It started in the middle of December last year and concluded yesterday with the LO spending a couple of hours at Golden Beach Nursery in Umm Suqeim 3. I sometimes wonder whether I went overboard with the research, tours, market surveys and recommendations. Is such an extensive investigation to choose a nursery and day care for the LO really something unheard of?
Since I am working full time, my LO needed to be with someone for almost one third of his daily 24 hour budget. Options such as like babysitting and full time maids were also considered (another post will cover these two aspects), but we finally decided that the nursery and day care option suited us best, though it was more expensive that the other two. However, trusting someone enough to leave the most precious thing in the world in their care was quite difficult in itself. Add to it the wide variety of options in Dubai, each with their own pros and cons, our familial budget constraints, our preference for the Montessori system, my exacting standards and my views on education (some of my future posts will cover each of these aspects in detail); and you have a real problem in your hand.
So it took four months to solve this problem. I did not ultimately choose my first choice, or second choice or third choice… Golden Beach was our fourth choice. It is less than a year old, but really lovely, managed well with caring staff and I do hope my LO adjusts well to the environment. I will talk more about the top three choices and why we could not go for those in another post, but this post is simply about why we chose Golden Beach.
I have always wanted my LO to be in the care of people who enjoy what they are doing and do not consider working at the nursery a chore. Smiles, hugs and kisses should be plentiful, genuine concern for the children should be paramount and providing a loving environment should be a priority. Apart from this, since we live in this melting pot called Dubai, a multicultural experience with playmates, teachers and nannies originating from across the world was essential.
Another requirement was qualified teachers and experienced nannies, who knew that they were there to not only to impart an education, but also to teach social and life skills. A child to adult ratio of around 4:1 for the LO’s age group would also be good. Also, I was not keen for the LO to go to a nursery which suffocated him in small enclosed spaces; so buoyant indoor rooms and abundant outdoor spaces, with a garden and a rich spread of toys and play equipment, with the children spending their day in different parts of the nursery was attractive to me. Child sized bathrooms and proper napping areas were required as well. These requirements seem to be quite adequately taken care of at Golden Beach.
While I was quite keen initially for my LO to join a Montessori nursery and day care, I gave up on that requirement after seeing what was on offer (topic for another upcoming post). So while curriculum is important, I am now fine with the EYFS curriculum, since we will be doing some supplemental Montessori activities at home. For now, I would like my LO to simply develop his social skills, start trusting people other than family and know a little about the world around him.
So, I am relatively indifferent to the curriculum, though I would object to loud singing, television viewing, using alphabet names rather than phonics and force feeding. As such, I am comfortable with what Golden Beach has on offer, they seem to follow EYFS quite closely, and make observations on the child, keep records of his progress and share all of this information with the parents through daily notebooks, weekly portfolios, regular Facebook updates with pictures and so on. Also, I will be dropping him and picking him up, so I should be able to intervene and interfere if required!
Another lure was that Golden Beach provides all meals throughout the day, with everything prepared fresh in the nursery. Not that my LO eats a lot yet, but that’s one thing less to worry about every morning for working mothers like me.
In spite of this they were affordable (a very relative concept in Dubai)… The spring term is generally just over two months, with most nurseries charging the same fees as the three month terms. This actually put a lot of the nurseries out of our reach financially – I mean Dhs.10,500 for a three month term is Dhs.3,500 per month, but for a two month term is Dhs.5,250 per month!!! Golden Beach was priced reasonably, we negotiated an 11 percent discount and they allowed us to pay monthly. Also, since their term was for 2.5 months, they turned out to be less prohibitive than some of the other options.
It would have been nice if they would have a few vendors coming in like Dubai Drums, Baby Arabia or Super Skills. It would also be nice if they had a proper pool and the LO could learn to swim during his time here. Also, I wider selection of books is definitely recommended. Just a few recommendations from a difficult Dubai mom!!!
So my LO had a nice time there yesterday with us in the same room with him. But today we left him in the classroom for one hour, while we watched him on the CCTV!!! And he cried!!! We were told that this is normal and is to be expected and that soon he would adjust. So tomorrow we will leave him for 2 to 3 hours and slowly ramp up… Let’s see how it goes… Fingers crossed!!!
