As I'm now working, we opted to send Fatin to a taska rather than babysitter or maid. This matter is subjective and it just our reason. You can feel differently on this subject which is okay also. Your child is Your child. The guide is for child around 2 years old and not including the one that provided only daycare (Pusat Jagaan).
Our reasons are:
- We want her to learn something which only some babysitter do. Though at her age is more on learning through playing, at least taska had more toys and the owner and/or teacher had gone to courses on child caring/education.
- She already old enough to be left with stranger or school type of environment. She can express her feeling if something is wrong.
- We don't know any babysitter that we trust.
- We want to develop her social skills as previously, she didn't played with her peers that much.
- We don't want to burden any of our parents with the taking care part. We want them free to do their own work although we had offers from both sides.
- We don't want our child to speak Indon :D
We had done the searching the hard way actually, by driving around the neighbourhood. I will list down the better way for any of you that are looking.
The better methods:
- Identify the area where you want to send your child. Consider also the operational hour of the Taska and your working hour. For example, the earliest time that you can send your child from most of the Taska is 6.30am to 7am and the latest time to pick-up your child before getting overtime charge is usually around 6pm to 7pm. So, if you go out from home at 6am and you want to send your child near your home, it will not be possible. So, you'll have to find the Taska near to your office or on the way to your office. Since I'll be working shifts, Fatin was send to a taska near the office, where we drop her first and drive another 15 minutes (due to traffic jam) to the office.
- Find the list of registered taska from Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (JKM) like in here for Taska or in here for Pusat Jagaan. For children under 4, we send her to Taska which is observed by JKM while the older children 4 and above, are put in Tadika which is observed by Education Ministry. Both should be registered under the respective agency. However, there are some Tadika, that provide day care for small children which I don't know whether they falls under Tadika or Taska. I rather that they be separated to lessen the chances of my child being bullied.
- Search through Internet for the contact number for the Taska in your chosen area. Don't be surprised that most of the Taska had zero Internet present and you might not find the number. You can try telekom directory 103 and get the number if you're lucky enough.
- Arrange an appointment to see the Taska.
- Drive around the area if you want more choices (the one that are not registered with JKM).
- Get the numbers from their signboard and you can get number of the registered taska also. Make appointment or if they're opened at the time of your visits, you can just have a look around.
- See the taska and make your choice!
During my research I found that:
- Most taska have zero Internet present (this includes comments from other parents, website of their place, contact information).
- Most of them are not registered. In the area that I planned to send Fatin (Kota Damansara), only two are registered but they have like maybe around 20+ at the area. We didn't go to Mutiara Damansara or some other near places because short of time.
- Most of them didn't put out (pamer) their license although I'm sure most of them had it.
- Most of the teacher didn't go to any courses.
- Most of the taska didn't have rough lesson plan especially for under 2 (it's called daycare meaning, they only look after your child). Although, you can't expect learning like spelling or reading for below 3, they must have some sort of plan like play with blocks, story telling, flash card session, singing or outdoor play on the playground.
Besides area and operation hour, we also considered these factors during our search:
- Whether the taska is handle by muslims because this will determine the kind of teaching your child will receive and whether they being serve halal food.
- Whether the taska was registered with JKM. All Taska and Pusat Jagaan must be registered with JKM or will be executed within 6 months of non-complying. You will find that the registered taska is more organized, safe and better care due to strict guidelines from JKM. JKM do send people for inspection from time to time.
- All the other factor is actually already covered under JKM guidelines but I just list down one that we took note. The number of children versus the caretaker. For under 2 is 1:10 while for under 1 is 1:5 if I'm not mistaken. Of course, the lesser children is better.
- Handling of children. Whether the teacher and director looks kind and helpful. Whether they handle the child kindly. Whether the children look happy there. Whether there is any kind of improvement from your child (if you know other parents that send in the same place).
- Safety. Is there emergency stairs from upper half of the house. Whether the door is locked at all times. Whether there is safety gate to areas such as kitchen. Whether the toys or playground is safe. They should passed inspection from fire brigade and police as stated in rules for registering taska in here.
- Health. Whether the place (indoor and outdoor) looks clean. Whether they have proper food handling. Whether the assigned cook that had been inject with TY2 injection (the same vaccine as food handlers that opened food stalls and restaurants). Even better, if they had been to Food Handling course. Whether your child share food with other children (eat together in same plates). This is to lessen the risk of disease spreading.
- Have valid company license, of course.
- Have proper lesson plan, menu and activity with parents (I'm not sure whether the last means communication book with parents or the actual activity such as outing with parents).
- Here are some other people writing on their criteria of choosing preschool or taska. See here, here and here.
So, after all the tips and criteria, the taska that we choose is this:
We didn't do a test run like stay at the taska for one day. It's cold turkey, send and left. Fatin's first day, she cried for awhile (not so long said the teacher) and then, she was alright and happily playing. Then, when we pick her up in the evening, she so happy playing that she don't want to go home!
This picture was taken when we pick her up that evening with one of her teacher. Looks happy, ya? She make Mickey Mouse toy as her own toy that day. We had to bring it back and she sleep with Mickey that day (she's in Mickey's obsessed mode). She cried lesser and lesser every time we send her off. A few days ago, she stop crying altogether and even held out her hand to be held by her teacher. Looks like they're doing a good job with her.
However, just one week after we sent her, she got a fever which might also due to the weather changes or getting it from other child. Very long recovery (about a week with very high temperature also). Their comments on Fatin is that she is very manja and the hands and feet always used for shoving other kids during sleeping or playing hahaha jadi tukang buli sebenarnya ni. But, they say she didn't meragam tak tentu pasal. Aik, different from home la. I didn't see any improvement yet in social behaviour like playing with other children or attachment with me. Though, she can now identify picture of cow, her shoes, say nenny (nenek) and say and point that she poo poo (poop).
All in all, I'm satisfied with her taska although now feels like it was a bit far from office larrrr...
