When your child is 3, third grade seems like a distant prospect. It isn’t. What is happening in the preschool classroom in terms of habits, attitudes and emotional patterns will be evident 6 years later in a completely different classroom. This is not a pressure move, it’s just the way early development goes. At Pleasant Hill preschool programs, seeds are sown that either flourish or languish later. Soil is of utmost importance.
Secure attachment patterns that are established in preschool carry over to new teachers and new settings. They enter into an unfamiliar situation with a basic trust of adults. It’s a low estimate. It’s the difference between a child who seeks assistance when he or she is at a loss and a child who simply shuts down.
The years are the time when emotional vocabulary is either developed or not. Preschools that actively label emotions, such as by saying “You look frustrated. Is that what you are feeling?” provide children with a way to label their internal experiences that they might otherwise be expressing through their actions. Tantrums, aggression, withdrawal – these are not necessarily character issues. They’re vocabulary gaps. They are treated appropriately in the Good Pleasant Hill programs.
A father recounted his observation of the teacher of his preschool child as she dealt with a dispute between two four-year-olds over a paintbrush. Teacher did not solve it. She facilitated. Asked questions. Waited. Allow both kids to come up with a solution. He said, “I realized that she was teaching them something that I hadn’t thought of teaching at home.” This is the behind-the-scenes magic of high quality early childhood education.
At this age cognitive development is not distinct from social development. They’re deeply tangled. Children who feel emotionally secure are more adventurous and inquisitive, they try harder when the task is difficult. That entangled growth is either facilitated or dis-incentivized by preschool settings.
In any preschool with a good reputation physical activity should be respected. Movement does not get a reward between academic moments. It is a way that young children organize experiences, regulate their body and solidify their learning. Any program that considers outdoor time to be “optional” or “time to be cut” is missing the point in the developmental literature.