Your child learns through play, and that is how he or she gets to know how to interact with people and learn how to think differently. This helps them in school and in life generally. In kindergarten, the teachers will actively participate with your child in exploring through play. The teachers offer guidance that suits the age of your child and his or her level of development.
What Takes Place in a Kindergarten?
Your child listens to stories read by the teacher, enjoys learning activities through play, solves problems through communication and play, plays both indoors and outdoors safely and learns to get along with other children and make friends.
After playing, your child needs to have a rest period and will nap. He or she will also be fed on healthy foods and snacks. This is also an important lesson your child is learning on the proper foods to eat.
What Should You as a Parent Do at Home?
You should note that learning begins when your child is born. That is through touching, seeing, hearing, smelling, moving, tasting and playing. Your child will, therefore, need a secure attachment and self-regulation.
Before getting to kindergarten, your duty as a parent is to offer play, secure attachment and self-regulation. Secure attachment is an emotional and strong relationship that a child develops with people around him or her. It is achieved through parent protection and encouragement to explore safe environments. Pick up your child when he or she cries, comfort when hurt or sad and be playful. This will help your child feel safe and have self-confidence.
Self-regulation helps children control their impulses and feelings, resist doing something bad and know how to behave correctly in different scenarios. An excellent example to illustrate this is when your child has to queue and wait for his or her turn. Explain that his or her turn will come after a particular child and that every person will have a turn. How will you as a parent achieve this? You will have to monitor your child and as instances requiring self-regulation present themselves, be there to show the right way.
Play, as indicated above, is how every child learns. As a parent, you should respond when your child initiates play, offer safe playing items and talk to your child, read stories, provide crayons and paper, give stackable blocks and safe utensils among others. All these items and more will help your child develop literacy, social, thinking and movement skills. Additionally, they acquire scientific and mathematical concepts.
After School Starts
When your child starts attending school, do not stop playing with him or her. Do what the teachers do at school as indicated above.
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