You may have heard parents or kindergarten teachers saying that your child or another child is school ready. But, what does this really mean? After all, any child has to attend school from the age of 5, but simply being 5 doesn’t mean that they are school ready.
In fact, children that have been to reputable early childhood education centers, such as childcare croydon, are usually more school-ready than those that haven’t. This is what school ready really means:
A child needs to be able to listen to instructions, understand them, and act on those instructions. This is essential in the school environment as teachers do not have the time or opportunity to give one-on-one care.
The ability to listen to means that your child is ready to learn more and will be able to cope with the demands of the school classroom. It’s an important step in their life journey.
Working In A Team
Although much of education is about learning skills and improving individual knowledge, every child is also part of a class and they’ll need to engage in team events. For your child to be school ready they must be able to play and interact with other children. Whether they’re a born leader or follower, they must be able to contribute to the team effort and accept the outcome.
This is an important stage of emotional growth and also when most children learn to be gracious in both victory and defeat.
If your child isn’t ready to be part of a team they may find some school activities very difficult.
It almost goes without saying that a child who is school ready is capable of looking after their own toilet needs. This doesn’t mean they’ll never be an accident but they should be aware of their needs and how to deal with them.
Children must learn to be independent, early childhood education encourages this as it separates them from their parents and gets them to stand on their own two feet.
This is an important skill to learn and develop as independent children are much more likely to succeed in life, they won’t have the fear of failure because they have confidence in their own abilities.
It’s hard to teach this skill, it’s generally learned by example from parents and other figures of authority.
Children who are school-ready must be curious. They need to want to know about the things that are going on around them and they should have a natural curiosity for the world and everything else they encounter on a daily basis. This curiosity will help them to engage with the teacher and learn, which is the purpose of being at school.
The good news is that you know when your child is school-ready, they’ll be pushing their current limits, testing what they can get away with, and generally ready to explore outside of their usual comfort zone.
However, just because they’re ready doesn’t mean they know it all, they’ll still need your guidance and help.