it in black and white. Those types of parents I would imagine the co-op route is not for them
Me: Homework at 4!! I remember it on your FB status.
My daughter goes to a pre school. She is 3 and her traditional daycare is set similar to what you described. There is a kitchen, a costume area etc and there is a corner with a book rack that they call library. But there is no structured learning that takes place. I have heard that Montessori schools that most Indian children go to, don’t have any reading-writing at their age either.
My theory about lack of Indian in co-op schools is most of us just do what everyone else is doing (Montessori) because its tried and tested, others like me are just plain lazy and a co-op sounds too much work and of course it requires stepping out of our comfort zones not only in terms of the non conforming method but also in terms of interacting with non desi people on a social basis. And then the whole point of sending a 2-3 year old away is to get a few hours to yourself (oh, I already mentioned lazy, didn’t I).Just reading about what a co-op entails made me want to take a nap (and I just woke up).
I am mostly talking about myself here
so no offense to any one else. These are the reasons why I might shy away from a co-op if I were staying at home. I know you will say we should not live in ghettos and mix up with others as well. And I agree. But it does take time, sometimes years.
Me: You crack me up. The co-op Samar goes to, I get my 2.5 hours free every week. And next year, he will go 3 days and I will only have to work 1 day. I do feel that when XYZ is doing somethng, the whole desi gang does it as well. Case in point–Kumon(no offense to anyone reading who brings their child to it)
That is so interesting!
Here in the UK, we have nurseries from the age of 3 and reception from the age of 4. In the nurseries, the format is pretty much what you outlined. Children having fun and learning through all that. My daughter has painting, messy play, out door play and stuff. I hear a lot of Indian parents saying that they find schools useless because all they do is play – no reading or writing. But I think my daughter is picking up a lot of stuff with this play – without the pressure but with all the enjoyment – and I would have it no other way. She loves school – which is not what I hear from some friends back in India.. So if I had an option, I would go for this form of studying..
Me: Thats what I love about this school as well. That my kids wake up each morning and ask do I have school today and if its a not school day, they actually get upset and want to go to school. Both boys loved my working day because it meant bringing something from home for show n tell. The object would choosen with such care and thought. Samar now asks his older brother, can I bring this to show Teacher N..
ok i didnt read the post but DUDE. those jeans are LOOSE ON YOU NOW!
Me: I know!!
I lived in South Asia when I was little. My mother was pressured to send me to ‘nursery school’ at 3. On the first day I came home with a syllabus and the first question there was “who is the maker of the world?”. Homework was so complicated – too much to memorise.
She decided I needed to take more of the play approach. I never went back to that school. I was 5 1/2 when I joined grade 1. By then I was reading at an 8 year old level. My mother had made books and number play so much fun I don’t even remember actually learning it. I never went to kimon or tuition outside school hours throughout my school life. I knew how much I needed to do and never felt pressured. My parents never told me what I should be when I grew up. None of that “you should be a Doctor” stuff. I know that my parent’s attitude to learning and study enriched my life. When people would panic during exam time in my under grad years and through Law school – I never did. I knew why I was there and learnt most of it long before exam time.
I think your co-op method is great. It is a healthy way to introduce the love of learning to children. This will benefit our kids in the future.
Me: Your mom must be so proud of you.
What about working parents in the co-op setup?
Me: We have Working from home moms and moms who work part time. And some dads who work in the co-op. So yes it will take some organizing but sure, working parents do the co-op as well.
Oh! That sounds lovely! But I hear you about it being far away from people’s comfort zone. This week the after school programme she goes to has asked parents to put up a show for the children (for Children’s Day on Nov 14th). I am really racking my brains about what to do! And its just ONCE in the entire year that the parents have been asked to do something other than just drop kids off…. Nevertheless, I like this idea of co-op, and would have surely sent mine there if it was available to me.
Me: A show.. So do you have individual acts or the parents get together and do it as group? You need to blog about this and your role in it all. Ohh oh oh I know… organize a basketball game, parents versus teachers and let the kids decide who they are going to cheer for.
Hmm good post. I do agree with what you mentioned. I worked in co-op schools for a year plus and maybe only saw one or two indian parents. One who became my really good friend ( she was born in US) and the other just moved from Hyderbad or some other place. The latter one did tell me herself that none of the indian parents want to have their child in co-ops as there is no learning. Just playing, something they can do at home. But really, these parents tend to forget that children learn best through play and at the same time they too can get some socilization and learn from these parents. I have met many such indian parents that a time came when I just smiled and said, “maybe you are right!”.
A quote that I love, “tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” (So very true).
Me: Love the quote. You so smart!
co-op to me sounds a lot like Montessori with more parent involvement. My kids did Montessori till they were ready for kindergarten and totally loved it.
sraikh, ha ha! I can see that gang playing basketball! half of them are proper maamis with turmeric in their feet and the other half are Gucci-Pucci types who will be afraid of chipping nails. Plus many of the kids are really small. I am thinking of singing something (simple) which can involve the audience (i.e. kids), and really hoping that my husband will join me in the endeavour as he is good with kids when he wants to be. , plus then we don’t need a microphone. After you wrote that I went and asked them, and they said, no, no need for the parents to co-ordinate, each ‘family’ can go ahead and do what they want. Which, frankly, is a relief, as I don’t have to talk to anyone else (except my husband
Me: I quite like the Gucci-Pucci term
Good luck with your act.
I think people are perpetually worried what will happen when we move back to India? This, when a lot of schools these days in India are themselves moving away from the rote learning model.
I like Montessori very very much, strangely it’s considered very academic in the US, whereas I feel it’s really intelligent play based learning. And children do learn best by play.
bit of both…but then again who says you cant learn when u r having fun?
It is interesting. We fell into a coop preschool by chance. The shows I was working on in L.A. were not renewed and I found myself as an out of work television writer. We moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area. My wife was working for a company that allowed her to work from home and I was looking for a job in the Bay Area.
We were looking for something to put my little daughter in and someone mentioned a Coop preschool. My wife looked into and signed us up. I did not know at the time that she intended for me to be the volunteer parent.
I reluctantly attended and sat outside with a cup of coffee while the children played. It is hard to just sit there and do nothing when the children also want you to play with them and I started slowly playing simple games.
As the weeks went on, I make up more and more games for the kids. I did know that I had in me to connect in such a way with the children.
I also did not know that coop preschool also teach parents through modeling how to improve their own parenting skills. The once a week evening meeting brought us parents in contact with all sorts of early childhood educators.
It was the perfect environment for me as I started developing a new preschool tv show, “Cubbie the Cable Car.”
There is a clip of it above. Everything in the show is based from the teachings of coop preschools.
If you have an opportunity to be a parent in a coop preschool, I would strongly, strongly recommend that you do it. It will forever change your outlook on parenting and further add to your relationship to your little one.