No More Terrible Twos - Now It's Pre-School Time!

The years of a baby’s first words, the “terrible twos” with an assertion of independence and the bonds formed in a close environment gradually give way to the next step in a child’s social and mental development.  This next step is the pre-school!

The objective of Pre-school is to gradually wean the child from the home into a learning environment with a strong focus on fun. Music, crafts, games and play are all a part of fostering a child’s development.  Team play with common goals, lunch with others and the unison of many voices rising in a musical chorus lead to a feeling of togetherness and quickly replace the first feeling of panic and abandonment by parents.

The visual experience of colors is replaced by hands on experience with all sorts of hues and a feeling of delight like none other!  The intrinsic need to dig in dirt as a child, finally finds its fulfillment in sandboxes and yes, without reprimand.  The jungle gyms, the swings and slides bring the exhilaration to the forefront.  Life finally means a lot of FUN!  The story books come to life in a spellbound period of intense listening or a period of deep slumber, depending on the story as well as the physical need to take a good, undisturbed nap!

A good understanding of action and reaction in relationships finally starts to find its roots.  The differences between the right and wrong and the good and bad, seem to become clearer and are no longer simply a parental point of view.  The sharing and caring principles start taking definite shape and the give and take theory is slowly finding its way in a growing human being.  The laws of the jungle become the laws of a previous lifetime.

All of this time, learning has certainly been in the forefront.  The introduction to the alphabet is a song and Mathematics started with a simple division into groups.  The perfect balance of fun and learning has arrived.  The lessons of schedules are being reinforced through school pick up and drop off timings and the lessons of structure are being given a finite form by the class schedule.  Organization finds a new voice as every game, building block and book has to be placed in its rightful place so that it is easy to find the next day.  Responsibility is more a feeling of importance than drudgery as the teacher chooses the class favorite to clean up the lunch tables!

The bridge between home and school has been carefully laid out, and teachers are trained to give bonds a new meaning.  The nurturing at home is replaced by a teacher who gives caring a new meaning and a group of peers who share a feeling of camaraderie.  The end of a school day is marked by the ringing of a bell and an intense desire to run to the waiting car or school bus, for the simple fact is that there is no place like home!