Educating your child in Taiwan

Taiwan Parenting
#1

Original Title: THE PARENTING THREAD

My wife and I have a 5 year old son, who is the devil incarnate…not at all. :slight_smile: He’s a great kid, friendly, bilingual, and is now in a regular Chinese kindergarten. And he can catch and throw. :notworthy:

So, maybe that’s a good place to begin, if you do have a “mixed” or an unmixed kid (as I know there are a few of those out there too) kid, where do they go to school? Why did you choose that school? And I’m not excluding Chinese parents of Chinese kids here either. All are welcome. The more the merrier.

We put our son in a local school becuase we had good information from some Chinese parents that there were two excellent Kindergarten teachers in that school. They were right and our son has been doing very well. All his classmates call me Teacher J. as I teach them English once a week. Good teachers, pleasant environment up in Sanxia…works for us and him.

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#2

My son’s not yet 20 months, so no experience of real schools / kindys yet. However, one of the things that I’m slightly worried about is the school system in Taiwan; there seem to be a fair number of decent nursery/play groups/kindergartens about the place, but when you hit ‘real’ school, I’m not so convinced of the quality.

The stereotype of schools in Taiwan is one where there is too much pressure on the kids to learn facts, facts, facts - without actually teaching the kids to think for themselves. I know I wouldn’t want to have gone through that system, and so I’m not too keen for my son to either. The only alternative is to go for a massively expensive e.g. American school. Unfair stereotype? Or accurate? I’d be interested to hear peoples thoughts as - although it’s several years away still - it’s an issue which is currently making us think we’ll be moving back to the U.K. (or random other western country) a few years down the line.

#3

[quote=“david”]My son’s not yet 20 months, so no experience of real schools / kindys yet. However, one of the things that I’m slightly worried about is the school system in Taiwan; there seem to be a fair number of decent nursery/play groups/kindergartens about the place, but when you hit ‘real’ school, I’m not so convinced of the quality.

The stereotype of schools in Taiwan is one where there is too much pressure on the kids to learn facts, facts, facts - without actually teaching the kids to think for themselves. I know I wouldn’t want to have gone through that system, and so I’m not too keen for my son to either.[/quote]

At 20 months you have a LOT of time to prepapre for this…possible reality. I have read to my son nearly every day since he was a born. We talk about things and try to figure things out together. I’m always helping him think things through…do this for a few years and it should offset the worst parts of rote memorization.

I feel the first few years in Chinese school are spent learning to read and write Chinese characters. There are so many things my students don’t know at 10 years of age. Some times my 5 yr old knows more than they do.

At 20 months you should be getting your son to touch just about everything around him…rough, smooth, leaves, dirt…touching is very good for establishing lots of neural pathways in babes. :slight_smile:

#4

Sure, it’s not a pressing concern for me yet - but it’s already in the back of my mind (linked in to the inevitable ‘how long do i plan to be in Taiwan?’ thoughts). Your answer seems to be that good parenting can make up for any inadequacies of the education system; while I wholeheartedly agree - i’d prefer to be in a situation where good parenting would be supported by a good education system. What I was looking for was some thoughts by people who have their kids in school whether my stereotype is true or not … or whether it’s something that other parents worry about …

No problem there … it’s convincing him not to put them all into his mouth that’s harder :laughing:

#5

Actually the amount of really great educational toys for little kids, babies even, in Taiwan is staggering. We had all the baby mobile stuff and a few chew toys when our son was quite young;

Now, we get him a lot of creativity toys and games, and stuff that hopefully will teach him some good critical thinking skills: like Chinese checkers, regular checkers, connect four, those really cool small magnets and the metal balls to make shapes from, UNO.

I think the best thing to do to prepare them for schooling in Taiwan is to play with them. When my son plays with his Chinese friends, they really just run around and scream. So, it’s up to my wife and I to play Sorry! with him and do puzzles and stuff. We are just trying to give him a microcosm of how I grew up (my wife likes the games and stuff too and comments on how she did not have anything like this when she grew up).

#6

[quote=“david”]My son’s not yet 20 months, so no experience of real schools / kindys yet. However, one of the things that I’m slightly worried about is the school system in Taiwan; there seem to be a fair number of decent nursery/play groups/kindergartens about the place, but when you hit ‘real’ school, I’m not so convinced of the quality.

The stereotype of schools in Taiwan is one where there is too much pressure on the kids to learn facts, facts, facts - without actually teaching the kids to think for themselves. I know I wouldn’t want to have gone through that system, and so I’m not too keen for my son to either… [/quote]

We knew we’d be here for 4 years and weighed up international vs. local and thought we’d give local a try. We have discovered that while a large part of local schooling is rote learning of characters and grammar it is not all hell. My daughters (6 & 9) are happier in their school than their one back home. They have gone from no Mandarin to growing fluency in 8 months. They have made friends and are accepted in the local community. On Sunday we did the local music school recital thing(aargh :astonished:) We feel that these years and the language experience will far outweigh being taught in the two foreign curricula taught atInternational schools in Taipei schools - we aren’t American or British. Maybe we are lucky but we are very happy with our elementary school. High school would be a different matter entirely.

#7

Full English or bilingual kindergarten better for kids of foreigners?

Government school or private school?

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#8

[quote=“Ke di er”]Full English or bilingual kindergarten better for kids of foreigners?

Government school or private school?

Wow, a parenting forum[/quote]

It’s wonderful isn’t it? :slight_smile:

Honestly, I would wait as long as I could before putting a child into either full English or bilingual kindies…the mills as it were…unless I worked there.

I have worked in some of the private kindies and I was unimpressed by the overall quality of the care. If you have the time, keep them home as long as possible. You can do a better job edumicating them by yourself IMHO.

Ah, and welcome!

#9

Thanks for the welcome.

What about the half day kindies operated by local elementary schools?

#10

Jnr Boggle. Great game from Toys are Us. Available in HsinZhu Toys R Us in Wind dance mall. Kids get letter recognition and spelling from the game.

#11

I love the Leapfrog stuff…soon I will buy one for the boy.

#12

I heard that the International Schools cost around $60,000nt per month per child. I have a sixteen year old who may spend a year here next year.

Any other suggestions? I don’t really have the money for that.

She doesn’t speak any Chinese and I don’t think she would thrive in an environment where she has difficulty communicating.

I know many of the Taiwanese teens speak English, but what about the teaching in the local schools? Is it all in Mandarin?

#13

The international schools here are very good. My kids go the the British section of the European School. The teachers are very good and the British curriculum is rather rigorous (poor bastards).

We live in Mucha so we have a number of very good local schools to choose from - but in the end we decided not to. It can be difficult to get a space for the local schools even if you live in the area - I had to do a lot of gift givin to school heads.

#14

We had our boy in a local public school for most of this year (first grade). It was, for the most part, an unhealthy experience. 2000 kids in the school, no playground supervision, bullying etc. Also the teacher would chastize anyone who got less than 90% on their tests. My son came home disheartened and unhappy more days than not.

Then we found a “forest school” 森林小學 which is much more relaxed and focussed on learning by experience. That’s not to say that they don’t write characters and study math etc. but they do a lot more in the way of nature hikes etc. They have a pottery studio on site and the class sizes are really small. My son is in a class of 17 students, and the teacher follows the kids through the first three years.

There is a real community feeling to it, and the parents I have met have been great, and very welcoming. Now he comes home happy every day, and is much more relaxed in general. This is a public school, so the English class is very very basic. We give him homework on our own to keep up his English skills.

I wouldn’t wish the first experience he had with public school on anyone, but this new school is great.

#15

[quote=“Ke di er”]Thanks for the welcome.

What about the half day kindies operated by local elementary schools?[/quote]

That would depend on who recommends them. We rely on our students’ parents for the latest information on who’s got a good program.

We may have to start asking around again as one of our son’s teachers is leaving this summer…the feeling is that half the class will leave because of that…even though the other teacher is quite good as well.

#16

I would never put my child into a private kindergarten, unless I owned it and even then I’d have my concerns. However, the government ones are well equipped, cheap, and have qualified staff. In addition, they have restrictions on how much crap they are allowed to drum into your kids.

#17

What freaks me out is what happens if your kid doesn’t get a good kindy education in Chinese. Many elementary school don’t teach the basics anymore because they feel all the kids know it from Kindy.

So, does that mean that if your kid doesn’t get the “crap” that they drum into them in kindies then they’ll be called a dunce in elementary school?

#18

[quote=“Ke di er”]What freaks me out is what happens if your kid doesn’t get a good kindy education in Chinese. Many elementary school don’t teach the basics anymore because they feel all the kids know it from Kindy.

So, does that mean that if your kid doesn’t get the “crap” that they drum into them in kindies then they’ll be called a dunce in elementary school?[/quote]

Hence the great need for parents to pick up the slack at home. My wife and I just visited a a public kindergarten today because our son’s teaching team is splitting up (two excellent teachers). She thought it was so typical and stale. We’ll keep the boy in the mountain school with (at least) one great teacher, cleaner environment…at least when he goes out to play, he’ll see mountains and trees and butterflies.

Kids early learning is really hit or miss in Taiwan. Don’t fall behind is all I can say.