Learning experiences prior to starting school are crucial to a child's subsequent academic success
The new academic year is about to begin. Parents of young children who are starting school this year are gearing up for the D-day. They are doing the rounds of various malls and swanky stores to buy colourful school bags, fancy water bottles, pencil boxes and not to forget the all-important tiffin boxes of various shapes and sizes.
Yet how many parents are really concerned about mentally preparing their young wards for school? School readiness is an important aspect of a child's academic life which is often sadly ignored by parents. Parents must become aware that the learning that takes place prior to the child starting formal schooling is crucial to academic success in later years.
Educationists and pre-primary school teachers believe that parents should expose their children to early learning experiences, skills, concepts and knowledge. There are a number of desirable readiness skills that will help young children to have a better start when the school begins. For example, the success of skill in reading depends on the development of language in a child. Before learning to read and write the child should be able to express himself clearly and to understand others.
Hence, the parent should first provide children with such experiences which promote language development, before the formal introduction to reading and writing begins.
Activities such as storytelling, indulging in conversation, encouraging the child to solve riddles, puzzles, learning rhymes for fun, indulging in ‘ make believe' play and taking them on excursions are excellent means to aid language development.
During the preparatory stage, it is also necessary to encourage the child in activities like colouring pictures, or completing a picture by joining dots, copying patterns, tracing over copied forms and shapes. These activities will sharpen the child's visual skills and prepare him better for reading and writing.
Education of every child begins at birth. The child's capacity to learn is greatly influenced by his family and the environment he lives in. Some parents in their zeal to make the child school ready, force him to sit for long periods of time to write. A child at this stage should never be forced. He should be given the freedom to learn at his own pace.
Children are attracted to bright colours. So always try to present things in bright and vibrant colours and big sizes to him. Also, see that colours are easily distinguishable, for example, take green and red and not green and blue. Plan activities that will help in the cognitive development of concepts such as size, shape position, volume, position, direction, big and small, more and less, long and short and so on. A word of caution here: Teaching must be age-appropriate.
In order to ensure a continuous learning process, the practice of teaching should be distributed systematically so that the learner, after having acquired the skill, continues to develop it. It is also very important to teach self-help skills of toilet training, dressing/undressing, eating, and drinking and the basic rules of personal hygiene to the young child.
Teach the child to express his needs, respond to his name, and develop in him the capacity to follow simple instructions. He should also be made to recognise his name in print from a group of names.
Provide opportunities for the child to spend time with people other than the family members occasionally so that when he has to spend any extended time away from the family at school, the experience will not be too overwhelming for him.
Lastly, remember that children are born with an inquisitive nature. It is important for a parent to keep that spark alive and to make learning fun and not seem like drudgery.
Keywords: school admission, starting school, academic life
going to school is unnatural for kids.it is no different than a penal system/prison
Nice article for the new parents. Even though article mention the basic skill of parenting but sometime as a parent we forget the basic rules. This is nice reminder to all the parents who are preparing their kids for the kindergarten.
For the parents those who are giving education to the child that too from the village is highly challenging. I thick this article will give the overall idea for parents those who are fighting in there life to give good education for their children.
Thank you for the advice.I made me remember my own childhood days.
I have heard in US, the students are admitted only if they are bold enough to leave their parents to attend school. Reading the above story, I felt the pain lasts in the father more than the kid. Do you believe he can concentrate on his work when he reaches the office :-)
i think...instead of forcing a child into learning poems, calculations,perfect ways of eating,dressing and other such sophisticated mannerisms at a tender age of around 2 years,its better to let the child learn the way of living life on his own..by doing everything freely with just monitoring by parents.It too bad to curb the innocence of a child following the rat race of false competition happening in present world.Let the child discover his skills by his own innocent ways.Poems can be learnt later also but this innocent time of experimenting with life can never come back..
This problem exists because no matter what the age of the child is, the average Indian adult judges their intellect by marks and grades. And children aren't graded at home.
we don't need education !!! On a serious note. Parents should be allowed to stay with their wards in the schools at least for the first few days. This allows them to gauge for themselves how their kids are mingling with others. This also helps in smooth transition as they gradually allow their kids to take care of themselves under the guidance of teachers.
Thanks for the timely article. I am in the same phase where my 2 year old son is at home and we are trying to teach him various things through rhymes, colours etc. Good piece of timely suggestion.
Thanks, This article is really wonderful..... It will be of great help if you publish an article wherein a bit detail on child's age is also present. In order to be first in the rat race many a times parents end up admitting their child in school before a threshold age.
An excellent photo. The picture has beautifully captured the fear and anxiety that small kids have.
reminding our childhood days :)missing the school days
Quote from the article - "Educationists and pre-primary school teachers believe that parents should expose their children to early learning experiences, skills, concepts and knowledge." -- And I thought the article was regarding small kids and schools where you learn such things. Do the "Educationists" (which by itself seems a scary word) know that kids don't even understand words like skills, concepts etc... And experience? - They are kids. What experience are the educ.. and teachers expecting. Kids will be cranky - have been so for ages. Not sure what the fuss is all about. At my age, I still can't bear the thought of facing school ever again. Or the thought that my poor child will be headed there. :)
it's really hard to go back to schools after long summer break...
The article talks exactly in the same way about the readiness a fresher to go to a Company for getting a job. Hey there, he/she is just a child. This is like creating a rat race at an early age. I strongly condemn sending a child to School at this age for developing a language instead they should be taught etiquates and manners. Yes they should be mentally prepared but schools and parents should work together in improving this.
Hello Teachers,
Dont expect a 3years kid to learn Presentation skills & people management which we may still lag. teaching & Practising Self Discipline, making childresn to move freely with Others etc weres the good aspects, but "He should also be made to recognise his name in print from a group of names" these sounds absurd.. Please teach Childrens as childrens.Asctually learning capability & mental Steadiness cmes to child at the age of 5..Please dont forget & speak like you have ecxelled at that age.
If that were my child in the picture, I'd take here back home right
away. I wouldn't have the heart to leave her by herself or with other
similarly crying children in an unfamiliar environment. Perhaps
society today places early and unrealistic expectations on both
parents and their kids, such that both end up getting pushed too hard
and stressed out when there is no need for that to happen. There must
be a law that states that children must be with their parents till the
age of 6, until they are ready for 1st grade. All these kindergartens
and pre-kindergartens must be banned.
The writer has unwittingly talking only of boys (‘he’ everywhere)
though the picture show a girl child!
“Children are attracted to bright colours. So always try to present
things in bright and vibrant colours” provided the objects are
certified free of lead contaminated colours! In India there is
little statutory control over the use of lead especially in bright
colours. There is ever present danger of kids getting lead poisoned
playing with these objects. Lead poisoning is devastating. It
severely impairs the body, especially the nervous system, and is
especially damaging to kids, whose brains are still developing. Lead
reduces their ability to concentrate, learn, and rest. Even low
levels of exposure over time affect kids’ physical and mental
development, lowering IQs, slowing body growth, and causing
behavioral problems. With poor diet, the effects are even greater,
and getting rid of lead requires arduous, painful treatment,
although even this doesn’t reverse existing damage. Lead affects all
children but it doesn’t affect all children equally: Studies show
that low-income children are two times as likely experience lead
poisoning as more affluent kids.
Undoubtedly initiation in to schools can highly traumatic not only
to children but parents and grandparents as well and require
considerable planning effort to handle the psychological fall out I
had the privilege of seeing my daughter in to pre nursery in India
and my grandson in US. There is unique strength in both Indian and
American approach. In India, Child does not suffer from cultural
shock and teachers do understand and take care seamlessly. Of
course due to parental pressure there is a lot of unwarranted
stress on academics to soon in India. In the American preschools,
Asian children after initial hiccups get settled admirably. A child
coming out of an American pre-school will fully versed with civic
behavior, scientifically trained in personal hygiene, logically
trained in vocabulary usage etc. with little stress on serious
academics. There is also unbelievable stress on safety aspects and
absolute professionalism of the teaching staff.
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