Sailing options

One place left on a six day competent crew sailing course leaving Phuket on Dec 12 and arriving in Langkawi (Malaysia)

http://langkawisailingschool.com/courseprogram.htm

€700

Or, on the 30th of January you could do the same thing if we spend Jan in Thailand with friends/family. I could fly to our next destination from Thailand and you could fly from Malaysia.

Singapore

I really like the looks of this resort in Malaysia right outside of Singapore:

http://www.johorresorts.net/index.html

I think it would be a good place to stay in December up until the chess tournament (when we would need to move into the city). It costs about $90 for a studio, and the resort complex has lots of children's stuff as well as three pools and pretty much everything else you could want.

Some links

Volunteering in Malaysia:

http://www.gviusa.com/projects/Asia/Malaysia/volunteer-community-conservation-project-borneo/home

Day care classes in New York City:

http://www.gymboreeclasses.com/b2c/customer/programIndex.jsp

Day care in Sydney, $46 per day:

http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/community/childcare/RedfernOccasionalChildCare.asp

http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/www/html/2173-occasional-child-care.asp