Preschool care is a place where the foundation of your child’s development is laid down, and because the foundation is often the most important part of any learning, it is important for you as a parent to continue the skills at home, where your child’s preschool teacher has left off.
Foster Your Child’s Learning At Home With These Preschool Care Tips
Here are some tips on how to take preschool care teachings home with you.
- Respect is universal and is understood by everyone. Discipline your child in private, not in front of their siblings or peers. This often goes hand in hand with eliminating humiliation from discipline – learning from a mistake is more effective without humiliation.
- Do not talk “at” or “to” your children, rather speak “with” them. Shouting at your kids and looking down on them whilst standing will not encourage good communication nor listening skills. Rather bend down to their level, make eye-contact and speak with them in a clear, calm manner.
- Consider making a “rules board” in their rooms and referring to this. Children can understand clear rules if the guidelines are easy to understand. A clearly written down “rules board” will help your kids understand and respect some rules in your home and in their rooms, for example:
- Clean up after yourself
- Put your toys away when you are finished
- Be nice with one another
- Always say please and thank you
- As a mom, you would want to step in and do things for your children – do not do things for your children if they can do it for themselves. Allow them to eat, dress, tidy up or get seated for dinner by themselves.
- Teach your children problem-solving skills. This simply means helping them identify emotions and feelings that they are feeling, why they are feeling this way, and what they think would make them feel better.
- Set a good example. You too should set a good example for your children, because children watch everything we do. Be aware of how you interact with their preschool teacher, your spouse or partner, the cashier at the checkout counter, and other children. Remember, kids are learning at every waking moment.
- Give your little one a regular chore to complete. This should be manageable and safe such as sweeping dirt in the dustpan every time you sweep. When your child successfully completes their chore every time they do it, he or she feels a sense of accomplishment which encourages him or her to eventually take on other do-able tasks.
- When you are praising your child, give detail. This is because you are giving praise like a coach instead of just a cheerleader. Instead of just saying “what a great job folding the clothes!” try going into more detail, explaining to your child why they did a good job. Hence, you can try and say “what a great job you did folding the clothes! The white shirts are all together and the socks are folded into each matching pair just like I showed you, well done.” This way, your child will know why they did a great job and will want even more jobs as they will begin to feel proud of themselves.
- There are other things that you as a parent can do, such as encouragement, expecting more of them and making this known to them, teaching kids how to apologize, catching kids doing good and praising them for that, teaching social skills by using play activities, and much more.
Developing the skills of how to adopt some preschool care techniques and employing them on your little one shouldn’t be too hard, as long as you follow these guidelines. Of course, having an excellent preschool for your child is paramount and cannot be compromised. If you need help with getting your child the best preschool care, get in touch with Parkland Children’s’ Academy.