Bumblebees

Katy attends a Montessori playgroup every Monday morning. Mama thinks Montessori suits Katy the best, because it allow more independent play, but the playgroup is all in English with only a little bit of Cantonese. Katy does not like to be told what to do and to sit still etc. She doesn't normally like group activities as much. But she started with this Montessori playgroup when there were only 3-4 kids, so she has grown used to the new kids as the group slowly expanded.

Mama loves that the teachers take photos each month so we can all take a peek at what the kids get up to during Playgroup. This is a selection of the April photos.

Montessori emphasises skills-based play, like rolling a ball to each other...

as well as creative play...



They have special equipment to allow the kids to develop life skills like pouring water...

washing...

sorting shapes and sizes...

as well as practicing general fine and gross motor skills like arranging marbles...

and using tweezers...
Of course, there is the usual circle time with songs and movements, which Katy loves.


Although she finds it a little difficult to sit still during circle time!
Katy has been much better about going to school since we dropped Sugar N Spice on Tuesday mornings. We don't really know why, whether it is because of our negotiation (if she complains, we tell her Sugar N Spice will come back on the schedule), freeing up one more morning, Sugar N Spice being too many kids for her to cope with, the style...we just don't know. She actually looks forward to DMK classes (she asks to put on her uniform so that might be it!) and is ok with Bumblebees. We sure are glad we've moved on from the tears and clinging that used to be a feature of "going to school". Hopefully it will be a smooth transition when Katy goes to real school (Kindergarten 1) in September every morning for 3 hours.