These are  the formative years. The crawling, toddling and early ones in which your child soaks up its surroundings and forms the personality and characteristics that will shape him or her for the rest of theirlife. The array of early learning options here in Kuala Lumpur is vast and varied—and many are highly sophisticated andpromise to give your child the best possible start in life. This touches on just a smattering of the fun to be had and the skills to be learnt; whether it’s through a Montessori approach, a bilingual (Mandarin and English) introduction to life or a morephysical challenge.

At the Children’s Discovery House Mont Kiara branch, director, Nona Azlan and principal, Christine Lee, avidly believe that education begins at toddlerhood and happens through play. Seated on knee high yellow and red chairs with freshly made glittery butterflies adorning the wall, Christine explained how this happens through the Montessori way.“To put it in a nutshell, what we do here is not to teach the children because we feel that children are their own teachers, they come ready built with that ability to teach themselves, so technically we’re just here to guide them along the way. We’re the link between the environment—the materials and classroom—and themselves. We show them how to use the materials correctly and respect them. So they’re allowed freedom, within certain limitations, to do the things they enjoy.” The Montessori approach is very empowering for a child because of the liberal teaching environment. Christine explained, full of enthusiasm for the method she holds in very high regard:“At the end of the day what we hope to achieve is that the child develops a love for learning.”

From 18-months-old to sixyears- old a child will follow the Montessori curriculum; practical life exercises, sensory education, language and number work and cultural studies. From pouring a jug of water into cups, spooning from one dish to another, learning how to dress themselves—these are life skills made fun that teach your child to look after themselves, the very first steps of independence. “We’re big on festivals,” admits Christine, celebrating all that Malaysia and the world have to offer instilling knowledge of culture, sharing and fun in the kids. It is a very practical handson learning experience.

Nona explained that: “In the early years it is very much working with tangible things, exploring and working with the materials around them. By using their hands, their hand eye coordination is improved along the way. And when they work with the materials we hope that they’ll want to do it again and again, and that repetition helps them to prolong and develop their concentration.

Curriculum at the Children’s House (also followers of the Montessori curriculum—though including the integrated learning method too) reaffirmed Nona and Christine’s opinion that the approach is very “child focused.” With seven schools scattered around Kuala Lumpur and 24 years experience, the Children’s House is a stalwart of KL life. The Children’s House follows a thematic approach to their classes and  activities.

The theme becomes entirely pervasive— so, you’ll be counting animals, reading about animals, creating animals in arts and craft and perhaps even performing as an animal. “We’re currently doing a ‘Children of the World’ project to share with all the children the diversity of the world, to understand that people live in different places, they wear different hats, they speak different languages, they eat different bread, listen to different music— and they love the flags, the colours and the costumes!”

Paulee Wang director of the Julia Gabriel Centre in Kuala Lumpur, described a slightly different approach: one that has a progressive and heavy influence from speech and drama classes. It also benefits from every class being conducted by both a Mandarin and English speaker so that children have a head start at being bilingual in what are assured to be the future’s most important languages.

“We believe that it is at this early stage that children can absorb best and soak up a new language. There is also a strong emphasis on speech and drama, with performing and role-play very much helping the children to gain confidence, take on selfdiscovery, and think outside the box to foster imagination. It’s a very holistic approach and nurtures a child’s emotional and overall development,” Paulee said. This creative outlook meets their goal of “instilling a love of learning through play and creating an environment where a child feels secure and happy. It is very important to us that a child enjoys school.”

If enjoyment is key, there  was a heap of beaming kids coming and going from Kizsports & Gym in Bangsar Village II. For physical and mental development, again from crawling to four-yearolds, with farmyard animals on the walls and nursery rhymes booming from the speakers, this is certainly fun.

“The children love coming here! It’s like their second home,” grinned Kent Siew, the centre manager. With the ‘early fitness academy’ and the ‘early learning academy’ (not to mention the birthday party room or ‘disco’), Kizsports & Gym definitely lives up to its motto of “learning through play”. Children, from a certain age, attend the classes—whether here in Bangsar or at their other outlets that include Great Eastern Mall on Jalan Ampang and 1Utama—on their own, thus gaining valuable independence and social skills that will stand them in excellent stead at school.

It may appear to be fun and games to the two to four-yearolds gathered in a classroom, but actually they’re developing listening skills, the ability to interact with other children and to (hopefully!) follow instructions. Even younger than that, at just 18 months, children will be using toys as a way to socially interact with others.

There are also plenty of other children’s activity centres with a learn-through-play ideology. One of them is Tumble Tots with several outlets in Malaysia as well as in its neighbouring countries; their ‘physical development programme’ provides opportunities for children from half-a-year-old babies to those ready to start school to fully explore and gain a sound understanding of their own physical abilities and limitations. Especially the children’s motor skills of balance, agility, climbing and coordination are emphasised,  as this development is best experienced when the child is young and their centre of gravity still close to the ground. 

Even the smallest babies can participate in activities at Fit For 2, a combined health food café and fitness centre, also located in Bangsar Village II. It offers a variety of fitness classes—fitball, pilates and yoga, some of which are organised only for mothers and their babies. Debbra Lee owner of Fit For 2, said the mother and baby exercise classes are designed for new mums who come to the classes with their babies; the focus is on rehabilitating mums’ bodies, but fun exercises and songs with their little ones are included. 

“It is challenging to teach group fitness classes when babies are involved. However, most of our instructors are not only experienced—you need to be in order to teach pregnant women and new mummies—but they are also mothers, so we all know that you need to be flexible and to improvise your classes to include the little ones,” she explained. 

It seems that it’s never too early to start thinking about your child’s education and motivating free time activities; and that a preschool education is of as great an importance as the formal classes of primary and secondary schools. This is the time for  soaking up information and developing characteristics—and perhaps most importantly this is the time at which your child might form the opinion that learning, or even working, is fun.

Click here for a list of activity centres.