Is your child about ready to head to preschool? If so, you might be feeling a little nervous. This is a perfectly natural emotion for parents to feel, but there are ways you can feel a little more comfortable with the situation. By properly preparing your child for preschool, you’ll feel much more comfortable sending your baby out into the world.
Sleep Routine
Your child most likely has a sleep routine already in place, but is this routine going to cut it for preschool? Once your child starts preschool, you’ll need to get out the door earlier. This means that your child will need to wake up earlier than normal, which can translate into a tired and grumpy morning. You can help prevent this by getting your child used to a preschool sleep routine. Ask your child’s new preschool teacher about start and end times, as well as naptime.
Once you know this important information, try to follow the same schedule for the weeks leading up to the first day of school. Wake your child up a little earlier and practice getting ready in the morning. See if your child can stay awake and focused through the morning until the scheduled naptime. If your child has trouble doing this, make some tweaks to the sleep routine, like going to bed a little earlier.
Communication Skills
This is a very important skill every child should have to be better prepared for preschool. As a parent, you understand almost everything your child tells you, including all of those grunts, squeals, and wild hand motions. However, not everyone will understand your child’s language. It’s important to help teach your child how to communicate clearly with adults. Your child doesn’t need to string together complex sentences and give five-minute speeches; they should be able to ask simple questions and explain feelings. Encourage your child to develop these necessary communication skills by asking questions and asking for clarification when you don’t quite get what they are saying.
Potty Training
Any preschool teacher will tell you this is a big one! Your child should know the basics of potty training before going to preschool. This means that your child can tell you that they need to go potty and attempt to use the toilet on their own. It’s ok if your child still has accidents or uses a pull-up since that’s a large part of the potty training process, but if your child knows nothing about using the toilet, preschool will be much harder.
Academic Readiness
Your child should be able to solve complicated math equations and quote Shakespeare by the time they reach preschool, right? NOT! Preschool is the first step your child will take in their educational career. This is a learning stage, and you can’t expect your kid to know everything going into it. Even though you shouldn’t expect your child to know everything, you can make sure your child is ready academically. Your child will be introduced to 5-sense activities for preschool, in addition to important beginning reading and math skills that they’ll use in kindergarten. This includes knowing how to count and recognizing letters and numbers.
Incorporating educational tools like ABCmouse’s preschool games can make practicing these skills more engaging for your child. These types of interactive games can be fun ways to learn letters, numbers, and other concepts. Start preschool off right by introducing these concepts to your child. If your child can’t name all of the letters but can sing their ABCs, you’re headed in the right direction.
Preschool is a big step for any child. Although you can’t predict how this school year will go, you can do your best to prepare your child for success.
