What is Early Childhood Education

How Important is Early Childhood Education for Your Child

My father was the beneficiary of an excellent early childhood education. My grandfather would read to him just before bedtime, almost every night. Grandpa supplemented those nightly readings with other materials. In the process my father gained a love of learning that never left him.

My grandfather says it was because he never had the pleasure of having someone read to him when he was young. Another reason was where the family lived while my father was in preschool and early elementary school years.

Grandpa was a pilot during World War Two, in the Pacific. After the war he was able to go to university and eventually became a Doctor of Dental Surgery, DDS. He told me that the hardest part of his college education was keeping up with the reading.

As an officer in the US Army grandpa repaid the US government for his education with service time. The family lived in occupied Austria as part of the USAFA (United States Armed Forces Austria).

There was no television and really no English language radio to speak of. So at night my grandfather read to my father, simple children's books. In fact it was the beginning of my father's early childhood education. It was the beginning of my father's learning to love to learn. It was also one of the luckiest things that every happened to me, even though I was not yet even born.

Teaching children to Read

Because of the events described above my father grew up loving reading. He did very well in school and he made sure his children were exposed to the joys of reading. My sister and I had every opportunity to play video games and watch cartoon network. We also had the opportunity to enjoy reading. The lesson stuck with me.

My sister is bright but getting good grades and caring about school work was never something she enjoyed. She is in community college now but she realizes she could have done much better for herself had she learned to love reading when she was younger.

My father never had an early childhood education degree. Neither did he have any formal understanding of what a proper early childhood education curriculum should have been. By stroke of luck he put together the best early childhood education any child could have had at that time. He combined reading books by Dr. Seuss with coloring pictures he either bought or drew by hand himself.

You can do the same thing for your children. Perhaps it's better to say you must do the same thing for your children. Do not wait until they are in elementary school. Do not leave it up to someone who has many other children to teach in addition to your special child.

Giving your child an excellent early childhood education is simple. These days there are several excellent authors of children's books to help you out. The key is to start reading to your child. In addition to reading tie the reading matter to other fun activities, like coloring pictures.

Children love coloring and it won't take them more than a few seconds to tie together the pictures they are coloring in to the stories you are reading to them at night. Successful early childhood education is all about developing a passion in your child. A passion for something they find fun. An the bonus, the gold plated prize is that all the while they are learning.

Amazingly they are not just learning to read or developing good motor skills from coloring activity. Those too are fantastic things, but in addition, without even trying you are teaching your child to love learning. This is what successful early childhood education is all about.

All you need to do is use the Internet to find activities that tie into the reading you do at night. It's better if the author you choose has a series of books. Once you get your child engaged they will seek out the latest book from that author. Soon they will start reading with you. Eventually, and not so long after you start, your child will start trying and then succeeding at reading to you.

Once you reach that point let them continue to read, read, read. Supplement that with praise and activity sheets, coloring pictures, toys on birthdays and appropriate holidays. You will have developed an excellent early childhood education curriculum for your child. No teacher with a doctors degree in early childhood education could have done any better.

As the child gets old enough to use the Internet, you can teach them use of the computer and printer by working with them on the website of the author whose books you read at night.

How to Develop an Early Childhood Education Curriculum for Your Children

There is no magic to developing this early childhood education curriculum. All you have to do is tie the various activities to the theme of the books being read. For example, books by Dr Seuss.

There are 46 books, all containing the special Seuss characters. They are all written in what is called trisyllabic meter, which means the tempo of the reading. The most famous of the Seuss books are Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, One Fish Two Red Fish Blue Fish, Horton Hatches the Egg, Horton Hears a Who and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I have linked some of those titles to locations on the internet for coloring pictures and other Dr. Seuss related activities. That gives you your first supplementary activity material to complement the reading you will do with your child.

You can buy Seuss books at any good bookstore, or you may purchase them online from Amazon and other companies. There are also 11 television specials that have been produced about these books by Dr Seuss. Watch your television schedule and be sure to watch them with your child. There are even television series and if you are really lucky to live in the correct location there are Seuss Books Broadway and off Broadway musicals and plays, all about Dr. Seuss and his books.

So what is early childhood education? Do you still feel you need an early childhood education degree to give your child a gift that will help them succeed for the rest of their life? Teaching your child to love learning as you help teach them to read is the greatest gift you can give a child. I know this personally and in my heart because I was fortunate enough to receive this gift myself.