Preparing for Nursery and Pre-school
It is understandable that many parents are worried about getting their children ready for starting Nursery and Pre-school in September. Children learn and progress at different rates so there are no set criteria on what they need to be able to know, or do when they first start a childcare setting, but if they have had some experience of learning at home it could help to make it a smoother transition.
Turn taking games, imaginative play, reading, and developing fine and gross motor skills can promote independence, build confidence and help develop simple skills.
Developing fine motor skills with lego play
For some children, nursery will be the first time they have spent away from parents where they will have more independence and lots of opportunities to choose their own learning through play. This can be overwhelming at first, but there are lots of simple ways parents can support the transition from home. Here are our top tips:
Allow your child to choose their own outfits. If they choose something completely unsuitable, for example, a winter coat when it is hot outside, it provides an opportunity to talk about why the clothes might not be the most sensible choice.
Help them practise getting dressed and undressed independently – zips and buttons are particularly tricky for young children.
Encourage independent feeding using cutlery – children at this age are not expected to use a knife and fork to cut up food, but can use a spoon or fork to feed themselves. Do not worry if they are reluctant to feed themselves – providing opportunities to eat finger food or turn taking, you feed a bite then they feed themselves a bite, can help encourage them.
Model how to independently wash hands. This will be supervised and consistently modelled at nursery, but considering the current circumstances, now is a great time to start practising. To make it more interesting you could use a washable marker pen to draw dots to represent germs and wash thoroughly until they all come off.
Lots of activities in early years are focused around fine and gross motor skills which are important for cognitive development. Fine motor skills are movements that use small muscles in the hands, fingers, toes, and wrists. Gross motor skills are movements that use large muscles in the arms, legs, torso, and feet.
Making Shapes in Pre-school
We look forward to welcoming our new September intake of children at First Steps, in both of our pre-school rooms, as well as new babies and toddlers too! Wecome to the First Steps family 💕💕💕