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Kids love to learn, but while they may be happy to resight to you a giant list of dinosaur names, they often cool considerably when it comes to the alphabet. This is in part because of how they are taught it. Instead of flashcards or singing the alphabet song, here’s a few fun ways to get kids engaged on learning their letters.

ABC Scavenger Hunt
Kids love going on treasure hunts. Searching for the letter of the week can be a fun way to get them thinking about that letter. Once your child has been introduced to the letter “A” for example, ask them to find a few things in the area that start with that letter.
They might bring you a stuffed alligator, or an apple. What ever they bring you, discuss whether it begins with the letter a, makes the “a” sound, or doesn’t belong after all.

This can be a fun way to learn the letters, and also a bit of phonetics too.

Shaving Cream Letters
Who wants to write with boring old pencil and paper? Add some spice to this by letting your child get messy. Shaving cream in a shallow dish can be a great way to inspire them to work on their letters. Show them how they can write the letters in the cream, and then smooth it all down to practice again.
Kids love the sensory experience provided by the shaving cream.

Connect the Dots
If your kids aren’t quite sure how the letters should be formed, connect-the-dot activities can be a great starting point. Tracing and connecting dots can help them gain muscle memory as they learn how to draw the letters.
There’s even cute dot print markers that allow you to create your own connect-the-dots in what ever form you want, and in a variety of colors.

Matching Lowercase and Uppercase
For more advanced learners, a fun activity is to get large, dried beans, and write the different uppercase and lowercase letters on the beans. Give the child a set of uppercase and lowercase beans in a bag, and ask them to try and match the uppercase letters to the lowercase letters.

Practicing matching lowercase and uppercase letters can help kids put together the two in their head.

Eating the Letters
Snack time is also a great way to learn letters. This could be anything from searching for letters they know in a bowl of Alphabet Soup, to sounding out their favorite snacks and trying to figure out what each one begins with.

Learning the alphabet is a critical part of learning to read, and it’s never too early to start. By keeping lessons short and fun, kids will be more willing to learn their letters and dip their toes into reading. Your daycare can help by adopting some of these fun lessons into their own routine. Ask them what they do to help teach the alphabet to your growing children. Whether its playing with their letters or listening to a book, every aspect of learning to read is important.

Arts and crafts are a common preschool activity that most young children love. There’s more to sitting a child down with construction paper, glue, and a project idea however. Learning arts and crafts have a range of benefits for your children, and can help them in other aspects of their life. Here are just a few of the ways crafting can benefit preschoolers.

Builds Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are important at every stage of life. Through crafting, preschoolers can learn how to cut, tape, glue and color their crafts. These skills are all ones they will use later in life. The same fine motor skills that are needed to apply a crystal to a foam crown are the ones need to grasp a pencil or write a letter.

Boosts Critical Thinking Skills
After the project has been cut out, what comes next? Assembling crafts is a great way to learn how to think ahead and solve problems. Critical thinking skills are another skill children will use their whole lives but will be especially useful when they’re solving word problems in elementary school.

These basic skills can be developed with something as simple as figuring out how to put together a craft.

Learning Shapes and Colors
A big part of crafting is choosing the colors you want your project to be, or discovering how shapes can be combined to make new things. As children are introduced to these new things during craft time, they can learn the names that go with them.
Learning that two triangles can be put together to make a diamond gives them the word for those shapes. Learning how to ask for the red crayon helps them learn those colors.

Counting and Patterns
Shapes and colors aren’t the only thing kids learn about while doing crafts. Stringing a beaded necklace for example, can teach children how to make patterns. It’s also a great opportunity to practice counting. When kids do crafts, they are frequently exposed to counting and patterns.
These opportunities to learn will help them build basic math skills they will need later in life.

Builds Confidence
When a project unfolds beautifully, it makes a child feel good about their skills. A well-made craft, or even one that’s a bit wobbly but still beautiful in your eyes, is a huge confidence boost for children. On top of this, being allowed to work with tools that are normally kept out of reach, such as scissors or glue, helps them learn how to use these items in a safe way.

Crafting is fun and engaging for children, but it’s also useful for them. The skills they learn when making simple projects will help them develop fine motor skills, learn basic math and critical thinking skills, and help them learn to follow instructions.

These skills will help them all the way into their adult life. The next time you put together a piece of Ikea furniture or create an advanced craft of your own, you’re using some of those skills you learned with your first craft in preschool.

You go to drop your child off at daycare, and the tears begin. Your child clings to you, cries, and begs you not to leave. Although it is heart wrenching to see in your child, separation anxiety is a normal part of development.

Kids usually start to experience separation anxiety as early as 6 months, and may continue as far as preschool. Although separation anxiety typically wains as a child grows older, it usually happens gradually. In the meantime, here’s how you can help your child.

Communicate
Even if your child is very small, explain to them where you are going and when you will be back. At this stage in development, they may be worried you won’t come back at all. When they understand that you are leaving for work and will be back afterwards, it may help ease some of their worries.
Although it may be hard for you to deal with the drama, leaving without saying goodbye can cause separation anxiety to get even worse. Do your best to let them know you are leaving and say goodbye each time.

Another helpful tip is to help settle the child into a favorite activity before leaving, so they have something positive to do when you depart.

Let Them Bring an Object
If they’re going to a new place, bringing a familiar object from home may help with the transition. This might be something like a favorite teddy or a comfort blanket. It’s also helpful to spend time with your child at any new location you are leaving them before leaving them in the new location.

Stay Calm
It’s easy to get worked up when you see your child is upset. Unfortunately, this can also make your child feel more upset. Try to keep a smile on your face when you leave, and keep yourself as calm as possible. Separation anxiety can cause quite a bit of drama, but if you can remain calm yourself your child will likely calm down sooner.

Separation Anxiety in Older Children
Separation anxiety is a normal part of development, but it can stray into a disorder. If your child is older and still experiences separation anxiety, it may be a sign that they have Separation Anxiety Disorder. Other signs include:
• Refusing to go to school
• Obsessing about harm coming to a family member
• Anxiety going on for more than 4 weeks
• Refusing to sleep alone
• Being excessively clingy even at home

If you notice any of these symptoms, you may want to bring them up with your child’s pediatrician. While it’s possible these may be situational rather than a disorder, your pediatrician will be the best one to help address the problem.

For young children, separation anxiety is a normal part of development. Your child will likely grow out of it as they get older, but in the mean time you can help grow their confidence with these tips. By remaining calm, letting them bring a comfort object from home, and letting them know when you are leaving and where you are going, you can help ease the transition.

After the rise of Covid, socialization largely fell by the wayside for many young children. Daycare centers closed, families seldom saw each other, and many parents worked from home to avoid putting their kids at risk.

While isolating during a pandemic is designed to help reduce the spread, it comes at a cost. Many young children have grown up without other young friends to help them socialize.

Why Socialization is Important
When young children are with others their age, they learn many valuable lessons they will carry with them throughout their entire lives. This includes things like taking turns, reading and understanding others’ emotions, and a development of their sense of self.
Although they may be able to learn these things later, it can be a shock to go to school and suddenly have to wait in line or not be first for everything.
Daycare provides the opportunity to understand other people and respond to their needs and wants.

Chatting It Up
Another benefit of being surrounded by other children is the immersion in language it provides. Kids love to talk. They talk a lot more than most adults care to listen to let alone responding in kind. When children are allowed to chat with each other, the number of words they hear in a day go up significantly.
Language immersion is an important part of language development. The more they hear, the more new words they experience. This can help them not only with vocabulary, but the elements of grammar as well.

Bonding with Others
The closest bonds most kids have are with family. While this will likely be the strongest bond they’ll ever have, becoming too dependent on family for connection can be a problem. Without other bonds, they may struggle when left without their family for school.

Preschool is a wonderful opportunity for young children to learn about friendship. They can become friends with other children their age, and also form bonds with teachers and other caretakers.

When they know there are other people outside their family they can depend on, it will help them become more confident when they finally leave for school.
Learning to work as a team

Play is the ‘work’ of childhood. While it’s possible to imagine whole worlds as a child, when two or more get together, that world can change with the imagination of other kids. Playing with others helps children understand to work as a team.

Whether that is deciding what happens to the dragon and the princess or building the world’s largest block tower, learning to work as a team is a useful skill. Children quickly learn that they can do bigger and better things when they work together.

Even if you work from home, sending your preschooler to a child care center, daycare, or preschool can help them develop valuable social skills that will benefit them their entire lives. Social skills are a critical part of how we live our lives, and are a necessary part of every age.

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, Nevada is falling behind in its targets for Early Childhood Education. In the 2018-2019 school year, 3,070 children were enrolled in preschool education—a modest increase over the year before.
Unfortunately, in the 2020-2021 school year there was 30% or greater decrease. This is likely in part due to Covid-19 and other related issues, but it is no less a serious problem. Other states, such as Washington and North Dakota, at the same time have managed to level off or even show a modest increase in rates of preschool enrollment.

Nevada also missed 3 out of a total of 10 checkpoints available in the report for quality. This makes them fall towards the middle of the states in terms of the quality of the average preschool. It’s important to remember that preschools vary in quality. It’s best to visit a preschool yourself to see that they are well staffed, have educated personnel, and run a warm and welcoming environment.

Why Early Childhood Education is important
Nevada currently has an initiative aimed at improving the education of 3–4-year-olds, as well as kids already in formal education. They also took steps to try and solve the lack of quality preschool education with a $50 million dollar investment into daycares and preschools.

This is because an investment into childhood education is an investment in the future of the state. At risk children who attend preschool are more likely to get the high school diploma than those who don’t.

It also helps give back to the community. $1 invested into early education can yield as much as $17 an hour more in the child’s adult earning life. The more children that enroll in education, the better their lives will be, and the more the community they live in will benefit as well.

Early childhood education benefits parents as well
Statistics show that children are not the only people in a family who benefit from preschool. Preschool also allows parents back into a work setting. Many parents are forced to put their careers on hold after having children, and preschool can help change that.
When both parents can work, it may also improve the child’s life indirectly, through more stable income. The added financial boost from two parents working can help add to food security, among other benefits.

How to find a great preschool
Nevada has many areas that are childcare deserts. It can be difficult to find a quality preschool that cares about the children and has childcare workers who have the credentials to help children grow. Great preschools will have a whole child approach to learning, and keep things play based as much as possible.

If you’re hoping to give your children the best opportunity possible for their future, preschool is the way to go. Ask for a tour of your local preschool and ask them what they do to help educate children. A high-quality preschool can make all the difference in their life—and yours too.

References:
https://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/YB2021_Full_Report.pdf

The first five years of a child’s life can make a difference on how well they do for the rest of their lives. It is a time of rapid brain development for children, and part of a huge jump in learning ability. Study after study has shown that children who take advantage of this time for learning, such as those enrolled in an early learning program, do better than those that don’t.

Children who have enrolled in early learning do better in high school and are more likely to earn a college degree. Early learning can also help them improve their math skills, socialize better, and become a more competent adult.

The benefits of early learning for children are enormous. Children who get a strong start in early childhood also:

• Score higher on intelligence tests
• Less likely to skip school
• Less likely to repeat grades
• More likely to attend higher education
• May earn more as an adult

Why early learning helps
Most of the educational benefits of early learning tend to fade out as your child grows older. Even if your child goes into kindergarten knowing their ABC’s before their peers do, that advantage is over by the time they reach first grade. With such a short term boost to learning, why do children tend to do so well throughout the rest of their lives?
The answer is that children learn so much besides academics in early learning. They learn how to socialize with other peers in an appropriate manner, how to access help from teachers, and that learning can be fun.

Working with others, getting the help you need, and recognizing that you need help at all are core benefits that will last a lifetime.
Getting a temporary boost in academics can also help by making the transition to grade school less stressful. When children already know what to expect and a little about the work, they can transition into school life a little better.

Benefiting the community
Early learning benefits children in nearly every aspect of their life but they’re not the only ones who benefit. The community these children grow up in also benefit from that child’s early learning too.

Children who attend early learning tend to be healthier than those that don’t, which can lead to less strain on the medical system. They also tend to reach higher education, which means more taxes going back into the community, and a better financial situation for that family.
In some cases, preschool can immediately help that child’s financial situation, by allowing a parent who was previously a caretaker to get a job during the hours the child is in school.

With so many benefits, there’s no reason your child shouldn’t attend a preschool. Early learning allows your child to expand their world and help them satisfy their growing brains and thirst for knowledge. A great early learning program can help provide your child with a great future, and benefit them for decades to come.

Enrolling your child in preschool can be a little scary. It may be the first time you’ve ever left your child on their own, or the first time they’ve done formal learning. Many parents wonder if preschool is just a glorified daycare, or if there are real benefits to signing their children up for classes.

The good news is, there is a lot of research on preschool children and how they perform in grade school compared to children who did not attend. The research overwhelmingly favors preschool children in terms of grades, as well as other life skills.

Encourages Curiosity
There’s a whole world out there for children to explore. Preschool can be an entry into that world. Whether your child is playing with blocks or learning about alligators, their world is expanding. A good preschool set up to share the world with their students can help develop a life long passion for learning.
Play based learning can take your child farther than strict learning or drilling on numbers because it makes them want to learn instead of dreading it.

Helps Build Trust in Adults
Preschool children learn early that other people besides their parents can be trusted. They learn to listen to other adults, and to trust them with their needs and problems. That ability to communicate well with other adults can make a big difference in their ability to get the most out of their education later in life.

Better lifetime benefits
Most of what your child learns in preschool will no longer give them an edge after second grade. Yet studies show the lifetime benefits of attending preschool are huge. Children who attend preschool are less likely to be arrested, more likely to attend and complete college, and often live healthier lives as well.

Preschool sets the stage for how children learn and gives them a solid foundation to build the rest of their lives on.

More exposure to reading
Reading is a powerful tool for your child, and being read to is the first step to learning. Children who are read to frequently do better in school than children who don’t. Children who are read to every night have heard up to a million more words than children who don’t regularly have reading time. This is a huge difference.

Other indirect benefits
Many parents also benefit from preschool too. In lower income homes, preschool can provide stability for the children. It can also provide adults the chance to attend college, take a full time job, or better their lives in other ways.

When adults have a chance to better their situation knowing their child is safe, it can change a child’s living situation for the better.

If you’ve been wondering about whether your child should attend preschool or not, the evidence is clear. Decades of research have shown that children from every background benefit from preschool. Those who attend preschool can generally expect better results not only in their grades, but through the rest of their adult life as well.

Interesting research:
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/duke_prekstudy_final_4-4-17_hires.pdf
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/03/524907739/pre-k-decades-worth-of-studies-one-strong-message

The first five years of a child’s life are critical for their development. These years don’t just mean learning to walk, run and play, but are also the period of time when a child’s brain is developing at it’s fastest.

By the time a child is 5, over 90% of their brain has already been developed. A newborn’s brain will have doubled in size by the time they are one years old, and the most critical part of development—connection of the brain via neurons—happens at a rate of about 700 connections a second during this period.

Brain development has a lifelong impact
Neural connections happen through interactions with the world around them. When ever you snuggle your child, read them a book, play, or share a new experience with your child, you are helping develop their brain.

What experiences your child has during this time will determine what neural pathways are developed and help shape who your child becomes in a big way.
Healthy development stems from positive interactions between the child and their caregivers. This isn’t just the parents, but also daycare, preschool, and other caretakers in the child’s life. Much of these interactions include, “Serve and Return,” interactions, where caregiver and child take turns responding to each other.

For a baby, this might be cooing at a parent and having the parent respond or playing games like peek-a-boo. As the child grows older, conversations, play, and other more complex forms of
interaction replace these first early responses.

Positive stress can also help a child develop. Positive stress comes in the form of things like meeting new people or participating in a new game. Although they might feel nervous at first, this stress helps them learn how to handle challenges later, such as studying for school.

Negative interactions
Just as positive interactions help build the brain, negative interactions can also shape the brain. If a child grows up in a neglectful or abusive household, it can build the child’s brain in a negative way. Children who grow up with negative connections can be more prone to health problems, suffer from addiction issues, and more.
Although it’s possible to help undo some of this damage later in life, much of it is permanent.

How to support healthy brain development
Although the human brain continues to develop well into a person’s 20s, the most critical period of development is from birth to 5 years of age. It’s important to help build positive interactions during this time, both at home and with caregivers.

• Play with your child
One of the best ways to help a child develop is to simply play with them. Join them on their play pretend adventure, roll a ball to them, ask what they are playing and what is happening in their imaginative story.

The more you can go back and forth with a child to find out what they are doing, the better off they will be.

• Read books
Books are a great way to foster positive interactions. A child can look at books and interact with flaps or sliders, while hearing your voice and asking questions can all help form important neural connections in the brain.

• Choose caregiving wisely

Although parental actions are most important, a good caregiver can help boost brain power when you are not available. Choose a daycare or preschool that interacts positively with your child, and will continue that important development while you are at work or otherwise busy.

Your child will continue to grow and develop all of their life, but the first five years are developmentally most important. Make them count with these tips.

Early childhood brain development has lifelong impact

A lot goes on in the development of young children before they reach school age. They learn how to move their bodies, how to talk, and also how to control themselves. Although social and emotional learning doesn’t get quite get the same attention as a child’s first word, it’s critical to their success in life.

Cooperation, learning to share, and communicating our needs are all things we will use every day throughout our whole lives. That learning begins very early. In school, children who have a good understanding of social and emotional learning (sometimes shortened to SEL) benefit greatly. A child with healthy emotional health often shows:

• A positive mood
• The ability to follow instructions
• Recognizing and labeling their own emotions
• Express needs and wants clearly

How children learn social and emotional skills
Preschool age children can develop SEL skills in a preschool setting, with the help of teachers experienced in guiding kids emotionally. With other children present, they learn how to share toys by taking turns, or to describe how they feel when their prize tower is knocked over.

A teacher who still treats them with warmth even when they’re having a bad day may help them in their ability to build better bonds with adults.
Learning they are respected and cared for at school can have a surprisingly long lasting impact on their emotional health as preschoolers transition to school life.

All these things come from a rich learning environment, with plenty of other kids and knowledgeable teachers to help them along the way.
The benefits of SEL skills

Kids who have been in an environment that values SEL skills and intentionally develops them benefit greatly from it. There have been hundreds of different studies conducted on various aspects of SEL skills in the classroom. These studies show:

• An 11% improvement in achievement tests
• 9% decrease in conduct problems
• 10% decrease in emotional distress at school

Since SEL skills aren’t part of a standard curriculum, its up to parents to seek out a school, or in a child’s younger years a preschool, that values SEL and develops it.

How teachers develop SEL skills
Teachers can have a big impact on how well a child learns these skills. This includes helping a child learn how to share toys with others, or helping them find the words to express their feelings, but they can also help in a variety of other ways.
There are a number of wonderful picture books out there teachers can read with students that can help open their world a little bit more. Books like, “When Sophie gets angry, really really angry,” help kids learn what to do to control their temper. “Can you be a friend?” Helps kids learn what friendship entails in a more concrete way.

A teacher may also help by building up the confidence of a child on an individual level. They may give the child appropriate positive physical contact, such as high-fives or pats on the shoulder. They may help teach the kid they are valued every day, even when it is not their best day.
When a child brings them a toy and chats about it, showing interest in it and describing the toy back to them in a different way helps boost vocabulary.

A formal SEL program has many benefits to a child, no matter what their age. Social and emotional skills are extremely valuable, and is one thing your child will benefit from their entire lives.

Preschool is a very fun place for children. There are lots of other kids to play with, lots of toys they don’t have at home, and lots of time to play, play, play. By the time you come to pick them up, children are also often tired from the day and not emotionally ready to deal with coming home.

As a parent it can be devastating to reunite with your child after a long day apart, only to have them burst into tears at the sight of you. It’s important to understand that although it may hurt your feelings, it’s completely normal.

Rest assured; your child is happy to see you. It’s simply that transitions are very difficult for children at this age and changing gears to go home can be a difficult one for them. If you’re struggling with a child who seems unhappy at pickup, here are a few tips to help calm the tears and make leaving Preschool a pleasant place again.

Let them finish what they’re doing

If you come to pick your child up and find them engrossed in an activity, give them a few minutes to finish what they are doing. Sometimes having the time to finish that block tower or color a picture is all they need to leave calmly.

If it’s not one they’ll be able to finish, warn them they have 5 minutes to get to a stopping point. Even if they can’t finish what they’re doing, knowing they have some time can help ease the transition between Preschool and home.

Offer choices

Giving your child choices (but not too many) can also help calm the storm. Instead of picking them up and simply taking them home, offer a few choices on what to do when they get home. If they know that they can choose between reading a book with you or 15 minutes of one-on-one playtime when they get home, it can give them something to look forward to.
When you get home, spend 30 minutes with your child playing and having fun. When your child knows that they are simply going to one fun activity to another, they may be more willing to leave without tears.

Make leaving fun

You can also help aid in the transition by making leaving fun. Can they jump like a kangaroo while going to the car? Do they know how to play red light, green light? Perhaps a game of it on the way out. If your child enjoys helping people, you might ask them to carry your bag for you or some other small tasks.

Your child loves you, but it may make you feel unloved when they burst into tears at the sight of you. Although hurtful, this is a very common issue that parents deal with in a young, tired child facing a transition.

These tips can help ease the transition so that your child is more willing to leave when it is time to say goodbye.

If you are not in the early childhood education field you may not be familiar with the difference between Preschool and Daycare but we are here to break it down for you. There is a definite disdain that overcomes a teacher or administrator who works in a preschool if someone refers to their program as a “daycare” and there is nothing wrong with that however you will get the explanation handed to you promptly as quickly as you said the word Daycare.

Let’s talk about the stigma around this field first before we dive into this topic. Let’s start with some facts that may or may not surprise you. Did you know that 90% of brain development happens BEFORE Kindergarten? Children’s brains are developing at a much faster rate during their first 6 years of life which allows them to learn things more quickly than adults. The most important fact is that Children are set up from birth to learn, absorb, grow and develop and the environment they are in directly impacts their brain development and ultimately who they will become later in life.

Parents have a lot of choices when looking into programs for their children. There are so many choices it can be overwhelming. A lot of research and time go into finding the right place for your family’s needs. This is where the difference between a daycare and preschool can be beneficial in the decision of where a child will attend. Daycares are typically focused around basic needs being met, and play. There may be a lot of free time, changes with staff and lack of communication throughout the day. A daycare may feel chaotic when you enter and even a little unkempt. This is not to say that daycares are good or bad, they just typically are less focused on the individual child and more on play and basic needs.

A Preschool should feel like a place where your child is getting a high quality learning experience. It will provide basic needs and care for children however the program will also have a curriculum, a daily schedule, a routine and structure for every child. Cleanliness and sanitation will be evident and daily communication with staff and families will be clear and consistent.

At Grateful Hearts Preschool we offer your child a high quality early childhood learning experience. Our program is intentional and cultivated to each child individually. We provide open communication with families daily and are dedicated to making sure your child’s educational experience sets them up for their future success.