Chances are if you are the parent of a 2 or 3 year old, you've already researched extensively and visited numerous playschools as a prelude to starting your child's learning journey.
Once you've waved off your little one you find
yourself torn by doubts-
Was it too early to start playschool? Shouldn't I have spent some more quality time with my baby?
Will my munchkin be happy away from his favourite toy?
And of course, you don't need a playschool to teach your child to play, thank you very much!
Let me set your hearts at rest, playschool is really a space where the child learns how to navigate physically and emotionally in a social environment.
So here are my top tips for surviving kindergarten.
Kindergarten Survival Tip (KST)1*Making friends* 🤝
Remember the primary reason for your child to be in playschool is for developing social behaviour and for building emotional resilience. Prosocial behaviour such as sharing, helping and cooperation which children use during play will help your child become a fully realised human being. No matter how they play, by themselves or exuberantly with a group they are learning how to work in a group, how to control their impulses so as to not hurt someone else, how to express in acceptable ways their emotions.
KST*2
Everything is play for a child🤸
If you wonder is this the right program for my baby? use this yardstick from Maria Montessori who said, "One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.” If your child is happy you've made the right decision!
Everything in a playschool arouses the child's curiosity- new environment, new faces, new routines, new language, new emotions- making this phase in a child's life the best for multisensory learning.
KST* 3 Band-aid for a broken heart.☕
If you feel a piece of your heart break as you leave your toddler at playschool, there's only one remedy- go back home, cry if you must, then brew yourself a nice cuppa , put your feet up and savour the quiet interlude- for in a few short hours your little bundle of joy will be home again!
KST*4 Parent love vs. Teacher love🤜🤛
For awhile it might seem that you have been ousted from that pedestal in your child's heart, but no worries it's only temporary. Preschool teachers take delight in helping children become the person they will grow up to be, even though we may never see that wonderful person. Whereas you will always be a part of their lives! You are their first teacher, thank you for your hard work for the first 3 years of their life! Now, let us do what we do as kindergarten teachers, experience joy!😍
KST*5 Don't be a worry wart!😞
As a first time kindy parent, you may experience enormous anxiety about your child's safety. But rest assured, your hovering and offering experiences that are safe and without risk only gives your child an unnatural and sterile activity and ultimately a joyless one. Let them scrape their knees, let them do their own risk assessment, let them sort out a disagreement, let them fail, let them be noisy, let them be kids!
KST*6 Tear down the behaviour chart!📃
We always expect children to follow the rules we set, but some of them are downright silly!
Here's a sampling of the things you might say
Sit still.
Play quietly.
Eat fast.
Don't run. And the all encompassing
Be good.😣
Don't expect that once your baby is in playschool, these rules will be followed! Preschool teachers know it's useless to try and keep a preschooler still or quiet because their need for movement is an important facet of their understanding of letter identification and formation once they start writing.
Face it, many of the rules are made for our convenience. Fling that rulebook into the wind and embrace the messiness of childhood.
What your child will learn in playschool however, is to listen, to share, to wonder, to investigate, to cooperate, to seek help, to trust and to question.
There you have it, my guide to surviving kindergarten!
Then again you might just decide to fling my tips to the wind and do as you jolly well like!
