Parental Involvement in Pre-School Education

From this month, my second daughter started to go to a pre-school.

What is a pre-school? It is a specific centre designed for early childhood education.

People use different names such as montessori, kindergarten, nursery to such institutions even there is a slight change of the teaching methods and approach with the students. Compared to my pre-school education days, I believe now there is much more scientifically based approach in child education respecting child’s natural development of physical, psychological and social needs.

Nowadays, most of the parents wait anxiously to put their kids to the pre-school from a small age.? From my experience as a parent, I feel that they wanted to breathe a sigh of relief by passing the pressure to a qualified teacher. But I do not think that we as parents can get away from our responsibility in children’s education. From potty training to eating vegetables, parents should be aware of the different growing stages of their children.

Hence, this month I would like to talk about parental involvement in pre-school education.

How can parents with many responsibilities find time to invest from their children’s pre-school education?

Here are few tips that I would like to share with you.

I think we as parents can extend teaching outside the walls of pre-school class room. We can create a positive learning experience for children without putting any pressure into their heads. Either you can visit places of interest such as museums, exhibitions, beaches, parks or plan educational trips. This is important as children use their inquisitive nature to explore the world.

Even you can invent and do educational activities with the child. Here you need to show your genuine interest in early learner’s work. I usually make book marks, cards and crafts with my children. Sometimes I do pair reading, acting, dancing as well. Recently I started to do a Japanese party game called Konpira with my elder daughter to increase her focus time.

Honestly, you need to maintain a positive working relationship with your child’s teacher via communication methods. Most schools provide connection with the teacher via certain apps such as Whatsapp, Telegram etc.? This is to be in tune with what is happening in the class room of pre-school and establish a connection with the learning environment at home. Communication refers active correspondence on receiving advices on how to support the child’s educational needs at home and inquiring about the support that teacher’s end need from parents.? Present teachers have some administrative duties apart from the workload in teaching. We as parents can also pitch into support the workload from teachers by being aware of the syllabus that they are teaching and teaching methods by following few guide books available in the market for pre-school children.

As an academic, I have witnessed that students with actively involved parents are more likely to have better social skills and improved behavior and adaptation skills in a challenging situations of life. It starts from pre-school where you should never loosen the grip in the involvement in your child’s education. In our culture, mothers play a big role most of the time in active involvement. But I feel that fathers also have a fair share in the education of their children.

When talking about parental involvement it is the positive involvement that is discussed here. Too much involvement also creates problems. Then children become too reliant on parents. Hence, there should be an equilibrium for parents, teachers and most importantly for children as students.

(This article originally appeared in Probe - September 2024)