The First Day of School: The Beginning of a Learning Adventure

My, how time flies! Hard to believe that it is time to send your little one off to school.

As parents, we know that preschool is the beginning of a lifelong learning adventure, but what does it mean to children? How do they make sense of it all? For many children, preschool is digested in very small bites. When asked how was school today? Your child might simply respond: "We played with dinosaurs" or "Little Jimmy cried when he fell down." Despite your best prodding, preschoolers are not usually capable of giving you the play-by-play of what happened during their day, but that does not mean they were not inundated with new concepts. Here are two of the things that your child will begin to learn, starting on that very first day.

First, a whole new set of rules and procedures mandated by new grown-ups, their teachers. Most parents have some rules at home and strive mightily to convince their children to abide by them. How many times, for example, have you advised your kids to wash their hands before eating? Well, to manage a group of preschoolers, teachers certainly need to employ a set of rules. Just getting the kids from the classroom to the playground can involve many new processes: stand in line, hold hands, wait until the teacher counts all of the children to make sure that everyone is accounted for before you run off to the swings and slides. At school, children have to learn to appreciate their teachers' role and how to execute all of these procedures and then how to balance the new rules with what you teach at home. Don't be surprised if your daughter challenges you by saying, "But teacher Delia taught us a different way to do X, Y,or Z." School forces children to learn how to integrate different ideas about doing things. Becoming familiar with a whole new set of procedures takes time and patience, and some kids do it faster than others. Over time, all kids usually come to understand the rhythm of the classroom and how to synch it with the rhythm at home.

Second, adapting to transitions throughout the day. By now, you may have heard parents and teachers discussing circle time. It seems so simple. What is the big deal? Well, lots of important learning happens at circle time. Children must first understand and accept that they have to stop whatever they are doing, even if it is playing with a favorite toy, and join their classmates for a group activity. As you probably know well, pulling your child away from a favorite activity is no easy task. Second, preschoolers often still engage primarily in parallel play. But circle time encourages direct interaction and provides opportunities for children to learn from each other, an important advancement in social skills.

There are so many more new skills for your child to learn and master at school. How best to help your children manage all of these new concepts? Here at Savvy, we have compiled some of some of our favorite books to help your kids begin to find their way....

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