The first day of preschool is one of the most important days of your little one’s life. It is the day that signals the start of your child’s academic life – a time where they learn everything that will make them what they will be for the rest of their lives.
However, many parents find it challenging to send their children off on their first day. Children find it stressful to leave their parents’ side, only to be put in a room full of strangers. For a child who has known comfort only with his/her parents, the absence of mom and dad, even for a few hours can be quite traumatic!
Some shrug this off as a minor issue, not realizing that it can have lasting effects. Feelings of resentment, fear, and insecurity can well up inside the little ones, which can affect their lives later. That is why it is very important to prepare your child well in advance for preschool so that the experience will be more enjoyable to them.
Keep your little one away from you for a few hours every day. Keeping your child with you at all times, and then suddenly putting them in a strange environment stresses the little one. Train your child to be independent by letting them spend some time without you, little by little, in progression until preschool begins.
Do not be overprotective. it is okay to let your child be on his own. Constant vigilance, and telling them what to do and what not to do can make them highly dependent, fearful and shy.
Be constructive in your criticism. When you have to correct your child, make sure you do not use harsh, criticizing words, but use language that is positive and constructive. For example, “You should not do this because you are a good responsible child.”
Do not indulge your child’s tantrums too much. You need to strike a healthy balance here – you must neither be overly indulgent nor should you make your child feel as neglected.
Never encourage fear, unless necessary. Always encourage your child to overcome his/her fears. Do not reinforce fearful fears, because these fears will then get deeply entrenched into their psyche. At the same time, do not criticize or force them to face their fears, but gently help them overcome them.
Train your child to be sociable. Always encourage your child to make friends. Show them how to address a group of people by giving them simple training in public speaking. Most importantly never criticize them harshly for voicing their opinions. Instead, guide them gently on how and when to speak correctly.
These tips will help your child develop a confident, independent attitude that will enable them to go through their first day at school without distress, enabling them to feel comfortable and to socialize even in a strange environment.
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14 Comments
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In just a few months my husband and I are planning on sending our daughter to preschool and we’ve been wondering how we can help prepare her for the experience. So I appreciate your suggestion to encourage your child to make friends and helping them with things like public speaking and speaking correctly. Since I really want my daughter to start making some great friends in her time at preschool, I will definitely help show her how to make friends.
My son is going to go to preschool soon, and I would love to prepare him for his first day. Thank you for all the tips so I can do that. I really liked your tip about keeping my son away from me for a few hours. I think that would really help him get used to what will happen at preschool.
My daughter is old enough now, that I think it would be good for her to start taking some pre-k4 classes. I think that this will help her learn a lot of valuable things from school topics to better social skills. So I like how you point out that before starting preschool, you should make sure that you’re guiding them on when and how to speak correctly. I think that I’ve been doing that, but I’ll need to do it some more as I look for some pre-k4 classes to enroll my daughter in.
I love your tip on encouraging your child to overcome their fears. My daughter is around the age where she is ready to go to a daycare or preschool program. This would help my husband and I a lot. It is important to me that we find the perfect program for her so she can succeed and be safe outside of our hands.
It’s great to learn about preschool. We are planning on having our son go to one next year, so this is great to know. I’ll be sure to start giving him some alone time so that he gets used to it.
I do not understand the role of constructive criticism when it comes to preschool, but I do like it when you pointed it out. I appreciate you saying that instead of saying harsh words to the child, it is better to use positive words. I guess that has something to do with building their self-esteem. Anyway, this is something that I will surely suggest to my sister as she is planning to send her eldest to preschool this year. Thank you for sharing.
It’s great that you elaborated on how you can prepare your kids for their first day of preschool. I agree that training your kids to be more sociable is important because they will have to learn social skills one way or another. I would imagine that if you force your kids into a social situation without any skill, they can feel uncomfortable.
I really liked it when you said that one of the best ways to prepare the child for preschool is to practice being away from them at least for a few hours a day so that they can learn to become independent. My sister needs to learn about this because she is especially close to her four-year-old daughter. The little girl needs to study soon, and I am afraid that she might have separation anxiety if we do not train her as early as now. Hopefully, it works.
I really like your tip about training your child to spend less time with you to prepare them for preschool. We are not really in a good spot financially, and both of us will need to return to work to support our growing family. Our youngest will definitely need to be enrolled in a preschool soon so that we can work during the day. This tip will really help us ease her into a new environment when the time comes. Thanks!
I agree that you want to consider preschool because it teaches your kid to be social. It would make sense to find somewhere that is going to educate your child as well. My husband and I need a preschool for our son, so we’ll have to consider how social it will make him.
I like your suggestion of helping out child prepare for preschool by finding a balance between not giving in to their tantrums and not having them feel neglected. My daughter will be old enough to start preschool in a few months, so I’ve been researching ways to ease the transition for her. I didn’t realize that being too indulgent could make it harder for her to adjust to the preschool environment, so I’m glad you pointed that out!
Thanks for these tips on how to prepare your kids for preschool. I agree that you want to train your child to be social, as you suggest. My husband and I are looking for a kindergarten now that we both work full time, so we’ll have to consider their qualifications.
Thanks for the tips on preparing your kids for the first day of preschool. I like that you mentioned that you shouldn’t be overprotective. I am trying to find the right preschool for my son right now so I’ll have to remember that when the day comes for him to go to make it easier for both of us.