Just the other day my neighbor was complaining that our daughters’ preschool didn’t focus enough on academics and she didn’t think her daughter was well-prepared for kindergarten. She then went on to state that she wanted more academics because she and her husband just don’t spend the time sitting down with their daughter to go over “the basics”, so she feels like she’s missing out and will be behind the rest of the class.
I don’t think my neighbor noticed my bug-eyed reaction to her comments because she still smiles and speaks to me but I left the school that day sad for her daughter because it seemed like her parents were missing the point of being in preschool. Granted, everybody has a different opinion about how children learn best, but it was made very clear that this particular pre-K purposely focuses on “learning through play” to help improve the children’s social skills as well as gross and fine motor skills. But my daughter is also learning the “academics”…she can spell her first and last names, she can count to 20, and she knows the alphabet. If memory serves, she’s at exactly the same place my older daughter was at 5 years ago when she was about to enter kindergarten.
Children are like sponges and just soak up everything that they hear and it’s sad to think that some parents either don’t have the time or don’t have the desire to just sit and play with their children. The kids will be in school learning academics for a minimum of 13 years so let them play in preschool.
