There are not many playgroups in Malaysia. There is one playgroup located in Bangsar Baru, affiliated to Bangsar Gospel Hall called The Children's Corner.
The Children's Corner playgroup activities are structured into free play, art & craft, singing and story, and snack time. They follow a thematic approach whereby the various activities for the day are linked through a similar idea or theme.
Children from age 2 - 4 are attending and they also have another session for babies. Each playgroup session is from 9.30am - 12.00pm on every Monday and Friday.
Unfortunately, there are many shortcoming within this playgroup. The person handling the session is not well trained. Due to low attendees number, she tends to hard-sell and over-promise to get new attendees. Proper fees structures are not explained until one joins. There will be surpise fees after one joins, sometimes participants are pressured into paying on the spot without any time to think about the additional fees asked.
The sessions are not structured and there is no planning at all. Each session depends on the centre supervisor's whim. There's no proper instruction and structure. The centre supervisor will just advise one Mommy and expect every Mommy to know.
Sometimes the centre supervisor will just go missing for hours.
There are some other cases where participants Mommy are forced to "participate" in teaching or telling stories without any preparation.
Teaching aids sometimes go missing, and participants Mommies have fork out additional money. Many participating Mommies felt it was not fair, but the centre supervisor was very aggressive to make sure everyone pays. Sometimes, we wonder if the missing teaching aid were "missing" due to negligence or intentional. Perhaps the centre supervisor thinks that participants from Bangsar have unlimited cash and can be milked!!
Due to all these, the number of participants have grown so much less in recent years. I like many others have left, and hope other Mommies will not fall into their trap.
Choose another playgroup other the Bangsar Gospel Hall's Children's Corner Playgroup. You've been warned!
