The Benefits of Preschool For Little Ones

As children begin to pass the years of daycare and blossom into young kindergarteners, there is an important transitional step. Preschool is increasingly talked up by parents, doctors, and education professionals for being an extremely important step in the development of children for many different reasons. As families begin to explore their opportunities for their little ones such as home care with mom or dad, daycare, or preschool, the choice can be difficult. It can be hard to decide which option is best suited for your child but here are just some of the benefits of sending your child to preschool.

Upon entering a preschool program, here are just a few of the important lessons and skills that your little one will learn:

    Basic social skills with a group of peers
    Problem solving through fun games and activities
    Respect towards peers and teachers through sharing, compassion, and using your words
    Building friendships with other children and learning to share
    How to contribute to conversations in group settings
    Pre-math concepts to prepare for kindergarten
    Pre-reading concepts to prepare for kindergarten
    Language building through conversations
    An easier transition into kindergarten and grade school

The common age of most preschool goers is between the ages of three and five years old. It is up to the family to make the decision of how often they want their child to attend a preschool. Many programs do offer a range in attendance from just a few times a week for a couple hours or more full time with a few hours each week day. Another great benefit to a preschool program is that many preschool centers will offer lunch and snack times which is a great way to really help build the social skills necessary for entering the world of grade school.

Preschool is the perfect opportunity for your child to ease into the transition of kindergarten and grade schools which can be scary with so many new things at once. It is also a great way to learn to let go of mom and dad and enjoy a day away from home. It can be a difficult transition if your child has not yet been exposed to a group setting and they are suddenly faced with a kindergarten classroom. So instead of just a regular child care service that may or may not offer educational skills and peers to socialize with in their age group, preschool is clearly a smart choice.

For families living in Highland, Fulton and surrounding Maryland areas who have children ages three to five and who are ready for a preschool experience like no other, Little Builder's Learning Center is ready to help! Through the caring support of the highly qualified teachers, your Maryland youngster is sure to have a wonderful preschool experience that will prepare them to take on the kindergarten classroom with great success! Click here to visit Little Builder's website and to learn more about their exceptional preschool program.

6 Tips to Market Your Preschool or Daycare

I have been asked by many of my subscribers to give them ideas on how to grow their enrollments. So, I would like to give you a few pointers that can help in this area.

I will start with 6 quick tips to grow enrollment that don't cost anything.

1. Create a flyer and distribute it to businesses and bulletin boards, especially where there are children. Always be sure to ask first. Go to places like park district events, the public library, church. Put your flyer on car windows, post on bulletin boards, tape to store windows, hand them out and leave a stack on the counters.

2. Ask your current families to refer you to their friends. Word of mouth is the best advertising, and it's free. Have some of your fliers available to families that say "yes". You could offer an incentive if they refer a friend that signs up. This could be a discount, a free week, a gift basket or a gift card to a local store.

3. Register with your local Childcare Resources. Let them know that you have opening or that you are expanding so that they can let families know. They will love having your preschool or daycare on their list if you are licensed. They especially like preschools and daycare-services that are in family-oriented neighborhoods, by elementary schools and are on the bus lines.

4. Put your preschool or daycare on the internet. There are several websites that list them. When I did a Google search for daycare listings I came up with several. Parent who are looking for providers often search on the internet. The listings are categorized by state and city, so it is easy for those in need to find those who are providing services.

5. Network with other preschools and daycare providers. When they have their classes full, they could refer families to yours. When you don't have room and there is a need, you can send your overflow to others. So, it becomes reciprocal. Always get the family's information before you refer them to others. That way, if you have an opening, you will have a list of families to call to try and fill your open spot.

6. Put an ad in the classified section of your newspaper. In most areas, this will also be displayed on the newspaper's website. So, it gets the word out in print and over the internet. Be sure to include the name of your business, your address and phone number. You could also include the bus line that goes by your house.

In the "old days", you could put a sign in your yard, take out a yellow page ad, ask a few friends to pass the word and be able to fill up your preschool or daycare. It seems that those days are gone.

Now you have to be more aggressive, more pro-active in getting the words out. The yellow pages ads are really a thing of the past. Searching the internet has taken its' place.

So, spread the word. Tell everyone you know about your business. Hand out business cards and flyers. Before long you will have a classroom full of preschool children with a waiting list started.

Good luck and best wishes.

Mary Beth Collins is a former preschool teacher and high school teacher. She is the mother of 3 grown children and a granddaughter. Now she is developing a blog about everything preschool and preschool curriculum.

Sign up for a free report on how to start a preschool with a link to state requirements for preschool teacher requirements. http://www.startingapreschool.net.

Should I Put the Price in My Preschool Flyer?

You are ready to sell your preschool to parents and their children! Do you want to spend hours with each parent trying to convince them that your preschool is the best or the one for them?

Do you want to explain every detail of your preschool individually to every family that inquires? Are you comfortable going over pricing and policies? Do you like spending lots of your free time on the phone with prospects, only to have them turn away?

Wouldn't it be nice to have the parents show up ready to sign up because they have all the information they need and they WANT what you are offering?

Wouldn't it be nice for parents to know that they can or cannot afford your program? A parent may only want their child to attend a preschool that offers organic meals, or has security cameras? How will they know if you offer these things?

How do you get them all this information without the hours involved explaining it to them? The answer is: IN A FLYER.

Put all the answers to any question that they could come up with in a flyer, then have it ready to hand out to prospective parents. They can read about your program and make an informed decision.

If they know ahead of time what your preschool is all about, you are actually pre-selling them on your program before they call. If they don't like what they read, they won't call. You won't waste your time trying to convince them that your program fits their needs, when maybe it doesn't.

Here is a list of the items that could appear in your flyer:

    The teacher's qualifications.
    That the school is licensed.
    Hours of operation.
    Name of the school, address and phone number.
    Daily schedule of activities.
    Ratio of teacher to children.
    Special certificates held by the workers: like first aid and CPR.
    Other safety precautions: like fences, gates, protected entry, security cameras.
    Nutritious meals or special accommodations for diet.
    Computer or technical training.
    Any specialized areas of instruction like computers or a foreign language.
    PRICES
    Website address
    Age of children
    Potty training policies

Your program won't be for every family out there. This is a way of servicing the families that are a good fit without spending your precious time explaining everything to them.

When families call, you can answer the questions they have, set up a time for a tour and feel good about the flyer all ready informing them and selling them on your school. These families don't need to be convinced, they know that you have what they are looking for.

Go out and leave your flyer wherever there may be young children. Always ask first, then post on community bulletin boards, hand out personally, and leave a stack on business counters. Put on the window of cars at park district events, church outings, library parking lot and grocery store lots.

The answer is YES, YES, YES. Put the prices you charge in your flyer.

Mary Beth Collins is a former preschool teacher and high school teacher. She is the mother of 3 grown children and a granddaughter. Now she is developing a blog about everything preschool and has written a superior preschool curriculum.

You can see her blog and sign up for a free report on starting a preschool.

Visit at http://www.startingapreschool.net

Teaching Preschoolers Is Not A Sin

I am so fed up by people who say that if you teach a toddler or preschooler anything academic, you are abusing them. This is complete bunk. All of my children loved being empowered to learn to read. I spent five minutes a day on it, and they were never upset; they always loved it.

The same with any other academic skill. They gobble it up. They love it, if it is done when they are well-rested and want to do something new. I'm not talking about workbooks. I'm talking about teaching something for five or ten minutes, maybe about an animal, maybe about numbers. Counting some frogs in a picture book takes a few seconds. It is interesting to the child. To call this abuse is ridiculous.

Studies have been done (What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child by Glenn Doman) where babies with half their brain missing were given infant stimulation exercises and taught to read. By age two these babies were reading. They were not vegetables like the doctors said they would be. I'm sure their parents were so grateful, they had tears streaming down their faces. Because the babies' minds were stimulated, they thrived.

One reason toddlers cry all day and pitch fits is because they're so bored. Their parents think that they can't learn anything. The young children are just blobs that need to be fed and clothed. I wonder what they do all day. Watch TV while they're waiting for their kid to grow up?

One statement that was made in a recent workshop on preschoolers was that when all kids turn 18, they are the same. Not so. She said that someone who read at age 4 and someone else at age 7 (or even age 10) would be equal by 18. This might or might not be true depending on the personality of each of the children. But for me, my own children learned to read as toddlers. All my kids were reading independently (easy books) in their preschool years. By age 7, my oldest two sons were reading on a high school level. They've read so many classics in their free time. You can't tell me kids can catch up on all the years they didn't know how to read. They are not equals by 18. The kids that started earlier have a deeper knowledge of the world around them because they are well-read. They can pick up and read a book about any subject at any age and teach themselves from the vast treasure troves of knowledge.

Young children absolutely love learning, and their days are long, stretching out before them. They have nothing to do, except for what you do with them, and what you give to them. You can choose what will go into their minds. I taught my children the Word of God at young ages, too, and my children have such hearts for God now. They draw spiritual conclusions that are way beyond their years.

It's worth teaching your young children.

For more information, check out the video workshop "Early Childhood Education" at my website, http://www.SusanEvans.org.

5 Great Preschool Outdoor Activities

As anyone who has looked after preschool children for any length of time knows, preschoolers have lots of energy, and the best place to burn off that energy, and - more importantly - to socialise, exercise, get fresh air and have loads of fun - is outdoors. Any preschool facility must have adequate outdoor facilities and space for children to run about, muck about and kick up their heels, but space is not enough. Carefully selected organised activities are a key to ensuring that children's precious outdoor play time is productive, healthful, safe, engaging and educational.

Here is a list of 5 unusual but excellent outdoor activities - to incorporate into your preschool programme:

1 Water bottle kick-bowling

You'll need: Small soccer ball (or similar), 10 1-litre water bottles, chalk or length of string, etc (to mark the line)

This is a lively and energetic activity that will have the preschool supervisors hopping and laughing along with the kids. Fill water bottles about 1/4 with water. Set the bottles up on the ground in a triangular pattern, as in ordinary 10-pin bowling. Choose an appropriate distance for the ages/abilities of the preschool children, and mark your kick line. The object is for the children to kick the ball toward the 'pins' and knock them down. Don't keep score as in real bowling; instead, make it a cooperative activity, with each member of the team attempting to knock down pins until all 10 have fallen.

Variations: Vary the amount of water to make it more or less challenging. Use fewer bottles and make several 'alleys' to accommodate more preschoolers.

2 Obstacle Course

You'll need: A vivid imagination!

This activity is always a crowd-pleaser, and is so variable that it's impossible in a short article to list all the possible permutations. The main idea is to mark out a path around your preschool's outdoor play area, utilising existing 'obstacles' such as trees, benches, picnic table, sand pit, etc. You can mark the path with a long string, or cardboard arrows or signposts... just so it is very clear where to go next. The preschoolers follow the path through every obstacle until they reach the end. Variety is the key, here. Have the children climbing up, crawling through and under, walking around and rolling over the obstacles.

Variations: Limitless!

3 Snake Tag

You'll need: socks, or other short length of fabric to make 'tails.' Plenty of room.

This is a creative variation on 'tag.' Each child has a sock tucked into their waistband to make a tail. One child is 'It.' This child attempts to steal the tail from another child. (The players aren't allowed to hold onto their own tail). When a tail is caught, both children are 'It' and must hold onto the sock as they attempt to steal other tails. Gradually, the snake grows until all children are caught. You can end this activity with the person in front trying to grab the tail of the last child caught, without breaking the chain. It will almost certainly end with everyone rolling on the ground in hysterics!

4 Treasure Hunt

You'll need: Trinkets or snacks to serve as 'treasures.' Treasure maps.

Hide the treasure somewhere in the preschool's outdoor play area. Make a simple map, using drawings of the various landmarks (plants, trees, fences, etc), with an X marking the spot where the treasure is hidden. This is a good preschool activity to help children associate images on paper with objects in the real world.

Variation: Make the map as simple or complex as is appropriate for your preschoolers. Groups of up to three can work together to try to find the treasure (be sure there's enough treasure to share). For larger groups, you can hide more treasure and make several maps.

5 Musical Trees

You'll need: Music, a tree.

This variation on musical chairs is a guaranteed giggle-fest. Play some lively music, and have the children dance freely around the tree as the music plays. When you stop the music, they must freeze in place. Milk this for all it's worth, walking slowly around the 'frozen' children and examining their hilarious poses. Then, start the music again, and you're off.

This article was submitted by Simona Rusnakova, SEO consultant of Voodoo, on behalf of The Park Academy preschools in Dublin who enhance children's joy, nourish their bodies and minds, cultivate their eagerness to learn and ensure their absolute safety.

Bullying in School - How to Handle Being Bullied

Bullying: Who Started It? The bus driver? The children riding the bus? Parents meeting the bus? Does it matter?

Really, as an adult ask yourself that question, and the answer is: it doesn't matter, because the truest answer is: an adult started it. We teach our children everything good and bad. We teach them that we ignore often what is right in front of us and what we never learned to handle as children. We ignore so much because we perceive that, the interest in fixing the problem is barely there. We would do better to learn to deal with problems as they happen, instead of when we get around to it, or worse, when we are forced to deal with it, by accident.

As a parent, guarding, teacher, I spoke to the events of the day, when I heard about them. My kid's circumstances, so many of the events of the day affected her, more than I knew. As an artist, my work has allowed me to enjoy so many diverse opinions and lifestyles, and it has been a real education in who is affected and effected by what, when and whom.

Your kid rides the bus to school and returns home every day. How many hours per day does that amount to? How many hours that you are not, nor is but one adult, watching out for your kid? The driver is doing a complete job by safely driving your kid to school and back. So often they are judged for their discipline when they are simply working to get your kids home each day, free from car accident or traffic related incident. They aren't babysitting they are driving.

I mention this because I just watched a child on a school bus who was bullied. Obvious bullying on the bus and from his fears expressed in an interview, years in the making. We can see on the surveillance tape, that this child is not aggressive, nor acting out, he is just different than some of the boys around him. It is the behavior of those children, that I say and adult learned. I am much too old to recount my experiences and expect them to be relevant to the current generations who are being subjected to the "Lord of the Flies" school bus bully mentality, which supports the hive collective mind, and that is what we see in bus time bullying. We see the enactment of the territorial imperative, this time it is boys. Girls can be just as mean, and are not exempt from this behavior.

I suggest a discreet personal alarm. A personal alarm will alert any adult that their attention is required. Any child will receive any adults' attention, which as everyone knows is the biggest problem with bullies. They think they are unrecognized. That no one is watching them. Remember it is not the kid who wants your attention that is the problem, it is the kid who doesn't and you may not get the story right. Use your best judgment, call attention to this problem by giving your child the protection they need. Teach them when to call for help and how. Purchase them a personal alarm from http://www.guardurself.com and educate them on self defense.

Watch the movie "Bully" - See how to protect your children from bus bullies. Research your local bus drivers and kids riding the bus. Talk to your son or daughter about what's going on during the bus ride. Each bus has a surveillance camera, review the tapes and see what is going on!

Learn What Math Is All About

A lot of people young and old alike share a common fear. This fear is math. Did you know math is used to help solve problems? An early introduction of math to preschool aged children will teach them that numbers are fun, this should also reinforce a defined structure which math is categorized in. It is easy to make this introduction by using math learning software.

Math learning software can be used to teach mathematics to children as young as preschool. By using these kinds of tools learning math will be fun, easy, and understandable. Also by using software aided programs, this should assist in promoting a desire to learn math. Math software for kids can be helpful for teens in high school who may be struggling with calculus as well.

Other programs utilized in teaching math are math game software. If you make something once thought to be difficult, and grueling into a game, then learning becomes fun. Again, by introducing these programs to young children, this will facilitate their desire to learn and possibly master math. It does not have to be a daunting subject in school, but one that students look forward too. Math game software begins by teaching the basics of addition and subtraction, this is sure to help any young child want to learn and advance their math skills.

Using another great product Schoolhouse Rocks Math, this software also begins with the foundation. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division-- the stepping stones to upper level math courses. Schoolhouse Rocks Math also teaches students about the importance of critical thinking in problem solving with each level gradually more difficult than the one before it. Feature packed, this software includes eight levels of learning fun that is sure to help any student conquer their fear of math!

Who knew learning math could be so much fun? Not only is learning math now fun, but it is vitally important to your child's overall success later in life. With so many technological advances, math has become a necessity for success in today's society. Today there are a lot of learning aids on the market that have been designed in an effort to make learning fun and exciting. Now that almost everyone in the United States has at least one home computer and many of the software programs on the market today are more affordable, learning what math is all about is easier than ever before.

All Educational Software offers educational software for all ages and all learners from Toddlers and Preschoolers to Grade School, Middle School, and High School. As well, it covers all subjects including math, language arts, science, music, learn to type, software for the deaf, and many more. The programs are designed to be fun as well as educational and in many cases link educational content to school curricula.