Cara, originally Canadian, runs a playgroup center in the New Territories for under 5s and has been so busy opening a second one it’s been hard to catch her (so I greatly appreciate her taking the time to fill this out).. It even took a few more messages (after she wrote the contribution below) so I could at least link to her playgroup center!
I have been in Hong Kong for almost 16 years and am married to a local Chinese man. We have two children, Liam and Riley. Liam will be 6 in mid-February and Riley will be 4 in early February. We decided to make use of the government pre-primary voucher scheme when we enrolled our children in a local Chinese-medium, church affiliated kindergarten. Sai Kung Lok Yuk Kindergarten has been a wonderful choice for our children. We are very lucky as there are quite a few other expats who have also chosen for their children to begin their school-lives at Lok Yuk. This means that there is a great mix of children attending the school, and that not all of them come from a Chinese-speaking home.
1) How would you describe raising a child in Hong Kong today?
One of my biggest problems with raising children in Hong Kong is that everything seems to be so expensive. Because my husband and I are both self-employed, our income is variable and not guaranteed. This can make budgeting quite difficult. I find that for English-speaking activities, you pay such a premium that it is priced out of our reach. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule but in general I find that there are very few free or virtually-free activities around. One of the reasons we are so happy with the kindergarten we have chosen is the fact that once you have the voucher from the government, the ½ day fees are nil…. That’s right…. NOTHING!
2) Particular curriculum, class size, physical layout/facilities, ethnic demographics, results in exams, commitment to extra-curricular programs, sports/music/arts programs, homework, private tuition, training/qualifications/dedication of teachers, whether the school is accredited by an outside organization (CIS, IBO etc)
Which of these are more important to you when making a decision involving your child’s education and why?
I think that parents need to consider all of the above when considering schooling for their children. But for us, it came down to one thing: language. We decided that it would be easier for the children to become fluent in Chinese by attending a Chinese-medium school and maintaining their English skills at home rather than trying to become fluent in Chinese while attending an English-medium school. It was VERY important to us that our children be fluent AND literate in Chinese, for many reasons. First, we wanted our children to cherish BOTH of their cultures. We wanted them to be able to communicate with their paternal grandparents. And we both believe that learning languages will only ever open doors for you, never shut them.
3) How important is learning music and/or playing a sport as a supplement to your child’s education?
My children love singing and dancing. We have not enrolled them into any serious music programmes as of yet. My son has asked for piano lessons on many occasions, but we have not been in a rush to enroll in them. We figured that they could learn them once they were in primary school.
As well, where we live inhibits attending a lot of classes. We live in an area of HK that is not easily accessible and only has limited public transportation. This makes taking children to various classes extremely difficult. Both my husband and I have to work most Saturdays so that means time to take other classes is very limited. When my children were younger, they did take Socatots for a term and LOVED it. However, due to the reasons above, we were unable to continue
4) How important is learning an additional language like Putonghua, Spanish, French (or other)?
As I said before, we believe languages are VERY important. However, I would not be rushing my children out to take extra classes to learn them. Right now, they are fluent in English and learning Cantonese and Putonghua. If I were to choose another language, I would choose French as it is what I learned in school and so could help them. It would also mean that if we ever moved to Canada, they would not be too far behind the Canadian students.
5) Everyone’s children are different, and what helps one child excel may not work for another child… What decisions are you especially proud you made regarding your child(ren), and why was this particularly well-suited to your child?
I don’t think that there is any decision that I am especially proud of, except that I decided long ago that I was NOT going to be a mother who had to worry about appearances, what any other kids were doing or learning and that I wasn’t going to get sucked into the “keeping up with the Jones’s” mentality. I think so far, we have accomplished this and our children are happy and well-adjusted because of it.
It is good practice to teach your child in an early age to speak another language especially english (if it is not your native tongue).