Preparing your child for preschool should be a lot of fun and quite exciting! Whether you’re considering sending you child to a Montessori school or not, there are several things you can do at home to support their holistic development and get them ready to tackle the world outside. Below are some ideas you can start implementing immediately.

 

Engage in play with your child right away.

The prepared environment and the adult’s role within it are important aspects of Montessori. From the moment he or she is born, engage your child in play. Observe your baby while they play and modify their surroundings as they gain new skills and develop new interests. This will help to keep your child engaged in fun and developmentally appropriate activities. Encourage their curiosity by creating an environment that stimulates their natural curiosity and drive to learn, helping them gain strength, confidence, and independence.

 

Have a bias for “child-operated” versus “battery-operated” toys.

Steer clear from toys that are overstimulating. Instead, find those that have a clear function and require your child to interact with for them to be fascinating. This will build tenacity and an attitude of engagement from an early age. A colorful, “battery-operated” toy with plenty of lights and sounds may catch your baby’s eye, but its primary aim is to entertain. On the other hand, the more children can engage with “child-operated” toys with their hands, the better equipped they’ll be to solve issues and explore their surroundings, and the more they will learn.

 

Your home is a “prepared environment”.

A few minor changes to your home environment can boost your child’s self-esteem and ability to take care of themselves. For example, once your child is a confident walker, assist them with putting on and taking off their coat, and showing them how to hang it on a low hook in your foyer. Assist them in removing their shoes and directing them to the appropriate place to store them. Investing the time and patience now to guide them through this and other similar processes will enable them to complete them on their own, and they’ll enjoy taking on this responsibility.

 

Practice and encourage independence early.

Encourage your child to practice eating independently with their hands or, when they’re older, a utensil. This will aid in the development of important oral and motor skills, like as hand-eye coordination, as well as the teaching of healthy eating habits as they learn to control their bites. Let your child to make a mess, even if it’s difficult! Babies learn by their senses, so allowing them to see the natural repercussions of their actions is beneficial to their learning and development. Allow your child to participate in the entire mealtime process as they grow older, including setting their place when they’re ready to eat, filling their cup of water, tidying up, and washing their hands.

 

Create a language-rich environment.

Reading, singing, and conversing are all excellent literacy techniques that can be introduced at any age. It’s best if you can introduce your infant to as much language as possible. Try to use genuine words with them because they’ll absorb everything they hear. Using real language and names for items will help your baby’s vocabulary grow, so try “black lab” instead of “doggy,” and so on. Make sure you and other adults around your child utilize the same language. If you use a word to describe something, try to stick to it. As your child learns language, this will make it easier for them to build connections.

 

Encourage “learning by doing.”

At a young age all learning is done through the senses, so your child learns by experience. Doing things is the best way to learn. It’s more vital for your child to learn about the world by smelling flowers, feeling the rain, tasting lemons, touching sand, or listening to and talking with sounds that’ll help them understand the alphabet. This thorough awareness of the environment they live in, as well as familiarity with linguistic and mathematical ideas, will lay a solid basis for learning letters and numbers by the time they get to preschool.

 

Set routines like that of a school day.

Building a schedule for napping, eating at lunchtime, and playing that mirrors preschool will help ease the transition from home to school for your child. Children adjust to new schedules fast when they’re consistent. Establishing routines, however, isn’t going to happen overnight so introduce them gradually over a few weeks. When they begin preschool, they’ll be used to the schedule and you, and your child, will find their passage into this new environment both fun, easy, and manageable.