Several years ago a mom and her daughter stopped in to visit a year after they had left the program. Her daughter was in Kindergarten. She asked us to pass along some very interesting advice to the newer parents of children in preschool. We’d like to share her thoughts on teaching children self-reliance.
While pointing to her child she said, “If I knew then what I know now, I would have done things totally different her last year here at preschool!”
She felt she had done her daughter a big injustice by doing everything for her at the end of the day. She recalled all the times she came in and collected all her child’s things, packed them up, and even carried them out. Of course many parents do this as a means to move things along and save time. She felt she should have taken the time to encourage her child to be responsible for her own stuff.
She went on to say that now that her child is in public school, she has forgotten everything from her coat to her lunchbox. Through her own frustration, she said, “You’ve got to tell parents not to do it all for their children the last year of preschool!”
Her thought was that if they could initially at least put their lunchbox in their backpack and gradually progress to do a little more, it will make them more self-sufficient. These words of wisdom have been passed along to other parents through the years. All agreed it was advice well taken and it made pick up time a lot easier. That guided self-reliance also lead to an easier transition to the public school years.
- Jackie & Jo-Jo
