It’s no secret that children learn the quickest during their early childhood years, and it’s up to their parents to leverage on it, for taking full advantage of this critical window of time will pave the way for bigger achievements and simply more opportunities for their future.
Established since 2008 at Tropicana Golf & Country Resort, Kindyland is an academic based kindergarten set up to ensure that little ones acquire the kind of early education that is needed during these modern times to emerge fully prepared for the challenges schooling life is bound to present. Kiddy123 was met by the principal of the Kindyland’s outlet in Tropicana Gardens Mall (TGM) Madam Robita.
As much as play is important to little children while growing up, at the back of their minds, parents do somehow realise that it should not completely trump out academics, especially during the time when children pick up lessons really quickly and efficiently. Parents who think this way tend to favour what Kindyland has to offer for young, impressionable minds. “We provide a combined curriculum for the benefit of the different age group here at Kindyland” the principal revealed. “We start off with a Montessori-inspired teaching style for the youngest age group. As they grow through their ages, their needs will change and so will our teaching methods. By the time they reach the age of six, students here will be well prepared for any kind of school that they are about to be enrolled in,” she continued. Students should also be able to have a seamless transition from here to their respective schools.
Kindyland is a trilingual kindergarten, with a focus on English (the main medium), and Mandarin, with adequate exposure to Bahasa Malaysia as the national language as well. While the students are exposed to all three languages as part of their core curriculum, additional after-school Mandarin programmes are also offered at Kindyland. After all, children who are set to be enrolled into Chinese schools will need to be proficient in the language.
Progressing Through Ages 3 to 6
Being sensitive to the learning needs of little ones, especially during these tender years is crucial for their development, as they learn differently, and a walk through the TGM branch clearly indicated that Kindyland was at par with this. Classrooms were set up in such delightful manners in terms of colours and deco, and each had a catchy name too - Sunshine; Rainbow; Sky Space; Ocean; Safari; and Desert, and they are meant to optimise the learning environment of the different age groups.
From the pre-kindergarten age of three years onward, little ones are exposed to life skills with a focus on their gross and fine motor skills, which are crucial requirements in any learning environment. The main aim is to establish a sense of love for learning, while having fun. For smooth sailing in a child's educational journey, Kindyland ensures that basic comprehension and listening in three languages - English, Bahasa Malaysia & Mandarin, is acquired. Attention will also be given towards their social skills, as well as skills that will sharpen hand-eye coordination, dexterity as well as their memory.
Without proper skills in these areas, children may be held back when it comes to holding a pencil, for instance, and tasks such as tying their shoelaces or dressing themselves. Life skills should not be taken for granted, especially during these modern times when kids are spoon-fed, so to speak, for most of the time while they’re at home.
Developing children’s interpersonal skills are also not left out and because of that, little ones here at Kindyland know better than to cry or demand for something that they want, but rather, they’ll ask for it, properly.
If we really want little ones to pick up lessons quickly, you’ll have to treat them like mini adults while being sensitive to their needs as children. This balance, according to Madam Robita, will make a difference in how they learn and how fast they progress.” Believe it or not, kids tend to feel more respected, and they’ll understand you better, when you leave out the ‘baby talk’ in a learning environment.
When children reach 4 years of age, they begin to ask a lot of questions and also, they yearn for more independence. 4-year olds at Kindyland are encouraged to speak up and build their knowledge both in and out of classrooms. Focus is given to basic math as well as reading and writing together with their peers in a conducive, nurturing and fun environment. Once they are about 5 years of age, they should be interacting well with one another and present ideas and thoughts with confidence and clarity.
Kindyland strives to uphold its main aim which is to ensure its students emerge with proper reading, writing and listening skills as well as the basics of mathematics. These will ease their integration as well as assimilation to any school syllabus with ease.
How Does Kindyland Do It?
The time table at Kindyland is designed to meet the optimum requirement of learning and development to ensure that children really experience academic progress. Just as an example, there will be two and a half hours of English, Mandarin and BM lessons respectively. These hours put in are crucial if their sensitive ’learning period is to be fully leveraged upon. This is why focus and attention are given to subjects such as Maths, Science, English, BM, Mandarin, etc - to ensure that the children at Kindyland meet the academic requirements for school life later on.
The ideal balance of learning and playing is maintained at Kindyland, and that dramatically sets it apart from many other kindergartens. While maintaining due attention to academics, children still have loads of fun while learning as they enjoy lessons in music, art, dramatic play and dance. They also hold regular school events and field trips that children often look forward to.
As to how we determine the readiness of children to progress to their next level of lessons, we have our experience to put together what’s best for the children, and we also have guidelines that we adhere to for the best outcomes. We have started to create our own materials to better suit the current 2020 demographics here.
All in all, Kindyland strives to provide an education that integrates both the left and right sides of the brain. To do this, they have newly introduced a Right Brain Training Programme as part of their extended day schedule. This is to help children strengthen their creativity and imagination, instead of just focusing solely on academic achievements. The programme utilizes flashcards to activate the right brain and advances in difficulty according to age. Over time, as a result, children develop improved photographic memory, high speed information processing ability, mental concentration, spatial recognition and visual concentration.
All with Good Reason
It can be said that everything that is carried out here at Kindyland is done with the children’s best interests at heart. Compared to other establishments out there that are predominantly ‘play-based’, the focus here is to ensure that children are well prepared for the challenges of modern school life. Reading and writing, for instance, is taken seriously too, and with good reason, for countless young people are falling back on these essential life skills due to excessive use of digital gadgets from a very young age, which is, ironically, the age that should be used wisely to ensure better overall development in children. At Kindyland, parents are assured that their kids will emerge being able to read for real, and not merely memorising words in certain books! Teachers here have their own method in regard to helping little ones master reading and be good at it. It’s hard to imagine how life would be for a child at school who cannot read (or write) properly!
When it comes to teaching material, great effort has been placed into coming up with books to better suit the needs of children here.
As it’s difficult to find books that have everything we need in a single publication to cater for the demographics here, we take what we need from different sources and make a compilation of what’s best for our students. That way, when we run our lessons, it will be seamless and we’re able to deliver the lessons more effectively.
It can be said that Kindyland is quite unique as a modern day kindergarten, compared to predominantly play-based establishments that you see popping up all over the country.
At the end of the day we still live here in Asia, which is internationally known to be very academic when it comes to children’s education in general. If parents were to really think about it, we may get away with implementing the Western culture of play in kindergartens, so to speak, but when the children enter primary school, what will it be like for them?
There is a time and place for everything when it comes to the true needs of children in the world today. While play is a natural inclination of children, and the little ones here at Kindyland do engage in play and have lots of fun, academics is not pushed aside, or taken over by it, as has been happening in countless playschools and even some kindergartens. When it comes to academics and life skills, the directors and principals of Kindyland have put together a powerful and impactful curriculum to ensure that each child is ready for their respective schooling life, whichever type of school they will go to.
Parents should also keep in mind that if they intend to send their children to a good, reputable school, the kind of assessments that their children will have to pass will in no way be easy if they were not properly prepared for it. In fact, academics aside, even the setting in which these assessments will take place may turn out to be intimidating for children who spent most of their early childhood in play-based environments with little or no exposure to a more school-like setting.
From any angle you look at it, Kindyland has gone further and beyond what’s expected of a kindergarten, to ensure that children get to be prepared for what’s really waiting for them in real life, particularly school life.
COVID-19: Strict Safety Measures
Amidst all the uncertainties presented by the coronavirus, Kindyland has not taken the task of reopening the school lightly. With immense care and preparation, new key practices (listed below) are introduced by the management to keep the whole community safe and ease parent’s worries about sending their child back to school.
- Physical Distancing: Learning areas are carefully mapped out to account for social distancing requirements. Critical parts of the day, such as arrivals and dismissals, lunch time, and toilet breaks, are properly planned to minimise crossover contact, while individualised materials are provided.
- Hygiene and Sanitisation: All school spaces and materials are sanitised periodically throughout the day. The daily maintenance routine includes disinfecting all rooms with a fog machine, constant cleaning high-contact surfaces, treating materials with a handheld disinfectant sprayer, increased frequency of handwashing, and regular temperature checks.
- Personal Protective Equipment: To mitigate contagion risks, all staff are equipped with face masks and shields. Face coverings are not compulsory for children but are highly recommended.
- Transition to E-Learning: Necessary adjustments to online learning are made to ensure continuous student engagement across the curriculum. Lessons are formatted to be interactively stimulating and scheduled according to age groups.
For a more detailed reopening SOP issued by the school, please click here.
