To think of giving up the rat race to travel the world to explore different preschool techniques so that I can start my own weekend club based on informed an informed first hand perspective...

[semi]

of how others do it? Not convinced the govt know best and want to see (reading takes you only so far no?) for myself. Is that crazy? Or has anyone else done anything remotely similar? thanks

[HumphreyCobbler]

sounds very interesting

I wish I could come

[Ninkynork]

Weekend club sounds very interesting.

[blueshoes]

semi, can you describe more of what you mean by 'weekend club'? Which age groups? Is it formal childcare (like a nursery but on weekends, perhaps for shift workers) or ad hoc (eg emergency childcare).

Or is it more like an activity on a weekend that parents can sign their children up for a few hours eg football.

[belgo]

Pop over to Belgium, schooling is very different here to the UK.

[duchesse]

You should definitely see French nurseries in action. It is quite impressive what they manage to achieve in terms of socialisation and education even with remarkably high child-staff ratios (which you would never be allowed in the UK).

[GypsyMoth]

erm,what are you trying to acieve then? what are the government getting so wrong??

[belgo]

duchesse - staff to child ratios in Belgium creches are 1 to 7, and everything is so well organised.

Children between the ages of 2.5 - 6 years go to preschool where the ratio is about 1 to 25 (could be 1 to 30) and again the teachers do great stuff with relatively large numbers of children. Formal schooling doesn't start until age six.

[expatinscotland]

sounds ridiculous.

so you come back and then what? become a professional lobbyist?

[ssd]

couldn't agree more expat

I wanted to post "grow up" to the op, but chickened out!

we all want to drop out and travel the world love, but its a pipe dream

[holdingittogether]

Problem is whatever fantastic things you may see elsewhere, if you plan to set up any type of childcare in this country you will have to follow the rules here. I'm sure we can all learn alot from seeing how others do things though.

[hocuspontas]

Can't parents sort out their own activities for children at weekends?

[expatinscotland]

it's a 'the grass is greener' thing. trouble is, when you come back, there you are.

i've travelled a lot of places, back in the day before i had children, and it all boils down to this: there are good points and bad points to how every culture does things.

but you live within the confines of the one you chose to live in.

i mean, you can't expect to go to France and get them all to bring up their children is a way that Brits do just because you find that element of the culture better.

so i don't understand the point of this travel the world and see how they do preschool and then come back and try to make a living out of that.

by all means, travel if you feel so inclined, but there's no such thing as 'escaping' or 'giving up the rat race' because wherever you go, there you are.

[LittleMissTuffet]

expat and ssd are just jealous - go for it!

[BonsoirAnna]

After two years of French école maternelle experience with DD, I am reluctantly concluding that, while the school manages to achieve quite remarkably good behaviour with a teacher:child ratio of 1:30 (four year olds). But not much learning goes on, let alone development of individual potential.

[expatinscotland]

you think other countries don't have their own version of a rat race?

ever lived in a place with no running water?

i'll take the so-called 'rat race' any day over walking for miles to carry heavy water and hunting for sticks.

[BonsoirAnna]

Completely agree, expat.

Life is a competition. It is somewhat less brutal in our modern, developed, welfare-state Western economies than in most places.

[purepurple]

You mean like a Utopia ror children?

But what works well in another country won't necessarily work well in ours. Take the Reggio approach for example, it is fantastic in what it gives to the children, but it is only practised in a small area of Italy.
Also Te Whariki, sounds great, but is very heavily influenced by the Maori culture, so would not really work here.
Sweden has got some fantastic practices for early years, but they have a government that spends a lot of money on children and a society that values childhood much more than ours.

We can learn from other countries but it has to fit into the way that we live in this country too.

[ssd]

I'm not jealous, just realistic

has the op ever worked with children? what exactly is she on about?

I have nannied for over 10 years both in UK and abroad, so have a fair idea of childcare in other countries

op sounds a bit daft to me, I'll look after my own kids at the weekends, thanks!

[FranSanDisco]

Anything you set up will be subject to Ofsted surely otherwise funding/subsidies aren't available. This limits who can afford to use your services and may result in low uptake.

[nannynick]

Sure why not travel around and see how things are done in other countries.
But bringing a concept back to the UK will be tricky, as we have different regulations, different funding level, different amount that parents are prepared to pay for childcare/schooling, different taxes, different family values and community spirit.

You may not need to go that far to see a different way of life - perhaps just visit a commune, there are two communes in Kent who produce children's preschool equipment for example... so they may well have a different view towards childcare/young children's education.

[nannynick]

The state already want children in education 5 days per week. If you do a weekend club, then it becomes 7 days a week - as your club would be state regulated.
Why not just start a children's home... and have the state raise children 24/7!

[sweetfall]

Well if you have the money to do it and then come back and implement your plans then do it.

Sounds like tosh to me

[hocuspontas]

There are UK pre-schools that incorporate Reggio Emilia concepts into their practice. Maybe seek them out if you are interested to see what can be done. Whatever you want to do though will be governed by EYFS guidelines

[ssd]

so, where's the op?

has she gone yet?

[ObsidianBlackbirdMcNight]

I don't know - have you got shitloads of money to waste spend on travelling the world observing different models of childcare?