It takes confidence to be a child. From making new friends to playing new sport games, there are many unfamiliar territories for children to explore. In order to take on all these challenges, it is important that children feel good about themselves and, over time, learn to trust in their own abilities. The best way to help children feel good about themselves, and ultimately to build their confidence, is by recognizing their achievements.

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Try the following general advice to improve your child’s confidence.

1. Recognize effort regardless of if it’s successful or unsuccessful

The psychologist Carl Pickhardt recommends appreciating a child’s efforts. So whether your child steals the ball successfully from the opponent in the basketball game or not, applaud their effort. Children should never be embarrassed of trying regardless of the outcome, otherwise they will become scared of failing or disappointing others.

2.   Motivate children to practice to develop their skills further

Whether your child is interested in playing the piano or scoring goals, encourage them to practice. Practice is, essentially, investing effort into the positive expectation that improvement will follow at some point in the future, the psychologist explains. However, it is important that parents do not start to put too much pressure on their children in order to keep expectations in line.

3.   Let children learn by solving problems themselves

It is better to encourage and support children as they attempt to tackle a difficult task and let them try to solve the problem on their own rather than figuring out the solution for them. As Pickhardt explains, when parents help children solve a question, it can impede self-confidence. It will be difficult for a child to develop problem-solving skills and build up the confidence to believe in their own ability when their parents do the work for them.

4.   Encourage children to ask questions

It can get tiring when children ask endless streams of questions, but children should be able to ask as many questions as they have, as this helps them develop knowledge and take in new information. The British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ reported that children who ask curious questions have an advantage over their classmates, because they can learn better and faster by taking in the teacher’s information.

5.   Increase children’s responsibilities by giving them new challenges

Build up a child’s confidence by showing them that they can accomplish goals in their life and that every small goal can build up to a bigger one. For instance, when a child is ready, parents can teach them to ride a bike without training wheels. A child’s confidence will rise automatically knowing that they met an increased responsibility and will try to engage with new challenges more easily.

6.   Do not criticize them

It is absolutely fine to give useful feedback or making suggestions, but never criticize them. Children will be discouraged to try new things or be confident about something when their parents criticize them.

7.   Encourage them to learn from mistakes

Treat mistakes as an opportunity to recover and learn from for the future. As Pickhard explains, learning from mistakes will build confidence and shows children that they do not have to fear failure. When children are able to make mistakes, they can learn how to better approach a situation the next time, by using advice from their parents and understanding what went wrong.

8.   Expose children to new experiences

Opening the door for new experiences teaches children that no matter how different or new a situation is, and how unprepared they might be, they can conquer it and learn something new that may help them in the future.

9.   Be a good role model

Set good examples for your kids and share your knowledge with them, by teaching them what you know about how to think, speak and act. Children will be more confident in their own abilities when they watch their parents succeed. This also includes the willingness to learn. When children see that their parents are excited about them learning, they will be too.

10.    Teach them to live with setbacks

Life is a challenge and every child will have to learn to live with disappointment at some point. It is important for parents to teach their kids that setbacks are a major part of every road to success and that these experiences will increase resilience.

11.  Praise courage to take on challenges

It’s important to applaud children when they take the initiative to try something new. Whether they want to go on their first roller coaster ride or learn a new language, comfort is always helpful to conquer a new challenge.

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Source: www.thenaturalhomeschool.com

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What thoughts spring to your mind at the mention of the word “childhood”? Most people likely conjure memories from their elementary school days – lemonade stands, swimming at the community pool, and playground dates. Perhaps the memories aren’t quite as fond, and the mention of the term “childhood” brings back moments that are best left in the past. For better or worse, the idea of childhood more often than not invokes memories of our earliest days.

We frequently forget the significance of childhood in shaping the course of our lives – the lessons we learn, the habits we pick up, etc. The childhood years are our formative years, the time in which we lay the foundation for all that is to follow.

One of the major factors in building this foundation is our interactions with the significant adults in our lives. Whether it’s a parent or coach, a teacher or religious leader, or some other community member entirely, many people can identify at least one adult that has played an important role in helping them to grow and succeed. These mentors provide knowledge and support, guiding us and instilling in us the wisdom that they have gained over the course of their lives.

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It’s no coincidence that most successful individuals are able to point to at least one significant adult from their childhood. This is because regardless of environmental and biological factors, having a stable and dependable relationship with an adult is the single most important factor in the nurturing of successful children. Understanding the impact of these types of relationships, as well as the other scientific data surrounding the concept of resilience, will allow us to improve the way we care for our kids and help them fulfill their maximum potential.

What is Resilience?

But what is resilience? Essentially, resilience is the quality that enables us to adapt to and overcome adverse conditions in our lives. Though it is built up over time, the development of resilience begins during the formative years. It is this time that has the greatest effect on an individual’s resilience as an adult, though it can and does continue to change as we get older.

Though an unfortunately large number of children experience significant adversity ranging from domestic violence to poverty to parents suffering from mental illness, a portion of them experience fewer lasting harmful effects than others. This ability to excel despite early trauma is the result of resilience, and understanding why some are more affected by others will allow us to help a larger number of children succeed.

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Resilience can be pictured as a seesaw or scale, with negative outcomes on one side and positive outcomes on the other. The fulcrum’s position is determined by genetic and biological factors, and this predisposes individuals towards either positive or negative outcomes. However, the fulcrum can be moved. Life experiences both help to tip the scale in one direction or another – positive, affirming incidents lead to positive outcomes, and vice versa – and move the fulcrum. Essentially, the accumulation of life experiences can actually shift a child’s mental and physical disposition, making him or her more inclined towards a certain outcome.

The Most Important Factors in Buliding Resilience

While the most important factor in building resilience is the existence of a safe and reliable relationship with adults, other factors are also at play. Safe communities, skilled caregivers, and nutritious food are all examples of outside issues that play an important role in creating a healthy environment for kids. Additionally, because resilience is about the interaction of environmental, biological, and genetic factors, some children are naturally and inherently more able to cope with hardship than some of their peers.

Resilience can be seen in how the body responds to experiences throughout development, with specific biological factors, including variations in gene sequencing and expression, as well as mechanisms in the brain, playing a major role. Some genes result in protein production in the brain that can exaggerate or mitigate the effects of adversity, and some genes are more sensitive to environmental influences that can affect how people respond to stressful situations. Similarly, differences in how brain chemicals activate and how the brain’s fear and reward systems operate can change how individuals deal with those around them and build traits that allow them to increase capacity for coping.

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Despite the influence of genes and biology, however, there is no “resilience gene”, and overcoming adverse situations is not merely about an individual’s motivation to succeed. The single most important factor is still positive relationships with surrounding adults, as these adults provide the response and protection that can mitigate disruptions to healthy development and help children to build the skills they need to do well, such as the ability to focus, solve problems, and adjust to new and unexpected circumstances. Such capabilities help to move the metaphorical fulcrum, making it easier for positive outcomes to occur.

Understanding the science behind resilience will allow us to reach out to the children that most need our help and increase the amount of individuals who are able to meet their full potential. This in turn will decrease the amount of violence and crime in our society, as a large portion of incarcerated individuals grew up amidst overwhelming challenges. We must change policy to fit the science and needs of our underprivileged – those like social welfare policies that remove children from toxic environments rather than working to restore relationships, and character education programs that don’t fit the circumstances – in order to improve the quality of individual lives and society.

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Many studies have provided evidence that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have been linked to poor physical outcomes. However, there is very little research investigating the relationship between how adverse childhood experiences affect the development and behavior of a child. From a biological perspective, we know that the first five years after birth are marked by a rapid pace of child development and brain growth making this a critical time period of opportunity and vulnerability. So we may easily infer that adverse experiences would have a negative effect – but by how much of an effect? More specifically, how much would experiences such as – physical, sexual and psychological abuse and neglect, as well as household abuse, mental illness, violence and incarceration – negatively impact the behavior and academic success of a child?

Adverse Childhood Experiences Study

Pediatrician Manuel E. Jimenez of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and his colleagues recognize the importance of how a good living environment establishes the foundation for a child to succeed. Hence, they wished to implement a study that would correlate adverse experiences in early childhood with poor academic, literacy and behavioral outcomes in kindergarten. They decided to evaluate the results at the age of kindergarten as it had already been shown that academic skills and behavior at that time point are strong predictors of educational trajectory.

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What Jimenez and his team conducted is a secondary analysis of data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). The FFCWS birth cohort consists of nearly 5000 children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 large US cities. Children in the FFCWS study were mostly born in unmarried parents. The data set includes postpartum interviews with the parents and follow-up interviews at ages 1, 3, 5 and 9 years after the child’s birth. In Jimenez’s study, his team sampled 1007 children from the FFCWS and obtained the teacher-reported outcomes as well as primary caregiver-report information 5 years after the children were born. All reports and evaluations recognized the 8 ACE exposures as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization ACE study. The teachers were asked to rate the children on a 5 point scale from, “far below average,” to “far above average,” in literacy, science, social studies and math. Similarly the teachers were also asked to describe the child’s classroom behavior by using questions from a checklist and describing if the behavior was, “not true,” “somewhat or sometimes true,” or “very or often true.”

Editorial Credit: Stephane Bidouze / Shutterstock.com

The results were clear. 55% of the children had one ACE while 12% had experienced 3 or more. Despite adjusting for confounding variables, a logistic regression displayed a general pattern of worsening in academic, literacy and behavior outcomes with more ACEs. The average number of ACEs for children with poor outcomes was 1.2-1.54 compared to those without, at 0.92-0.97. Children with more than 3 ACEs were often far below average academically and far above average for attention problems, social problems, and aggression.

The Study Cannot Establish Causality

Despite the convincing evidence, this study can only illustrate strong links between ACEs and poor kindergarten outcomes that place children at elevated risk for poor educational achievement and subsequent health difficulties. It cannot establish causality. This is because there are numerous confounders or lurking variables that affect a child’s behavior and success other than ACEs. These include if the child is from a urban or rural environment, who the child’s friends are and how successful are his or her parents. Furthermore, in the FFCWS data set, it is the parents that retrospectively describe what ACEs the children have faced. This method of data reporting is subject to bias as it is impossible to be absolutely sure if the number of ACEs for a given child is accurately reported. The study by Jimenez and his team can be better supported by future research that correct for these variables which is generally difficult to do with a secondary analysis study.

Copyright: Yuliya Evstratenko

My take-away from this study is the need for integrated cross-sector approaches to enhance the development of vulnerable children. This would involve a method of early identification of children who have had an ACE or are living in a household where they are highly susceptible to ACEs. In order for this to occur, teachers need to be trained to identify early patterns of behavior of children who have had an ACE. Furthermore, it is important to strengthen the relationship between teachers and caregivers so that  teachers can better understand the lives of their students outside of the classroom. If a child has already been exposed to an ACE, and the teacher can successfully identify it, the teacher can then give that child increased attention and implement student-specific techniques to expedite academic and behavioral progress.

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We live in a world that revolves around technology and social media, and through this media, ideal body types have set near-impossible standards of health and beauty. People, particularly youth, have gone to extraneous measures in attempts to attain these standards, and have developed unhealthy approaches to their bodies. We are aware that unrealistic body standards are widely expressed through social media and television, but are these standards affecting kids at younger ages than expected?

A recent study released by the Common Sense group found that children, at ages as young as three years, have developed a negative mindset with regards to body image. Children begin to develop such attitudes towards ideal body types by subconsciously choosing to play with thin playmates, and generally having more positive attitudes towards ‘thin’ ideals, and denoting negative stereotypes to those of a thicker build.

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What Causes This?

Research found that the biggest factors that contributed to this mindset at such an early age were parents, peers, and to some extent, media. The role of parents in early childhood development should not be underestimated, as although this role may be positive in many ways, in situations such as this, parents may be instilling an unhealthy habit/mindset in their children, without even realizing it.

Ana Homayoun, an author who is well versed on the matter, says that these type of acts are “certainly not intentional, and that needs to be clear”. She says that things as simple as a mom saying a clothing article doesn’t look good on her for some reason or another could be teaching her daughter the basis of body image struggles. Parents could be unintentionally teaching their children that they should aspire for a certain body type, by saying things like, “I’ve gained weight, I should really work towards losing some”. Although this may appear to be encouraging a healthy lifestyle in which the parent is encouraging a lifestyle of exercise and healthy eating, to the child it only appears as though the parent is not content with their body, and so they begin to think the same thing.

Things like toys and role models for children at a young age also often set unreasonable body standards, and cause children to compare themselves to fictional characters. Barbie has struck news outlets for years for portraying a body type that is not only unrealistic, but encourages an unhealthy thin body image, but many fail to realize that boys experience just as much criticism.  Many toy action figures and superheroes have body types and measurements that are much out of the ordinary and near-impossible to attain, hence adding to the unrealistic standards that children are forced to live up to at an early age.

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At school, other children may resort to calling some children “fat” or “obese”, mainly due to their body type and the stereotypes they’ve learned to associate with people of these appearances. The victims of such name-calling then quickly begin to think that they are different from other children, and not for a good reason. This may cause them to make drastic changes in their lifestyles to alter their appearances, and to begin to taunt other children, including peers and siblings, about similar issues.

Fat and thin are no longer simply assessments of size or weight, but rather of character. So you can imagine why adoption of these attitudes, diet talk and disordered behavior is happening earlier as well, says Dr. Robyn Silverman

Many children also spend substantive amounts of time in childcare or nurseries, providing them with ample exposure to instructors, other parents, as well as other children. Each of these sources may hold their own perception of body-imagery, and unknowingly, pass them onto the child.

What Can We Do to Prevent This?

It may be difficult, if not impossible, to completely prevent your children from being exposed to any type of negative body image representation, however, it is possible to teach them to love and care for their body in a positive manner. By teaching self-love and appreciation, children can learn to care for their bodies. They will also learn to take negative comments and criticisms and fuel them into positive thoughts.

One possible method of addressing this issue, for children nearing their teenage years, can be to initiate a club or group gathering meant to dissipate the stigma surrounding body image issues, and to help the children feel welcome and comfortable discussing their problems and questions. By making the children feel welcome and comfortable in a safe environment, they are being encouraged to develop a more positive attitude.

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An important, and perhaps the most important, step in helping prevent negative body standards in children is to stop talking about food in moral terms. Any time the words ‘bad’ or ‘good’ are associated with food or eating, children quickly begin to associate them with body image and what it means to have a ‘good’ body versus a ‘bad’.
Most importantly, teach your children positive ideals on equality and acceptance, and teach them not to discriminate against anyone. Acceptance and appreciation for diversity is an important moral to instill in children in the early stages of their lives, and it will help them develop into more open-minded people as they grow up.

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We all know that our childhood and adolescent experiences can shape our adult personalities and characters. Adults frequently exhibit mannerisms and patterns that are remnants of their past: if a woman has fond memories of childhood camping trips, she will likely continue to find comfort and peace in nature; if a man grew up on the music of his parent’s generation, he’ll probably listen to the same genre and style of music throughout adulthood.

But just how early do we start being affected by our experiences and circumstances? How early do we begin exhibiting the consequences of unstable environments? How do these types of situations manifest themselves later in life? And what are the implications of this data?

Mental health in early childhood

Mental health problems and their symptoms as they pertain to adults and even teenagers are often discussed and heard. However, far less visible is the significance of mental health in early childhood. Serious behavioral issues are often chalked up to a simply undesirable personality, rather than symptoms of a larger problem. In fact, significant mental health problems do exist in young children – attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder”¦ But due to the unpredictable and uncertain nature of all children, it is difficult for even professionals to diagnose, let alone for the average parent or caretaker to perceive. Still, mental health problems in young children must be addressed, as they pose greater risks as the child matures.

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So what is the cause of mental health problems in children?  

Certainly, genetics play an important role in determining whether a child will exhibit issues. However, genes are not the only cause. Contrary to popular belief, genes are only blueprints. They contain instructions, but those instructions can be affected by the experiences and circumstances that children endure.

In the first few years of a child’s life, the brain develops at an incredibly rapid pace. Between 700 and 1000 connections are formed every second in the brain during this time. However, these connections are reinforced by experience and repeated use, and weaker bonds are soon broken once pruning begins, which is when the brain discards connections that seem irrelevant to increase efficiency. As such, experience and genetics play equal roles in determining the mental health of children.

Early childhood plays a critical role in building the foundation for lifelong good mental health

The experiences of a child’s first few years shape the architecture of the brain. A child’s relationships with parents, caregivers, teachers and peers are especially significant in providing a strong basis for later behavior, be it good or bad. If the child’s environment is strong, these relationships will provide a buffering effect when he or she is forced into a stressful situation. However, if he or she is surrounded by significant adversity, such as domestic violence or parental substance abuse, the child’s biological response to stress will become overactive, and he or she will be especially susceptible to mental health problems.

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When a child is in a persistently traumatic environment, a form of stress that is especially destructive, called toxic stress, begins to damage the architecture of the brain. This is due to the damage caused by long periods of high stress levels when biological stress response systems are activated for extended amounts of time. These adverse experiences predict the emergence of both physical and mental health problems later in life, such as heart disease and diabetes, as well as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, toxic stress also damages the child’s cognitive, emotional, and social development, impairing his or her ability to learn and relate to others. If left untreated, this will continue to develop, leading to abnormal hormone levels that can affect school readiness and later academic achievement, as well as elevating the risk of the emergence of physical and mental problems in adult life.

It is incredibly important to diagnose and treat mental health problems early

Fortunately, the certain actions when taken early can mitigate the damaging consequences of early childhood toxic stress. It is incredibly important to diagnose and treat mental health problems early, as it is both easier and more cost-effective to alleviate these issues when spotted early. Symptoms of potential mental health problems do not always become disorders, and these disorders can be prevented by providing access to the right combination of appropriate, high-quality care. Though the children who are most at risk of developing mental disorders – ones that grow up in poverty or are plagued by domestic strife – are often those that have the greatest difficulty accessing the services they need, it is possible to protect the children living in such threatening environments. Indeed, it is frequently necessary to focus on the needs of a child’s caregiver when trying to meet the needs of the child. By coordinating services that focus on the entire scope of the child’s environment, we can mitigate the dangers of destructive environments to ensure the long term mental health of the child.

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The implications of this information are incredibly significant. By reducing the onset of mental health problems in early childhood, not only will we be increasing the quality of life for a number of children, but we will also be targeting the roots of substance abuse and other problems that pervade society. Early childhood mental health is an immensely important issue, and preventing its manifestation could make a huge positive impact on our society.

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Parenting is an area in which there are no set instructions or manuals to direct parents on how to correctly raise their children, and there is no magical formula that will make the perfect guide. Of course, parenting is subjective, and parents are often the best judge of character of their own children, but why not take the advice of knowledgeable and experienced courses and teachers? People often fail to realize that most parenting lessons and courses are fuelled and taught by experienced teachers, and are supported by reputable scientific reports.

Source: www.avance-austin.org

Although many parents are hesitant to take parenting lessons, because they may feel it’s a reflection of their self-worth as parents, they often fail to realize that most parenting classes work to build upon skills, rather than teach completely new ones. The ideology that most parenting-education institutions try to encourage is that parenting courses aren’t created to help bad parents, but to improve the good parenting skills of most parents.

Especially for new parents, parenting lessons give parents the confidence they need to competently raise children. Having assurance and support from a group of parents and children also provides new parents with a source of feedback and assistance in the event they ever need help or advice. Just as with any other class or group, although it may seem intimidating at first, the group of parents can learn to support and learn from each other, and help ensure the success of each individual family.

Many parenting classes teach the significance of positive discipline and its influence on the development of their child. Learning to manage anger and channel it into positive reinforcement is an integral aspect of raising happy and healthy children. This is one example of a valuable skill that parenting classes teach parents that benefit both the parents and the children.

How do parenting lessons fit into the Early Childhood Development movement?

The first three years of a child’s life are some of the most important years in their development. In particular, brain development, which begins from the time the zygote is first formed, and continues well beyond birth. The way a child is raised in its early years has a significant impact on its mental development, not only during this period, but also throughout the rest of its life.

A child’s exposure to education in the early onset of its life will help shape its views and responses to education for the rest of its life. A child that is in a learning environment that is engaging and non-chaotic will stimulate the child and help them focus their energy and concentration on learning and playing.

Source: www.avance-austin.org

Parenting classes are often fuelled by scientific research in the field of early childhood development, and work to teach parents the most efficient and effective ways of helping their children grow and develop. More educated parents will make better decisions in the lives of their children, in turn improving the mental and emotional development of children in their early years.

What countries are taking action to support Early Childhood Education?

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, has made headlines by announcing that he plans parenting classes for all families, not just low-income families or families in need of counseling and support. This stems from the idea that ALL parents, not just those from deprived backgrounds, need to learn how to parent properly, especially in the early years of their children’s life.

David and Samantha Cameron Photo: GETTY

By providing affordable and accessible parenting classes, the Prime Minister is hoping to encourage parents to take more measures to educate themselves on the science of parenting, and to learn from professionals what methods and approaches are most suitable for the development of their children.

The Prime Minister announced his plan in correlation with declaring that a £70 million investment in relationship counseling would be forthcoming in order to help prevent the splitting up of families. This (relatively) new emphasis on family support the Prime Minister’s goal of improving social mobility and reducing poverty, both of which can be accomplished by providing better support for families.  

Families are the best anti-poverty measure ever invented.  They are a welfare, education and counselling system all wrapped up into one. We all need more help with this €“ the most important job we’ll ever have – Prime Minister Cameron  said,  

And with that, he announced his plan to standardize and encourage parenting classes for families from all income levels and backgrounds. Hopefully, other countries will learn from the example the UK has set, and begin implementing Early Childhood Education and Development programs to aid families support children in this integral period of development.

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When you think of preschool, what do you envision? Are you afraid that your child is still too small to be placed in a structured environment? Does it scare you how they might cope with the separation?

Well, don’t be. Preschool can only help your child.

Children gain a lot from going to preschool because they become exposed to numbers, letters, and shapes there. But, more importantly, they develop social and emotional skills and learn how to get along with other children, to share  and to contribute.

Findings show that children who attend high-quality preschool enter schools with better pre-reading skills, richer vocabularies, and stronger basic math skills than those who do not.  So why not insist on preschool education when it can only help; when preschool is good for your child?

Know this:  the 3-6-year olds are like little sponges at that age. They can take in so much; even more than you think. You as a parent should make use of this time  to equip your little ones with the skills they need in their lives. Homeschooling your children at this age might give them a good academic head start (ONLY if you are educated in early childhood education to do so), but this type of schooling will fail to develop their social and emotional skills that are of an utmost importance for their future. And these skills get developed by child  being around other children their age.

Here are 6 reasons why preschool is good for your child:

1.  Preschool provides a foundation for learning, both socially and academically.  

Young children are naturally curious and observant. They want learn the  skills that their families and society value “” such as reading the instructions for assembling a toy, or selecting the correct bills or coins to pay for a purchase. To prepare children for the academic demands of school, teachers will offer a wide variety of games and activities that will help them acquire necessary academic but also social skills.

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2.  Preschool is an opportunity for kids  to be in a structured setting.

Preschool is an opportunity for them to be in a structured setting with teachers and groups of children where they will learn to share and follow instructions, raise their hand when they want to ask a question, take turns, and share the teacher’s attention.  Every child should have this sort of group experience before they start school.

Copyright: Fh Photo

3.  Preschool will prepare children for elementary school where things get more academic.

Don’t be afraid that focus on development of pre-math and pre-literacy skills will make your child grow up too soon. These will not cut into important play time that every child deserves. A high-quality childhood education offers both. In fact, these programs are based on learning through play, so learning will be fun for your kid, have no doubt!

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4.  Preschool will help your child develop socially and emotionally.

In preschool, your children will learn how to compromise, be respectful towards others, and solve problems. Preschool will provide a place where your child will gain a sense of self, explore, play with their peers, and build confidence. Kids in preschool usually discover that they are capable and that they can do things for themselves instead of always asking mommy to step in. They will learn wonders – from small tasks like pouring their own juice and helping set snack tables, to tackling bigger issues like making decisions on how to spend their free time. Isn’t that a great step for them?

Copyright: Olesya Feketa

5.  Preschool will help your children find answers to their numerous questions.

The fact is that 4 and 5-year-olds will start asking some wonderful questions about the world around them, like “what happens to the water after the rain? Do birds play?” Even you as a parent might become confused when trying to answer some of their questions, but the preschool will make your job easier. It will teach your children to find answers through exploration, experimentation, and conversation.

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6.  They will learn their ABCs and 123s.

Young children will learn letters and numbers in preschool, but at their own pace and through playing games. Preschool does not sit kids down and ‘teach’ them because that would be the wrong way to do it. Instead, they teach them through doing various kinds of activities your kids find interesting, like story-time, talking to the teachers about stars, playing with blocks, etc. For example, to help kids learn language and strengthen their pre-reading skills, teachers in preschool play rhyming games and let kids tell stories. To help kids learn pre-math skills, teachers will ask their little students to count food items during snack time, use calendar to count down days to their long awaited preschool play, or play memory games with them.

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Keep in mind that for small children preschool is all about having fun and acquiring social skills  – not achieving academic milestones. Kids need to be imaginative and to socialize because that’s what fosters creative and well-rounded people; it’s not about whether they can read by age 4 or multiply by 5, although they might.

And don’t forget: your child’s education does not stop once they come home from preschool. Oh, no! They will have bunch of stories to tell, and many questions to ask.

What you can do at home to further develop their social and emotional skills

• When they are feeling down, sit down with your child and discuss the feelings and events that made them feel certain way: ask what happened over the course of their day and how they felt about what happened. Also, be sure to talk about future events: what they will do next and how they will act.
• Brainstorm problem-solving strategies with your child. For example: you can read interactive books with them, such as Twiggle the Turtle, where turtle Twiggle goes inside his shell when he gets upset, takes a deep breath, and then says what bothers him and how it makes him feel. You can model this problem-solving strategy with your child too. Encourage your child to use these tricks too to gain self-control (by crossing their arms instead of hitting impulsively, taking a breath to calm themselves down, and then using words to describe how they feel instead of crying).
• Practice the age-old advice: read, read, and read to your child, and have them read to you. Interactive reading is crucial to language development.

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Does your child attend preschool? What are your experiences? And if not, after reading this text, would you re-consider sending him/her to preschool?

The post 6 Reasons Why Preschool Is Good for Your Child appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

In 2007 Novak Djokovic founded the Novak Djokovic Foundation which has been achieving great things ever since, helping the  youngest get the access to preschool education.

For Novak, early childhood education and development  has  always been the most important field into which he felt the need to invest. In his eyes, a child who receives a quality early childhood education has  a chance to return strongly to any challenge and to become a winner in any field.

Speaking of his childhood and his success, he always stressed that he owes everything to  his family. Because of their belief in him, their trust, love and support, and all the hard work they invested in him, he made his biggest dream come true – he became the world number 1 in tennis.

I want to help other kids as well to learn from my example that many things are possible if we only believe in ourselves and work hard to fulfil our dreams. While I’m still young and have a lot of people’s attention, I want to start building my philanthropic legacy. I want to share the focus that is on me with the work my foundation does and help as many kids in Serbia as possible. Through education, they too can be part of our collective effort to decrease poverty and social exclusion.

Novak Djokovic at the Third “Friendship Games” on Zlatibor, October 2015

Novak shared one of the experiences in his philanthropic work that touched him and moved him to put even more efforts into making preschool education available for as many kids as possible:

I met Erhan in one of the kindergartens built by Novak Djokovic Foundation. It was his first week ever in a preschool. He was sitting in a corner playing. He was alone there and I came up to him. I asked him what his favourite book was. He just looked at me. I asked again and then he said: “What is a book?”

As much as this experience startled me it made me more determined to help children have access to the benefits of Early Childhood Development regardless of the social and economic status of their parents.

But it is not only about building kindergartens.  

We should make sure that every child, particularly those coming from poor families, get access to quality education early in their lives.

We should make sure that every teacher is well-trained to give them good education.

We want to reach these goals in Serbia and beyond, working together with the World Bank.

This August, Novak Djokovic Foundation and the World Bank partnered up with a goal to promote Early Childhood Development in Serbia and abroad. The joint “Early Wins for Lifelong Returns” initiative combines the Bank’s deep knowledge and programs on early childhood development with the power of Novak Djokovic’s commitment to bring sustained attention to the social and economic benefits of early childhood development (ECD) programs for children around the world. In Serbia, the World Bank – Novak Djokovic Foundation initiative will work together with the Serbian government to level the playing field for young children from poor and disadvantaged families.

Novak Djokovic with kids during Friendship Games, Oct 2015

Currently, less than half of children in Serbia, aged 3-5 years old, go to preschool. This number is even more startling in the rural areas, and in the poorest households (only 9% of children attend preschool), and informal Roma settlements (only 5.6% of children attend preschool).  Addressing this problem has far-reaching consequences for breaking the cycle of poverty and enhancing Serbia’s long-term competitiveness and labor productivity.

Every child has a right to a dream. In every life, this dream can be different. To be a doctor, to be an engineer, or maybe to be a tennis player. But to make a dream come true, a child needs support from early years. My life tells the story that if you have the support you need as a young child you can achieve your dream.

Fulfilling dreams starts with Early Childhood Development and that is why it is so important. Early Childhood Education is the beginning for the lifelong learning which helps us acquire skills to be good doctors, excellent engineers, or world number one tennis players.

Working together, the World Bank and Novak Djokovic Foundation aim to give every child an opportunity to make dreams come true.

See the video in which our Founder shares his views on the importance of investing into Early Childhood Education:

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