Teaching Your Preschooler

they are so ready to learn

This is a wonderful article by Deanna Mascle. Children are never to young to start learning. My page about diaper changes is a great example. Keep it simple and keep it fun but do it often and from day one.

When, What, and How to Begin Teaching Your Preschooler by Deanna Mascle

preschooler A while back LeeAnn from Las Vegas asked my opinion on just when is the right time to begin teaching her 2-year-old daughter. She has already begun teaching basic concepts such as alphabet, colors, and numbers, but some members of her family feel that she is pushing her little girl.

In my opinion, the easiest way for LeeAnn to test whether or not she is pushing her daughter can be found in this quote: "Is it too soon, or should I let her keep going as long as she is interested and is having fun?"

If LeeAnn's daughter is interested in the concepts that she is learning and having fun while learning then it is definitely the right time to teach her.

Young children are interested in the world around them and they are interested in what their parents know. Building on that interest to teach basic concepts (just as LeeAnn is doing) is not pushing your child -- it is meeting your child's needs. One of the most important things you can do for your child is to offer an environment rich in learning opportunities. If you give your child the opportunity to learn then he will learn -- it really is as simple as that.

Remember, young children are learning a great deal about themselves, their family and caregivers, and their world ever day. For most of those lessons you are the teacher. By the time your child has reached the age of 2 you have already taught hundreds, even thousands, of important lessons about how to function in the world and society. Indeed, many of the everyday activities you perform with your child also have academic implications. For example, the books that you read to your child and the songs you sing with your child have a lasting impact on literacy. It is no great stretch to add other concepts into your repertoire and this can make a great deal of difference in how prepared your child is for preschool and kindergarten.

There are really only three things you should remember:

~ Keep it fun Making learning into a game and your child will always enjoys what you have to teach her.

~ Keep it light Educational products and activities that are actually games are wonderful but don't force your child into spending time each day with flashcards or the like. They'll most likely learn faster and more meaningfully if you have an alphabet scavenger hunt at the supermarket.

~ Embrace the teachable moment but don't schedule lessons and force educational activities on your child. When the opportunity presents itself (and it will countless times in a day!) take advantage and use it for a lesson. For example, simply putting on socks can be a lesson in right and left, colors, or counting!

HOW TO TEACH

So how do you teach your preschooler without scheduling lessons and forcing them to pay attention? You embrace the teachable moment!

What is the teachable moment? It is simply an opportunity that springs out of normal, everyday life or as children become older and more verbal a timely question or comment.

Time when you and your child are in the car, for example, is a wonderful teaching opportunity that many parents overlook. If you are reunited after a day's separation then you can share stories about your day-and in the process work on vocabulary and literacy skills as well as teach your child about the world around them. You can also use cars and trucks to teach colors, road signs to teach shapes, and so on.

Mealtimes are also wonderful teaching opportunities. Counting is easily worked into almost any meal, such as telling a child they can have two cookies or giving them five tater tots. Shapes and colors can also be brought into mealtimes. For example, my son likes to choose the shape for his sandwiches-triangles or squares? As a child grows older you can also do letter sounds with the various foods, such as milk starts with "mmmmh".

WHAT TO TEACH

Skills you should work on with your child fall into eight basic categories, according to early childhood educators:

~ Social/Emotional Skills, which will be the greatest predictors of success in life.

~ Self esteem, which is crucial for all learning.

~ Physical Skills

~ Communication Skills: listening, speaking, singing, drawing, gesturing

~ Basic Concepts such as colors, letters, numbers, vocabulary

~ Categorizing Skills, what is the same and different

~ Compare and Contrast Skills, which is the higher order level of Categorizing

~ Experiences on which to draw. These are perhaps the most important of all, as they provide a frame of reference for future learning. The more experiences from which a child can draw, the better s/he will understand both learning and the world.

These are all literacy skills and they are all key to your child's future success. If you need still more help identifying concepts that your child should master then study the developmental milestones for your child's age at PreschoolersLearnMore.com.

So rest easy, LeeAnn, you are doing exactly the right thing for your daughter!

Kim has more tips for teaching your preschooler.

12 DEMANDS FOR PARENT by kim valerio

In a child's education an important factor is the parents' expertise for this "job". No one is born holding all the knowledge, but we can learn and understand some things from books or advice from qualified persons.

Amongst the demands a parent should strictly follow are the following:

1. Do not underestimate your child - he can understand more than you think he does and if you make him believe you think poorly of him this might affect his development.

2. Don't use threat - a child loves a challenge and once threatened he might probably go on and do what he wasn't suppose to just to see if he can escape the punishment.

3. Do not bribe your child - if you are trying to get him to learn for money for example, he will fail to understand the importance of learning, all he will get from this is the importance of money.

4. Do not make a small child promise something - small children can't hold promises so don't force them to lie and then punish them because they did that.

5. Do not keep them under a short leash - to grow up normally children need some space, some freedom.

6. Do not use big words or too many words when you are talking to your child - keep your ideas simple and concise so he can understand every thing you have to say.

7. Do not expect an immediate and blind obedience - it is not recommended, the child has to be learned to think for his own not to follow orders.

8. Do not indulge him too mush - he can develop compartmental disorders.

9. Do not compromise when it comes to the rules of a game - the trick for a game to become educative is too have its initial rules respected.

10. Don't impose rules that don't go with the age of your child.

11. Do not try to inflict quilt - quilt is not an appropriate feeling for children, especially if they are little.

12. Don't give your child orders that you don't take seriously - your child will try to please you and giving him an order is drastic, and it becomes cruel if that order is a joke.

All these "demands" are addressed first to the parent. But they are to be referred to by teachers and educators as well. Along with the parents, they will settle upon an attitude and strategy for the education and growth of the child, so that they can give him all the things he needs to properly develop emotional and physically.

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