Don’t put off preschool!
When 2 and 3-year-old children resist separation or have anxiety about preschool, parents often consider putting off school for another year. But studies show that 1/3 of intellectual skills are developed by age 6! This makes the pre-kindergarten years an opportunity for you to make the most of your young child’s sponge-link brain and ensure he or she is exposed to as many different learning experiences as possible. Before you decide to leap into a formal program or delay the start of school, consider a third option: Gradual Separation.
Gradual Separation for Toddlers
Plenty of children with close bonds to their parents need to separate gradually. If your child does better in classes or activities with you nearby, an experience like FasTrack Tots toddler class could be the answer to separation anxiety. In addition to giving kids a fun and easy on-ramp to FasTracKids enrichment, Tots class also works as a gradual-separation approach to preschool. It gently introduces toddlers to social interaction, classroom structure, and time away from the usual caregivers.
Core Concepts & Skills for Preschool Age
FasTrack Tots is a one-hour-at-a-time “child and me” class where toddlers can move toward independent learning and build collaborative friendships. This first schooling experience for children (ages 20 months to 3 years) starts with some parent participation and helps your young learner to develop a strong foundation for preschool, formal school, and life. Learning through play (or, as we call it, “Learning Cleverly Disguised as Fun”) will ensure your child has the tools he/she needs to be successful in the classroom—both with other kids and with early educational material.
Gentle Separation at FasTracKids
FasTrack Tots provides a wonderful, gentle introduction to gradual separation, which is a guiding principle for all of our New York City preschool programs. So long as teachers and parents/caregivers share the goal of helping the child achieve independent learning, the parent/caregiver may stay with the child at FasTracKids for as long as necessary. As a parent, you’ll play a passive role in the learning environment and interact with your child as little as possible. This allows the teachers to engage your child in classroom activities and to begin to create a student-teacher bond. Even after you’ve left, if your child doesn’t want to participate on a given day, they may choose to watch. Both watching and participating are positive choices.
If you want to give your toddler a head start – without leaving him or her at school without you – contact your nearest center director for more information on Mommy and Me classes today. They’re conveniently available on weekday mornings and weekends at your nearest FasTracKids learning center.