Activities: Young Explorer Gym and Montessori Playschool

One evening, while we were at the new shopping mall – 1 Mont’ Kiara – I spied a notice advertising the Young Explorer Gym on Level 3. What caught my eye was the Adventure Maze. Who wouldn’t want to be a kid so they could play on this:

This is only half of it. They also have a flying fox and some other features. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of this gym, it is only for children aged 3 and above (poor Gareth).

Since Gavin would be on holidays until September, I figured I could take him around to check out a new jungle gym. When we stopped by, they informed us that they were running a holiday camp program for the entire week. The only way Gavin could try out their Adventure Maze would be to sign up for a session. Each session runs for three hours and they have two every weekday from 25th to 29th of July 2011:

• Morning: 9-12pm
• Afternoon: 2-5pm

Themes:

• Monday – Pizza Making
• Tuesday – Continents
• Wednesday – Solar System
• Thursday – Continents
• Friday – Pizza Making

Program:

• 1st hour: Gym activities
• 2nd hour: activity related to the theme for the day
• 3rd hour: free play in the adventure maze

Cost: RM90 per session

Please note that if you are thinking of sending your child for the holiday camp session, make sure he or she is wearing proper shoes. In the adventurer maze, the children keep their shoes on and they need proper shoes for it – not slippers and definitely not Crocs.

For the whole of this week, they will be running their holiday camp, otherwise Young Explorer Gym normally offer:

• Montessori Playgroup
• Gymnastics Gym
• Adventure Maze
• Parties and Functions

After taking a look around, Gavin was pining to go so I signed him up for the Continents session. When all the other kids turned up, I got a little worried that Gavin was going to balk because he went off into a corner on his own but he did me proud by staying on (thanks also to the teacher who helped to make him feel more comfortable). This is the continents map he made (I’m not sure what happened to Australia – the shape is not recognisable at all):

When I came to pick Gavin up, his first words were, “Mummy, can you buy this school?” What he really meant, of course, was that he wanted to enrol in their program. He obviously enjoyed himself a lot because he kept pestering me to sign him up. I was somewhat chagrined since I had already intended for him to take the art classes. However, it has got me thinking about the Montessori Playschool program for Gareth when he is old enough. Gavin can still visit to play on the adventure maze when it opens to the general public.

I spoke to them about it and here are the details for their Montessori Playgroup:

They have one playgroup currently headed  by one Montessori trained teacher and an assistant teacher. The class caters for children aged 2.5 to 6 years old (which follows true Montessori philosophy where classes comprise of children of mixed age groups so that the younger children can learn through observation of the older children, and the older children can reinforce their learning by teaching the younger children). The program is fully Montessori and the ratio of staff to children is 1 to 8. There is limited space in the class, so early registration is necessary.

Montessori Playgroup Fees:

Registration – RM250
Deposit (refundable) – RM1000
Half Day Program (9am to 1pm) – RM3750 (per term/3 terms a year)
Full Day Program (9am to 3:15pm) – RM 5250 (per term/3 terms a year)
PartTime Program (Mon-Wed, 9am to 1pm) – RM2750

Details:

Location: 1 Mont Kiara, Level 3-8 to 10, 1 Jalan Kiara , Mont Kiara
Telephone: 03-6411 0288/017-288 9938
Email: info@youngexplorergym.com
Website: www.youngexplorergym.com

The original idea for letting Gavin trial a variety of classes was so that he could:

• broaden his experiences
• add some variety in his daily routine (while he was on extended school holidays)
• discover his passion

The intention is to let him sign up for the one class that he enjoyed most out of all the trial classes he attended. Secondly, even if he decides he doesn’t like these activities now, he may come to enjoy them later in life when he encounters them again. Thirdly, it might also help him open up to the idea of trying new things.

If you would like to follow us on this journey, this is the list of extra-curricular activities that have been planned so far (click the links to read about the activities we have tried so far; more links will be added as we get through the list):

• Gymnastics (alternative Gym class with Adventure Maze)
• Cooking
• Art
• Tennis
• Taekwondo
• Golf
• Fencing
• Rock Climbing
• Music
• Metalwork – Royal Selangor Pewter School of Hard Knocks
• CT Workshop
• Speech and Drama

If you know of any other activities that might be fun for a child to experience, please leave a comment – thank you!