Pre-school Thoughts
by Dellann Frost
| Home |
| Calendar |
| Notices |
| School Year
|
| School Tour |
| Snowed In
|
| About Us |
| Find Us |
| Contact Us |
| Guest Book
|
| Miscellaneous |
| Scrapbook |
| Forms
|
| Login |
The leaves are just beginning to transition into those beautiful fall colors. The
air is beginning to have that fall crispness and our little ones are excitedly
waiting for that first day of school. Are you the parent of a pre-schooler or
kindergarten child who is soon to be off to their first school experience? Are
you unsure or undecided whether to send your child or not? Take a deep breath
and give yourself a pat on the back. You made a commitment as a parent and have
chosen your school program for many reasons. Take a moment and list them; you
like the building, the school hours fit your hours when you need some free
time, you've met the teacher and really like her. Your instincts are
right -- trust them.
Pre-school and Kindergarten are a gift we give our children. Sometimes it feels expensive, especially for young families on tight budgets. Do we need pre-school and kindergarten? It's an investment in your child. Pre-school and kindergarten should help build your child's self-esteem and confidence. The program should be fun. Your child's experience needs to be complete -- it needs to have exploration, be educationally developmental, and have adequate time for socialization experiences. It should have academics, art, music, movement, appreciation of reading, science, and math -- a little bit of everything! Sometimes we have to work at making children happy in their first school encounter. Meet this experience with a positive attitude. School is your child's "job". Just like mommy or daddy has a job, he or she will go to school. Be interested in what your child does, but remember, just like coming home from work, sometimes little ones need to have some time before they can discuss what goes on. Hopefully, your child's teacher will give you a head's up as to what went on at school so you can start conversations. If you are anxiously awaiting that opening school day, making a paper chain is a fun activity for children that are 4 or 5 years old. You can count the days before your child starts school, and make one link in the chain for each day. Cut colorful paper strips out of construction paper and glue or tape them together, making a chain. Draw 1" lines on the paper so that your child can cut the strips by herself. Hang the chain in their room and each night take a link out of the chain. When you've taken all of the links away, the very next morning is the day school begins. This activity can be used when parents travel on business, before a vacation, a hospital stay or any other event in busy lives to help children develop a time frame of events. Bringing something to school on the first day, something to share like a special snack, helps those first day jitters. Make a snack that you can prepare together and then give it to your child at the last moment before getting out of the car. Making children feel "depended upon" by having a special sharing snack makes them feel important and re-directs their focus on the snack rather than the separation. It's also important to give those hugs and kisses at home, or when you're buckling in the seat belt or getting them out of the car. Start a special routine at home, so it's a quick good-bye for both you and your child when you get to their classroom. If the goodbye is prolonged, it will be harder for both the parent and child to separate. Enjoy these precious pre-school and kindergarten moments, treasure the art work, the songs, and the little poems that come home. These precious moments should be anti-stressful, happy and carefree. These moments are truly the "golden years!" |
|
This article appeared in the Hudson Litchfield News on August 31, 2001. |
