Re: How children learn?

From: Debbie Moore
Email: dlaarveld@yahoo.com
Date: February 14, 2006

Comments

I think that often times are biggest challenge is in educating the parents as to how important these social skills are. When we talk to the parents at our center about how "children learn through play" many do not buy into it. When we introduced our "Ready for School" program and tried to demonstrate how we are getting children ready for school in all areas, the focus they often have is on Math, Science, Reading, Writing etc not on social skills or emotional development. I think that if we can continue to focus our efforts on better explaining that children can indeed learn these academic skills and social skills via play, that it could make our teachers jobs much easier. I think that also it could help parents to see that it is not just babysitting in Early Childhood settings, that we truly have hired professionals that are teaching and guiding the children to learn what they need to prepare for the primary grades and future succes in life.