First-time parents may find themselves worrying about whether their child is achieving their formative goals. It can be somewhat distressing if your child isn’t performing as expected within their age group. So, what can one expect when you are being a parent for the first time?
Though we genuinely comprehend the anxiety of first–time parents, experienced parents would have completely changed their perspective on the growth of their children. Don’t be afraid if your child is lacking in any area or facing difficulties with activities. Sometimes, your child will not be able to perform as well as other children of a similar age, but it’s not always a sign that something is wrong.
Every child is a special and amazing being, and they will grow and develop at their own pace. Hence, do use this list only as a guide. Here are 15 skills that you can practice with your child to build up their morale before attending preschool. We have also added in some exercises that can help develop skills physically, socially, and emotionally.
Your child can begin exercising these skills between the age of two to four.
Do not worry as these are fundamentals that do not need a high level of skills. You can do them at home without any resources. After exercising them, your child would be more poised regarding his or her new school. These enjoyable exercises should be done with your child(ren) in a relaxing and stress–free atmosphere. Should your child be struggling with any one of these exercises, do tell them that it does not matter and that he or she can choose another activity that they are keener on. The orchid country club preschool can also help your child practice and learn the motor and social skills they need.
Practicing how to use the scissors
1. Understand how to handle and position the scissors accurately
Before cutting anything with the scissors, it is important for your child to learn how to grasp the scissors the right way. You can ask questions such as “Where should your thumb be?” and “Is your thumb above the other fingers?” On their first time using the scissors, they will be prone to turn their wrist around. You can do these three times consecutively to ensure they have mastered how to handle a scissor.
2. Practice cutting with some materials
Kids love to learn how to cut with play dough, straws, or papers. They are able to see their results on the spot.
3. Hone your skills by trying to cut a straight line!
Although this is the final destination, do not force your child to finish this final exercise if he or she is unable to do so. Simply return to exercises 1 and 2 to have more fun. Holding the scissors in one hand and shifting the paper with the other hand is considered a complex skill your child can master.
Colouring, writing and other visual skills
4. Recognize elementary colors, shapes, and alphabets
Read more storybooks with your child so that they can get used to seeing a greater variety of colors, shapes, and words. You can also pronounce some of the alphabet’s sounds to your kid while reading.
5. Practice coloring!
You can begin by letting them “fill” mini shapes, such as stars, circles, and rectangles. After this, you can let them try coloring bigger shapes and other objects. Take note to use images with one whole object without any background as it could be confusing for them.
6. Copy straight lines from left to right, and up to down!
You can help your child draw a straight line and add some fun by saying ‘zoom’ as you do it. Making it fun can help your kid learn faster.
7. Draw simple shapes such as circles, crosses, and squares
When they have conquered lines, you can move on to simple shapes such as circles. You can ask them to practice circular movements first. Then, try drawing proper circles with a fixed destination. The second object you can try is a cross. It might be tough for some children as it needs both lines to intersect in the middle. After your child has accomplished both, you can get your child to attempt a square.
8. Link multiple dots together
For the first, get them to join two dots together with a line in between. If that poses no challenge to your child, you can try a line of more dots or get them to draw an image with dots. This aids in their visual tracking before they can try reading and enhances their motor planning skills.
9. Trace straight and squiggly lines
To keep this exercise simple, you can just let your kid trace after the lines that you have drawn. This helps to keep their visual attention and tracking skills.
10. Work on simpler letters such as E, L, F, T, H and I
One important thing to take note of – begin with capital letters before trying lower case letters. The majority of the alphabets, even in the upper case, can prove to be too ambitious for your child who has not attended preschool. Drawing letters with curves or diagonal lines are the toughest, so you can teach them alphabets that only contain straight lines.
11. Write your own name now!
There are many variants to this exercise. They can try to recognize the alphabets of their name and vocalize the individual alphabet. They can also try copying the alphabets in upper case. Do not pressure them into writing more than what they are capable of at any point in time during this exercise. You can consider multisensory ways instead of only using the typical ink and paper. Some examples are to copy their name in sandboxes and using play dough to make the shape of the alphabets.
Hand holding techniques
12. Grasp your crayon/marker the right way
You should know that a tripod grasp is usually developed around the age of four years old. However, it is perfectly fine if they use other ways to grasp items. You can try the “point, pick, and flip” technique to get them to learn a legitimate hold. You can get them to aim the writing pen at their faces and use their thumb and index finger to hold up the pen at the tip. Finally, flick the back tip of the pen into their hands. This will constitute a tripod hold.
13. Doodling on an even platform on the floor
By putting the platform on the floor, the posture will aid in forming their balance of the shoulder, arm, and wrist.
14. Pin time!
Clothespins can help to build up their strength of the three fingers involved in the tripod grasp and also the muscle between the thumb and index which helps to form a comfortable hand arch. Get your child to hook the clothespin to anything such as paper, clothes, or a string.
15. Tong activities
Grab any tongs you have at home and let your child use them to lift up anything. Some easy–to–find items you can get at home to let them lift up include toy cars, markers, ice cubes, and crayons. Gather all these items into a heap and prepare some bowls or containers for them to drop the items into. This can help enhance so many groups of muscles in their upper limbs.
Every child is different and will develop at different paces. With experience, you’ll be able to figure out when your child needs extra help and when they’re developing at a normal pace. In the meantime, try out these activities with your child before they attend preschool.