Some parents place their kids in school earlier than others. The decision of when to place a child in a school environment is mostly based on when parents feel that their child is ready for preschool. Some parents believe that their children are not stimulated enough at home and that is why they send their children to a learning environment from an earlier age. If you are wondering if your child is ready for preschool or what you can do to help your child prepare for the transition, we have some advice for you.
Firstly, you must remember that the parent must get their children to work on certain skills in preparation for their schooling journey. Parents are their children's first teachers and inevitably parents are the ones who can prepare their children for their schooling years.
The first requirement of most pre-schools is that children have to be potty trained. Therefore one of the first skills that parents can teach their child is how to use the toilet on their own. When you teach your child how to use the toilet on their own, you are teaching your child independence. Allowing your child to be independent is important especially when you are getting them ready for school. Aside from teaching them potty training skills, you have to help your child learn how to undress and tie shoe laces. The best skill that you can teach your child is that of independence. If your child can do certain things independently, he or she will feel more confident to go to school.
One thing that is very important for school-going children is the ability to listen to instructions so that they can follow them. You need to make sure that you provide your child with instructions. You need to monitor if your child is following the instructions. If you find that your child struggles to follow certain instructions, you may need to break down your instruction in a simpler form. You need to make sure that you are constantly helping your child to listen to verbal stimuli. You need to encourage your child to use their ears at all times and to concentrate on what is being said. It is important to promote listening skills at home because it is a central component of everyday school interactions. The more you assist your child with his or her listening skills, the easier it will be to get your child to pay attention at school.
You need to teach your children the recognition skills that are necessary when they start school. You need to get your child to recognize his or her name so that it becomes easier to identify objects and stationary that belong to him or her that have been labeled with his or her name. You also need to show your child which bag, lunch box, jacket, and stationary belongs to him or her. It is a good idea to take your child stationery shopping so that your child can choose the objects that they want and ones that they will recognize.
Parents need to teach their children how important it is to ask for help. It is important to assist your child at home whenever he or she asks for help. In this way, you are allowing your child to see that it is okay to ask for help. You need to remind your child that asking for help makes a world of difference when something seems difficult to grasp or impossible to tackle.
The best thing to teach your child is how to follow a routine. When you are preparing your child for school, you must start by establishing a routine and working on improving your child's organizational skills. Things like getting to bed on time or waking up at the same time are important organizational skills that help your child to be prepared for the organizational skills needed when following the timetable at school.
In preparation for school, you must also work on bettering your child's coordination skills. From working on your child's ability to hold a pencil to teaching your child how to catch and throw a ball, you are equipping your child with much-needed coordination skills. School does help your child with their fine motor skills and gross motor skills but there is no reason why you can't help your child with these skills too.
If you want to help your child, you need to help your child build the necessary social skills that they need to feel comfortable in the school environment. Help your child understand that they should always consider other people's feelings. By allowing your child to play with and interact with other children in different settings from a young age, you are equipping them with the skills to socialize with others.
While you are working on developing your child's social skills, you can also work on making your child more aware of his or her emotions. If your child is in tune with his or her feelings and knows how to handle his or her feelings, your child will be able to deal with big emotions in the classroom setting too. To learn how to equip your child with the much-needed emotional skills, you can read our article on Helping Your Child Process Big Emotions (Link to article.)
While we have provided some suggestions of the skills that you need to work on with your child to ensure school readiness, remember each child is unique. Some children may be independent but they might find it hard to make friends and socialize at school. Other children may struggle to tie their laces no matter how many times you taught them how to loop and pull. It is okay for your child to have some of the skills but not all when he or she starts pre-school or even school. Not having some skills doesn’t mean that your child is not at all ready for school.
When children start school, they are working on improving the above-mentioned skills as well. The trick is to keep working on these skills at home even when your child is in pre-school or school already.
Some schools also provide their suggestions and advice on what is needed to get your child ready for the first school year. Take heed of all of the suggestions and acknowledge the advice. With time, you will notice your child displays all of these skills on their own.
Helping your child get ready for school is important, but not as important as the support that you need to provide once your child is already in school. Do you feel your child is ready for preschool? Are you ready to let go and give your child the independence that he or she needs to start his or her pre-schooling journey?