The children’s house, Ampang

As the sun slowly rises on the horizon, the city of Kuala Lumpur begins to stir, heralding the beginning of a new day. Creatures of the night scurry to their rest as we lazily rub the sleep from our eyes. In a few moments, the first fiery fingers of the sun’s light will glint off the iconic red roof of The children’s house (TCH) Ampang. With the Malaysian flag on its front lawn fluttering proudly in the morning breeze, TCH Ampang with its white washed colonial building and its sprawling lawns is a sight to behold.

Nestled among Kuala Lumpur’s international community of embassies and representative offices, the sight that greeted me after gaining entry through their guarded front gate almost took my breath away. Expecting a grey drab embassy type building, my jaw dropped and for a moment I thought I had gone through some sort of portal and been transported to one of Hans Christian Andersen’s or The Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales! I saw play sets that looked like giant magic toadstools, children play houses that looked like little hobbit houses and a play, crawl and climb system that resembled a great big metal clad dragon. I had arrived just as the children were having their morning playtime in the garden. Children and their teachers were everywhere. The children were having a wonderful time running as fast as they can, sliding down the slides, swinging higher and higher on the swings, chasing after each other and basically just having a fantastic time being a child. All this while the teachers were watching eagle-eyed so that nothing untoward happened and to ensure the safety of the children. From the smiles on the faces of the teachers, they were enjoying playtime as much as the children themselves.

Each day at TCH Ampang is like an episode of Calvin and Hobbes, the comic strip by Bill Watterson. There is so much to learn. There is so much energy and excitement and each day is full of surprises. However, the fun is always tempered and grounded by what the children have learned.

Being the first to introduce the Montessori Method to Malaysia 30 years ago, The children’s house is one of the undisputed leaders for early childhood education in the country. It offers a nurturing, non-competitive learning environment which aims to meet the individual needs of each child in his physical, social, emotional and intellectual development. The children’s house Montessori Programmes are categorized by two main areas: Montessori Playgroup (Infant, Pre-Toddler and Toddler for children aged 3 months to 2.5 years old) and Montessori Junior (Nursery and Preparatory levels for children aged 4 to 6 years old). Programmes for each age group focus on preparing the child for the next level and the low teacher to child ratios are designed for optimal learning. The children’s house instills within our children the love for humanity and nature. The children are also taught to be multicultural, multiracial, and multinational through knowledge and an understanding of the world.

In such a high performance environment, TCH Ampang is particularly proud of its extremely low staff turn-over. Most of the staff at TCH Ampang have been there for 10 to 15 years! This is mainly due to the wonderful TCH culture of staff mentoring and on-the-job training which not only enhances the teaching skills, it also greatly improves the soft skills, the understanding, the teamwork and the acceptance of and respect for each other.