For First Time Parents, choosing the right preschool for their child will be very crucial. It’s very normal for parents to have a goosebump. Do parents need to answer some questions for themselves like ‘Is Your Child is Ready for Preschool’? AND ‘How you can help your child or prepare your Toddler for Preschool’?
Here are the 10 Tips for Parents to Prepare their Toddler for Preschool, without any Major Hassles.
1 # Deal with Your Child’s Separation Anxiety
It’s very common for toddlers and almost every child to go through Separation Anxiety. It starts when your baby is 8 or 9 months old and rises by the time she is ready for her Preschool. Handling your child’s Separation Anxiety can be a little bit difficult for parents. Every Child has a different nature and it would not be easy for parents to handle them initially. For a sure child will take some time to adjust to this Separation Anxiety, but it will fade away gradually as time passes by.
For your child, it’s going to be a new place and whole new setting, where she has to settle herself with 15 to 20 different kids. And it’s important that for her this transit should be so smooth, she does not feel out of the place. Parents need to prepare their children before they start thinking of sending them to Preschool. You can start this by keeping her away from you by leaving her all alone with your dad/relative’s place, home alone with your husband, send her alone on shopping mall trips with husband and this you need to repeat frequently so that she adjust herself being away from you.
Start with a few hours and increase durations to 3/4 hours so that you can also get to know her reactions and side effects when she is all by herself with you.
2 # Does your Child Follow Instructions or Directions
Toddlers live in their own magical world and it’s all up to their mood, what they want to do, or follow. Small Tots, loves the word ‘NO’ as answers to questions asked from parents, they will say the same word many times. How to teach your tots to follow your/teacher’s instructions is going to be a tough task. Sometimes, we thought that they are too small to understand this process. But, here you’re actually wrong; your child is smart enough at the age of 2 or 2.5 years, to understand what is desired from them with any instructions.
It’s again a matter of training our kids on listening and following instructions like stop doing something, sitting quietly, not shouting, eating, etc. when given by some elders like parents/teachers. There are many ways to train them, but the most important point here is that they should be well-trained to follow an instruction that is given to them in preschool.
3 # How is Your Child Behaves with Other Kids
Parents having kids with friendly behavior find it easy to send their kids to preschool, as they get along with other kids very easily. These kids love to go to school every day and enjoy their time there. But, on the other hand, the kids who are introverted or shy in nature; make their parent’s life extremely tough at the start.
Also, this is the right time when you should very carefully observe that if your child has a habit of bullying, pushing, or fighting with others around him or not. You need to calm your child’s anger and aggression before sending her to Preschool. The best way to deal with this situation could be, to take them outside in the evening to get mingled with other kids. Let them spend their quality time, while playing with kids in the garden aggression is also due to unused energy kids you need to make sure that every day your kid is involved in activities like running, playing, sketching, and dancing to use/channelized her energy.
4 # Does Your Child Eat by Herself
This is one of the biggest problems of parents while preparing their kids for Preschool. Their kids don’t eat by themselves and their feeding timing is very long. Kids are offered Breakfast and Lunch during their stay in preschool at a fixed time. And, during that time they are expected to eat food by themselves, as they might be left hungry all day as helpers/teachers may not push to eat and finish meals as you do at home.
So you should start making a schedule at home also just like your kids are going to have at preschool. For example, you should have fixed the timing of meals, for a fixed duration like 30 mins and you should start encouraging them to eat by themselves if required keep them hungry for some time if they are not eaten by themselves so that they will understand the importance of time and self-eating.
5 # What is Her Sleeping Habits
Every child has its own sleeping pattern and our parents are aware of it. We need to change our child’s sleeping pattern before start sending them to preschool. We need to make sure sleeping habits should be as per preschool timing and she should remain awake in her preschool, for making sure of this we need to change sleeping timing of night and afternoon so that she gets a rest as per her preschool timing and not as per your convenience.
This is also very important for kids who have some special requirements immediately after they wake up like a warm bottle of milk, music, her favorite toy, etc. As they might not get the same in preschool so it’s better that they never sleep there.
6 # Is Your Child Potty Trained
This is the first question that comes to every parent’s mind that how my kid is going to handle potty calls when in preschool, as not all kids are potty trained by the time they hit preschool which normally happens at the age of 2.5 years. Many kids take more time to get potty trained, but that is normal every kid has its own learning curve.
The Parent must start training their kids at least 2 months before the time when they are planning to send their kids to preschool so that their kids can tell teachers that they need to go to the bathroom and need to go potty, or potty is done they can clean them. Many kids learn only after starting preschool by watching other kids doing the same.
This is not only about the hygiene, but also about the well-being of the kids as she knows she needs and body requirements and able to tell others. Which actually makes her a better kid.
7 # Can your Child Speak about her Requirements/Needs
For Toddlers is not easy to describe, express, or explain the needs to other ppl like hungry, thirsty, wetness, etc. Which is one of the most important requirements for your child to get trained before start going to preschool. Maybe your child can’t properly explain what he or she wants or tell. But, here parents can fix or use small words or phrases with them so that they use the same words and explain their needs to another person around him. You can make the short words like Are you hurt, do you want to go for Shu Shu, hungry, potty, etc. Later, these words will help your baby to turn into a discipline toddler.
8 # If your Child can Travel Safely in School Bus/Other Vehicle
Your child is safe when she is at home and when she is in her school, but how about when she is traveling on a school bus? We all do not have the luxury to have time to drop and pick our kids from preschools so we always lookout for some travel modes, mostly school buses provided by schools.
You need to make sure your kid is ready to make herself comfortable in a school bus, she knows what to do and what not to do when in Bus. You also need to make sure the safety measures used in buses and how those are followed on a regular basis example number of kids and their age when they are traveling together, any school teacher/attendant is present in the bus while picking and dropping kids, emergency kit’s availability in the bus, etc.
9 # Can She Defend Herself from Other Kids in case of a Fight
Parents need to gear up (prepare) themselves and start giving some defense tips to your child. Because we cannot control and diffuse all conditions in schools so it’s better to train your kids to handle each and every situation with confidence. Getting into arguments, fights, clashes are normal when the kids are in preschool so kids should know how to protect themselves and respond to aggressive kids. The best way is to avoid any physical contacts and report to teachers, but in some cases, reporting is the last resort in those cases kids should know what to do.
10 # If She Cries a lot for Little Little Things
For cranky kids, it’s not very easy to get settled or make a place among many kids. We all know young tots love throwing tantrums in front of parents to pressure them for the thing they want. But when there are 18 to 20 kids in pre-nursery or nursery school, they cannot throw tantrums like they do in their own home. Parents need to guide and train them not to get cranky on small issues, as you (mom or dad) will not be there at that time to support them. Prepare them beforehand, so that they can handle different situations in preschool.