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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Pre-kindergarten is the first formal classroom education that children between the ages of 3-5 attend. The purpose of a pre-kindergarten is to familiarize children with typical school atmosphere. As kindergartens are meant to be academically oriented, children are gradually introduced to school schedules in their pre-kindergarten.

At their young age, children are more creative with eagerness to learn anything. Parents, must therefore, take enough care not to over burden them with studies.

Pre-kindergarten is not mandatory for children, but it is beneficial for them as long as it remains play-based learning. But, nowadays, even pre-kindergartens have become almost like kindergartens with report cards, regular school schedules, and routines. Things like paying attention in class, following schedules, and practicing homework are beneficial for children, but too much of a mundane routine would also put off their creativity as children learn not only from books but also by observing their surroundings.

If you plan to send your children to pre-kindergarten, here are some tips:

Request teachers tell you about lessons in advance: It is always beneficial to get lessons from teachers in advance, as that would help you to understand whether your child has difficulty in learning. Moreover, you can also request teachers to pay special attention on the areas of weakness your child may have. These initiatives would help to correct children at an early stage and would give them confidence to learn more.

Balance overall education: Early education is advantageous for children, as parents get to know about the strengths and weaknesses of their child at a very early stage. Even though pre-kindergarten can prepare children to face academic studies, parents remain their most important teacher. So, parents should take time to study and play with them as that would help them to best informed about their children’s weaknesses.

If a child has learning difficulties, then such an approach would help parents to understand and solve the problem at an early stage itself rather than waiting till the child joins kindergarten school. At the same time, parents should not view the learning process only from academic perspective. The bottom-line is learning should be fun for children to let their creativity improve.

Reward System: Pre-kindergarten is the perfect stage when you can find out whether your child has interest in learning or not. Most of the kindergarten activities are creative and fun-based to motivate children. If you find that your child does not show interest in learning or in doing school lessons, then you can rely on rewards to motivate your child. Promising them with rewards they like is the easiest way to grab their attention and help them overcome their learning difficulties. Moreover, requesting their teacher to focus on their area of weakness would also help them.

Be a good listener: Children do the work at their own pace. One of the common problems that parents find is lack of patience to handle children. Parents must practice good listening skills, because children rely on parents to learn things. Moreover, parents should encourage conversation with children instead of cutting their conversation off in the middle.

Encourage creativity: Pre-kindergarten lessons are meant to increase creativity of children. But relying on the lessons alone is not enough to motivate a child. One of the best ways is to give choices to children and asking them to decide. This approach would give them a sense of freedom and would also help parents to learn about their interests. Moreover, it is essential for parents not to train their children with rhetorical questions. Spoon-feeding with certain notions would certainly affect children behavior at later stage. Instead, children should be asked open-ended questions with more choices, as that would make them think more independently and creatively.

Pre-kindergarten education introduces children to the school atmosphere without over burdening them with regular school tasks. But school education alone cannot improve a child’s learning skills. Parents must learn and play with their children to understand them better and help them overcome with their learning difficulties.

About the author: Ellen Spencer is a blogger and writer. She loves to work out and pays special attention to her fitness. These days she is busy in writing an article on Kegel exercise. Beside this she loves reading. These days she is reading a lot about Chronic fatigue syndrome as her elder sister is suffering from this.

Earnest Parenting: tips for parents of pre-kindergarten children.

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