What to expect in a kindergarten?

maggege

What are the exercises? Does a kindergarten provides an extra and optional classes like additional language or something like that?

Moonbeam

What age is the child ? Do you mean play school or Montessori or crèche?

eviltimeban

Some do. Our creche have an Irish class, well its not really a class, they just do certain things in Irish and learn words and stuff.

mumsy79

Kindergarten is different to playschool or Montessori and work under a completely different routine/structure to how the afore mentioned are run. I would recommend Montessori before Kindergarten because it has a specific structure in that it prepares your child for school, but that's just my opinion! They need a good two years in a Montessori to get the benefits. Like I said there's a very structured pattern to Montessori, unlike kindergarten, but its extremely manipulative, in the sense, a child will go to a unit and start picking up objects and 'toys' without even realising that its teaching them, its the curious nature of the childs mind that makes Montessori work. No child is EVER forced,

Maria Montessori's method may have been structured but she was a big believer in independence because often the children pick up the Montessori utensils without realising it. (She got locked out of her classroom once and while the children waited for her to get inside, she realised that through observation, the children didn't wreck the classroom, or go for the toys that they used during free play, they went for the utensils that Montessori herself had specifically designed to improve certain areas such as maths). I even found through my observations, which I have at home, that I 100% agree with her, because children actually WANT to learn. One example would be in the 'Practical Life Skills' module, we found a huge increase in the confidence of children who might have dropped their rice krispies, but then they were shown where their own little dustpan and brush are and they are shown how to sweep it up themselves. You can start 'Playschool' then from as young as 1 (normally after a child has started walking - they wont take a child who's entirely dependant on them because it restricts the amount of care required for other children. I'd get booking soon to be honest. Best of luck