Dazed and confused

Wednesday 4 August 2010

I've been keeping myself quite busy over the last couple of weeks, trying to find the perfect nursery for Y.  Sounds simple enough right?  WRONG!  Who knew there were so many things to consider?  It's quite scary. I feel like each factor may influence my kid for the rest of his life!!  Ok, I might be overreacting just a tad, but I do believe this will lay the foundation for his attitude towards learning, his discipline and help build his social skills. So actually, I was right... it IS the most important decision EVER! 


Luckily, Dubai offers a great choice.  But with that great choice comes confusion.  Which type of curriculum? How big or how small? What ratio of adult to child is OK? How cool are their play areas? (BTW some are awesome, I would imagine myself going nuts in those play areas while the headmistress is taking me on the tour). How flexible are their policies? What kind of events and extracurricular activities do they have? How structured are the days? What methods of discipline do they believe in? How much parent involvement do they encourage? How clean and safe is the place? Does my one year old even give a 'poo' about any of this? 


One thing that definitely helped was the ludicrous tuition of some of these places, which meant they were instantly out of the question.  Not only because we would have to forgo the kid's college savings just for his first year but because of the principal!  Why should we pay $10,000 a year for a child to spend 4 hours a day, 4 times a week playing with a bunch of toys?!!?  I'm not sure if nurseries in other cities are as insane or if this is yet another Dubai-ian extravagance. 


Anyway, that's what I've been up to, nursery shopping - and I'm totally lost.  I really hope I wont suffer like this with every decision to come.  Yikes.