Last week I started a post on why parents choose to place their children in preschool. I’ve written about the first two most popular reasons: a place for children to learn socialization, and a way to get used to school rules and procedures. Today I’ll discuss two more popular reasons young children are placed in preschool: to expose them to new ideas and to learn basic skills.
Many parents feel preschool will give their child an academic advantage. They believe their child will learn basic skills and core knowledge sooner and be more prepared to get good grades and “do well” in school. There ARE many reports that claim this is true. However, most of the children tested (and I’d argue as to the validity of those tests) are from homes where there is only one active parent and they usually are from a low economic situation.
Parents also need to think deeply about what success really means for their children fifteen years from now and what is the best way to prepare them emotionally, physically and mentally for adulthood. Do they want their children to simply graduate from college with a 4.0 GPA, but with no clue as to what they want to do with their lives? Do they want to have strong family bonds that only come from large amounts of time together? Do they want their children to be creative, innovative, self-directed and flexible?
To truly expose your child to new ideas and provide them with authentic skills for life a child needs to be out exploring the world with a loving parent (if possible) and building a rich foundation by using all five senses.
Children are masters at using all their senses. Adults tend to rely mostly on seeing and hearing, but children use touch, taste and smell just as often as sight and sound. If they are not told “No” or “Don’t” too much, they will continue to use all five senses as they grow older as they go about figuring out how the world works. I’ve found my own sensitivity to the senses of taste, touch and smell increase again by watching and learning alongside my children.
Children also need to accumulate as many sensory experiences as they can before they can tackle abstract concepts. Sometimes this is not always the case. My daughter, for example, could read books that schools would label fifth or sixth grade reading level by her 5th birthday, but she is a whole word reader, she excels at memorizing, and we have hours and hours of conversations about words and their meanings. Her twin brother, though a great builder and athlete and a much more tactile, hands-on-learner, has no interest in reading yet.
Generally though, children need to have first-hand experiences with things like oceans, deserts, cities, farms, Tai food, ferrets, snow, buses, bird’s nests, sailboats, the insides of fire stations, and a thousand other things before they start to build up images and abstract ideas on their own.
I read a great quote from John Holt that might help make this point more clear.
“If you ask me a question all I can do in my reply is try to put into words a part of my experience. But you get only the words, not the experience. To make meaning out of my words, you must use your own experience. If you have not seen or done at least some part of what I have seen and done, then you cannot make any meaning from my words. ……..But to the extent that you do share some of my experience, than by talking about my experience, but throwing a light on part of it, I may revel to you something in your experience that you had not see before, or help you see it in a new way.” – John Holt, Instead of Education
Children need to build experiences. I suppose you could argue that they ARE gaining experiences in school, and you’d be right. But I’m talking about the experiences that allow them to truly use all their senses and those that are not limited to “school” subjects. You cannot get those types of experiences sitting in the same building for hours a day, three to five days a week. I suppose an active parent might compensate by trying to provide those experiences outside of preschool hours, but again, those experiences would be limited by the short amount of time available.
I love the flexibility of being able to say, “Let’s go to the lake, or planetarium, or a festival, or hike in the woods, or make a bowl at the pottery place, or go swimming or drive to a children’s museum,” at any time of the day. When the kids ask questions like, “How does my heart work?” we can go right to the exhibit at the science museum and see a real heart. If they ask, “What kinds of animals live in the rivers by our house?” we can spend the whole day hanging out by the river.
Preschools might provide children with field trips occasionally, but for the most part they always have their own curriculum and stick to it. They’re not going to deviate from what their “theme of the week” is just because the children are asking other questions. Like I’ve written before, an active parent might try to provide a variety of experiences for their child outside the preschool day, but young children often like answers immediately. When you tell young children, “That’s a great question, but we need to focus on this now. We’ll get to that later,” they get the idea that their questions and ideas are not as important as what the teacher wants to talk about.
Living an active, interesting life where their questions and ideas are validated will provide young children far more exposure to new ideas and experiences then they will ever receive in a preschool classroom.
Yes, preschool can provide children with new ideas. But they cannot do anything you as a parent cannot do to a greater depth. You want your children to learn their ABC’s and 123’s before they reach the age of 5? Then show them letters if you want to and count with them. It’s that simple. Except please remember to be sensitive to what THEY want to do.
My kids both could tell you the alphabet, letter sounds, shapes and colors by the time they were 18 months, but if, when I opened books or took out magnetic letters, they walked away or didn’t seem excited about it, I immediately put those things away.
The world is a big, exciting world to young children. Having kids has allowed me to see things through their eyes and to get excited about exploring even the littlest of things. Show them all there is to see around you, and, if you can, take them as far away from home as you can, too. They don’t need anything academic now. If it’s fun for both of you, great; but it is not necessary. What is necessary is for them to fill their minds and hearts with as much love as you have to give and as many new and varied experiences as they want.
In part 3 of this series, I will talk about the final most popular reason parents send their children to preschool.
Instead of Preschool: Why We Opted Out Part 1
Photo Credit: Pink Sherbet Photography