Category: Preschool

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What Are Cognitive Activities for Preschoolers? – Try These

What Are Cognitive Activities for Preschoolers?
What Are Cognitive Activities for Preschoolers?

Why should preschoolers engage in cognitive activities? What are cognitive activities for preschoolers? Young children learn a lot of things while playing. You might be thinking that they are just playing. But in reality, their mind is working hard to gather knowledge. Playing promotes cognitive development. While playing, their mind works very fast. It helps them in developing problem-solving skills, imagination, experimenting, communicating, and many other things.

What Are Cognitive Activities for Preschoolers?

What Are Cognitive Activities for Preschoolers?
What Are Cognitive Activities for Preschoolers?

As they will learn while playing, you do not need to put any extra effort. You just need to create a playing environment so that they will be motivated to play and learn all the time. Here are some playing-related cognitive activities that you can consider for the mental growth of your preschooler. 

Play Ideas for Cognitive Development 

It is worth mentioning that healthy communication with your kid is important to ensure a better result and so your child can really enjoy the long term benefits of preschool. You will have to make sure that you are spending time with your kid to answer the young curious mind. Your active participation is a must in all the following activities. 

  • You can try board games such as “Snakes and Ladders” or any card game like “Snap” or “Go Fish”. These games will engage the young mind, sharpen their minds, and boost their imagination.
  • Read kid-friendly books and help them to understand riddles and jokes. Learn some reading tips for your preschoolers to enhance the experience.
  • Inspire them to show interest in construction and building games.
  • Consider easy jigsaw puzzles.
  • Find games that promote both singing and moving.
  • While driving, create a playful and learning environment by showing different things like grass, trees, or anything visible at the roadside.
  • Motivate your kids to help you with cooking. By doing so, they can learn counting, naming, measuring, and many other things.

Kids can learn very fast at this age. If you want your kid to learn first, then you will have to create a favorable environment. Also, do not always offer help. Let your kid find a solution. It will build confidence and they will know how to handle a specific situation without your help. Whenever your child will not be able to do something, he/she will cry for help. You will have to wait until that period. 

Also, you need to be more communicative to develop their language skills. While you play, you can ask your child to explain what is going on. Be attentive and show interest so that your kid will be inspired to impress you with his/her discovery. 

You should always limit the screen time regardless of age. Some programs might be helpful for cognitive development. But if you allow spending more time with the screen, it might affect adversely. So, limit the screen time and always focus on quality media choices. Make sure that your kid is playing more and watching her/his favorite programs less.

The Conclusion

So, what are cognitive activities for preschoolers? These are preschool readiness activities that stimulate the minds of young children so that your preschooler has healthy mental growth. You should try from an early age around four. This is the right time to make friends, to organize things, and understand concepts. Communicate with your kid always and inspire your little one to explore different things whenever possible. In the case where you need extra help, do not hesitate to reach out to a preschool near you to contact them for more information.

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Preschool

Long Term Benefits of Preschool

Long Term Benefits of Preschool

According to various research findings, the long term benefits of preschool cover both social and cognitive development. The first five years of a child’s life is characterized by rapid brain and behavioral development; investing in quality preschool or early learning programs can have significant benefits to a child’s later development.

Long Term Benefits of Preschool

This has been a subject of great debate, especially among scholars and researchers in this field. While there are arguments for both sides, evidence continues to show that there are numerous benefits of preschool education.Long Term Benefits of Preschool

Determining the long term benefits of preschool can be rather complicated but an increasing body of evidence has shown that these programs help to reduce achievement gaps by improving school readiness.

Pre-school years are a critical period when a child develops foundations for thinking, emotional well-being and behaving. Preschool, where the child learns primarily by playing, encourages language and pre-literacy skills, fosters creativity and imagination and develops their social and emotional skills.

Impact on socialization

According to a recent study, children who received a quality early education were found to have better long term social interaction skills, emotional maturity and appropriate behavior. The early introduction gives them an opportunity to interact with their cohorts from diverse backgrounds and form positive relationships with their educators.

Improved performance

Additional research suggests that quality preschool programs boost cognitive development and that children who attend these programs for three or more years perform better in Year 4 reading, mathematics and science. The evidence also reports higher literacy levels and numeracy understanding in children aged between 11 and 16.

Lower risk of developing learning difficulties

Research results also indicate that children who have access to quality preschool education have a reduced need to access special education in their later years.

Grade retention

Another research study shows the link between the benefits of boosting academic performance through the early years and the ability to retain grades in later school years. This study examined the long Long Term Benefits of Preschoolterm effect of a particular preschool program on the performance and grade retention of its former students in their middle school years. Those who were held back a year before joining pre-school were less likely to perform well academically.

Attendance and completion rates

Evidence also suggests that children who have access to quality preschool programs are less likely to have class attendance issues and more likely to complete school.

Bottom line

Based on the research findings, there are several long term benefits of preschool. The quality, as well as the amount of early learning that a child participates in, can have a significant impact on the child’s long term social and cognitive outcomes. These structured programs, led by top educators in play-based learning environments go a long way in laying the critical foundation for how a child thinks, behaves and how healthy they are emotionally.

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Preschool

Helping Child Adjust to Preschool

Helping Child Adjust to Preschool

Many children struggle to adjust during their first few weeks of school. It can be frustrating and heart wrenching to leave your child sobbing when you leave them at school each morning. Over time, your child will adjust and even have a great time without you but here are a few tips on helping child adjust to preschool and make the transition a bit easier on both of you.

Helping Child Adjust to Preschool

Parents play an important role in helping their child grow. From reading to your children to allowing them to socialize, preschool offers a great platform for children to grow. That is why it is important for children to adapt well to pre-k education.

This article points out a few tips and tricks you can use to help your child adjust to preschool. The tips help to ease the separation anxiety and make it easier for both of you to move on with the next chapter of your child’s life.

Prepare Yourself for Leaving Your Child at Preschool

Children will often pick up on non-verbal cues, and they’ll sense your uncertainty and anxiety about the teacher, classroom or decision to leave him/her at school. The trick is to be confident and try to be calm. Preschool is a great place for your child to learn, develop and grow.

Create a Consistent Routine

Children like it when they know what to expect and what’s expected of them. They thrive on routine. Create a consistent morning routine. For instance, you can start by having breakfast, packing snacks and lunch, preparing for school, leaving home and greeting the new teacher before saying bye to each other.

Helping Child Adjust to Preschool

Make a Prompt Departure

For the first few days, you can hang around a little longer to help your child feel comfortable and safe and help ease their anxieties about the new environment. Once your child has a few weeks under his/her belt, start saying your prompt goodbyes. Give your child a loving kiss or hug, assure them that they’ll have a good time and that you’ll be back with them shortly before leaving promptly. After a few days, your child will get accustomed to how the separation plays out. Avoid sticking around to comfort them as that only makes saying goodbye tougher.

Don’t Sneak Out

Sneaking out without saying goodbye with the hope of avoiding a meltdown or tearful farewell only makes the separation worse. The last thing you want is your child feeling tricked or abandoned. It also helps if they know what to expect, including a loving goodbye.

Involve the Teacher

Talk to your teacher about your child’s anxiety to leave you or reluctance about going to school. The teacher is likely to know how your child feels and will be ready to provide extra comfort and help you with the separation. Preschool teachers are highly experienced and well trained in dealing with separation anxiety and will often have activities ready for your child.

Bottom Line

Being away from a parent and starting school is often a tough transition for both children and parents. While kids will always adjust at their own pace, the tips mentioned on helping child adjust to preschool can come in handy. Think about creating a preschool checklist to also help you stay on track. Try to be patient, consistent and reassuring as that will help your child embrace a rewarding new experience.

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Preschool

Preschool Readiness Activities

Preschool is changing and parents are feeling the pressure to prepare their kids for their first experience in school. As a parent, you want your child to be ready for kindergarten but not push them too hard. It helps to know a few preschool readiness activities to prepare your child for school.

Preschool Readiness Activities

In this post, we’ll discuss a few preschool readiness activities that will get your child ready for preschool. The article highlights basics such as writing and letter recognition to teaching your child how to express themselves and adjust to preschool so that your child can enjoy all of the long term benefits of preschool at the highest potential.

Writing

preschool readiness activities

  • Help your child practice writing letters. You can focus on the letters in his/her name.
  • Consider teaching your child how to write his/her name with an uppercase first letter and the rest of the letters in lowercase.
  • Try to make things a bit more fun by writing in finger paint or in salt or sugar in a cake pan.

Shapes and Colors

  • Help your child to recognize shapes such as rectangles and diamonds by showing him/her how to draw then help them to cut them out.
  • If your child is having a hard time recognizing colors, consider adding a little food coloring to vanilla pudding, milk or cookie dough to emphasize the colors.
  • Incorporate games where your child finds objects of particular shapes or colors around the house or in the neighborhood.

Fine Motor Skills

  • To help keep your child interested in drawing and writing, give him/her several different writing options (markers, crayons or colored pencils.)
  • Having them play with dough is a fun way to strengthen the hand muscles that will be used for writing.

Letter Recognition

  • Play a few games to help your child recognize letters of the alphabet as a beginner’s reading tip
  • Refrigerator magnets can come in handy as you can use them to play hide and seek
  • Use flashcards to play a game of alphabet go fish

Beginning Sounds

  • Make your child aware of the sounds each letter makes
  • Find items in the house that begin with the same sound and help them to identify the letter then makes each sound.
  • Help your child to hear the individual sounds in words by overemphasizing the first sound

Number Recognition and Counting

  • Have some fun counting (for example, the socks that you take out of the dryer or the number of stairs in your home).
  • Point out any numbers you see around you and ask your child to name them (for example, the numbers found on street signs or cereal boxes)

Cutting

  • Let your child practice cutting with a pair of child-safe scissors
  • Give your child old newspapers or magazines to cut up. You can also allow him/her to make a collage by cutting the things he/she likes and gluing them to a piece of paper.

Bottom Line

There are many more preschool readiness activities you can do with your child every day. Make things fun and relaxing by including a lot of play activities. It’s also important to teach your child to express his/her feelings if she doesn’t like something. You can add all of these tips and tricks to your checklist of all of the things you should do before they go off to preschool.