Preschools in India

They say, very few things can match the magic of creative imagination. This just does not hold true for artists or leaders. Creative imagination is needed and aspired for, in almost every sphere of your life. Creativity is an essential ingredient of success. Now look at the same creative imagination factor in view of children. Kids, as we know are very creative and imaginative. They have a very low attention span. Now, if our education system could use elements of creative imagination in the curriculum, it is going to be greatly beneficial for the kids.

Creativity of the child must be encouraged. It is a great strength of have and Montessori education system knows it and designs its curriculum in such a way so that child’s imagination is fully encouraged. A child’s imagination is an extension of his understanding of the real world dynamics and subsequent interpretation. Both boys and girls are equally attracted to the imaginative play. These plays are great confidence boosters for the kids. Just imagine a situation where two kids manage to create a crown and wand and perceive themselves as prince and princess. They start to act out the role and in the process feel empowered and confident.

Montessori education encourages such imaginative plays. The basic teaching of alphabets and number systems etc are well combined with dashes of creativity. Imagination is more like a bird which shouldn’t be caged. If a child is encouraged to pursue his creative imagination streak, he can do wonders with his life. Observing child’s creative thinking pattern also gives us an idea of his interests, likes and dislikes. Montessori schools try to provide opportunities so that they can become thought leaders of the future. Remember, leaders are always known for their independent thinking. Montessori schools must be given credit for encouraging young children to become creative and independent thinkers right from the very beginning.

Learning must be an enjoyable activity for kids. Be it nursery, kindergarten and preschool, it is important to ensure that learning should be a fun and pleasant experience for our children. For a child, first day at school or nursery is full of nerves, excitement and tears. Parents leaving kids all alone with strangers is simply a nightmare for children. They feel lonely and seek support. Schools need to play major role at that point of time to calm the nerves of the children. Those first tentative steps should be made as easy and enjoyable as possible.

For a toddler or young child, education cannot be just all about knowledge and information. There has to be a dash of fun and then only child will start feeling comfortable in the school environment. Slowly, this will make him at ease with new kids, teachers and he would even start loving the hours spent in the school. It is very crucial for young kids to enjoy themselves. Incorporation of fun element in the early education curriculum helps children in developing their own personalities and other social skills. Learning educators must focus on scheduling child activities in an entertaining fashion.

Education system has changed a lot in recent decades. Almost all the nurseries and schools are trying to make their environment safe, secure and fun. Teaching staffs are trained in a way so that they can take care of all the needs of the children. It is not just about teaching. It is also about cultivating a learning environment where every aspect of child’s personality is being developed in a proper way. Schooling must be a happy experience for the children.

One of the important tasks for kindergarten teachers is to get the kids interested in and developing good reading habits. This important task must be done through a fun-filled activity and not as a structured assignment. If the task is imposed on the toddlers, they will develop an aversion towards reading so teachers as well as parents must strive to get kids into reading in a friendly manner. Reading activity for kids will help them in learning and recognizing letters and the sounds they make.

One such important activity is reading to the kids. It could be a story, fable or anything that can interest the child. To understand the listening ability and receptivity of the child, teachers can ask him to paraphrase the story back to them. Reading a story to the kids will help them in building their vocabulary as they work to find new words.

Ideally, parents should start this process before child is admitted into a kindergarten. This can be done during the bedtime or even while parents are running errands. For instance, parents can ask kid to spell objects as they see or collect words from sign while they are roaming around. Allow child to describe objects as they see and in their own words. Parents need to be creative while trying to develop reading habit in the child. It is not just books they need to look at. Use nameplates, license plates or roadside banners etc to teach the child different letters and words.

One more interesting idea is to use labels and stick them to everyday items around the house. This way child will learn to associate the spelling. There is plenty of reading activity for kids and all the parents need to do is to be creative.

Stories are not just fun but also useful learning tool. Children love stories and any parent or teacher can vouch for that. The stories are a powerful tool in the hands of parents and teachers. Children always feel motivated at the thought of listening to a good story. What stories do is to make children listen to the stories with complete focus. Children are also able to internalize the language structure and slowly they start to recognize words and phrases they hear in the stories. Stories can be used in several other ways.

Children can learn a lot from stories if the storyteller is slightly creative. For instance, while you tell the story, you can make different animal sounds or create different voices or sing a song or make some interesting gestures. These activities make the entire storytelling session even more interesting. Children get to learn a lot and are totally bewitched with the entire experience.

Stories can also serve as a basis for teaching vocabulary to the kids. Children may not be aware of all the words being used in the story so you will be teaching words through stories. You also show them how to use those words in context of the language. Compared to simply memorizing a list of words, stories are definitely better tool for teaching vocabulary.

Preschoolers do not have great attention span. Stories come very handy in keeping them focused on a certain activity and story, in this case. Because of love children have for stories, you can use them in different ways. You can also use stories for varied tasks like asking children the title of the story or quoting from the story and asking who had said that or asking the kids to predict the end of the story etc. The list is simply endless and possibilities are definitely infinite.

It must be a nervous moment for your kid when he approaches the gates of kindergarten for the first time. Though, parents make a great deal of efforts to prepare their child for this exciting new event yet some necessary steps are needed for this transition phase. Children who have already attended preschools are definitely at advantage but even they need to be prepared by their parents for this important day.

The first thing, parents need to do is to introduce the child to his school or should we say, building. Yes, taking a tour of his kindergarten school, classroom, going for paperwork, admission process with your child is a great way of making him comfortable with a new chapter of his life. It will help him know which school would be his. His familiarity with the layout of the building and classroom will give him more confidence and reduce his apprehensions.

Make an arrangement to introduce your child to his/her teacher before the school begins. When you leave him in a new environment on the very first day, he will find great comfort seeing one familiar face of his teacher. Ideally, you should also introduce him to other teachers, staff members, bus driver etc. Knowing all those familiar faces on the first day of the school will give your child more confidence.

If your child has attended preschool, he would feel reluctant to leave it and move onto kindergarten. But if you can manage to find some of his friends in the kindergarten, he will definitely be more relaxed. Also, make your child aware of his school schedule. Give him a rough idea of how the day will pan out. This way, he will be mentally prepared for the day.

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We all know the importance of computer in our lives. There is simply no sphere of life that does not have the presence of computers and related technology. So how early child education could remain adrift of computers? Though, a certain section of society is against the use of computers in schools because of excessive violence in computer games. Their apprehension is definitely justified. However, a wide variety of safe and non-violent computer games are also available to the kids. There are plenty of educational computer games for kids that are used by preschools and kindergartens. These games help in teaching alphabets and numbers to the children. These games are very helpful in child’s development at preschool.

The contribution of educational computer games can be seen in diverse range of subjects including shapes, colors, alphabets, and numbers. Use of interesting pictures and graphics on computer instigates child’s interest in the learning process. Children are always fascinated by computers. Preschool teachers often use interesting educational games on PCs to involve children in various activities related to math, arts, music, language and many other skills.

One can find numerous useful educational software in market. Many parents swear by the usefulness of educational computer software. Children can solve math games, puzzles and can indulge in coloring and music with the help of these games. Parents can find good educational computer games for their preschool level children from a reputed kids store or they can order it online. A bit of search effort can also result into wonderful computer games that are totally free. Computer educational games are definitely useful learning tools and parents and teachers should definitely introduce kids to these games.

Gross motor skills refer to abilities acquired by children in their early childhood or infancy. These skills are a part of their motor development. So what is motor development then? The term ‘motor development’ describes the neurons located in the central nervous system. These neurons control the muscular development of the child’s body. Gross motor skills are extremely important for child’s growth. These skills are built, improved and controlled through the child’s early ages. They shape up the thinking abilities of the kids. They help children in growing strong and that’s why gross motor activities are strongly recommended during the preschool stage.

Preschool gross motor activities affect children in many aspects including his walking ability, muscular development and posture development etc. The process continues till adolescence. These preschool gross motor activities are very essential for the initial stages of child’s growth. There are wonderful indoors and outdoors motor activities for kids.

Reading and writing is major indoor activity for children. By learning alphabets, spellings, words, colors and listening to stories etc, child develop certain skills. Apart from that, board games, story acts, music games etc are also important motor skills activities. You can make these activities more interesting for the kids. For instance, ask children to jump, dance or hop around or whatever they feel like on the rhythms of the beat. This way, child develops his muscles by indulging in different kinds of movement and speed.

Similarly, you can ask kids to enact the stories told by you. They can indulge in play-acting actions and dialogues which will help in improving their memory apart from physical agility. Like indoor games, outdoor activities are very essential in development of gross motor skills of the kids. Indulge them in some physical preschool games and activities like riding the bicycle, skating or make them play on slides, swings etc. All these activities help in building body muscles of the kids and subsequently gross motor skills.

Outdoor activities for preschoolers play a major role in the development of the children. These activities provide wonderful learning opportunities to the kids. Kids studying in preschools are in the age range of two to five years. This is stage of mental development of the toddlers. In this age range, children absorb information very fast. The learning speed of child is also quite fast. Small children are interested in almost each and everything. They like indoor as well as outdoor activities. These activities allow kids to explore different interesting things. Most of the preschools today arrange for interesting outdoor activities for preschoolers that are so very essential for their growth and development.

One of the common but important outdoor activities for kids is nature walk. Teachers ask kids to hold each other’s hand and give them a walk around trees, fruits, and leaves etc. kids are accompanied by teachers and other adults for safety purpose. Children are encouraged to carry color pencil and drawing book and draw whatever fascinates them. This gives kids a feel of nature and other elements. They also get a chance to know about different names and colors etc.

Sack races are quite popular amongst toddlers. In this race kids are asked to put their feet in a bag and start the race. Children are asked to hop and not run. Whoever finishes the race first is declared the winner. It is a complete fun game and a perfect entertainment for kids. Freeze at the Spot is also an interesting game in which kids are taken to a tree in the garden or school campus. On the beats of music, kids are asked to jump or dance around the tree and when the music stops, every kid has to stop in the exact position as they were. Kids make lots of funny poses and they all laugh on each other’s poses. These outdoor activities are surely entertaining for the kids.