Here are
some of the things that you need to do when preparing your child to start preschool:

• Know
  where your child should be academically. Your preschooler doesn’t
  have to be right on track or ahead of the game, but you should have some basic
  child development knowledge of where other kids of the same age are going
  to be. This varies depending on the age that your child enters preschool but
  can be figured out by checking out basic parenting books on development. Help
  your child reach an average academic place before sending him off to preschool
  so that he doesn’t start at a disadvantage.
• Point out the
  ways in which your child is growing up and make it a point to say
  that preschool is a big kid thing. This way, your child will be proud
  and excited about preschool, not scared.
• Purchase
  some special preschool items that your child gets to use only when going to
  preschool.
  A backpack, lunchbox, set of crayons … these small things that are for
  school only can help with the transition to preschool.
• Use a
  schedule at home since your child will be on a schedule in preschool.
  Have a playtime, a nap time, a video time, and an outside time that are basically
  the same every day. The routine itself may be different in preschool but the
  process of getting used to a routine won’t be new.

And of course, the
most important thing about preparing your child to start preschool is that you
have to prepare yourself. Even parents who are eager to return to work
feel a twinge of regret when it’s time to send kids to preschool. It’s
a change that breeds fear. But if you are overly anxious about it, your child
will pick up on that and the transition to preschool will be more difficult.
Trust that you’ve prepared your child for preschool and rest easy in that
knowledge.

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That’s because
music
is important to the healthy development of your child. In the preschool years,
love of music remains mostly uninhibited by the influences from the outside
world (like being too embarrassed to sing aloud). This encourages the growth
of creative impulse in your preschooler. But more than just encouraging creativity,
supporting music for your preschooler also helps to forge important pathways
to the brain which have been shown to improve math and thinking skills. Additionally,
musical children tend to be more capable of developing and controlling their
physical movements. And finally, music is something which inspires joy and a
joyful child is a happier, more well-developed child.

First and foremost,
a child who is encouraged to enjoy music during the preschool years is a child
who is likely to have a well-developed sense of creativity. Music is one of
the first primal instincts that we have in terms of creative urges and the chance
to explore those urges in a supportive environment gives your preschooler a
sense of safety in regards to exploring her own creative self. By telling your
child (even implicitly) that it’s great for her to make up her own songs,
tunes and dances, what you’re really telling her is that it’s okay
to take a chance on being creative. This openness to creative thinking will
benefit her throughout her lifetime.

At a more physiological
level, music can actually help to forge pathways in the brain that are important
to your preschooler’s development. By improving the links between neural
pathways, music actually helps your child learn all kinds of different things
that you might not at first associate with music. Music can improve abilities
to learn math, language development and other educational areas. Research into
this is still being done but studies have consistently proven that there is
some link between an enhanced ability to learn and enjoying music during the
preschool years.

Of this research,
that which is most supported is the idea that music in preschool can assist
children in developing improved spatial-temporal reasoning. This refers to the
type of reasoning that allows you to look at a two-dimensional picture and manipulate
it in your mind. It forms the foundation for logical thinking. This is interesting
because kids who listen to music are often thought of purely as creative individuals,
and often as dreamers, but kids who are musical in preschool may actually be
more logical thinkers as they get older.

Musical kids will
also be better able to control their bodies as they grow up. They’ll learn
movement more quickly and potentially be better athletes because of this. The
reason for this is that music gives us a sense of rhythm. Kids who not only
listen to music but who are also encouraged to play musical games and enjoy
musical instruments will be more likely to make well-rounded use of this skill
by translating it over into improved body control.

And finally, despite
all of these great things that are happening to your kids as they enjoy music
in preschool, they really do just simply love it. For kids, music is fun. And
that kind of fun translates into a joy that is beneficial to your child overall.
After all, picture a class of kids who are asked to sit at a desk all day and
then picture a class of kids who have music incorporated into every lesson.
Which group is more likely to be healthy? Sure, these may be extreme examples
but when applied to your preschooler’s education, you can see the importance
of including music in the day’s curriculum.

Preschool
Music Resources:

• Music
  Education
• Musical
  Instruments

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Relax. This isn’t your worst nightmare. And although it’s a difficult situation which must be dealt with carefully, it’s certainly one that you’re capable of managing. It’s true that you can’t protect your kids from the horrors of the world, but you can use every opportunity as a learning example for giving your child the skills necessary to deal with the difficult situations that the world will bring to you. And teaching your child how to deal with bullies is one step in that learning process.

The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander: From Preschool to High School–How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle of Violence

Remember that the best attack against bullying is to teach your child preventative measures from an early age. Help your child to develop self-esteem so that he or she does not allow him (or her) self to be bullied. Also teach your child to handle problems (such as issues in sharing with other kids) on his or her own with appropriate behavior. And always create an environment in which your child feels safe to come discuss the problems that he or she may be having with others and to problem solve about them with you.

Taking the Bully by the Horns – Children’s Version of the Best Selling Book, "Nasty People"

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Start by making a list of
all of the issues that concern you about sending your child to preschool. Usually
the reason that choosing a preschool is so hard is because parents want to do
right by their children and they have a lot of (warranted) fears about preschool.
Identify those fears so that you can see what aspects of the school are going
to be most important for you to take a look at more closely.

Here are some concerns which
you might consider putting on that list as you go to choose your preschool:

• How much one-to-one time
  will my child get with his preschool teachers?
• What kind of supervision
  can I expect my child to have?
• What if my child gets
  bullied by other kids in the class?
• Will my child learn what
  he needs to learn before kindergarten starts?
• How long is it okay for
  my child to be away from me during the day?
• What if my child’s
  teachers aren’t qualified to teach him?
• How much freedom will
  my child have with his time?
• Will my child become institutionalized
  if he goes to preschool?

These are just a few of the
concerns that you might have as a parent. Once you have a list of all of them
in front of you, you’ll know what to look for when you go to choose a
preschool. For example, if you are concerned that your child will be spending
too much time away from you at a young age, you may want to find a preschool
that has a half-day program. If you are concerned about the qualifications of
your child’s preschool teachers, you will want to look more closely at
the accreditation of the school and the requirements of the educators there.

Finding a preschool
for your child doesn’t have to be terrifying. You probably already have
a good idea of which schools you’re selecting from, based on your location
and the suggestions you’ve gotten from your friends, family and Internet
research, so you really just need to narrow down your options. That can be easily
done by determining what is most important to you about your child’s preschool
education and making sure that it’s taken care of at the school you ultimately
choose.

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Preschool is a time when your child learns a lot of social skills by interacting with other children. There are two basic levels of development which happen to the child during the preschool ages. In one, the child enjoys playing in the presence of other children but not necessarily engaging in collaborative activities with them. In the next stage, children do enjoy actually playing and interacting with one another. Circle time allows preschools to engage children in social activities which offer opportunities for both kinds of play to the developing children. Circle time teaches kids to act appropriately in large groups, take turns with activities and focus on a teacher even though a lot of other kids are there so that they learn important skills they’ll need in kindergarten and beyond.

Circle time also functions
as a good teaching tool in the sense that it is a time when new topics can be
introduced to everyone in the classroom at once, despite the fact that they
might be at different stages of development. For example, the class might be
learning about Thanksgiving and the teacher may have different activities related
to that for the kids to do at their own pace. But the topic of Thanksgiving
itself can be introduced to the whole class at circle time with stories or songs
that tell about the holiday.

Circle time is also widely
used in preschools because it allows teachers to get the entire class involved
in one activity. As a general rule, this acts as a kind of crowd control so
that the teacher can better engage all of the students. When preschool kids
are broken up into smaller activities, the teacher has a more difficult time
seeing what is going on with each child. In the circle, each child is easy to
supervise.

The number of different activities
which can take place during circle time is vast. There are worksheets and lesson
plans galore for teachers of preschool classes to make use of. But the basics
of all circle time are the same from lesson to lesson and preschool to preschool.
Getting kids engaged in a big group circle allows them to learn necessary social
skills while improving the teacher’s ability to teach the entire group
all at once. That’s why there’s circle time!

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If you’re
feeling hesitant, take a look at all of the benefits which are said to come
about when children attend preschool:

• You get a break
  from your kids. Yes, you love them. But sometimes being a parent can be tough.
  This is especially true for the single parent. Finding a good school which
  is able to take care of your child’s needs can help to ensure that the
  time you do spend with them is happy, quality time.
• The classroom
  gives your child the chance to meet new people and learn to socialize with
  the outside world. Yes, this is terrifying. No, you don’t want your
  child influenced by children and adults that you don’t know well (being
  as involved with the school as possible can help prevent this). But at the
  same time, your baby needs to learn how to interact with the world and preschool
  is one place where that socialization can begin to be learned. If you’re
  sending your child off to kindergarten, you may find that they do better there
  if they’ve had a couple of years of intensive socializing in the preschool
  environment.

Whether or not preschool
is “good” for kids can be argued until the end of time. Studies
will continue to be done and parents on both sides of the issue will continue
to find information which supports their beliefs. But what it boils down to
in the end is that you will need to make decisions all throughout you child’s
life about what is best for him and what is best for your family. Preschool
is one of those decisions. Figure out what your needs are and how your child
works within the available options and make the decision that is right for you.

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