Preparing your Preschoolers for Big School

I was visiting my sister in law last night and had an interesting chat about her job. She is a Primary School Teacher in New Zealand and works with New Entrant children.

These children are 5 year olds when they start school, which is usually on their 5th birthday. It is an interesting system here, as children join the class throughout the year on their birthdays. In many other places there are different systems, where children start at the beginning of each term, or maybe at the start of the year that they turn 6.

Anyway, she was commenting on the wide differences between children when they start school, and how this can affect their progress in that important first year. She mentioned that parents play a vital role in having their children prepared for starting school, but that it doesn’t have to be hard or too time consuming for them. She said that the most important thing parents can do is to talk to their children. Oral language is the basis for all learning, and the better their oral language, the better their understanding.

Here are some tips for parents of preschoolers:

1. Get your children to help you with everyday tasks and talk to them about what you are doing. e.g. when washing, cooking or gardening.
2. When you are in the car, talk about the things you see as you drive along.
3. Ask your children questions about what they are doing when playing. Join in for a few moments if you can.
4. Answer your children’s questions when you can. When they ask a question, you know they are trying to understand something, and answering it will help them build their concepts of how the world works.
5. Speak to your children in full sentences. Knowing sentence structures is important for understanding how language works. Children who only hear one or two word answers learn to speak that way, and will often have dificulty communicating with others.

The most important thing of all is to enjoy being with your children. We know that is not always easy, and we all have many trying times with them as they grow up, but just a few moments of positive conversation can make all the difference

Image: sxc.hu