Advances in brain research show that children are born learning and that their first three years of life in particular are important indicators for the success they can have later in school and in life. Early experiences that are language-rich and nurturing promote healthy brain development. So finding a quality early learning setting is essential for parents who work and seek child care.
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Checklist To Prepare for a New Child Care Setting
Once you’ve found a quality setting—from a center-based program to home child care to a relative’s house—here’s some advice from our expert Teresa Bennett a family support specialist at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, on how you can prepare your child for their first day of daycare:
- Visit the Child Care Center
To help your child get to know the new environment, visit the child care center with your child before the first day. You and your child can meet the caregiver. Take photos of the route to the center, the center entrance and the room where your child will spend the day. You can assemble the photos as a book, which you can use to talk to your child at home about what their day will be like and where they will go. - Talk to Your Child
To help prepare your infant or toddler to go to out-of-home care, explain using language and concepts they will understand about where they’ll be going and what they’ll be doing. Talk about how they will meet new children and participate in fun activities. Always mention that you’ll be back at the end of the day to take them home. - Build a Relationship With the Caregiver
Your young child may not be able to talk, but they can observe your actions. They’ll form their opinion of the caregiver based on your reactions. Make time each day to talk to the caregiver and begin building a strong relationship. Caregivers at quality early learning programs see parents as partners and will want to develop a strong relationship with you, your child’s first and most important teacher. - Share Information About Your Child
Talk to the caregiver about your child’s cues, likes, dislikes and temperament. How do they like to be fed, soothed and put to sleep? Your tips will help the caregiver know how to best care for your child without having to guess which methods to try. You can also explain what developmental skills you’d like your child to learn. Ask for daily updates about your child’s progress from the caregiver. - Create a Morning Routine
Routines help children feel in control of their surroundings, which eases anxiety. Create a morning routine so your infant or toddler knows what to expect before going to the child care center. Find out if the center provides breakfast so you know whether or not your child needs to eat at home. - Develop a Goodbye Ritual
Create a goodbye ritual so that your infant or toddler starts to feel comfortable with their caregiver when you leave. Your ritual could be a hug, a high five or interacting together with a toy before you leave. Whatever activity you choose, make sure you take time to talk to your child about what’s happening and don’t rush the process. Once your child becomes used to the goodbye ritual, they’ll be better able to regulate their emotions so that they can calm themself more easily when you go. Learn more about separation anxiety. - Bring a Transitional Object
Your child may feel more at ease in a new environment with an object that reminds them of home. This could be a photo of your family that’s laminated or a stuffed animal that your child enjoys. The child can hold the object during the day as a reminder that this new environment is temporary and that you will come back to take them home. - Ask What You Can Do at Home
To extend your child’s learning, ask the caregiver what school readiness skills the children will be working on during the day and what related activities you can do at home. The reverse is also true: share information about what activities you are doing at home that your child is interested in and ask if the teacher can do something similar in class. - Complete Any Medical Requirements
Find out from the school or center what doctor or dentist appointments must be completed or scheduled before the first day. - Bring a Change of Clothes
It’s a good idea to bring a change of clothes for your infant or toddler in case they encounter any water, finger paint, etc. Also, ask the center if you need to bring diapers or formula for your child. - Share Your Contact Information
Let the caregiver know if it’s best to reach you by phone or email and share that contact information.
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You and your child may feel excited—or apprehensive—about the first day of preschool. This is a big transition for children, especially those going to school for the first time. Children will learn many social and emotional and academic skills in preschool that will help them throughout their school careers, so it’s important to help children feel comfortable in the classroom.
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Checklist To Navigate the Transition to Preschool
To help your child get the most out of the preschool experience, we asked a Start Early expert for some advice for parents handling this transition. Annaliese Newmeyer a teacher at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, shared her tips to help you and your child prepare for preschool.
Before the first day:
- Drive or walk by your child’s new school. Seeing their school ahead of time will help familiarize them with their new space. You can show them where things are like the main door and the playlot. This will help your child feel more comfortable with the space and how things will look on their first day.
- Meet with the teacher. Meeting your child’s teacher ahead of their first day is very helpful for both you and your little learner. At this meeting, you can help your child learn their new teacher’s name and give your child a chance to become comfortable with them. You can also take this time to ask the teacher what your child will be learning and what skills they expect children to have on day one. Then, you can set some realistic and developmentally-appropriate goals for your child. For example, do you work on your child’s reading? Together you can set goals that can help your child develop early literacy skills, like being able to recognize their name and the letters in their name.
- Celebrate this milestone. This can be the beginning of a tradition to say goodbye to Summer and hello to the school year! Maybe you and your child go get an ice cream sundae or go to a baseball game or stay up late and watch movies and eat snacks together.
On the first day:
- Be prepared. Bring a bookbag with a change of clothes, a favorite blanket or stuffed animal for nap time, and even a picture of your family. Having something that reminds your child of home with help them feel more at ease in their new environment.
- Make sure your child eats a good breakfast and gets some rest. Your child’s school might give them breakfast, but it might be later, and you don’t want them to be too hungry!
- Expect the first day to be easy but it might get hard the second day or the second week when reality sets in that they must return to school every single weekday.
- Explain to your child that this will be a hard transition for you too! You will miss them, and they will have to meet new people and have new experiences but each day will get easier.
- Make sure you say goodbye, do not sneak away. Have the same goodbye every day; we call this a goodbye ritual. It can be a hug, a special handshake or a dance! This ritual will help your child learn what to expect when you come to class and will help ease their anxiety when you leave.
Ongoing:
- Ask questions! Ask your child’s teacher how each day is going and what you can do to help make it better. And be sure to ask your child how their day was. At first, they might just say nothing, but as you ask them every day, their answers will become more and more descriptive.
- Volunteer in the classroom if you can. Get to know the other kids and parents. This is your new community, your new village and you are there to support each other!
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School clothes? ✔ New backpack? ✔ School supplies? ✔ Explaining to your child what the transition to school will be like… no? Starting preschool and kindergarten can be an exciting yet stressful time for children. New school, new teachers, new classmates—everything is different. It’s important to give your child a frame of reference to help ease the transition into preschool and kindergarten. Reading books with your child about going to school is a great way to give them an idea of what to expect on that first day.
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Making the transition into preschool and kindergarten is a big step and a big change in a young child’s life. Explaining what it might be like is critical in helping them feel secure. Reading books on the subject at storytime gives parents the opportunity to enhance their child’s understanding by providing illustrated examples of what their new school will be like and helping make learning fun.
Back-to-School Books for Preschoolers & Kindergarteners
Here’s a list of books recommended by the experienced staff and teachers of Educare Chicago. From books on how children around the world get to school, to first-day jitters, to classics that have stood the test of time, you are bound to find one, or more, that will be a wonderful tool to explain this milestone to your child. So get out there and start reading!
- Llama Llama Misses Mama by Anna Dewdney
It’s Llama Llama’s first day of preschool! And Llama Llama’s mama makes sure he’s ready. They meet the teachers. See the other children. Look at all the books and games. But then it’s time for Mama to leave. And suddenly Llama Llama isn’t so excited anymore. - My Preschool by Anne Rockwell
Join a happy little boy during a day at preschool, from cheerful hellos in circle time, to painting colorful pictures and playing at the water table before snack time. The best part of saying goodbye at the end of the day is that the little boy knows he will come back tomorrow. - Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
It’s the first day of kindergarten and Miss Bindergarten is hard at work getting the classroom ready for her 26 new students. Miss Bindergarten puts the finishing touches on the room just in time, and the students arrive. Now the fun can begin! - Kindergarten Kids by Ellen Senisi
This cheerful photo essay shows 21 kids in a kindergarten class on a typical day. Girls and boys play with everything from computers to blocks; they learn the alphabet and how to follow rules; they dress up, say the pledge of allegiance, listen to stories, and make music and art together. Sometimes they even have a bad day. - Night Before Kindergarten by Natasha Wing
Join the kids as they prepare for kindergarten, packing school supplies, posing for pictures, and the hardest part of all—saying goodbye to mom and dad. But maybe it won’t be so hard once they discover just how much fun kindergarten really is. - Kindergarten ABC by Jacqueline Rogers
Each and every day celebrates a letter of the alphabet with a fun-filled classroom scene. - Who Will Go to School Today? by Karl Ruhmann
Sam decides to send his toy monkey Timbo to kindergarten in his place, but after telling Timbo about his school friends and what his day is really like, he realizes he wants to go himself. - Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London
Froggy’s mother knows that everyone is nervous on the first day of school. Froggy’s exuberant antics, complete with sound effects, will delight his many fans and reassure them that school can be fun. - Otto Goes to School by Todd Par
Otto goes to school for the first time, where he makes new friends and learns how to wag his tail without knocking things over. - This is the Way We Go to School: A Book about Children Around the World by Edith Baer
With fun-filled rhymes and colorful illustrations, children will discover just how much fun getting to school can be. - Going to School by Sally Hewitt
Children learn what it is like to go to school in other countries. - Seven Little Mice Go to School by Haruo Yamashita
It’s time for seven little mice to start school! And it’s up to Mother Mouse to get them there. - Chicken Chickens Go to School by Valeri Gorbachev
It’s the first day of school for the little chickens and they are a little scared. How a wise teacher helps the chickens overcome their fears and win some wonderful new friends is a heartwarming story that will reassure youngsters experiencing their own first-day jitters.
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Can you believe it’s almost time for your child’s first day of kindergarten? This can be exciting and overwhelming for many parents and children. To help you prepare, we asked a Start Early expert for advice for parents. Lisa LaRue a teacher at Educare Chicago, a program of Start Early, shared her tips to help you and your child have a successful school year.
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Checklist To Navigate the Transition to Kindergarten
The start of kindergarten can be exciting, stressful, intimidating and scary at the same time. As a parent, you can help ease some of your child’s worries and fears by having conversations around their feelings. By learning as much as you can about the kindergarten experience, you’ll be able to better explain the transition to your child and they’ll understand how fun kindergarten will be!
- Meet the Teacher Before the First Day of School
If you can, schedule a time for you and your child to meet their kindergarten teacher before the first day of school. This will give your child the chance to become comfortable with the teacher. You can also let the teacher know about your child’s preferences, temperament, strengths and weaknesses. For example, if your child had trouble with transitions in preschool, explain how you and the preschool teacher helped them overcome that challenge. The kindergarten teacher will appreciate your tips! You can also talk about your aspirations for your child and what you hope your child will learn in the upcoming year. Ask how you can be involved in the classroom. Be sure to share your contact information and let the teacher know the best way to reach you. - Set a Consistent Routine Before School Starts
A consistent morning and evening routine will help your child feel prepared for the first day of kindergarten. Young children benefit from routines because when they know what will happen next they are less prone to find changes stressful. Set a bedtime to help your child get a good night’s rest. In the morning, leave enough time for getting dressed, eating breakfast and packing backpacks. Start your routine a few weeks before kindergarten so you know how long it will take to get ready. Be sure to have a goodbye ritual like a high five, blowing a kiss or giving a hug to help your little one understand that it is time for you to leave, this will help them feel less anxious knowing that you are going to return later. - Do a Dry Run
A few days before the first day of school, do a dry run of your morning routine, including going to school. You can walk or drive to school, or walk to the bus stop with your child. Show your child the door they will walk in on the first day of school. Ask the school what the pick-up and drop-off policies are. Some schools allow parents to come into the classroom to drop their children off, and others have a different meeting point. Not only will you find out exactly how long your morning routine takes, you’ll also give your child a better sense of what the day will look like to prevent first-day-of-school anxiety. While you are in the classroom, you can discuss with your child what is the same and what is different about this classroom and their old preschool classroom. Do they have the same areas? Are there desks? What is not there? You can also ask the teacher if your child can bring in a family picture or something special to add to their cubby to feel more comfortable. You can also watch YouTube videos of kindergarten classrooms together and even role play different school scenarios at home if your child has more questions or wants to see more examples. - Find Out What Skills the Teacher Expects Children to Have on Day One
Kindergarten teachers may expect children to be able to handle their emotions, articulate their needs, listen to directions, raise their hand before talking, write their name, and recognize shapes and colors on the first day of school. Find out what the expectations are in advance and ask for tips on how to prepare your child for any skills they are still working on. If your child has mastered those skills, ask the teacher what will be done to challenge your child in the classroom. - Read to Your Child
Check out our list of recommended books below for kindergarten students. Start reading books before school starts during storytime so that your child has a better idea of what going to school will be like. - Be an Advocate
If your child needs any special services, talk to the administration and the classroom teachers in advance to find out who provides them. Ask if the services are provided inside or outside the kindergarten classroom. If your child has an individualized education plan from preschool, find out how that plan transfers over to kindergarten. - Network With Other Parents
Talking with other parents is a great way to build a support system to help you through all the challenges of parenthood. Ask the school what supports are available for parents and what opportunities are provided for parents to meet, such as parent groups, school councils, or other committees that you can join. - Prepare for Breakfast and Lunch
Find out if your school provides breakfast and/or lunch and plan accordingly. Your child may be used to eating at certain times at home or at an early childhood center, so explain how mealtimes may be changing. If your child will be buying lunch, get a menu from the school. Find out how food preferences are honored. For instance, some schools ask for a doctor’s note for food allergies. - Decrease Naptime
Some schools may offer a resting period, but many don’t. So it’s a good idea to wean children off naps before the first day of kindergarten. - Make Afterschool Plans
If your child will be in after school care, make those arrangements as soon as possible. Find out what afterschool care options your school offers and how much it costs. Make sure your child knows what the plans are and that you pick up your child on time or early so they don’t get anxious waiting for you. Create a backup plan with other parents, who you can rely on to pick up your child if you are running late.
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Separation anxiety and the behaviors that manifest from it are specific to each child. Educators must honor the differences in each child and the culture of the school or center where they work when partnering with parents to help a child cope with separation anxiety. While the strategy will vary for each child, the goal remains the same: helping them feel safe and secure in the new environment so that they can learn.
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are informed by what Start Early experts and Educare Chicago teachers have found to be successful ways of mitigating separation anxiety in the classroom. While there are many opinions on this broad topic, one recurrent theme is the importance of establishing a routine.
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Helping children to create routines within their daily life is one of the best ways to teach confidence, self-discipline and cooperation—skills that later lead to the development of strong coping mechanisms. Such skills enable children to more easily navigate unexpected changes and adjust to unfamiliar environments.
- Visit the School or Center. Children act out stresses from separation anxiety in a number of different ways. One way to reduce separation anxiety is to introduce them, in advance, to the school or child care center they will attend. If the school or center allows for pre-school year visits, take advantage to get your child acclimated. It’s also helpful to establish the route that you will use to get to the classroom each day and to repeat it a couple of times with whatever mode of transportation you will use. If you can walk to the center, walk the route several times so that that the child becomes familiar with it. Even with infants, repeating this route while they are in their stroller can help them to become familiar with scenery that will eventually signal that they are on their way to a safe place.
- Establish a Goodbye Ritual. Goodbye rituals in the classroom at the start of the day play an important role in making a child feel safe, and will lessen the opportunity for nervousness and panic to arise when the parent leaves for the day. When you bring your child to school or child care center, give yourself enough time to pick out a book to read with your child, or sit down with them while they draw a picture. Once it is time to leave, talk to the child in an energetic tone about what’s in store for that day. Emphasize that you will be back to pick them up in the afternoon, and will be excited to hear about the day at school.
- Say Goodbye. Never leave without saying goodbye. Sneaking away only heightens your child’s worry that they cannot trust you or trust in your return.
- Bring a Token From Home. Send your child to school with something that connects them to home and family, such as a photograph or a favorite toy. Having this reminder close-at-hand can help to calm children down if they become upset or experience a moment of panic during the day.
- Volunteer in the Classroom When You Can. Spending time in your child’s classroom as a volunteer has many advantages. You can learn more about your child’s teachers and the learning styles they apply in the classroom and develop a more meaningful relationship with them. A child who sees their parent interacting in their classroom with their peers will feel safe and welcome in that setting. Children are much more likely to feel secure in an environment where they know their parents are safe and welcomed, too.
- Practice Calming Exercises With Your Child. If children have a particularly difficult time adjusting to their new environment in the first weeks of the year, there are several calming exercises that you can practice with them. This is a great way to teach children how to take control of their own emotions and calm down so that they are ready and prepared to take on the day.
Resources to Help Your Child
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Why is it so important to ensure that children have quality care and educational experiences in the earliest years of life? A nurturing and supportive environment during a child’s first years lays the foundation for future success in school and life. To truly appreciate why this time of life is so crucial, it helps to understand a little bit about brain science and early brain development.
The First Years of Life: What does science tell us?
During the first several years of a child’s life, the brain forms over one million neural connections every second.
Babies’ brains are quite literally wired to learn. This rapid absorption of information creates new neural connections and builds the architecture of a baby’s brain. For comparison, adult brains have thicker, but fewer, synaptic connections.
This makes adults more efficient at doing what they’ve done before (e.g., speaking, writing and reading) but less effective at learning new things, such as a foreign language.
Original source: Adapted from Corel, JL. The postnatal development of the human cerebral cortex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 1975. Link source: Urban Child Institute
The above figure illustrates the rapid rate at which synapses are formed in the first few years of life. One can see that adults have thicker, but fewer synaptic connections.
Everything in a child’s environment — experiences, relationships with parents and caregivers and environmental factors — influences brain development and growth.
It is no surprise, then, that early experiences have a profound impact on a child’s future ability to succeed in school, work and life.
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The Importance of Early Interventions
Secure and nurturing early childhood experiences form strong neural connections, which enable children to acquire language and communication skills, learn how to interact with people and their surroundings, and develop the ability to regulate their emotions.
Sadly, too many children — especially those living in under-resourced communities — face chronic stress and adversity which hinder their ability to learn and increase their chances of falling behind developmentally and academically for years to come. Fortunately, there’s a wide body of research that demonstrates that interventions, particularly in the first years of life, make a difference.
Studies on high-quality, comprehensive early childhood programs, such as the Carolina Abecedarian Project, the Perry Preschool Project, the Chicago Child-Parent Centers, as well as Educare schools, demonstrate that early childhood interventions promote positive results in emotional development, school readiness, academic achievement and family life.
As part of our effort to become the country’s most trusted resource for early childhood knowledge Start Early conducts research with the overarching goal of generating new knowledge and contributing to the field’s understanding of how to improve the quality of programs and systems, promote positive outcomes, and transform practices and policies at scale.
Amanda Stein, director of research & evaluation
How does the science on brain development influence our research on early interventions?
The research conducted at Start Early is anchored by science. Building upon decades of studies on brain development and early childhood education, we conduct high-quality research and help translate this research into practice — with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families early in life.
One example of how our research comes to life is demonstrated by the work of Educare schools. Start Early opened the first Educare school in 2000 on Chicago’s South Side using a research-based curriculum and serving low-income infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Now part of a nationwide network of 25 schools, known as the Educare Learning Network, these schools are prime examples of the positive outcomes stemming from high-quality early education programs.
After just one year at an Educare school, children show improved language skills, fewer problem behaviors, and more positive interactions with parents. Children who enrolled in Educare schools earlier, and stayed until they entered kindergarten, also displayed stronger vocabulary skills — just one of many positive indicators of effective early intervention. Years of rigorous evaluations of Educare programs indicate these outcomes.
Yet, Educare is just one example of how existing science and our own rigorous research join to create and promote high-quality early learning experiences. Ultimately, our research aims to reinforce the existing evidence supporting the importance of early education, while also informing and advancing improvements in the field as a whole.
Comic Relief US (CRUS) is committed to breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Through the power of entertainment, CRUS drives awareness and amplifies the voices of children and families living in under-resourced communities.
You might know them best from Red Nose Day, their annual fundraising campaign that brings people together to laugh and have fun, while raising money and awareness to ensure all children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered in the U.S. and abroad. Through Red Nose Day, Comic Relief US engages the public and nonprofit and corporate partners to raise funds and invests them back in nonprofit organizations, many of which are community-led with programs focused on tackling the root causes and consequences of poverty and social injustice.
The Educare Learning Network has been a proud partner of CRUS and Red Nose Day since 2018. Since 2000, when Start Early developed the first Educare school in Chicago, the Educare Learning Network has grown into a national network of 25 birth-through-age-five schools in 15 states, Washington DC and the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska. We are a network of learning hubs that innovate, evaluate and share best practices to transform the lives of young children in disinvested communities and positively impact the broader early childhood field.
Start Early, the Educare Learning Network and CRUS partner to improve the lives of children and families by investing in Educare schools to create training opportunities and enriching early learning programming that benefits Educare staff, children and families. For the past five years, funds awarded to Start Early have supported professional development, consultation and other learning opportunities for 2,000+ staff members across the Educare Network. Red Nose Day funds have also allowed the 25 Educare schools to develop new and innovative programs in the areas of science, tech, engineering, the arts and math (STEAM); social-emotional learning; family engagement; and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) and have impacted 5,000+ children and their families.
The staff now look at STEAM in a different light. What was once before avoided is now implemented without prompting. Messy play, experiments, recipes, engineering and more are now implemented with ease.
Educare school leader on Red Nose Day-funded programming
Start Early and the Educare Learning Network feel fortunate for the many opportunities we have as a grantee partner of CRUS to enhance our programming and connect with new audiences. Being part of Red Nose Day has offered Educare opportunities for national media exposure, helping us share the importance of early learning. A great example of this was in May 2022, when an Educare Chicago Mentor Teacher was featured in a segment on the Kelly Clarkson show. This was an opportunity for TV viewers around the country to be introduced to the Educare name and mission, helping the public understand the value of our work and high-quality early childhood education programs. Additionally, the Educare Network’s promotion of Red Nose Day in 2022 was particularly successful as we shared nearly 100 social media posts and other communications during the campaign and reached an audience upwards of 35,000 across multiple platforms and channels.
We continue to be grateful for our partnership, and deeply appreciative of the important role the Educare Learning Network plays at multiple levels of the early childhood education sector, and the much-needed support the Educare Learning Network provides to children, early childhood education providers, and caregivers.
Comic Relief US
Since its launch in the U.S. in 2015, Comic Relief US (CRUS) has fundraised over $380 million, with over $324 million raised through its signature Red Nose Day campaign to end child poverty.
Comic Relief US invests in nonprofit organizations, many of which are community-led, with programs focused on tackling the root causes and consequences of poverty and social injustice. CRUS supports initiatives that advance the health, safety, education and empowerment of children and caregivers in communities impacted by intergenerational poverty.
Funds raised through Red Nose Day in the U.S. support programs across all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico and around the world, ensuring all children are safe, healthy, educated and empowered.
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“One… two… three…” you say as you count your baby’s toys for them. Even though your baby can’t solve equations, let alone speak, they are building early math and language skills with each number they hear.
And you don’t need to stop at numbers — there are many early math concepts that you can introduce to your young child, simply through language, play and reading books.
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Here are some activity ideas to help introduce early math concepts to your child:
- Discover geometry: Shapes are a big part of geometry. Labeling different shapes — from squares to circles to stars — will help your child start to associate the words with the shapes, setting the early foundation of geometry. With toddlers and preschoolers, look at two- and three-dimensional shapes, so they can see how each object looks and functions. Blocks in different shapes are a great tool to use for this.
- Play with volume: If you cook in the kitchen, you are already using volume. For babies and toddlers, start by using words like teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, pint and quart while you are cooking to get them familiar with the terms. Preschoolers can help you measure out ingredients using measuring cups and spoons. You can play fun games that teach incremental volume: how many tablespoons does it take to fill a quarter cup? How many cups go into your quart measuring cup?
- Use comparisons: Many math lessons will involve word problems and comparisons as early as kindergarten. The more familiarity that your child has with comparison terms, the easier it will be for them to understand the word problems. You can create opportunities for your child to learn to compare by using toys of different sizes and words like more, less, lighter, heavier, bigger and smaller.
- See how tall they are: By the time they are preschoolers, most children become interested in how tall and how heavy they are. One idea to help talk about height is to chart their growth on a wall, showing how tall they are each year. For preschoolers, you can also begin to introduce units of measurement like inches and feet by helping your child use a ruler to measure how much they have grown.
- Reading books: Reading is an excellent way of introducing math language and concepts to your child. Books are a natural entry point that make learning math fun in the early years. Engaging your child in the math in storybooks build on their interest, discoveries and questions. Here are some great children’s book recommendations that are full of wonderful math concepts:
- More, Fewer, Less by Tana Hoban
- Uno, Dos, Tres / One, Two, Three by Pat Mora
- Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews
- The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Through simple language and play, young children will start to learn essential early math and STEM skills. And remember, especially for babies and toddlers, just hearing these words early and often helps plant the seed for your future mathematician.
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As a parent, you want to ensure that your child is being compassionate and empathetic towards the people around them. However, according to research, children in preschool and kindergarten are still developing the cognitive skills to understand empathy.
In order for children to grasp the concept of “empathy”, they must first be able to recognize their own emotions. Understanding what we are feeling and why will give children the tools they need to talk about deeper concepts of feeling and emotion as they grow.
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Here are 4 simple activity ideas to help teach your child about emotions:
- Build the Word Bank
A simple way to start building your child’s word bank around feelings is to start with two very common words young children are familiar with: “good” and “bad.” Children are used to using one of these words to explain emotions, actions or even a friend’s personality, “My friend Matt was a bad boy at school today.” Every time your child uses “good” or “bad” in a place where they could use a different, more descriptive word, offer a few suggestions for what they may actually be describing. “When you said Matt was a “bad” boy at school, why was that? Do you think he was sad, or maybe angry?” Coax them to explain the situation and help them identify the word they were looking for. As your child begins to absorb new emotion words, they will be better equipped to explain to you how they feel, and also to sense those same feelings in others. - Connect Actions to Feelings
To begin the process of learning how to explain feelings, it’s helpful for little ones to connect that actions cause us to have these feelings. In the teaching moment video below, children in an Educare classroom are getting ready for a school play. The teacher is helping them identify that because they are about to go on stage, they may be feeling “nervous.” She is getting them used to the idea that actions cause feelings, which we all have. This will help them adjust using their words to describe a situation like “when X happens, I feel Y.” - Act on Feelings
Give your child an easy-to-understand action they can do when they feel a specific emotion. This will give them an age-appropriate outlet to address their feelings, and get them used to the thought of dealing with an emotion. Having this outlet they can regularly use to act on their emotions will pave the way for dealing with more complicated feelings and situations as they get older. For example, in the previous video, the teacher offers children who are nervous about the upcoming play an outlet for their emotions. She asks each child to walk to the center of the circle where a large pot is sitting. One by one each child comes to the pot and shakes off their “nervous feelings” into the pot, where the nerves will stay for good. This is a way for the youngsters to see that everyone feels emotions like they do, and that there is a way to deal with them. - Use Specific, Open-Ended Questions
Start getting your child accustomed to talking about their emotions by asking about an exact moment. If your little one had just been in a play, instead of asking “did you like the play?” ask them how they felt before/during/after a specific moment, “Describe how you felt as you were about to say your lines?” or “What were you thinking after you got off of stage?” For a child who can name their emotions well, begin bringing up questions that help them to identify what other people (friends, teachers, etc.) may have felt during that time so they can begin to pay attention to other people and their feelings. The more they learn about being attentive to their own emotions and others, the more they will be able to understand that emotions are a daily part of life.