Strong Start Program

I learned about the Strong Start Program offered by the Ministry of Education of BC last summer when Baby and I went to a mommy group in the park. Cindy, the early childhood educator who was facilitating the group told be that once Baby was older I could attend this program which takes place at Lord Selkirk Elementary school up the street.

According to the information on the website, the Strong Start Program is a free drop in program for children and their parents/caregivers where they can participate in activities such as reading stories and doing music and art in order to help children grow linguistically, physically, socially and emotionally. It provides an environment where children who do not attend daycare or preschool can interact with other children and receive early learning experiences. Sounds good right? So I went to check it out.

The classroom is really nice with different play stations; toys, plasticine, sand, water, paints, mini kitchen, puzzles etc... The morning is scheduled into different activities like free time, snack time, story time etc... and adults are expected to participate and guide the children in each activity. I arrived early morning during free time and Cindy introduced me to adults and the kids who were already there while Baby played with trucks on the floor: "This is so-and-so and he doesn't speak English, and this is so-and-so and she only understand English, but doesn't speak it and this is so-and-so and he doesn't speak English.... you get the picture. I couldn't remember who spoke English, who only understood and who didn't speak at all. All the adults speaking loudly in Chinese or other Asian language. Cindy seemed happy to introduce me to a young mom who arrived and spoke English sensing that I was eager to meet someone I could communicate with. This mom sat on the floor with her one year old daughter and spent the entire time on her Blackberry. Every time she stopped fiddling around with it, I tried to break the ice, but she just went back to her phone. Okay, then....

So to make a long story shorter, I left feeling conflicted. Although I can see that Baby would benefit from being around other little children and having access to lots of different activities, I'm already worried about him learning his parents' languages: French, English and Portuguese...and I'm not sure being in an environment where the majority of people speak Chinese and Malaysian is that good for my boy. It's not clear if the program was intended for non-English speakers. Oh well, maybe we'll go once in a while...It's a little disappointing. I wonder if it's just the demographics of our neighborhood and if it might be different elsewhere. Maybe I'll try somewhere else.