Going Back To School

Welcome back to school everyone! And especially welcome to our new friends! The preschool years are the most important years. The majority of your child’s brain development happens during the first 5 years. Preschool is often overlooked just because it is not required. It does not make it less important though. Children that have had a head start of being in a classroom setting, learning to be around peers their own age, and dipping their toes into academics are going to be so successful in their future education.

Many parents are sweating the start of kindergarten because they worry that their child is not ready. The best thing you can ever do for your child is to surround them with books. If you have been regularly reading to them and with them their whole life, they are already worlds ahead of those that did not have that privilege. The next best thing you can do is get them into a preschool setting even if it’s not in your family’s plan to have them in childcare all of those five years. While they are with us, they will learn how to control their emotions and realize that children around them also have their own set of feelings. Going into a big kindergarten classroom can be daunting for a child that has never spent much time with other children or has only been around their siblings.

Another advantage to this is that your child will have already gained some friend-making skills along with learning how to navigate peers. If your child is in a well-structured preschool setting, they will breeze through knowing expectations. They will already know that they cannot play outside all day, but that there is a designated time. They will know that they have to do “work” and not just build with Legos ALL day long. Their brain will know that the day is broken into chunks and transitions. This is one of the hardest things to grasp as a young child anyway. They find what they like, and they want to do it until they decide that they are done. We still give them those freedoms during the day, but we have to build a schedule around it as well. It’s all about balance, and children that have experienced this for long enough will not struggle with transitioning quite as much or even at all.

Preschool is a special experience to have because it is smaller place to let your child first spread their wings with so many willing hands there to help them. We focus on the whole child. We care for their mental and physical well-being as well as their education. We believe that once the basic needs and emotions are taken care of then education will fall into place. I hope that if you have been contemplating preschool that you found this helpful.

 

Ms. Brooke

Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher

Literacy Teacher