Preschool Education & Everything Preschool

Your preschooler is getting older and it’s time to start thinking about kindergarten but you aren’t quite sure whether or not he’s ready. Maybe he’s just a little bit shy of kindergarten age and you aren’t sure whether to go ahead and enroll him, making him the youngest kid in the class, or to hold off a year, putting him perhaps a year behind everyone else. Or perhaps you know that your child is technically age appropriate for kindergarten but don’t know if he’s really got the social skills necessary to do well in school yet.

Here are some things that can help you to figure out if your child is ready for kindergarten:

It is infuriating when it feels like your child ignores the directions that you have given. As a parent, it’s frustrating to feel like your child doesn’t have the listening skills that she needs to be able to understand, remember and act upon what you have told her. But this is a normal part of the development process and one of the reasons that parents of preschoolers require wells of patience in order to assist their children in growing up with normal, healthy development. You not only want to teach your child good listening skills so that she can do what you say needs to be done but you also want to make sure she has those skills so that she will do well in school, get along with peers and be able to engage in appropriate social behavior in groups.

Here are some tips to improve your preschooler’s listening skills and to get her well on the way to being able to understand what’s said to her and to act upon it appropriately.

Should your preschooler be required to do chores? At what age are chores appropriate for your kids? And how do you go about delegating chores to your preschooler? These are all questions that parents often face as they try to teach their kids about responsibility in the home. Parents should know that dealing with these questions is something that other parents are going through as well and that you’ll find the right answers for your family.

Here are some of the basic things to know for getting preschool kids started on chores:

Bedtime. Does the very word strike fear into your heart? Don’t worry; you aren’t alone. Many parents dread the nightly bedtime ritual. This is especially true for parents of preschoolers who are worried about leaving their children alone in the night but getting a little bit desperate for some rest of their own. Establishing healthy bedtime routines can help make that part of the night go more smoothly. In fact, healthy bedtime routines can even make getting ready for bed a fun family activity. Believe it or not, bedtime doesn’t have to be bad time.

Thumb sucking is an issue of concern for many parents right around the time that kids are entering preschool age. As babies, it’s not an issue. In fact, many parents feel that it’s good for their pre-teeth youngsters because it comforts them, helps them to fall asleep and can ease the pain of teething. But as kids get older and those teeth are coming in, it’s necessary for parents to intervene to deter their children from sucking their thumbs. Continued thumb sucking in these older years can cause dental problems and it is therefore recommended that you break the habit entirely by the time that the child is kindergarten age.

Check out this excellent post about what makes for a “Good Mom”. I had to share it with my viewers.

A good mom talks to her child. Hearing words and conversations is one of the biggest ways to impact a child’s ability to learn. The more words they hear when they are infants, the more words they will come to understand when they are toddlers and pre-schoolers…

Children who truly believe that they can do anything they set their minds to are the children who grow up to succeed at all levels of life. It’s that belief in one’s self that lets them take appropriate risks, deal with challenges and learn to navigate the ins and outs of life. And there is no person in the world who can build that self confidence (or destroy it) like you can. If you want to have a child who does well in life (and what parent doesn’t right?), then you need to watch your own behavior and interaction with your child, making sure to maximize his or her self-confidence in every way that you can.

When your child is able to look at a written letter on a page or hear the sound that a letter makes when spoken out loud and then identify what that letter is, he has mastered letter recognition. This is the cornerstone of being able to read and write and so is obviously an important skill which you should teach your child at a young age. But how do you go about teaching letter recognition to your child?

Choosing a preschool curriculum can be an overwhelming endeavor. You want to make sure that you’re child is on track to learn what he or she needs to learn in order to be caught up with the other kids when kindergarten time comes around. However, you also want to choose a preschool curriculum which suits the individual needs of your child, including his or her need for a fun, challenging, interesting approach to education. After all, the preschool curriculum that you select is going to set the foundation for your child’s educational experience and your hope is that he or she will learn to love learning.

So, how do you choose a preschool curriculum? Here are three tips to get you started. (more...)