Episode 41 - SUCCESSFULLY STARTING PRESCHOOL
Jen Lumanlan, host of the, "Your Parenting Mojo," podcast discusses ways parents can prepare their child for school and overcome challenges transitioning.
Episode 41
Common Challenges and Solutions For Children Starting School
Navigating schools
- Children who have been in preschool can have smoother transition because they have practice learning how to self regulate
- Will need to share attention with a large number of students
- Teacher’s perception of students can have a significant effect on child
- Social emotional learning important for school
- Can gain many skills from playing outside
- Give them practice waiting turn ex. when rolling ball, can wait a few extra seconds before passing back
- Give children unstructured play time
- Cooperative board games offer many benefits
Navigating schools
- Many parents have had traumatic prior school experiences and that can impact interactions
- Understand power structure the school
- Many teachers not trained in interacting with parents
- Parents should keep in mind that teachers are people and is important to be respectful and let them know they are appreciated
- Parent participation critical to student success
- Many different ways for parents to participate
- Talk to principal and teacher and see if you can volunteer
- Go in with open curiosity
- Don’t be afraid to speak up for the things you need
- David Souza “How the Brain Learns.”
- Something has to have sense and meaning for student learning to stick
- Toddlers are motivated to learn, but during school years changes to “will it be on the test.”
- Find out what they are learning about in school and see if there are activities you can do at home to make it more relevant to their lives
- Learning for the sake of learning
- Hard to develop at school because other people are telling them what to learn
- Most powerful thing you can do is to listen to what they are curious and connect them to resources that can help them find answers
- You do not need to be an expert on the topic they are interested in
- do not minimize feelings
- Teach strategies to overcome problems
- Check in with teachers to see what insight they have about your child
- Children benefit from working through issues if possible
- Your Parenting MoJo podcast
- Course on helping your child to transition to school. http://yourparentingmojo.com/courses/Discount for Preschool and Beyond listeners with code PAB
