Is your little one about to start kindergarten? If so, then you must be feeling both excited and nervous. There’s no need to worry, though, for this is an all-natural part of being a parent.

Nevertheless, you can help your child experience kindergarten for the first time in a positive way with these essential starting kindergarten tips

Become involved in the school

A parent’s involvement is necessary for the child to feel more secure, thus, allowing him to perform better in school. This is important in all levels, but especially so in kindergarten.

Teachers would want you to stay in touch with them so that you can collaborate with them to help your child have an enriching learning experience. Get to know your child’s teacher and exchange contact information with him or her.

Also, it helps to do a bit of inspection on the school grounds. For instance, you must ensure that the playground is certified safe for kindergarteners.

Teach your child proper etiquette

Gradually, instill proper manners in your child so that he can interact well with both the kids and adults that he is about to meet. Proper bathroom etiquette such as how to wash hands and flush must not be overlooked as well. That way, your child will know how to use the bathroom with minimal supervision.

Let them practice basic skills ahead of time

Empower your child by equipping him with some basic skills even before he starts kindergarten. This will not only motivate him to want to learn more, but also let him gain the confidence he needs to tackle the tasks in store for him in the classroom.

Here is a list of some of the basic kindergarten readiness skills that you and your little one can bond over for a couple of minutes each day:

Shapes and Color Recognition. Your child will learn how to identify basic shapes and colors. It helps to hang posters of shapes and colors on his bedroom wall and playing several games to help enhance his ability to recognize them.

Letter and Sound Recognition. In most kindergartens, children are taught to recognize the letters of the alphabet, especially the sounds associated with each letter. Aside from singing the Alphabet song, you can also try games such as by playing with alphabet magnets on the refrigerator with your child. A poster with pictures, each of which has a name that starts with a letter in the alphabet, is also useful.

Number recognition. Basic counting skills are taught to kindergarteners, including recognition of the common numeral system (which is Arabic numerals, in most cases). You can recite the numbers with your child and play with number refrigerator magnets, or hang a poster with the numbers and pictures to represent the different numbers.

Fine motor skills. Give your child some crayons, markers and some age-appropriate activity sheets to practice his drawing, coloring and writing skills ahead of time. By letting your child practice early on, he can perform more confidently in the classroom.

Hopefully, these tips have also inspired you to think of even more ways to help your child start kindergarten confidently. Feel free to share these starting kindergarten tips to other parents as well.

Starting Kindergarten with Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs

Young Scholars Academy is dedicated to helping you and your child transition into kindergarten. Our Preschool and Junior Kindergarten programs can help your child prepare for the big step into kindergarten. Come check out our programs and contact us today. We look forward to hearing from you!

Like many things in life, childcare programs are not all made equal. Childcare comes in a variety of types. From simple in home babysitting, to educational childcare programs like preschool, to school age programs, childcare is as diverse as the children who benefit from it. But just because they are different doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. A babysitter is fine if you just need to get away for an evening. But if you want childcare with purpose, childcare that is more than supervision, childcare that exercises your little one’s mind and ignites their creativity, educational childcare with childcare enrichment programs is what you are looking for. Let’s take a look.

What are Childcare Enrichment Programs?

Childcare enrichment programs are programs that focus on the mental and creative development of your child. From art to music, STEM programs to dance, childcare enrichment programs both supplement and enrich a child’s educational development.

Music Childcare Enrichment Programs

The importance of music education cannot be overstated.  Music education has been shown to give children a number of cognitive benefits as well. Early music education is linked to higher test scores and contributes to ease of language acquisition and reasoning skills in young children.

The memorization techniques that are required to keep time, beat and melody all coming together into one boosts the parts of the brain associated with recall and memory. Keeping time and beat also contribute to the development of fluid intelligence and control.

Art Enrichment Programs

Before written language, there was art. Cave paintings scribbled by our Neolithic ancestors make clear the natural tendency for human beings to represent their lives in picture and story. Unfortunately, art education programs have suffered years of cutbacks and limited budgets. But that is starting to change. More and more education experts are acknowledging that art is an important element of a child’s education. And it’s never too early to start. In fact, many early childhood education centers are incorporating art programs for young children into their curriculum.

Foreign Languages

With foreign language programs, the younger the student the better. A young child’s mind is primed for language acquisition. It is important to realize that to a young child the language of their parents is just as foreign as Swahili is to an adult English speaker. The difference is the fact that the child does not have the limiting brain structures that develop as we age. They can absorb new words as concepts, while us adults absorb them as equivalencies between words, requiring the dreaded memorization techniques that made foreign language a bore in highschool. If you get them started early with a childcare enrichment programs that focuses on foreign languages, they will learn it with the same ease as they learn their native language.

Childcare Enrichment Programs with Young Scholars Academy

Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs has a number of childcare enrichment programs. From sign language to music and dance, Young Scholars Academy is dedicated to diversifying your child’s learning experience. Come check out our child care programs and contact us today.

If your little one is coming up on kindergarten age, it might be time to consider enrolling him or her in a quality pre kindergarten program. The benefits of pre k education has been documented time and again in study after study. Let’s take a look at what pre k education programs are and how they can benefit your child.

What are Pre Kindergarten Education programs? 

Pre K education, also called preschool, or pre kindergarten, is a great transitional milestone for both children and parents. As a parent, it is perhaps the first time that you have willingly surrendered your child over to a near total stranger for any significant period of time. Naturally, that in itself can produce a good deal of anxiety. To reduce this added stress, it is important that parents get to know their childcare providers.

For children, the preschool experience is actually slightly less traumatic. The world of a child is a world of wonder and new experiences. The pre K environment is just a new chapter in their day to day adventures. That is not to say that all children adjust perfectly. The most common issue children entering pre k education face is separation anxiety. You can help your little one through this with these fantastic and easy tips

Pre k education is the transition between structured and unstructured learning. It is the pathway to kindergarten and grade school and, later on, college and adulthood. As toddlers and infants, the primary learning environment for children is the home and family. It is here that the little scholars take their first steps, speak their first words, make their first mistakes and learn from all of it. It is a precious time for parents, often thoroughly documented in photo and video!

Benefits of Preschool and Early Childhood Education

Children fortunate enough to be enrolled in a pre kindergarten program or other early childhood education programs have an easier time adapting to kindergarten. Long term studies show that preschool students actually end up earning more money, are less likely to need remedial or special education programs, are less likely to have behavior issues and have higher earnings later in life than children who did not attend a preschool or early childhood education program.

Children in early childhood education programs benefit significantly from the excellent socialization environment that is provided in these programs. Children learn to play, work with and learn in social groups, which teaches them concepts like turn taking, sharing and develops their sense of empathy and compassion for others.

These benefits prepare the little scholar of an early childhood education programs for learning in kindergarten and beyond!

Pre K Education at Young Scholars Academy

Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs puts your child first with quality pre k education programs. Our Junior Kindergarten program is specially designed to help children make the transition from preschool to the kindergarten classroom. Give your child a head start with Young Scholars Academy’s pre k programs! Contact us today to get started. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

As a parent, you are always on the lookout for ways to make learning fun and exciting for your children. This can be a tough undertaking, especially when we have the residual memories of the rote and boring learning we did in the classroom. But there are ways to make the learning process both fun and effective. Learning games for kids are a great place to start. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of learning games for kids.

Learning Games for Kids: Cognitive and Intellectual

Learning games for kids, including preschool age kids, which flex their cognitive and intellectual abilities are usually of the board game type or are the interactive computer game type. Games like puzzles, shape and image mapping games work out their spatial and memorization skills. Computerized math games can add a layer of fun and excitement to an otherwise bland subject. Most of these games are single player and teach the child to not only get the correct answer, but to see it through to a reward or goal. There are a number of great online games of this type that you can use at home to hone your child’s reading, math and spatial and memorization abilities. Check out some of these great learning games for kids that can keep them occupied on a rainy day.

Learning Games for Kids: Socialization

Children learn a number of social skills in a supervised free play environment. Allowing them to use their creativity and imagination with other children teaches them to respect others and coordinate activities.

Structured games are also a great way to improve their social skills. Games such as the name game, in which one child is given a ball in a group of children and then asked to say the name of the other person before rolling the ball to them, teach children the importance of identifying others by name, a critical social skill. Games like Simon says and red light green light teach children impulse control and how to follow directions and rules during play.

Learning Games for Kids at Young Scholars Academy 

Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs has a goal of making learning fun and engaging! Our day care, preschool and school age childcare programs are learning and fun focused. Our curriculum seeks to inspire and engage not just teach. And the caring and nurturing staff at Young Scholars Academy seek to provide the quality educational child care your child deserves. Come check out our programs and contact us today. We look forward to hearing from you!

The weather is warming up and summer is just around the corner. Soon your little scholar will be out of school and replacing their thinking caps with outdoor explorer caps! Before you let loose your little adventurer into the uncharted regions of the backyard, it’s a good idea to teach them some safety essentials and ensure that they are properly provisioned for their voyages and trail blazing romps through the neighborhood. Before they embark on adventure make sure:

They are protected from the Sun

Before the advent of liquid sunscreen, explorers would wear extra layers of clothing and large brimmed hats to protect themselves from the sun. So it’s important that your little explorer is protected too!  The dangers of overexposure to the sun have been well documented. Sun safety is one of the first elements of summer safety and its precautions are applicable to almost every environment.

Start of teaching your child about the danger of staying in the sun too long. While it is not necessary to scare them with the details of skin cancer and sun stroke, keeping them aware of the potential danger of both heat and sun is vital.

In addition to sunscreen, have your little one wear a hat,especially if the set off into unknown territory in the middle of the day. It’s important to make sun safety awareness fun for them. Before the summer months, get your child excited about buying a new hat and let them pick one out. This will make it more likely that they will wear it during the long summer days.

They have enough water for their trip

Dehydration can sneak up on anyone, especially children. When you are busy romping through the backyard chasing down adventure, sometimes you forget to drink enough. Make sure that your child is drinking enough water during the hot summer months. Most experts recommend that children from 5 to 8 years of age consume at least 5 cups of water a day to maintain hydration. And if they are active, they will need more.

It is also a good idea to watch out for the signs of dehydration. You can find some more info on dehydration and what to do about it here.

Are safe when exploring the open waters

Summer time is pool time! Or maybe where you live tis beach time! Either way, its important that you child understand the basics of water safety.

Make sure they understand the danger of diving into shallow water, running on wet surfaces and roughhousing in and around the pool.

Always make sure that there is adult supervision in any situation where there are children in the water.

Revisiting sun safety, make sure that you reapply sunscreen to your child. Even if the bottle says it is water proof, it is a good idea to add an extra layer every two hours or so.

Summer safety at Young Scholars Academy

No matter the time of year, Young Scholars Academy of Colorado Springs is dedicated to keeping all our children safe. As a childcare center devoted to advancing the rights and welfare of children and their parents, Young Scholars Academy provides children and families the quality childcare they deserve. Come check out our programs and contact us today! We look forward to hearing from you!