Preschool

Provider appreciation day is here Friday! Founded in 1996, Provider Appreciation Day is a good way to show your child’s caregivers and teachers just how much you appreciate them. Being a teacher takes a lot of effort, and many of them see your child more than you do. This May, you can show your child’s teachers how much you appreciate their efforts.

Some parents don’t quite know which teacher to buy gifts for or who to show their appreciation towards: lead teacher, assistant teacher, preschool director, and the list goes on! The best rule of thumb, to avoid hurting any feelings, is to get all of your child’s teachers something. You can always do something extra special for a teacher that has had a significant impact on your child and their education. Below are some ideas for what to do for your child care provider on their special day.

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If you were an insufferable goodie-two shoes as I was as a girl, you would have given anything to be allowed in the room at this hallowed tete-a-tete to hear yourself heaped with laurels and praise by your admiring teacher and proudly and whole-heartedly endorsed by your modest parents.

But as a mom, praise (while lovely) is not really what you are there for. Here are some tips I received from friends as I prepared for my first parent teacher conference.

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T ypically, preschools describe themselves as either “play-based” (also known as child-centered and developmentally appropriate) or “academic” (also known as teacher-directed and traditional). Most early education philosophies fall into one of these two categories. What’s the difference and which one’s better?

Child-Centered / Play-based / Developmentally Appropriate

The most common teaching philosophy is child-centered and based on play, whereby children do activities of their choosing. In a fairly unstructured program, children learn at their own pace. They can select from several activities and can play alone or in small groups. The whole group often comes together for songs, stories, or other “circle time” activities. Doing activities based on children’s interests develops their love for school, builds creativity, and increases motivation to try new things. Play-based programs have a lot of unstructured hands-on play, group story-time, and themed activities. This approach typically helps children develop their social skills including communication, sharing, empathy, and listening. I’ve discussed examples of specific child-centered philosophies in my earlier post here.

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Did you know that more than half of obese children become overweight by the time they’re 2? Did you also know that roughly one in five children is overweight by their 6^th birthday? Given such high statistics, whether you’re a parent or a teacher, it’s critical to support physical fitness for preschool children and instill healthy lifestyle habits early on so that children may continue these habits as they grow.

Today is the National Preschool Fitness Day and in light of this, I’d like to take the opportunity to highlight a few child care centers that offer great fitness programs.

Kiddie Academy of Gainesville is a child care center where Health and Nutrition are part of the curriculum and where children spend two hours outside daily. The center has an indoor gym and a soccer enrichment program.

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Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, High-Scope, Bank Street… what in the world do these names all mean!? Most likely you’ve never come across such terms, unless of course… you started looking for a preschool! If all these early education approaches got your head spinning, this “Preschool Teaching Philosophies” blog series is for you!

In this first post, we’ll give an overview of five common preschool philosophies. Later in the series, we’ll have a specific post on each one and provide more details to help you understand the differences and decide on a program that works best for you and your child.

Teaching philosophies explain how a school approaches learning, which in turn might shed light on whether your preschooler will do well with that particular learning method or in that particular environment. So what preschool learning approaches are there?

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As a working parent you probably rely on child care for your children. But don’t you sometimes wish your kids could do more extra-curricular activities? Getting your kids to day care and yourself to and from work seems hard enough, let alone planning for any additional evening enrichment. Luckily, we have some tips for how to strike a balance:

1. Look for child care that already offers enrichment activities.
Some daycares incorporate enrichment activities like dance, music, sports and technology into their program whereby kids can enjoy an activity without leaving the child care facilities. Be sure to ask when you are interviewing child care providers if these and other services are available. Most child care providers offer some sort of extracurricular activities as part of the curriculum. Others, however, might offer these classes at an additional cost because they invite outside companies to lead these special classes.

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As much as we try to protect our children, studies show that more than half of children will experience bullying at some point in their lives. Bullying can take place as early as preschool. To protect your child, learn to recognize signs of bullying and the steps you can undertake to prevent your child from being bullied again.

Recognize the signs of a bullied preschooler:

• Sudden unexplained fear of going to preschool
• Being withdrawn or depressed
• Coming home with unexplained injuries
• Complaining about another child (or other children) doing or saying mean things
• Avoiding eye contact when asked about preschool and seeming embarrassed or ashamed
• Complaining of headaches and/or stomachaches when they are not sick
• Being clingy and whiny when dropped off at preschool

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H

elp your little ones understand the meaning behind Thanksgiving with this fun and super easy craft project. Your kids will create a Thankful Turkey and be able to list the things they are thankful for. Before your family digs into your Thanksgiving feast, pass the Thankful Turkey or Turkeys (if there are multiple) around the table and ask everyone to share at least one thing they are thankful for. This is a great activity to bring your family together and share the meaning of Thanksgiving.

Supplies needed for each Thankful Turkey:

• 1 large pinecone
• 3 sheets of different colored construction paper (1 yellow and any other colors)
• 2 large googly eyes
• 1 red pipe cleaner
• Different colored markers
• Scissors (child proof)
• Tacky glue

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ne of the things I’ve learned in my years of working at a preschool and having my own as well as clients’ kids go to preschools is that many children do not sleep well in a daycare or preschool.  The last thing you want is to be away from your child for hours and then have to pick up a cranky overtired kid. Plus, if they do not sleep well during the day, they are more likely to sleep poorly at night. There are several ways to help your child sleep better and to help your child care provider help your child sleep better so you can pick up a happy, well-rested camper!

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