Early childhood education programs have many purposes, including learning, nurturing, development, and stimulation. These programs help young students to come up with solutions to problems at hand while increasing their confidence and other skills. If you are a parent of a student enrolled in a program for early learning at home, or if you are thinking about enrolling your child in one such program, you should know that you have a big role in enhancing the life skills of your child from social interactions to independence and resilience. At the same time, you’ll also be teaching your child to have a positive outlook in learning and life in general.
How Preschoolers Learn
Kids during this period will be using their neural connections and strengthening them. Through exploration and everyday play, it is essential that your kid learns in a stimulating and safe environment. Your relationship with your toddler is the foundation of their healthy development and learning. On the other hand, interacting with other people can teach your child important skills in life, such as problem-solving, communicating, and critical thinking.
The activities and experiences you provide to your kid with an early learning program will boost their learning capacity and efficiency, as well as develop their brain. With this, you’ll be giving your child lots of opportunities for sensory-rich stimulation, hands-on opportunities, and language-rich educational setting.
If you involve yourself in your child’s learning process, it can positively affect their young mind. This could be:
- Selecting toys to play with.
- Pointing to pictures on the screen and in books.
- Choosing songs to sing and books to read.
- Picking out food for dinner.
Make sure many opportunities are available for your child to try a variety of activities. This will enable the young student to have many ways to learn things and practice what they have learned. Have early learning activities outdoor and indoor, both structured and free play, quiet activity and physically active, etc.
It is important to let your kid make mistakes while learning, but show your support whenever necessary. Know when to provide the answers or solutions and let them determine how the world works by themselves. Keep in mind that a huge part of learning is giving encouragement and praise to make the child feel good and keeping them interested in learning.
What Is Your Role as a Parent?
Even though preschoolers tend to be experts in independent play, it is your job to help with the transition from activity to activity, creating structured tasks, and organising the day of your child.
Encourage Repetitive Routines: It would be easy for your child when there is predictability during their learning days. Routine and consistency aid in the learning and development of a preschooler. Repetitive routines also teach sequencing, build concept knowledge, vocabulary, and develop autonomy.
Talk to Your Kid: Many activities included in a program for early learning at home give you an opportunity to interact with your child, like introducing colours, sizes, numbers, shapes, and new vocabulary. Encourage the reciprocal exchange of both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. Also, promote a sense and self in your kid when you are interacting back and forth.
You have many roles as a parent to help with your child’s success in early childhood education. Besides the basic academic skills, various forms of play to support their skills and development must also be taken into account. At the same time, incorporate screen time to balance their time of learning and activities. Use the resources available strategically to make the preschool years of your child meaningful and successful.
