A recent article in Time magazine offered suggestions for parents on preparing children for kindergarten. If you are looking for a preschool in Chantilly, VA, chances are that you are already involved in helping to make sure that your child is ready for elementary school. Enrolling them in a preschool program, even if it is only for a few days each week, is one very positive step that you can take.
Children’s academic development is much like their physical development. It requires repetition, practice, and increased strengthening. If intellectual muscles aren’t exercised on a regular basis, they will atrophy and become useless in the same way that actual muscles will. Look for a preschool program that encourages your child to follow multi-step directions, even if those steps are simple. Children that enter kindergarten able to follow such directions and pay attention during organized activities are 30% more likely to read at grade level than those who do not.
Your child’s preschool should also emphasize reading. Children should be read to aloud each day, but books should also be readily available for those who choose reading as a free-time activity. By age 15, those children who were read to daily as youngsters are performing at least one year ahead of those students who grew up in a non-reading environment.
When you are observing activities at a preschool, listen for the conversations that teachers are having with their preschool students. Is it a real conversation? Do teachers engage the children and give them opportunities to respond? A child’s ability to engage in active conversation directly correlates to future I.Q. scores and reading levels. Teachers should be asking open-ended questions that allow for students to respond with more than simple yes or no answers. If a preschool is not engaging children in that kind of conversation, do not immediately drop them as an option, ask to speak with the director to determine if more active conversation is something that could be incorporated into their curriculum.
Finally, ask at any preschool you are considering how many times in a week children watch any kind of programming, whether that is television or a DVD of some sort. The amount of screen time that your child is exposed to each week should be severely limited. Studies show that anything over an hour a day of total screen time each day has a negative affect on future academic performance and attention span.
Choosing the right preschool does not have to be an overwhelming task. If you look at schools in the Chantilly, VA area with some of these tips in mind, you will soon be able to find a preschool that is a great fit for your child that will also help to make sure your child is elementary school ready.
Preschool Chantilly, VA – At Sparkles!, we are committed to preparing children for kindergarten through our preschool curriculum. We believe preschool should help children learn to succeed in a structured environment that also enables them to have fun. Sparkles! caring staff, modern facilities, and commitment to early childhood development will give you peace of mind when choosing us as your child’s preschool. In Chantilly, VA, contact us at 703.955.7202 or visit us on the web at .www.sparkleschildcare.com
