Top Tips For Preparing Your Child For Preschool

Are you looking for tips on preparing your child for preschool? Keep reading to help both you and your preschooler prepare for their first school year!

Preschool is one of the most important times of your child’s life. This particular stage is crucial for their growth and development. It provides a solid foundation for academic and social learning. It also offers an opportunity for them to learn in a more structured setting. Preschool is also where your child will acquire answers to their commonly asked questions.

Top Tips For Preparing Your Child For Preschool

Although beneficial, your kid will not fully understand the importance of preschool and how this phase will affect their lives. The idea of spending time with new people in a new environment can be very overwhelming for them. Without proper guidance, your child’s preschool experience can become a nightmare, instead of being fun and exciting.

5 Preparation Tips Before Preschool Starts

Preschool is an essential time in your child’s life, so it will take some preparation. Ideally, you and your child should start preparing for preschool months before the actual classes start. If possible, you should make changes to your own and your child’s daily routine after signing them up for preschool. Doing this will give your child a sufficient amount of time to understand or grasp what will happen soon. It can also keep stress away during the process.

Listed below are some of the essential preparation tips to be accomplished before preschool starts:

1. Know As Much As You Can About The Preschool

Many parents are worried about their children going to preschool simply due to the unknown. Often, parents are concerned about their child’s safety. Others worry if their children can survive an entire day in the presence of new people. Is the preschool well-equipped?  Are the teachers competent enough to handle your child’s tantrums?

Educating yourself is the key to avoiding this cycle of concern. If the preschool operates like loloschildcare.com and provides online resources, make sure to check their page so you can know more about them. The information presented in the preschool’s website can help set your expectations and ward off any worries. You can also visit your child’s classroom and chat with their teachers before their classes start.

2. Use Books To Your Advantage

Worrying about your child’s safety and wellness when they attend preschool is universal among parents or guardians. This is why you can find countless books about preschool to make the transition easier. Scout for these materials and read to your advantage.

The experience of other people as they send their children to preschool can help you determine what you should and shouldn’t do as your child enters the same stage. This is especially important for first-time parents or guardians.

3. Act It Out

It’s common for children to love to play. Aside from being an excellent way to spend their leisure time, playtime also has positive effects on your child’s growth and development. This can improve their flexibility, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

If you’re looking for ways for your child to understand what preschool is, explain the concept based on their level of maturity and by acting it out. Pretend to play with your children on what preschool is and what they should do while in their classes.

You can pretend that you’re going to school, hang up your backpack the moment you arrive in your classroom, and sit down with a group of other children. You can also maximize your playtime by mimicking the activities commonly done in preschool. These usually include playing games, preparing simple snacks, and reading stories.

It’s also important to teach them social skills as early as possible. Although this can be very demanding and time-consuming, you should make sure that your child knows the concept of taking turns and joining in plays before preschool starts.

4.  Work On Your Child’s Self-Help Skills

There will be adults looking after your children in preschool. However, keep in mind that your child will be expected to accomplish simple tasks on their own. This is especially true if the preschool caters to several students per class. The more students there are in one class, the less time the teacher might spend on your child.

You can teach your child to be independent even before they start preschool by working on their self-help skills. Preschool requires a lot of focus from your child, which is why it’s best if you hone this skill early at home. You can do this by teaching your child how to wash their hands, put their shoes and socks on, and use the appropriate utensils on the table.

When they already have the basic knowledge of how to handle simple tasks on their own, it’ll be easy for them to be independent in class even if the teacher is not solely focused on them.

5.  Shift Your Schedule

For your child to seamlessly transition to preschool, expect that commitment and consistency will be required from you. Even after you’ve checked the condition of the preschool and the expertise of your child’s teacher, you have to continually guide your child to ensure that they are gearing towards the right path.

You can do this by making changes to your schedule even before your child starts attending preschool. If you have a full-time job, you need to spend more time with your child at home so you can check their progress at school and offer help if they have any homework. You should also strive to create a calm environment at home to allow your kid to study with ease. Most importantly, you should start setting limits on how often your child should use the Internet and other forms of media.

Aside from making sure that your child complies with all of their requirements in school, it’s essential to incorporate healthy habits into their lifestyle. This can mean sending your child early to bed, preparing healthy breakfasts for them, and letting them spend more time outdoors.

Your child’s participation in preschool is vital for their growth and development. However, you shouldn’t also forget that at their age, they would rather play and do less serious tasks.

3 Preparation Tips For The First Day Of Preschool

Your child’s first day in preschool is an important milestone in their life. On this very day, you’ll finally see the fruits of your hard work in gearing up your child for preschool. However, just because you have exerted a lot of time and effort in preparing your child for this day, it doesn’t mean that you will simply take your child to the preschool and do nothing afterward. On the contrary, your child needs you more on this day.

For the first few days of preschool, make sure that you follow all of these tips:

1. Wake Up Extra Early

How you’re going to start the day can affect your child’s disposition in preschool. If you wake up late and rush your child to wake up, your child will most probably start the day feeling stressed. This will have a negative implication the moment they show up in their preschool. How can they mingle with their peers if they weren’t able to get enough sleep the night before? How can they have a positive outlook if you rushed them to eat their breakfast?

Make sure that all of these don’t happen by waking up extra early on the first day of your child’s preschool. There’s no set-in-stone rule when it comes to the time you should wake up on this day. When preparing your child for preschool, allocating time for each task will make the transition easier.

You should allocate enough time for you to accomplish all of these tasks:

• Prepare a healthy and filling breakfast for your child. You can ask your child about their preferred meal or surprise them on their first day of preschool. The breakfast you will serve them should boost their energy and make them excited to attend preschool.

• When eating breakfast, spend time to discuss with your child about the routine for the day. Let them know about the things they should expect in the preschool and how they are expected to behave like a student. The more information you feed your child, the easier it’ll be for them to prepare themselves.

• Work together in packing your child’s backpack. Inform them about the items inside their bag and, if possible, let them bring their favorite meals or snacks, too. If the teacher already informed you about specific activities that your child will engage in on the first day, let your child know about them and introduce the necessary items for the said activities.

• If your child is required to color different materials for an hour on the first day, tell your child where their crayons are placed. Being familiar with the activities during the day will make it very easy for your child to cope with changes.

• If your child expresses their anxiety on this day, let them bring their favorite stuffed animal or blanket. These items can provide a sense of security to your child and keep loneliness at bay.

2. Get Organized

Although your child will spend most of the time playing in preschool, you still have to ensure that all of their valuables are organized for the day. For starters, you should prepare appropriate pieces of clothing, shoes, and backpacks for your child. All of the forms required by the preschool should also be submitted days before classes start.

Depending on the duration of classes, consider stocking up on healthy food items for their lunch and snacks. If you love to spend time in the kitchen, look for recipes and tutorial videos so you can prepare your child’s meals and snacks from scratch and successfully and deliciously at that!  Seeing carefully prepared meals will surely energize your child to do well during their first day attending preschool

3.  Stay With Your Child For The First Twenty Minutes Of Their First Day In Preschool

The first day of preschool can be very nerve-wracking for your child. Even if you have prepared them for this day, being in that situation would feel so much different. The first day of preschool means socializing with other people in a new environment. This can create chronic stress for your child. When not handled properly, the first day of preschool can traumatize your child and can become the reason why they won’t have any interest in showing up for the next day.

Steer away from this direction by staying for twenty minutes with your child on the first day of preschool. You should utilize this time to introduce the new environment to your child. Point out where classroom activities are usually held, and help your child to get involved with their peers.

Make sure to introduce your child to their teachers as well.

When it’s time to go, let your child know that you’re leaving and offer a tight hug. You should also leave positive and encouraging messages, such as, “I know you’re going to do good today. I’ll be back to get you later.” These simple words can provide reassurance and make it easy for your child to get through the day, even without you around.

Your Participation Counts

Parents and guardians play a significant role in the success of their children in preschool. It’ll be effortless for your child to adjust and excel in this phase if they are correctly guided by individuals who they can trust and look up to.

Preschool is a time wherein your children will grow holistically, which is why you should spend time and effort to ensure that you and your child are prepared for this phase. A little preparation will go a long way for your child to transition effortlessly into this chapter of their life.