Prepare Your Toddlers for School: Teach Them the Basics at Home

Children are going to school earlier and earlier these days. While it was once very common for kids to leave the nest at age 6 or 7, tots as young as 3 are off to school now! So, how do you make sure your little ones will be able to keep up if you wait to send them when they're 5 or 6?

The trick is to teach your toddler a few basics before he or she heads off to school. Even very little children can benefit from learning to sit and pay attention, although perhaps for a very short amount of time. You can help your child get ready for school by helping her understand the concepts that are going to be taught in preschool.

Try having a child-sized table or desk for your child and set up a time each morning for the two of you to sit and work on crafts and coloring. These should be nice quiet activities that require a degree of concentration. Don't expect your toddler to be able to sit for more than a few minutes at first, but as time goes on, she should be able to stay still long enough to color a whole page in a coloring book or to complete a simple craft.

Colors, shapes and letter recognition can be started at this young age as well. There's no need to force learning on your child, but some fun games during your "school" period is perfect. Make your own cards out of construction paper and ask your toddler to help you find the matching ones. Name the colors as you hold up the cards. "Can you help me find the other BLUE card? See, this is blue, where's the other blue card?"

Letters can be learned by playing with magnetic letters on a cookie sheet or by coloring and gluing beans to a printout of the letter. This works for numbers as well. You just need to make sure that you repeat the name of the letter several times as you work on the craft with your child. "This A is a big one. Are you going to put glitter on the A?" etc.

School time doesn't need to be long. If your child is very young, between 1-2 years, 15 minutes should be plenty. Work up to 30 slowly and by the age of three, your child should be able to sit quietly for at least half an hour, if not a little longer.

School time is an important way for children to learn the concentration skills needed later on in real school. By setting up a short period during your day to keep your kids busy with learning while staying in one place, you are giving them a head start.