A 2nd Mom like no other

MANILA, Philippines - When your toddler goes to school for the first time, he or she transitions to a group experience outside of the family, even if only for a few hours each day. The school thus becomes a second home, and the teacher should be someone the child can regard as a second mom.

This is the central idea behind Second Mom, a preschool located within the ULTRA Compound in Pasig City near the Valle Verde residential enclaves.

Veering away from the big-school concept, Second Mom is characterized by a loving family atmosphere, where pupil and teacher interact in a compact, homey ambiance conducive to child-driven learning.

This is a school that treats the pupil as a capable person on a lifelong journey of discovery and learning, instead of an underdeveloped creature with development needs.

Instead of directly and intensively drilling the ABCs, the 123s and other basic learning skills using rigid, structured lessons, Second Mom follows the Inquiry Approach, which calls for active student engagement with choice, collaboration, and discovery. In this approach, reading and math are not taught in isolation from each other but are discovered, explored, investigated and imbibed in a holistic fashion.

At Second Mom, the children are at ease and comfortable, to let them go with the flow of the student-centered, inquiry-driven learning. This powerful approach, where the child encounters or discovers new things and concepts through his own inquiry and guided research rather than having “knowledge” spoon-fed to him, is effective and relevant to the development of lasting literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills.

“In a stress-free and pressure-free environment where there’s love and caring, the child is likely to be more expressive, more responsive and receptive,” says school directress Jenny Mapua-Banal, whom everybody calls Teacher Mom.

Having attended courses and observed contemporary “minds on hands on” approaches on separate occasions in the United States, including Harvard University, Indiana University, New York’s Bank Street College, Stanford University’s Bing Nursery School and other progressive schools in England, Australia and Asia, Teacher Mom has been most discerning in what to offer to the Second Mom children. She and her team aligned the school practices with international standards who share the same learner-centered pedagogy.

“Right from the outset, we envisioned our school to be a stimulating and transformative environment for our pupils to develop intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally and creatively,” says Jenny.

”As our young pupils have moved up, we have looked beyond preschool and have created a seamless program that promotes the children to our primary school,” she adds. “We are in the process of earning an authorization as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School for our primary school, which we call Domuschola Internationalis.”

The International Baccalaureate Organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment to maintain the highest quality.

Obtaining IB authorization for its Primary Years Program (PYP) will mean that Second Mom-Domuschola Internationalis adheres to a world-class and universally recognized curriculum, such that Second Mom students can seamlessly transfer to any other IB World School in 138 countries worldwide, and vice-versa.

This is a great advantage for children in the ex-pat community whose parents tend to move from one country of assignment to another every so often.

The IB authorization process is well underway for Second Mom-Domuschola, and the IB staff have undertaken several inspection and assessment missions for this purpose. Aside from the on-going training, several teachers were likewise sent to IB workshops in other countries.

One parent remarked that when she enrolled her child at Second Mom, the school had emerged as their first choice after a due diligent survey, but now “it is our only choice.”

(For parents who’d like their kids to try the small-school progressive curriculum that focuses on the inquiry approach at Second Mom-Domuschola, call 6352002 or 6359743; email [email protected];  visit http//www.secondmom-domuschola.com.)