7 Tips to Get Yourself and Your Child Ready for Pre-School

Making the most of a child’s ability to learn early in their lives is critically important. For the first few years of a child’s life they are more able to absorb more information than at any other point in their lives. Every day the average two year old toddler adds about five new words to their vocabulary. it is critically important to take advantage of the natural ability to learn at these young ages. If you have already enrolled your chid in an early learning center for children, you may need help getting them ready for the transition. Here are some tips to make that easier for you and your child.

Get into a school schedule before school even starts. Before the program at the early learning center for children begins, start getting your child used to going to bed at a certain time and waking up at a set time, This will help prepare them for getting up at the right time for school. Perhaps you have already done some of this for your other early child care programs. If you have not, start at least a few weeks before the program at the early learning center for children begins. This will make it easier when the early child education program starts.

Try out some play dates. The staff at the early learning center for children can give you a list of the parents of the kids who are in the same program as your child. Call some of them and schedule play dates with their kids and your child. If they make friends with some of the kids they will be going to school with, they will look forward to going to school and make the transition from being at home or with daycare providers to going to school. This will ease your mind, too. Just knowing they will be with children they know and like will make you feel better about everything.

Work out the toilet situation. Find out what the toilet situation is at the early learning center for children and make sure your child is comfortable with it. Go over your options with the people at the school and talk it through with your child. The more you can explain things to them and get the involved in the transition, the better it will be for both of you.

Take your child to the library during reading times. Many libraries have programs where people read to groups of children. If your local library has such a program, or if it is offered at another location in your city, take your child to that program. This helps kids get used to being read to by someone other than a close family member.

Tell your child about your good experiences when you started school. Dig out some old pictures of yourself when you were around the same age. If you ahem good photos of you in school, that is even better. Let them know that you were scared at first, too but that you loved learning and playing with the other children. Focus on the positive experiences you had.

Give your child something of yours that means a lot to you. Do you have a favorite scarf or hat? Leave that with your child on their first few days or weeks at the early learning center for children, they will know you would never leave that item forever and it will give them some reassurance that you are coming back for them.

Remember, this is a process. One day your child might be fine with being dropped off and the next they are upset. That is normal and to be expected. This process may not go in a completely linear fashion. Do not let this upset you, just take the process day by day. If you have had your child in a corporate childcare program at work, maybe they have had some time away from you and may be more ready. Either way, support them and make sure they know everything is going to be ok and it will be, for you and them.

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