Early Learning

Last night I went to early learning childhood education information session by Kathy Walker at Scotch College. This is the second time I have attended her talk and I always feel inspired after the event.
By the way, Scotch College, it always reminds me of my senior high school, Pelita Harapan. The orange brick, the nice to have facility.

Below are what I learnt last night:

Going to school for your child is about quality of journey. It’s not about finishing school with good grade and go to university doing preferred course.
In every state funded kindergarden, there is a preschool field officer who can give free assessment and written report whether your child is ready for prep/preschool.

In assessing school readiness, one assess emotional, social, speech, fine motor, self regulate, self sooth maturities. Academic is less concern in this stage. Then Kathy mentioned about a joke, same joke she mentioned last year about a 3 years old boy who show her how he can spell A to Z. When she asked him what are those letters for, he replied “I don’t know, but when I do this, it makes my mom very happy” 

She reminded parents to use proper reasoning when persuading child to do something or maybe disctraction if that does not work. For example putting on seatbelt. I always struggle to put on seatbelt on Edward. Sometimes he just won’t sit still and play around. So I was reminded not to use reasoning such as “hurry put on seatbelt or police will catch you”. One day, when your child drives car by himself, you want him to follow speed limit for his own safety and other people safety and not because there is a speed camera nearby.

Do not ask question if you do not want your child to say no. For example do not ask “Do you want to have a shower now?” There will be a battle if you child say no. If you want your child to take shower. Instead say “In 5 minutes, mommy will help you to take shower”. Children thrive in predicted and respected environment.

Self sooth and self regulate for preschool children is one thing that I am not sure where to start. I still have question mark about this. Maybe I will google it to see what information are out there.

While listening to this talk, in few occasions I thought about how to create nurturing environment for Edward at home. Set up his play area (create, ABC, music, play) provide few clothes for him to pick himself. I have heaps of ideas in head. How to introduce ABC to him. I know he now can sing ABC song perfectly. Now I think is the time to introduce to him what they are for, recognising letters in his favourite books. I need to search for material in http://www.montessorimom.com/ later.

Last important tips from Kathy for parents are active reflection. When your child tells you that he is sad, with active reflection, you will say, I understand that you are sad because ****. Do not say “don’t feel sad”. Same thing with anger, jealousy, pain. Early on from their toodler years, it is okay to acknowledge these feelings and learn to overcome them in their own time. In these new age, many young people commits suicide because they do not know how to deal with their feelings. So with this last reminder Kathy ended the talk.

Thanks Kathy. 

Check out Kathy’s website: http://earlylife.com.au/info/