Dear Parents of Young Children,
I write this after 10 years of teaching, 5 of which were in Pre-K, and with 0 years of parenting. I realize my tips and suggestions might be impractical for your particular child or family, that some days may be harder than others, and that as a non-parent there might be things that I think are a *fantastic ideas* but in practice might be impractical. Take what you can use and ignore the rest.
- Read to your child every day. Maybe all you have time for on a crazy day is what it says on a cereal box or your grocery list. No judgement here. But your child needs to be exposed to language, print, and types of writing as earlier as possible.
- Have a bedtime routine and discuss with your doctor what a healthy bedtime would be considering the time your family generally gets up for the day. For kids in Pre-K, Head Start recommends no later than 8:00 for 4 and 5 year olds. Developmentally, they need a lot of sleep. It is important for their brains. Example of a bedtime routine: 10 min warning before bedtime, brush your teeth to a favorite song, read a book together, lights out. Stick to the bedtime and routine as much as you can every day.
- Does your family speak more than one language? Great! Expose him/her to both (or more!). Learning languages is easiest when you’re little, because your brain is still wiring the part that learns language. Research shows that exposing a child to their home language (ie: if you speak primarily Spanish at home, but school day is in English) will help them learn another at school.
- Use a car seat or booster seat that is appropriate for your child’s size. Make sure it is installed in your car correctly. If you’re not sure, many police departments and fire departments have events where they will check this and many other departments will come out and check yours for you if you stop by. Keep your babies safe!
- Stop worrying about asking your child what they did at school. Instead, tell your child about your day. Be specific. I promise, after they hear a model of how to talk about the day they will start to interrupt you to tell you about their day! (This may take longer for more shy kids, but keep doing it every day).
- When your child comes to you with a problem that they are having with another child, teach them how to solve the problem instead of doing it for them. Example: Kid: “Mommy, Johnny knocked over my castle.” Mom: Walk over to Johnny with your kid and say, “Kid, tell Johnny what he did. Tell him he knocked over your castle.” Then ask your child, “Tell him how that made you feel.” etc. You want them to be able to solve problems without you, you need to give them the tools to do it.
- This one I wish I could put on a billboard. Limit how much you baby them. I know this is hard. However, the students who are the babied the most at home, are the ones that I see struggling the most at school. Not because they are not capable, but because they are afraid to try or to fail. Before you do things (age appropriate) for your child, have him/her try for a few minutes (ie: opening food containers). If they cannot do it, you are still there to help and show them how it is done. But there is so much self-confidence to be gained in failing, trying again to do something that is hard, and after many tries finally succeeding. You’d be amazed at how excited a kid can get over opening his milk by himself for the first time. They need those experiences so much.
More to come!
Great reminders & tips for parents from a Prek Teacher..
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