Preschool curriculum nowadays is usually educationally oriented and focused. Accordingly, preschools offer an age appropriate programs for children aged two to six years old.
However, parents fail to realize that their decision to enroll their child in preschool do not depend mainly on the preschooler.
What is important is the child’s readiness to enter preschool. In terms of readiness parents need to observe their child’s attitude if he is socially, emotionally, physically and attentively ready for a regular structured educational program together with other children.
To give parents some pointers, enumerated herewith, are some indicators for your child’s readiness that parents should consider.
a) The child is physically fit for school – Foremost the child is healthy and not sickly. He should be able to keep up with school activities from time to time doing from one step to another without any difficulty. If he can’t cope up with the pacing with the children of his age, it is not yet the right time to send him to preschool.
b) The child can keep up a regular schedule – The schedule at home should be coordinated with his preschool schedule and should be standardized with regards to mealtimes, bath time, nap or sleeping time, etc. for a time, before the child starts schooling. It is best if parents can work out a preschool schedule around your child’s nap time, but a regular morning nap time for your child is usually an indicator that it is not yet the right time to send him to preschool.
c) The child can participate in group activities – Preschools use group activities as a way of learning, there are allocated programs for each group activities like group singing, listening to stories, playing, interacting and other activities that require participation of the child. He should be cognitively ready to get involved with other children and most importantly knows the concept of sharing.
d) The child can focus in an individual task – Preschools require a lot of projects that involve attention and concentration. The child is considered ready, if he is able to get involved in any activity on his own about an hour or so.
e) The child can communicate orally fairly well with adults and children. This is important to find out of how good is your child in interacting with adults and his fellow children.
f) The child can spend time away from his parents – The child should have the ability to spend his time without his parents, which can help him feel and develop that sense of self confidence and security. Having been cared for by other people other than his parents, he can gain experience from this situation and can put him in a distinct advantage for having him in school for the first time.
g) The child is fairly independent – The child should already be toilet trained, that he can be able to use it of his own with less assistance, he is able to climb stairs, can take meals of his own and be able to wash his hands. Some preschools require that a child has already achieved specific developmental milestone as a pre-requirement prior to acceptance. So it would be good to figure out by yourself in evaluating of how independent your child is or better yet to consult first the preschool of your choice.
If the parents think that their child has satisfied the above criteria, they can then start for a preschool search for their child and accordingly to select the one that is suitable to your child. Preschool plays a critical role in molding the early child development motivating him to love the art of learning, sharing and interacting at an early age.
