Julia Gabriel PlayClub - First Lesson

When Clairene was reaching 18 months, we were considering to send her to either a playgroup or childcare centre. Seeing that she is a fast learner and loves hanging out with other kids, we thought she should start her formal lessons soon, rather than spending most of her time watching TV at home. Well, there weren't many good choices in Yishun and we did go round to visit a few centres but the only one I like has no more vacancies.

I also had another concern that if we send her to a childcare centre shortly after her sister was born, she might feel "abandoned". When one of my friends suggested that I sign up for those parent-accompanied classes instead, I thought it's a great idea and started sourcing around. After reading many reviews of parents from forums and personal blogs, I decided on the ever popular Julia Gabriel's PlayClub & the Shichida class. Since I've decided not to work for at least half a year to spend more time with the girls, I could opt for the weekday classes. Thank God, I managed to secure a place for Clairene at both schools to start her lessons in June/July so we could complete at least 2 terms of lessons together.

Of course, what hurts is the high course fees - I have to pay over $1,000 for only 10 weeks of lessons at each school. The other problem is the travelling time but I figured that going anywhere from my house is inconvenient anyway since it's not near the MRT station. Sigh!!! I miss my old home at Toa Payoh Central whenever I have to travel to places alone with Clairene.

Finally, after much anticipation, Clairene was going for her first lesson at JGC at Forum The Shopping Mall today. She carried her new backpack given by her gu-gu and would be wearing a new art smock from Ikea. I have also dressed her up all in pink for the occasion. It's pouring when I reached Orchard MRT station but I was well-prepared (for once). I have bought a rain cover for her stroller as there's no shelter from the MRT station to Forum and it came in useful from Day 1.

Clairene is joining the 11.30am PlayClub class - each session is 2 hours long and a maximum of 10 pairs of toddlers and accompanying adults is allowed for this class. The lessons are conducted twice a week - every Wednesday & Friday. The ages of the children range between 18 months - 3½ years. For Clairene's group, there was a total of 8 kids who turn up on the first day. I was quite pleased to see that there are 3 instructors assigned to the class which is a very good teacher-student ratio.

We arrived quite early so I brought her to the toilet first. There's only one kid-sized toilet cubicle and basin. The other two are adult-sized but step stools are provided at the basins. Then the 2 of us waited patiently outside her classroom/studio, sitting on the bench and eating some biscuits for about 15 minutes. When the door opened at around 11.30am, the kids and adults entered one-by-one. The instructors helped the children apply hand sanitizer and checked their feet carefully (I guess, for possible symptons of hand-foot-mouth disease). The children and adults have to wear socks during lessons.

Well, the first 15 minutes is free playtime, with some simple blocks, puzzles and books placed on the playmat for the children to explore on their own. The instructors also used the time to do some simple interaction with the kids. For new students like Clairene, they were given a fun (student) pass and they got to choose their own colour. The instructor helped to write her name on the card, guide her to pronounce her own name and drop the student card into a letter box.

After the play time, the instructors took out some trays and directed the kids to sort and keep the toys properly. They sang a "Hello" song together and then the instructors took out the fun passes from the letter box. They read out the names one-by-one and everyone else was encouraged to say "hello" to the person whose name was being called out.

After the greeting session, the children were asked to look around the classroom and the instructors pointed out the pictures hanging from the ceiling. The theme for this term is "Out At Sea" and there were pictures of jellyfish, fish, sharks, seaweed and divers all over the classroom. Then they also introduced the letter "D" for this lesson. Since the theme is about sea creatures, the instructor taught the kids one animal that begins with the letter D - Dolphin! The printout of the letter D and a dolphin had already been pasted on the notice boards and the children were asked to look for them. Clairene was able to say "There! There!" when she spotted them.

Next up was the craft session. The instructor showed the children how they were going to paint a dolphin cut-out by mixing grey and white paints and a paper plate which represents the ocean with blue paint.The whole process was quite orderly when the children did the craft work. Children who had completed their craft work faster could continue to play with the toys again on the playmat. With some help, Clairene managed to complete her dolphin craft but she was still quite bothered with the paint stains on her fingers. The paint came off quite easily when washed with water and soap.

After all the kids had washed their hands and put away the toys, it's the "Magic Box" time. The instructors took out a covered box and asked the children to guess what's inside the box - is it a dinosaur, a duck or a doughnut? (All beginning with letter D.) All the kids took turns to guess and Clairene guessed it's a duck. None of the above 3 items was the correct answer and the instructor gave the hint by barking so a few of the kids were able to guess correctly that it's a dog. He took out a dog hand puppet with the letter "Dd" sewn on it. Then they sang a couple of songs with the puppet and after which, they re-introduced the word "dolphin". The children took turns to pass around and look at 2 small toy dolphins after the instructor named some of their body parts, like eyes, fins and tails.

Clairene enjoyed the next activity very much. The kids were told how to make the toy dolphins jump up and down. The instructors took out 2 big drums and placed one dolphin on each of them. The kids split into 2 groups and gathered around the drums and beat on the drums together. Clairene couldn't stop giggling throughout the whole activity. At the same time, the kids were taught that the sound for letter "D" is similar to the sound of beating drums (de-de-de).

Then it was snack time. The kids went to wash their hands again and queued up to collect their food (apple slices, cheese cubes and biscuits) from the instructor. They were reminded to use the phrases "thank you" and "please". Another instructor went round serving the drinks and the kids got to choose between plain water and apple juice. After eating, the adults had to guide the kids to throw the rubbish into a bin and place their used plates and mugs onto the collection table.

After food, it's story time. The story for the day was "Don't Do That!" by Tony Ross. An interesting story of how a girl poked her finger into her nose but could not get it out and had to ask different people for help. Thankfully the insructor did not read the entire story, word-for-word, from the big book cos' the children's attention span really isn't that long. Clairene got restless after a short while but I still managed to keep her still by pointing out all the funny actions which the instructors did to act out the story.

The kids then took a break from the lesson and went out to a small play corner outside their studio. They had about 15 minutes of free play time. Clairene went from the cars to the toy house to the rocking horse and to her favourite slide.

She spent most of the time going up and down the slide and had lots of fun, especially the part when the instructor caught her as she slid down and carried her high up into the air. She was so thrilled.

Most of the time, I just stood behind her and let her interact on her own with the other kids and the instructors. I only interrupted her when I needed to remind her to look out for the other kids and to take turns playing the toys.

The last part of the lesson was music. The instructors sang a few action songs and of course, the adults had to do the movements together with the kids. Clairene enjoyed this session too, especially when singing the la-la-la song. When they sang the jungle song, she was also able to say out different names of animals when the instructors asked the kids to choose the animals which they wanted to sing about.

The whole 2-hour session ended with a Goodbye song. I would say Clairene had lots of fun today. Certainly it beats watching television for hours at home.

She didn't learn many new words since she's already been taught many sea animals at home when I read storybooks with her and she already knows the entire alphabet too. However, the interaction is superb as the instructors are all very well-trained and I also get to bond with her through play. It's good that she also picks up good habits like putting away toys after playing which is pretty hard to reinforce at home but she enjoys doing it when following the other kids and adults. The craft work is something simple enough which we can also do it at home but I dislike the thought of clearing up the mess. To me, the free play and snack time is also quite redundant but I guess it's a good break for the kids in-between lessons. For a season and for Clairene's age now, I think it's worth paying for such classes. But I don't think I'll continue such lessons for her when she hits 2½ years old since she probably won't gain much learning from them.