Three Key Steps for Preparing to Transition to School

It can be daunting for your child to finish preschool and transition to school. However, parents and teachers can help to prepare for the shift to big school and let them feel secure and confident at the same time.

Keep Calm
First, make sure that you keep a calm and measured demeanor when talking about starting school. Children pick up on parent anxiety and stress which influence how they feel. If you talk about school like it is an exciting, your child will feel more excited and positive as well.

Be wary of putting too much pressure on your child to learn academic skills like reading, writing, or mathematics before they start school. If they have the basic underpinning skills such as recognising letter sounds or number quantities, this is great! Everything else will be learnt at school. Prematurely pushing them to learn can make them feel stressed. Before they begin school, their focus should be playing and improving social and emotional development. At Falcon British Nursery, children are encouraged to focus on play and emotional development, as this is the best way to prepare them for what is to come at school.

Be Practical
It can help your child to take practical steps towards starting school. Take them to visit the school that they will go to so that they can see what it is like. Show them the route that they will take to school each day and explain where they will play and what they will do in the day. Your child will also need supplies for school such as a new backpack, lunchbox and a pencil case. If you buy these things together it can help your child to get excited about starting. They will then feel like they have more control and input into the process.  Family ties are important. Talk to your child about what school is like and show them photographs from when you were at school. It can also help to talk about memories that you have of being at school so that they understand you have been through it too.

Collaborate with Teachers
The teachers at Falcon British Nursery are experienced at transitioning children into school and have done it many times before. They know what skills your child can work on before your child begins school and will role play what to do at the beginning of big school. Talking to your child’s teachers about your fears or concerns, as well as making a joint plan to best support your child can help the transition to go smoothly.

Building Confidence in 2-4 Year Olds

Why Confidence Matters
A young child that lacks confidence is nervous about trying new things and taking risks.  They are worried about experimenting with things that they do not understand. Risk-taking and exploration are important for building courage.  Risk taking and exploration help children understand that the effort of an attempt is worth more than what actually comes out of the attempt.  They learn that it is okay to fail and try again and that failure is merely a part of learning.  That is resilience and it is a skill your child will need for their whole life. 

Confidence and self-esteem allow your child to stand up for themselves or others when he / she believes something is wrong.  Confidence gives your child the strength to refuse a situation that makes him / her uncomfortable.  Having confidence helps broaden their experience and helps them develop a better understanding of how the world works.

Practical Steps for Building Confidence
These are the steps you can implement to build confidence in your 2-4 year old.

1. Be aware of over praising: When a child receives constant praise for the sake of praise, they can start looking for reward of praise in order to complete a task.  This means they will be doing the task merely for the reward of the praise rather than doing it for the love of trying.  Also, if a child knows they put in little effort and still receives great praise, they will start to question the validity of the praise. Instead parents should praise children for the effort they put in, or praise a child for attempting something, rather than the achievement itself. This will build confidence to try again the next time.

2. Allow children to take risks: Taking risks is vital for building confidence. When children are not exposed to risks or are prevented from trying things, they cannot gain the opportunity or build the confidence to learn what their limits are.  This has negative mental health repercussions.  Helicopter parents do not give a child a good grounding to be prepared for life. Children need to learn to navigate the world on their own so that they can make good choices.  This will give your child the confidence to take risks.

3. Let them make their own choices: If a child makes their own choices when they are little, they will have had a lot of practice making the right decision for themselves when they are older.  Your child will begin to know what they like and what they do not like. Making their own choices gives your child more control over their actions and this builds confidence.

4. Be careful of removing obstacles: If your child is struggling with something, it can be tempting to step in and help them solve the problem. If you feel they are capable of completing something, first let them attempt it. Ensure your child perseveres even if it is difficult.  When trying anything new for the first time, there is a period of time when your child will need to practice doing the activity.  Once they have mastered the activity on their own, they will be brimming with confidence to try something else.

At Falcon British Nursery, children are encouraged to develop independence, make choices, take healthy risks and this builds confidence every day.

Exercise for Young Children: How Active Should They Be?

Our children are often very active when they are young, with seemingly boundless energy. Children should have a certain amount of exercise each day, spent playing games and doing activities that teach them balance, coordination and general fitness.

What Are the Recommendations?

It’s commonly expected that children require the same amount of physical activity as adults, such as 30-60 minutes a few times a week. However, the NHS recommends your toddler or child under 5 should be engaged in as much as 3 hours of activity per day. This includes playing and moving around, running and jumping and more clearly active play such as climbing, chasing, swimming or paddling in water, riding bikes, or playing with a ball.

The CDC also recommends that children get around 3 hours of exercise each day, in particular including activities that support good bone health and bone growth, such as activities that involve jumping and hopping. Physical activity is a major issue for children in many countries and in the US studies have found that only 1 in 3 children are get enough physical activity each day.

Good Physical Activities in the Early Years

Activities for your preschool-aged child should include a wide range of movements, including things that stimulate balance and coordination, as well as aerobic fitness and strength. At Falcon British Nursery, physical activity is a priority and children are encouraged to move daily and play physical games to keep fit and healthy. For cruisers and early walkers, good games can include Simon Says, where children copy the actions of a teacher, or singing action songs such as Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.

As your child reaches age two or three, they can begin to play in larger spaces and outdoor areas and should be encouraged to run around and improve balance, such as by playing games like football, catching and throwing, climbing trees, or playing on playground structures. Play spaces that include swings and bars can help children to improve their balance and develop their inner ear, by engaging in activities such as swinging or hanging upside-down.

Exercise is a large part of the Falcon British Nursery curriculum and you can have confidence that your children will meet their activity requirements each day while with the nursery staff. 

10 Activities to Support Creativity in a Young Child

Your child’s imagination is endless. The way your child’s imagination grows depends a lot on their age and general stage of development, as well as their day-to-day environment and the attitudes of their teachers.

One of the most interesting developments at the preschool age, around age 3 or 4, is that children enter Piaget’s preoperational period, a period of creative thinking that is marked by a greater understanding of representational thinking. For instance, children are able to see that symbols, drawings and items can represent something else: for example, they begin to understand that the word “horse” or an image of a horse represents a horse in real life. This is the beginning of a phase in which your child begins to create items or images with the intention of representing the things in their life that they see or think about.

Top 10 Activities for Young Children

1.    Use natural spaces. Outdoor spaces such as grass areas in parks, beaches, wetlands and specialty gardens allow your child to learn to be creative with their play using natural materials, including sticks, rocks, plants, water, or natural surfaces to draw on or interact with.

2.    Drawing outdoors. Taking children outside to draw with chalk or watercolour paints on footpaths or rocks can help to stimulate creativity.

3.    Working with art materials. This is a good way to introduce your child to creative activities and a variety of art materials and canvases helps your child to understand artistic nuances and increase vocabulary.

4.    Finger painting. This is a creative and sensory experience in one. Children can explore the physical and sensory experience of painting with their hands, while increasing their understanding of creative representation and colour.

5.    Glue and glitter. Glue and glitter helps a child increase their fine motor control, as well as experimenting with creative ideas of collage. We recommend purchasing bio glitter that will degrade and will not harm the environment.

6.    Baking. Baking, especially decorating cake or cookies, is a creative way for your child to participate in daily life. They can then give this baking to friends or family and take pride in their skills.

7.    Building with Lego or Duplo. This can help your child to increase their spatial awareness and to be creative with building ideas and transport roleplay (such as building train tracks or lego cars).

8.    Making a theatre play. Your children can build the set, puppets, costumes and think about what the play should be like. This is a holistic experience that covers a lot of creative bases.

9.    Facepaint. Facepaint is an excellent foray into roleplay for children, as well as helping them to be creative with their ideas and skills. They can direct adults as to what they want, or paint their faces themselves.

10.  Dress-Ups. Dress-ups are another good creative activity for preschool-aged children, even creating costumes themselves out of found materials or adult clothing. Children aged 3 and 4 will enjoy dressing up as other characters and will use their costumes as imaginative tools.

Your child can grow their creativity in any number of ways and once they reach the preschool-age of being able to represent objects and ideas creatively, their whole world opens up. At Falcon British Nursery your child will always be encouraged to play creatively and will be exposed to the above ideas each and every day. 

How to Help Your Nursery Aged Child Manage Emotions

During the first few years of a child’s life, they learn so much about the world around them. There are new experiences and journeys to be had every day. Adventures and experiences will mean facing emotions that can lead to outbursts that seem unexpected.

When a situation feels overwhelming to your child, it can escalate quickly into a full-blown tantrum. Helping your child understand what they are experiencing is the best way to help them begin to regulate their emotions. There are many hurdles faced by a child, whether sharing toys at  preschool or not being able to have ice-cream for breakfast in the morning, the way you handle the emotional outburst will leave them feeling validated or diminished.

Preschool Abu Dhabi - Falcon British Nursery

Recognising different emotions

As a parent, you learn to recognise your child’s signs and cues. You can recognise when they become angry, when they are happy and when they might be feeling down. When you pick up on these emotions, talk to your child about them. Even if it is casually, ask them how they are feeling. Are they feeling happy when they are smiling and having fun? Are they feeling sad when they are crying? Are they feeling envious when their friend has a toy they want?

Helping them give their emotions a name and helping them understand that these emotions are felt by everyone at some point will help them realise they are completely normal. They need to learn that feelings are perfectly okay to experience. 

Exploring how to express emotions

Understanding different emotions is the first step. Learning how to effectively express emotions in a socially appropriate way is another. There are certain outbursts that they need to learn are not appropriate – tantrums and violence for example can be an expression of frustration or irritation. All children act differently. Your child needs to learn an appropriate way of expressing their needs. Can they have their needs met by a physical hugs or singing? Can they use different words to get what they need instead of acting out?

A great way of helping them understand emotions is to get them to look outside themselves as well. If they have a sibling, ask how they think their sibling felt after a toy was taken from him/her and what emotion their sibling would be feeling. Not only will this help them identify and predict emotions in others, but it helps them understand that other people do experience the same emotions as well and they need to be careful about how they treat them.

Always react positively

It can be really tough to keep a calm and happy demeanour during a tantrum, but becoming angry yourself is not demonstrating how to deal with emotions. The best thing you can do for your child is to remain calm. You need to be able to approach the situation with a level head and they need see an example of how to act.

Talk them through their emotions from the start until when they have calmed down and help them identify what has caused them to feel that way. Getting down on their level and using short sentences and simple words will be the best way to get through to them the tantrum. As the leading preschool in Abu Dhabi, Falcon British Nursery provides the optimum learning experience focusing on your child’s brain development and emotions.

How to Teach Your Child to Be Caring from a Young Age

In the beginning, children innocently think that everything is about them. They are fussed over at home, are looked after at nursery school and parents let them know how they are their whole world. It can be difficult for them to understand the concept of caring and being kind to others. This is known as mindfulness.  

As a parent you aim to help your child become a good, decent person who cares, is considerate, humble and compassionate. It is never too early to start teaching your child to be caring. In fact, the earlier you start, the easier it will be. It starts to become instilled in their personality, and it is a part of them that will grow as they do.

Caring Pre-schoolers

Pre-schoolers are notorious for thinking only of themselves. It is difficult for them to see outside of their own self and consider that others might be affected by their actions. However, there are ways and practices to teach them to care and to be considerate, even from such a young age. Try these tips to help your child become a mindful human being.

• Lead the way 

A compassionate and caring parent will lead the way for a compassionate and caring child. If you practice compassion and tell them what passion is, label it for them to and in front of them, they will see this as normal behavior. You need to remember that you are role model number one, and what you do, they see as the right way to do something. 

Nursery School - Falcon British Nursery

• Be kind to everyone

There should be no criteria for who you are kind to. When you drop them off at nursery school, help your child to say hello to the other children. Help them greet the staff and the cleaners.  If something falls, ask your child to help pick it up and give it to the person who dropped it.  Doing these random acts of kindness will show your child every single person deserves kindness and caring. Practicing empathy, to the waiter, bus driver and the doctor, anyone that crosses your path, really shows your child that being kind has no agenda, it is to help others.  Practicing empathy whether to the waiter, bus driver or doctor and anyone that crosses their path really shows your child that being kind has no agenda, it is to help others.

• Teach manners 

From day one, remind your child to use good manners. Please and thank you teaches them that every person is worthy of respect and this respect leads to caring. It teaches them about social norms and fitting into society. Teach them that different cultures have different manners. 

• Understand feelings

Ask your child situation-appropriate questions throughout the day. If they don’t want to share with another child, ask them how they think the other child feels.  If one of their friends at nursery runs up to them with a big hug hello, ask them if that made them feel good. By recognising that caring acts of kindness make others feel good, it will encourage them to be compassionate to others.

• Give back

Sometimes seeing is believing. Taking them to do a beach clean up or volunteer at an event with your whole family might give them the visual stimulus they need to understand that there are those out there who have much less than they do or that it is important to care for something bigger than oneself. They will be able to start to understand that we all have a responsibility to help others. This is a priceless learning opportunity for them.

• Starting young

Your young child will amaze you. When leading in the right direction, they can be the most incredibly caring and compassionate people around. They have so much love to give, and it is up to parents to show them that through caring and kindness they can be mindful humans.

Tiny Tearaways And Tiddly Tantrums – 10 Tips To Calm Your Day

Tantrums can be a normal part of child development.  They may be difficult to handle, but can be a sign that your child is developing their own sense of self.  Here are ten tips to minimize tantrums and help your child gain self-control and emotional intelligence.

Nursery School - Falcon British Nursery

1.  Give expectations

Your child needs to know what is expected of them.   Before an activity, tell or show your child what behaviour you expect.  They will then know what is acceptable and what is not.

2. Reward good behaviour

Although there is a lot of discussion about rewarding good behaviour with physical rewards versus children innately wanting to do the right thing, many parents swear by the use of sticker or reward charts to support good behaviour development.  Young children can understand what it means to work towards a reward.  Rewards can be anything from time spent with you and letting them choose the activity you do as a family.

3. Give your child choices between what is acceptable to you

To create a leader, your child has to learn to make choices.  If your child has to get dressed or if they are going to eat from a plate, let them choose what they want.   This gives them a sense of power and keeps tantrums at bay.  They are getting dressed and eating, but they have the choice that will improve self-esteem and empower them. 

4.  Let your child lead

Let your child lead or choose an activity you will do as family.  The opportunity to take lead will give them a sense of power, and will often cut down the chance of a tantrum.

5.  Get your child to show you

Children with early or limited communication skill and vocabulary may need to demonstrate their needs by touching, picking up or taking you to what they want.  To stop a tantrum escalating, let your child demonstrate what they need to help them feel understood.    

6.  Check Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Children who are thirsty, tired or hungry may not be able to listen to reason until their basic needs are taken care of.  Once these basic needs have been met you child will be more likely to be distracted or listen to reason.

7.  Distract

Out of sight and out of mind.  Try to get your child to focus on something other than what they may have a tantrum about.  Have a comforter, activities or toys to hand to give to your child during potential uprisings.  Try sound.  Use instruments like a triangle, tambourine or a kazoo to get your child to focus on something else.  Use the environment.  Show them birds, planes or trains.  Get their mind off the issue at hand.

8. Be as cool as a cucumber

Tantrums can be loud.  It is the parent’s job to deescalate the situation. Matching their shouting with your shouting will merely intensify the level of sound to jet engine levels.  Reduce your voice pitch, tone or alter your voice. Your unusual behaviour may distract your child long enough for the tantrum to abate by itself.  

9. Ignore the tantrum.  

Rewarding a tantrum with attention may be just what your toddler is looking for.  It may be time to reward good behaviour and ignore the tantrum.  First, check that your child is not harming themselves. Explain what you need from them and do not make eye contact or give attention to the to the tantrum.  When they have calmed down from a tantrum, get down to their level and let them know there are alternative ways to deal with the issue.

10. Offer love

Asking your child if they want a hug during or near the end of a tantrum can be the stimulus for a child to finish their tantrum and regain control. After a tantrum, let them know you love them no matter what they did.  Let them know that you do not love the behaviour, but you still love them.

An easy way to help your child settle into a routine and to socialise is to enrol them in nursery school.  Allowing your child social interaction during the tantrum stage will give them an opportunity to tackle everyday situations – big and small.  Falcon British Nursery can help your child develop effective ways to communicate in a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment in a home away from home.