Starting school is a challenging time for children, and many parents also find this transition both emotional and intimidating.
An early childhood learning program helps to overcome these challenges by introducing children to a wide range of playful activities. To the untrained eye, it may seem like our kids are "just playing". What's actually going on is crucial preparation for those first years of school, in a variety of ways.
Our lesson plans develops skills which will help your children overcome many common frustrations and difficulties around formal schooling. When you understand the ways in which these classes work, that helps you make things even easier for your kids. So without further ado, here's seven ways Busy Bookworms prepares children for school!
1. ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
You may have read countless books to your children at home, but in a class environment kids not only listen to stories, but actively engage with them in a variety of creative ways. They gain a deeper insight into just how brilliant books can be, and develop the fundamental building blocks to become awesome readers themselves!
2. MOTOR SKILLS
Getting playdough out of the carpet might be every parent’s worst nightmare, but giving preschoolers time to work with playdough is fantastic preparation for classroom tasks – for example, using scissors and developing a strong pencil grip. Early childhood learning programs include many such fine motor activities to strengthen the small muscles in kids’ hands, including sorting and grouping objects, tracing lines with whiteboard markers, using stickers, pegs, droppers and tongs.
3. MATHS
Lots of children love sorting and matching games (the monkey goes with the banana!), but did you know that playing these games is helping them to develop one-to-one correspondence, which is an important stage in learning to add? Structured play in our early childhood learning classes will introduce important numeracy concepts such as counting and sorting groups of objects, basic graphing techniques, measurement and ordering by size.
4. BEHAVIOUR
Learning appropriate classroom behaviour can be one of the biggest challenges for kids starting school, and the best way to practice being in a classroom is…being in a classroom! In an early childhood learning program, children become used to being part of an active classroom – following routines and instructions, answering questions, moving between activities, and interacting with teachers.
5. STEM
There's recently been a great deal in the media about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). These are key areas for today’s students to focus on, preparing them for our rapidly changing world and the workforce they'll be entering when they finish school. Our programs help to develop a healthy curiosity through STEM activities and the investigation of concepts such as the weather, floating and sinking, force and momentum, and colour blending. Kids conduct science experiments, make predictions, and observe results, so they can begin to see and question science at work in the world around them.
6. MAKING FRIENDS
Meeting and interacting with new children, and making friends, is one of the most exciting (and scary!) parts of starting school. Early childhood learning programs give kids the chance to work with other children in groups, find common interests, take turns, share, compliment and chat – all fantastic practice for making new friends at school.
7. PARENTS
Busy Bookworms parents receive weekly handouts containing a wealth of information about child development and learning in the early years (as well as outlining what happened in that week’s class). This information puts parents in a better position to support their children in this important transition, and enables them to work in partnership with school teachers to help their kids reach their full potential.
Busy Bookworms classes have been carefully designed to engage children in a huge range of activities which are both enjoyable and purposeful. Over the course of the program, we love to see our kids develop the skills and abilities which will make them as confident and prepared as possible for their first day of big school. If you'd like your child to benefit from the above advantages, click here to check out our class times for 2018. Thanks for reading!
